You go to the gym and get on the treadmill, you have no real goal in mind and so you hit the “Quick Start” button and just go. You know of people that are in really good physical shape and they absolutely love the treadmill and you want so much to look like them so you are going to try it.

At first it is a breeze and actually is a little fun. You have your headphones on, rocking on to your favorite music and you play around with the buttons and settings on the treadmill thinking to yourself how this is actually not too bad. You look at the treadmill beside you and see that person is on level 9 and so you crank yours up to level 10 just to show them that you are better.

Then it starts, your legs get a little tired, and start to burn. The fun is starting to disappear and you watch for a chance that the person on the treadmill next to you is not looking so you can turn the level down a little.

Suddenly the thoughts start…

“I need to get off this thing, I hate this stupid thing!”

60 seconds later all inhibitions are gone, you don’t care who is looking, you crank down the level to the lowest it can go… your just to darn worn out.

30 seconds later… you hit the big red STOP button and justify to yourself…

“Hey, its been 7 minutes, thats long enough, I will go longer next time!”

What Failed Here and What the Heck Does This Have to do with Business Planning?

Hopefully you can see where we are going here but if not, we are sure you will get it in a moment.

For anyone starting a business, if you do not set yourself a goal right up front, chances are you are going to be just like the person on the treadmill and jump ship the moment things start to get rough. Things are always fun and exciting at first but what about when tough times hit?

You NEED to set for yourself realistic goals.

You see, with exercise the big goal is usually to lose weight but if you do not have a specific amount you want to lose… well then as soon as you lose a little and times get tough you are going to be like the guy on the treadmill and simply quit.

With your business, we can pretty much guarantee you that times are going to get rough. There are going to come moments that you look at your results and or finances and feel so over whelmed and paranoid, that you suddenly fall into analysis paralysis. You start to feel like you are failing, that it is too hard, that you can’t do it and then the inevitable happens… You Quit!

You chalk this up to the system not working (it is never our own fault), the tools are no good, the person who you learned this from scammed you… this whole business thing is a scam and does not work

I have heard this more then once. Someone fails to plan and because of that, jumps ship the moment the waters get rough and then blames the ship for them drowning when it was them that jumped off the boat into the water.

Whether you are starting a blog, creating a PPC campaign, or even starting an offline business, you need to make sure you set yourself goals that get you through to the end. You need to stay focused on the end prize.

Here are two scenarios…

1. Lets say for example you want to start building niche blogs. So your initial plan is to build a few of them (you are not sure how many) and make loads of cash. A few months into it you start getting discouraged because you are barely making any money and these sites are taking lots of time and effort. You cant see the reason “why” for what you are doing, so you abandon them and move on to something else.

2. Now a different person wants to build some niche specific blogs. This person plans that they want 6 blogs built and promoted by 6 months. They figure out the time and effort to do it and they plan that at the end of the 6 months they would take the two that are doing the best, sell the other four at sitepoint and then focus only on those two that were looking promising. Now after a couple months, this person has 4 done and none are doing that well however, this person does not quit… why?

The reason is this person knows the “why” of what they are doing. They see a goal and focus on it… they know they need 6 blogs done and then it is time to make a decision on a new goal. At the end of the 6 months they have achieved their goal and find the two sites that are the best of the batch and now focus all efforts on them.

When the doubts and distractions pop up, as long as they are not deal breakers (life altering kind of events) they are able to stay focused on the end goal and push their way through to the end.

~ I sure hope this makes sense to you!

Now for some serious questions to you…

• Do you have any idea what your goals are with your business right now?
• Are you just winging it and hoping for the best?
• If you had an employee that gave the same excuse you have for not having a goal… and you were paying them by the hour and they were just “winging it”… would you feel that was a good investment?

Have you signed up for my latest Cowpetition yet? You can win some pretty awesome prizes!

Check it out at http://www.johncow.com/cowpetition