Create Clear Goals
If you are not a business owner or an attorney, fear not. The process I set forth below applies to any goal you may be working on.
“Rainmaking” is a broad term, covering many activities that might lead to a particular result. But the result of “rainmaking” is not stated. It varies from person to person. When I ask people “what do you want?” often they say “more business,” but what does that mean? “More” is not much of an indicator of what you are after.
The truth, when it comes to getting what you want, and this does not just apply to rainmaking, is that you have to be very clear. “When you are clear, what you want will show up in your life, and only to the extent that you are clear.” (The Passion Test, Attwood.) This is the first and most often unrecognized rule of attaining that business, productivity, new office building, house or retirement that you want. You have to be very clear what it is that you want.
One way to do this is to imagine where you want to be in your business (or really anywhere in your life) in the next five years. Be very clear what that is:
• Annual income
• The building you want to be in
• The number of staff you want to have
• The quality of your life in terms of hours worked, extracurricular activities, etc.
Then you can “chunk it down.” If you want to be there in five years, where do you need to be in four years, three, two and in the next year? Follow the same process for where you want to be in one year:
• How much do you want to make this year?
• Who are the types of clients you would like to be working with at the end of this year?
• How many staff do you want?
• How many hours do you want to be working?
Set specific goals for this year:
By _____, I will have increased my annual income by __%. By ____, I will have three new referral sources. By ____, I will have hired an assistant who can help me in my marketing efforts. Be very clear.
Then you can begin to chunk this down to monthly goals and once you have monthly goals, you can design daily and weekly actions to attain those goals. Do all of this in writing. You will be amazed at the effect it can have. Many people do this “in their heads.” It just does not have the same affect. With these very short term goals, make sure you are 100% clear on them. “I will go to two networking meetings this month.” This is as opposed to “I will start networking more.” Also be sure the goals you set actually move you toward the outcome you have stated for the year. For example, if you want new referral sources by the end of the year, you have to figure out which types of people and professionals can provide you useful referrals. Then you can target those people and not spend time going to random networking events where there are not people who can help you reach your goal.
Examples of specific goals (note these goals are only specific if you have a timeline by when you intend to achieve them!):
• Meet a particular business owner and sit down for coffee to discuss their needs
• Bring in three new clients worth $____ each
• Increase my revenue __%
• Get a referral from ____ professional worth $_______
• Get three new referral sources in ___ industry
So get started. Don’t make this a big difficult project. But do sit down and decide what you want before you start taking action to get it.
