Business Goal Setting and Then Following Through – Goal-Setting
Business Goal Setting and Then Following Through
Your business can't go according to plan if you have no plan.What do you want to achieve this year? More new customers per week? Higher average order amounts? Better customer service ratings? No matter what it is you are shooting for, goal setting is one of the most important things that you will do in the New Year. I've got a few tips to help you get there.1. Keep it Challenging but Realistic.Any goal that you set for your company should be challenging but don't over do it. For example, if you had an average order amount of $700 last year, you wouldn't want to set your goal for this year at $3000 per order. Unless you make drastic changes in how your company runs or what you are selling, that goal is just not realistic. You know best what you may be able to achieve in your particular industry, so be honest with yourself and set your goals accordingly.2. Write All Your Goals Down.You may say to yourself on January 1, "I want to get 20 more new customers per week this year." A few months later you will be saying "Did I say I wanted 20 or 30?" Or more realistically, you have forgotten that you even made that goal. If you have all of your goals written down you will be able to not only go back and check them, you will also be able to go down the list every few months and check to see how many of them you have completed.3. Assess Your Current Situation.To set goals you have to know where you are at right now. In 2003 I wanted to assess our customer service rating so we sent out a survey to all of our customers on which they could rate us in each department of our operation. That helped us establish our base. Now we send the survey to every customer after every order. This way we can keep track of how we are doing and if there is ever a hiccup we can fix it quickly. Don't assume anything. Always assess the current situation before setting a new goal.It's Only Going to Hurt A Little...Now, in financial goal setting for your business, one invariably comes to the question: "How do I decide on a budget when starting a marketing plan?"This is obviously the first question that you have to answer in order to get started on your new campaign. And in order to reach the income goals you have set for yourself.So how do you figure out what your budget should be? Here is an easy method to help you find a number that is going to work for you and your business. Some might say that it is a good rule of thumb, but I personally judge things on whether or not they work and get results. That's all.Moving on... Start with the amount of income that your company generated last month and multiply it by .14 (or 14%). That means that if you had $50,000 in Gross Income last month you should budget to spend $7000 on marketing in the next month. Wait... I know, it sounds painful but it is just like a shot at the doctor. It might hurt for a minute (or in this case a month) but down the road you are going to be glad that you went through it. Putting that much toward the right marketing will bump up your income the next month and start you on a cycle of steady growth.I know that some businesses run tighter than others and it is possible that you won't be comfortable with that amount in the beginning. Don't misunderstand me, any marketing is better than no marketing. Don't get discouraged if your budget is lower than 14%. But use 14% as the ideal to strive for because, for me as well as many other growing businesses, it has proven to give the best rate of growth possible. How do I know, you ask? My company has expanded 400% in the past 2 years. Now picture your business at 4 times its current size... There's that smile I was looking for!The growth of your business is based on three factors; quality products, great customer service and the proper amount of marketing. If you know you have the first two taken care and you still aren't experiencing healthy growth then you need to take a serious look at your marketing budget.So sharpen your pencils, start calculating and decide how rapidly you want your business to grow.Please take a moment this week to sit down and decide on your goals for the New Year. Even if it is past the New Year and even well into the year, set your goals for the rest of the year.Everything is easier when are working towards a goal. My goal is your success and I assume that is your goal as well.Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998; her only assets a computer and a phone. In 2004 the company did close to $9 million in sales and employs over 60 persons. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. Now she's sharing her marketing secrets with others. For more free marketing advice, visit her website at http://www.postcardmania.com
Automated Following Jump System for Paratroopers, AFJS
Automated Following Jump System for Paratroopers, AFJS
There are many problems of safety in paratrooper drops. Many times night jumps are done or drops are made into the battlespace under low visibility. This is good and bad. It is good because the enemy cannot see you as easy to kill you, but bad because you cannot see anything either. At night it is often considered a blessing to make a jump into enemy territory because you do so under cover of darkness. Since modern day soldiers have GPS gear and wrist watches; I propose using them to help prevent entanglements, stealing of air flow to another soldiers canopy and burn-ins.There is an off the shelf technology used in fire fighting called AFF. AFF stands for Automated Flight Following System, which is used in aerial fire fighting to insure that the fire retardant is dropped in the drop zone even though with the smoke the visibility is very low making it difficult to see. As one aircraft goes in another follows in behind it. This off the shelf technology has been used for over a decade now and with the advances of GPS accuracy and GIS modeling of surface terrain by satellite its uses should be incorporated into the laying of smart dust and probably will be soon.When paratroopers are deployed in the battlespace each GPS unit will have a buzzer allowing the parachute operator to know he is too close to the next nearest chute or that a chute is rapidly approaching his/her airflow. This will improve safety in night jumps and under zero-zero visibility or near so. Due to the number of aircraft dropping and the number of paratroopers this data can also be sent back to the command and control of the Blue Force for tracking.Once this technology is implemented in practice jumps that data can be set onto an ERSI platform and 3D grid to help in simulator training for troops, thus we can train more with less actual jumps and save the major injuries to our soldiers and risk deaths which can occur. Think on this."Lance Winslow" - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs
AWACS Automated Flight Following System for Nuke Bunker Buster Accuracy
AWACS Automated Flight Following System for Nuke Bunker Buster Accuracy
The Aerial Fire Fighting Industry uses a system called AFF Automated Flight Following System. It works from a satellite. We are noticing an increase in robotic flying machines, which are called UAVs Unmanned Aerial vehicles. These aerial vehicles use tele-robotics. Soon we will be able to have many aerial unmanned vehicles fly in swarms keying of one in five, ten or even a hundred aircraft. Some of this technology is being tested now and some even in the Middle East battlespace; the "Sandbox."We need to take these systems already in use for several decades and merge them together into the net-centric model. Having the simple scaled down version of the Automated Flight Following systems to be used with the nuclear tip 1-2 Megaton Bunker Buster Smart Munitions, which it appears we will soon be using in North Korea as they will not set a realistic timetable to discuss and stop building nuclear weapons for deterrents and exports to rogue nations of the World.Having satellite guided and following systems to pin-point accuracy we can penetrate the rocks in the mountains of the underground bases of the North Koreans, sending one to ten weapons into each target. Luckily we can get rid of our nuclear waste, kill the enemy to serve our political will and prevent the sale of nuclear arms to enemies of democracy and International Terrorists.Since we already have these technologies, we should be practicing with them to hit the exact same spot ten times in a row within a short period of a 3-5 minutes. In the event of nuclear detonation this would have a piling effect on our enemy and easily take out an underground enemy. This technology, which is currently being used to guide fire fighting aircraft to the drop zone can be used without any problem to guide in a swarm of UAVs used as a multiple warhead strike. Similar to a Tomahawk missile attack, but with pin point accuracy into the cavity of each consecutive strike. Think on this."Lance Winslow" - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs