The Simple 4-Step Strategy To Help You Reach Your Income Goals

This is the time of year that has us reflecting and ramping up for new, better, more exciting goals.  I can’t quite imagine this year as a “civilian,” a word I learned from Lee Milteer to describe someone who works a full-time job. Goal setting, planning, all of that is so exciting as a business owner because, at a certain level, we know that we’re in control.

Of our income.

Of our schedule.

Of our client list.

Our success or our failure… we know it’s up to us.  Now, it’s possible — in our weaker moments — we’ll blame some outside force when we’re not seeing the results that we want.  But we know the truth. (Just for fun, want to hear the absolute worst excuse ever?  Great, read this.)

That’s part of what makes January so exciting for us.   The plotting and planning, dreaming and scheming.  That exhilaration of knowing it’s up to us….

But we’re already 9 days into the new year and — inevitably–  some of us will NOT MAKE our income goal for the first month of the year.    Not a great way to start.   To be sure that you make YOUR income goal for January…and every other month in 2017…  here’s a simple solution that (I swear) works every time.

I know I’m not supposed to say that.   I know I’m not supposed to guarantee a certain income for you for fear of risking some legal ramifications.  So, just know that all of the gobbledygook legal language is implicit in this blog post.  “These results aren’t typical… we can’t guarantee your income… you’re responsible for your business, income, and health… It’s up to you.  blah, blah, blah.”

While I can’t LEGALLY guarantee this will work for you, I can absolutely report that this “monthly income goal” strategy has never let me down.  Ever.  And, if you do it… if you do it JUST LIKE THIS… I can’t imagine it not having the same impact on your business.

This will help you if any of the followings apply:

• You have huge fluctuations in monthly income…
• You seem to have a “low floor” in your earning potential…
• You feel like you take three steps forward and two steps back when it comes to your own monthly income…
• You have BIG MONTHS that don’t seem that great… because they’re “just making up for” much smaller months.

Ready for the 4 step, uber-simple strategy to meet your monthly income goals every single month?

Step One:  Set an income goal that is a stretch, but isn’t unreasonable.

Essentially, you’re setting a new, higher floor for your income.  While I encourage you to do some journaling work to really challenge your mindset regarding money and to deliberately stretch what you think is possible for you income-wise, that’s another blog post. For THIS strategy, you may want to pick a number that you’ve hit before…. but not consistently.  So, if you’ve had 3- $8000 months, but several $1200 months,  setting a new floor at $8000 isn’t unreasonable. You’ve done it before.

NOTE: This is your “minimum” number.  I encourage you to have goals BIGGER than your minimum, of course.  But to make your income more consistent, we’re choosing to focus on a number that is designed to raise your income floor…. This is NOT designed to give you a ceiling. Make sense? 

Step Two:  Make this income goal visible.

Write down your MINIMUM monthly income goal.  Put it in front of you on your desk.  Make it your desktop.  Pin it on your vision board.  Write it in your journal.   Just put it somewhere — everywhere — so that seeing this number makes it seem normal to you.  You want to see it everywhere.

Step Three:  Become a broken record.

Write your monthly income goal every single work day.  Write it out at the top of your daily journal entry.  Or at the top of your planner for that day.  Write it like this, “I make a minimum of ____K monthly.”  Simple.  Repetitive.  Consistent.  Essentially, through exposure and repetition, this number will become part of you, a new normal.

Step Four:  Measure Against It.  

Right now, you may be thinking, but I’ve already done all of that.

First, I’d be very hesitant to believe that you’ve written out your goal DAILY and it didn’t make a difference… but I guess it COULD be possible.  Technically. But step four is something that will take you over the edge, over your minimum every single month.

You need to measure against it. For instance, today is January 9th. I can look at the bulletin board in front of my desk and see that I’m exactly $5700 from reaching my monthly income goal for January…. which, incidentally is 50% higher than my monthly income goals from 2016.

I have my monthly number.  It’s visible, right in front of me.  I write it out every day.  And I can see — much like a check register — how far I have to go because I measure against my income goal each day.   

Every dollar earned is subtracted from my minimum goal… and I see my progress daily, weekly, etc.

This simple strategy has never let me down.  If you have something to add, please post it in the comments below or — if you’re a seriously driven woman entrepreneur — come hang out and become part of the discussion over at PlanetWOW.club.