Goals

This week has been about looking at what we want our business to look like.  There are two things that help us do this.  First is having goals and the second is writing those goals down into a business plan.

We have to know what our goals are, what we want to accomplish with our business, to be able to know where we are going.  If we can't see our dream and our goals then we muddle around doing not much of anything.  While not all goals can be accomplished and life gets in our way, if we don't at least have goals to give us direction on where we want to be, we won't make it out of first gear. On one of my assignments this week there was a quote by Elder M Russell Ballard that said, "I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don't set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential.  When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life."  Goals give us the ambition and the drive to get us where we want to be.  I certainly don't want to look back on my life and say "what did I actually accomplish?" or "was I happy?"  It is no way to live just waiting for each day to be over.  I want to get up in the morning with things to accomplish and be working towards goals that I am proud of.  This is true in business and in my personal life.

Once we know what our ultimate goal is and several short term goals we can create a business plan to give us the directions and steps to reach our goals and dreams.  I have never created a business plan before, even though my husband and I have had our rental property business for over 3 1/2 years now. However, I am excited to use the business plan model we are working on this week in class to make a business plan for both our rental property business and my Etsy store, in addition to the $100 Challenge business.

I haven't had a lot of extra time to work on my $100 challenge, but I did make arrangements with my friend for when we are going to have the "Bread Party".  We are going to do it next Wednesday, May 17.  The other thing I did was work on the pricing.  I found a couple of websites that you can use to calculate the cost of the ingredients.  I need to do the final pricing this week so I can make some business cards that have the price and my information on them for people to use to order.  I also need to be prepared with everything so that I can be ready for the party.  It looks like the first part of next week is going to be a busy one.