How to set an effective work at home resolution

The New Year has been rung and most likely you’re thinking of all the things you want to accomplish this year. Even if you never set New Year’s resolutions, I encourage you to set one for your work at home business, because a new year’s resolution is simply a goal you want to achieve in order to make your life, or in this case your business, more satisfying and successful.

I believe the main reason people fail to obtain their goals is because they don’t know how to properly set them. Thus, I’ve given a step by step guide on how to set an effective work at home resolution.

Identify a problem

In order to make a change, you need to know what needs changing. Usually, you can take a look at your business and realize some of the problem areas. However, sometimes you’re too close and may need someone else like a business coach or even an unbiased friend to look at things and point out areas of improvement.

This year, find one thing about your work at home business you feel making a change could improve. Understand however, you don’t need to change things just because. Your work at home resolution may be to keep things running as they are. If you already have success then the goal is to maintain it.

When identifying what you need to change, include a realistic time line.

For example, if you want to increase traffic give yourself a date in which you will measure the growth. So your goal would then be. I want to increase my traffic to {website name} by 18% by March 14. Check back on that date to see how you are doing.

Here are some common changes home business owners want to make.
a) Improve navigation of website
b) Dedicate more efforts to a traffic building method
c) Increase level of knowledge in niche industry
d) Boost self esteem and self confidence

Be sure you only choose one thing to change. Giving yourself more than one thing to focus one can set yourself up for failure. It’s better to just have one thing you can focus and dedicate time to.

State your why


After you have identified something specific about your work at home business you want to change, write why you want to make that change. Your why is your motivator as well as your benefit. When you give a real purpose to your New Year resolution you increase your chances of success. You now have a personal reason for achieving it.

Examples,
I want to rewrite my sales page by next month, so I can attract more work at home mom since they are my true target market.

I want to continue writing 3 articles each day, so I can maintain my increasing traffic level and subsequently my profit margin.

I want to redesign my website by April, so I can create easier navigation that will encourage users to remain on the site longer.


Create your steps



It’s not enough to know what you want and why, but also how. Your how are the specific steps you plan taking to achieve your goals. They should be personalized and clearly defined. Here are tips for creating your ‘how’.

a) Locate one of your talents and apply it to your goal. We all can do something well and even if you don’t realize it, your talent can be applied to any goal. If you are good at analyzing and you want to increase your profit level. Then you can use your skill to carefully track ad results. Your natural ability to analyze will help you see what is and isn’t working.

b)Always make your steps realistic. Don’t give yourself too much to do. If you’re too hard on yourself you’ll give up too soon. Create steps that work with your lifestyle and personality. This way you can maintain it until you reach your goal.

c) Make use of resources. Getting advice and information on achieving your work at home resolution will help you avoid mistakes and get you to your goal faster. To do this, find someone who has achieved the same goal you are working towards now. If you want to boost traffic, then talk to someone who has done this in the past little while. Also, read recent books and web content on the topic. You don’t have to take all the advice but even being made aware of one or two things can greatly improve your chances of success.

At this point you should have a specific goal with steps you can follow but how do you stay with?



Most of us do great in the beginning. We’re enthusiastic and focused. However as time goes on we see ourselves getting bored, tired, and lazy. To be sure you stick to your goal even when you feel yourself slipping consider the following

a) Forget instant gratification. No goal worth achieving will be obtained quickly. It may take a couple weeks, months, or even until the end of the year before you see real results. Be patient and understand this is something you want in order to be more satisfied.

b)Share your goal. Once you have started the steps towards the goal, share it with someone. When we vocalize our goals we reconfirm its importance to us. This works especially well if you tell someone that will hold you to it.

c) Refer back to your why. When you get less motivated, reread your goal especially your why. This can often help to recharge you.