I was on 20dollarbanners.com today because I was looking into having a banner made and when I tried to leave their site, this is what I got…

It basically says, “Hey wait a second, we have a deal for you”. Well, I don’t want a deal I just want to get off of your site and get back to what I was doing. So I hit X to close it just to see another pop up…

This one says “Are you sure you want to leave”. Of course I am, I was trying to hit the back button on my browser. That means I am trying to leave! So I hit “cancel” to close it out only to realize that I was supposed to hit “OK”. So I was still on the page and at the conclusion that I was not coming back to 20dollarbanners.com ever again.

I really do not see how these are good for conversion rates. Yeah, that might turn a couple people into customers but for the most part they do nothing but annoy your potential customers. I personally think they are bad for business.

Ok, enough of my rant for now.

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When you set out to start setting goals for your business for 2008 you need to make sure they are SMART goals. Or for those that are unfamiliar with this…your goals need to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. Let me explain.

Specific – Your goals need to be detailed. “I want to make more money” is not specific. If you make $1 more than you made this year then you made more money. But I am sure that is not what you meant. “I want to increase my income by 25%” is a better goal because it is specific.

Measurable – Your goal must be quantifiable. “I want to increase my income by 25%” is a goal you can measure and you can assess how close you are to it.

Attainable – You goals must be something you can reach. Setting a goal of making a million dollars this year is not attainable if you only made $25,000 last year. However, you don’t want to set goals that are too easy to achieve, but also not to hard.

Relevant – Your goals need to be directly related to your business. Setting a goal of losing 25 lbs next year is a great personal goal, but has nothing to do with the success of your business.

Timely - Your goals must have a deadline as to when they should be achieved. Small goals may a week or a month to be accomplished and larger goals may have the full year or longer to be attained. You should have some short, medium and long term goals.

Setting SMART goals is the best way to plan for the upcoming year and give yourself goals to achieve. I challenge you to take time before the new year and set some goals that you would like to achieve next year and beyond. You will be amazed how powerful it can be.

Tags: goals, goal setting, business planning, smart goals

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