What Does Success Look Like?

I'm getting ready to launch the next session of the Get Clients Now program.

If you are struggling to succeed and missing the mark, the answer may lay in your strategic planning. You may not be looking at the big picture enough to understand the small things that go into succeeding on a project. Maybe you don't really understand proper planning and organizing yet.

What Does Success Look Like?
Have you really thought about what success looks like? Take the time right now to write down exactly what success looks like to you. Does it mean more money, more freedom, or something else entirely? There are no wrong answers, but if you don't have an answer and you don't know what constitutes success, it will be hard to feel as if you're successful. If you think about it, this is true for any project you are working on. What should the deliverable look like? Answer that and you have your starting point.

What Are the Steps Needed to Get to Success?
Can you pinpoint exactly the steps needed to reach success? Do you know how long it will take, how many hours each day you will need to focus on the steps needed to reach success? It's important that you can look at what the end result is supposed to be and work your way backward to the beginning to design the steps necessary to reach success. The big vision at the end starts with what you're going to do Monday morning at 9:00 a.m.

Do the Steps That It Takes to Reach Success
Once you've defined what success is, and designed the steps that will get you to success, now it's time to act on these steps and do them. No one gets to success without taking action. Action is the forward movement that will help you wind up at your destination. If you're spinning your wheels, you may be stuck in one of the planning phases. Move out of that planning phase and start acting.

Are the Steps You're Taking Creating Momentum?
It's also important to build in a few stops along the way toward your goals to evaluate how everything is going. Is what you're doing leading you to success? Are you getting some results that indicate that you're on the right track? If so, keep going. If not, re-evaluate if your plan is sufficient to move you toward the success that you need.

Is something missing that is crucial to getting to success, such as a skill that you need to take time out to learn? If so, you may need to add in time for learning, but don't trick yourself into thinking learning is action. It's not.

Defining success, planning based on the definition, then acting on the plan and putting into motion the steps necessary to achieve success, are all important components of moving behind the struggle to achieve success and finally experiencing success.

Four Ways to Improve Your Life and Achieve Greater Success as a Resume Writer

I saw a reminder yesterday that we're already one-fourth through 2013. Wow. This year has gone by quickly. So, this week, I'd like to tackle the topic of self-improvement in a four-part series, "Four Ways to Improve Your Life and Achieve Greater Success as a Resume Writer."

The quest for self-improvement can have a profound effect on your personal life, your resume writing business, and your overall success. There are several approaches that you can take to reinvigorate your life and career. (And there's been some mention on career association e-lists recently of burnout, so reinvigoration is an important benefit of self-improvement.)

This week, in a series of blog posts, I'm going to highlight four of the most powerful self-improvement tools available. The first is The Power of Effective Goal Setting.


Why Goal Setting?

Setting, and achieving, goals can give you a significant sense of pride and accomplishment. When you set goals, you are also establishing priorities — for yourself, your family, your clients, and your resume writing business.  Ideally, you will set both short and long term goals and a plan of action to achieve them.

Goal setting is a learned behavior. By this I mean that — like all behavior modifications, i.e. changing your diet, becoming more positive, increasing your income, etc., it is something that you have to practice and adopt into your daily life, not something that happens overnight.

Step One: Define the Goal
To achieve your goal, you must first set an appropriate goal. What is an appropriate goal, you might ask? Well, first your goal must be specific and quantifiable.  For example, "I want to serve more resume clients this month" isn't a quantifiable goal but "I want to work with 15 new clients this month" is. "I want to earn $24,000 this quarter." "I want to launch one new information product this month." If your goals aren't measurable, they are easier to dismiss. This is why so many New Year's resolutions fail.  Goals like "I want to lose weight this year" or "I want to earn more money" aren't strong enough to hold yourself accountable, nor do they give you a clear plan of action.

Step Two: Set Yourself Up for Easy Wins (Initially)
When learning to adopt a goal-setting mindset, you should begin with smaller, achievable goals.  Sounds silly, right? Why set a goal that is easy to achieve? Because you're establishing a pattern of achievement and success. If you set a goal of "$100,000 in sales for 2013" and your sales last year were $27,000, then you will be setting yourself up for failure, and that's the opposite of what you're trying to accomplish. If, on the other hand, you set your sales goals for $42,000 (or, even better, "Bill $900 in client work next week," then that's a more reasonable goal — and one that you're likely to achieve. (That's three $300 projects, or five $200 projects.)

Small goals = a pattern of success = bigger goals = more success.

Step Three: Put a Date On It
Make your goal time frame short. By this I mean, if it takes six months for you to accomplish your goals, the satisfaction will not be as strong. That's one of the reasons so many programs advertise "Lose 30 Pounds in 30 Days." or "Write a Book in a Month."  People desire instant gratification. While you are learning your goal-setting and achieving behavior, make the beginning goals happen quickly.  "I want 2 new clients this week,"or "I will send a 'how are you doing' email to 20 past clients today."

Step Four: Make Your Plan
Once you've set your goal, plan on how you're going to achieve it. Remember that the shortest point between two distances is a straight line. If you want 2 new customers this week, get on the phone and call 20 past clients or send out an email to your client base with a special promotion that must be redeemed ASAP.

Step Five: Reflect On Your Accomplishments
Lastly, once you've accomplished your goal, take a moment to pat yourself on the back. This is important! If you don't take time to relish the accomplishment, then you're missing a crucial motivator to reach your next goal. Once you've taken a moment to feel pride and accomplishment, set another goal.  Don't wait, don't procrastinate, do it while you're still glowing with success.

As you continue this process, you'll establish a pattern of behavior within yourself. You'll see success move into other areas of your life. Goals like, "I want to exercise 3 times this week for 15 minutes," will come naturally to you as your goal-setting behavior gets incorporated into all facets of your life, not just your resume writing business.

Like this topic? Check out our special report on goal-setting for resume writers: "Ready, Set, Goal: Business Planning and Goal Setting For Resume Writers."

SPECIAL OFFER: Purchase the "Ready, Set, Goal" workbook for just $7 from April 2-April 14, 2013. The 50% discount (off the regular price of $14) is automatically applied when you click the "BUY AND DOWNLOAD" button.)

And check out tomorrow's blog post, "How Positive Thinking Can Change Your Life," the second in this series on self-improvement.

Make 2013 Your Best Year Yet

I'm using the theme of "Make 2013 Your Best Year Yet" for my work with careers industry professionals — particularly Bronze members of BeAResumeWriter.com. It's my personal mission to support resume writers in the work they do in their business and with their clients — providing the tools, guidance, and inspiration to create new revenue streams, provide resources that will help their clients be more effective in their job search, and become recognized for their career expertise.

Because yesterday was New Year's Day, there's been a big focus on resolutions. I like resolutions, and I set some of them for this year ... but I prefer goal setting. I'm also a huge believer in the idea of writing down your goals as a way of focusing your intentions on making them come true. I'm constantly amazed when I come across old notes of mine that have goals on them — and quite often, I've achieved those goals, even if I haven't been consciously working towards them!

For a long time now, resume writers have been asking me for a business plan template. So, I put together a new special report that not only includes a business plan template, but a dozen other worksheets and checklists as well!

"Ready, Set, Goal! Business Planning & Goal Setting For Resume Writers" is a 43-page workbook that will be an invaluable resource for new and veteran resume writers alike! It contains dozens of worksheets designed to help you find your focus, maximize your strengths (while minimizing your weaknesses), and create a plan to reach your personal AND professional goals. In short, working your way through this guide, you can create your plan to make 2013 your best year yet!

Some of the checklists and worksheets included are:

• Technology Checklist
• My Dream Business Visioning Statement Worksheet
• Password Manager
• Expense Worksheet
• Three Goal Setting Worksheets (Short-Term, Long-Term, and Immediate)
• Business Plan Template
• Marketing Plan Template
• Action Plan Profitability Analysis

The workbook is just $14 and is available for immediate download. For more information, check it out here: "Ready, Set, Goal! Business Planning and Goal Setting For Resume Writers"

FREE BONUS! Check out these two worksheets from the workbook:
Business Planning Brainstorming
Short-Term Goal-Setting Worksheet

Five Tips to Prepare for 2013

I love end-of-year planning. Heck, I love planning in general. (The special report for December on BeAResumeWriter.com is on planning and goal setting!)

Taking just a little bit of time at the end of the year to prepare for the next can make a tremendous difference. I'm one of those people who believes strongly in the idea of writing down your goals as a way of making them come true. In the next few weeks, I will be creating my plan for 2013, including the goals I hope to accomplish.

Don't just meander into the next year. Launch into it with gusto and purpose. These five ways of preparing will help you start your new year off with a bang.

#1: Extract Lessons from Last Year
Reflect on 2012. What were your biggest wins and your biggest losses? What made those wins or losses happen? Look for core lessons that you can take away. What can you learn from your mistakes? What changes do you need to make in your resume writing business to maximize your successes?

#2: Talk to Your Mentors
The end of one year — or the beginning of the next year — is a great time to talk to your mentors. Reach out to people who are more successful than you, or people who've done what you want to do. Talk to them about your greatest challenges, as well as what they'd do in your situation to grow your company. Incorporate their advice into your plan for the year. (I'm always happy to talk with resume writers who have specific questions or need advice!)

#3: Talk to Your Customers
Ask your resume customers for feedback on your service or your products. Talk about what they like and what they don't like. Also ask them about what they'd like to see from your company in the future. (Are they interested in learning more about LinkedIn? Do they want more support from you than the occasional resume update?) Your customers can be your best source of new ideas going into the new year. After all, the only real vote in business that counts is when your customers "vote with their wallets."

 #4: Identify Your Biggest Opportunity
Don't focus on your biggest challenges. There are always going to be fires that need to be put out and emergencies to be handled. Instead, focus on your biggest opportunity. Identify the biggest growth potential arena in your business, then focus the bulk of your time and energy on growing that arena. (For example, one of the biggest threats to a single self-employed resume writer is if something happens to you and you can't work. So putting in passive income/recurring revenue programs before you need them is a HUGE opportunity!)

#5: Set Measurable, Metric-Based Goals
Finally, set measurable, metric-based goals for yourself/your resume writing business. Ideally, you should set one BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). This can be a revenue number or a number of clients you want to stretch to reach!

If you perform these five steps, you'll plunge head first into 2013 well prepared and positioned for success!

Guest Post: Are You A Smartie?

By Barb Wade

Many of you may have heard of S.M.A.R.T goals, but as we approach the beginning of a new year, I thought it would be good to have a little refresher on the concept.

S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for:

S - specific
M - measurable
A - achievable
R - realistic
T - timely

SPECIFIC — You goal must be specific. Not only because it has a greater chance of actually being accomplished, but it's much easier to know when you've reached your goal if you know exactly what it is!

So make sure you can answer the 6 "W" questions about your goal:

• Who: Who is involved?
• What: What do I want to accomplish? (Be specific!)
• Where: Where will it take place? (If applicable)
• When: When will it be finished?
• Which: What are the key requirements in order to succeed? And what are the significant obstacles?
• Why: The "why" is the tangible benefits of accomplishing this goal. (Make this personal — we work much harder on things that having meaning to us)

MEASURABLE — Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort toward reaching your goal.

ATTAINABLE — It's fine to "shoot for the moon" as a way of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone (see the Quick Tip below). But you want to make sure that your goal can actually be accomplished. It's fine to make it a bit of a "stretch" though. Even if a goal seems out of reach, as you take each necessary step to attain it, you begin to develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach your goal. And those goals will become more and more attainable as you grow to meet their challenge.

REALISTIC — Some people get stuck here because when they are setting a goal that is beyond their reach, they start to feel that it isn't realistic. But most of the time, that is just a limiting belief. A realistic goal is one that you are completely motivated to work and strive for and that you truly believe can be accomplished. In addition, it is a goal that others have actually achieved and therefore you can even model the steps they took to get there. A goal can be both high and realistic at the same time. Not only that, high goals are frequently easier to reach than low ones because you are motivated by something that is truly meaningful to you and gives you significant forward movement.

TIMELY — Any goal you hope to achieve needs to be within a timeframe. "Someday" never comes, and ASAP is too nebulous and impossible to measure. The minute you set a concrete timeframe — "by July 15th" or "by the first day of school" - your unconscious mind is already beginning to work toward that end goal and you have created a sense of urgency that will help you work at the top of your game.

So as you set your goals for the next year — whether personal or business — give them the "SMART" test and make sure they all have high IQs! ;-)

Barb Wade, M.A. specializes in teaching Coaches to create thriving, 6-figure practices in under 20 hours a week! For a FREE "How To Get Clients" BUSINESS BREAKTHROUGH KIT just for Coaches, visit http://www.BarbWade.com

$100 A Day

For a startup, the idea of making $2,000 a month can be overwhelming -- especially for a new resume writer. So make it more manageable. Focus on making $100 a day. Break the goal into small, specific tasks you can accomplish quickly. Ask yourself, "What can I do today to reach my goal?"

Measure your success using observable criteria. If you're trying to increase referrals from career coaches and mental health professionals, you need to increase your visibility with this audience. So your tactics may include sending one letter each day to a career coach or mental health therapist (you can find them in the Yellow Pages) to introduce yourself and ask how you can work together.

Consider subcontracting. Contact other resume writers in your area and inquire about taking on their overflow work.

Find opportunities to speak. Write articles. Increase your visibility.

Push Hard to Achieve Your Goals

The year is drawing to a close. Are you on track to achieve your personal and professional goals? When the year began, if you're like most of us, you established some revenue, marketing, and professional development goals. Have you done the things needed to hit the mark in achieving these goals?

If you're on track or ahead of schedule, congratulations -- that's excellent, and 2007 will go down as a great year for you! However, if you're not on track, it's not too late to take action!

Here are some tips:

• First, reach out for help. All of the major professional associations have feedback tools -- e-lists or message boards -- where you can solicit ideas for ways to jumpstart your sales.

• Second, get focused. This industry changes rapidly. Keeping on top of key changes is critical. Don't try to be all things to all people. Select a niche market and then serve that market well. (It can be a geographic area, a specific industry, or even selected populations, i.e., women, or executives).

• Third, look at your business and determine what you're most passionate about. Talk to your best clients and ask them for help by providing referrals. If you've provided value to them, they probably know someone who could benefit from the work you do in helping other people achieve their dreams.

The careers industry is about developing relationships, so don't expect a quick fix. However, the tactics you employ today might result in some additional business later this year or early in 2008.