Achieving Long-Term Financial Goals

HOW MUCH MONEY DO
YOU
WANT TO MAKE?
At Step-By-Step Guide to Achieving
YOUR Long-Term Financial Goals

There’s something ya gotta know about my friend Rick Brown…..

Rick is a natural-born comedian. I’m not talking about the kind of person who bores you with long, pointless jokes that you have to pretend to laugh at. I’m talking about the Dennis-Miller-type of comedian who makes you chuckle with biting, incisive, INTELLECTUAL humor.

Anyway…..Rick and I were sitting around one evening after we had downed a few ales at a local pub, and the conversation became a little philosophical. You know. The “Why are we here, what’s the purpose of life” kinda stuff.

“Y’know, Rick,” I said, “according to all the self-help books I’ve read, in order to be financially successful, you have to establish a DEFINITE monetary goal as well as a DEFINITE time frame in which to achieve that goal. In other words, you need to know WHAT you want, and WHEN you want to get it."

"With that in mind, Rick, what exactly do YOU want out of life? WHAT do you want, and WHEN do you want it?”

“That’s easy,” he said…..

“I want it ALL, and I want it NOW!”

At the time we both laughed about his clever comment. But over the years I’ve come to find out that the majority of entrepreneurs have the exact, same attitude about being in business. About the most concrete thing they can say about their financial goals is that they “want it ALL and want it NOW.”

Well, troops, it just doesn’t work that way.

Saying merely that you want a $5,000 per month income from your Internet business is meaningless and doesn’t assist you at all in actually GETTING to that $5,000 per month income. What you need to do is to establish a series of “steps” leading UP TO your ultimate goal, AS WELL AS a time frame to achieve EACH of those “little, baby steps.”

You also need to be aware that there are THREE investments you must be prepared to make. These are:

An investment of TIME
An investment of MONEY
An investment of EXPERIENCE

Let’s take a brief look at each of these “investments:”

AN INVESTMENT OF TIME:
Ask yourself this question: “What amount of time are you COMFORTABLY able to invest in your business on a daily basis, WITHOUT ADVSERSELY AFFECTING YOUR FAMILY?” Maybe you’re a single guy or gal, and right now your free time is spent hanging out with your friends or watching TV. If this fits you, then perhaps you can eliminate this non-productive activity and invest four, or five, or even six hours a day after your regular job into your business. On the other hand, maybe you’re married and have two or three children. DON’T miss all your kids’ soccer games because you’re sitting in front of your computer! DON’T fail to take your wife out on your anniversary because you’re too busy downloading a new program. If THIS is your current situation, then perhaps you can only invest one or two hours each day into your business.

Analyze YOUR individual situation, choose a reasonable investment of time, and then stick to it!

AN INVESTMENT OF MONEY:
Now ask yourself THIS question: “What amount of money are you COMFORTABLY able to invest in your business on a monthly basis, WITHOUT ADVERSELY AFFECTING YOUR LIFESTYLE?” In other words, what EXTRA money do you have each month - what amount of money are you currently throwing away on so-called “big-boys’-toys” or just plain “fun-n-games” that you COULD be putting to effective use in your business? Note that we are NOT talking about “investing” next month’s rent or “investing” your car payment money. That’s not called investing – that’s called stupidity.

Analyze YOUR individual situation, and then choose a COMFORTABLE investment of money!

AN INVESTMENT OF EXPERIENCE:
Ever wonder where the expression “learn the ropes” came from? Back in the days of the great sailing ships the dozen or so sails that controlled the ship’s speed and direction were controlled by, literally, thousands of feet of rope. It took years for a sailor to become proficient at knowing just which sails to lower and raise at specific times and how to coordinate them all – it took years to “learn the ropes.”

Now, maybe you have twenty years of successful business experience behind you and you are also completely comfortable with your computer and the Internet. On the other hand, maybe you’ve NEVER been in business before and you’re brand new to computers. Obviously, if you are the latter, there is a certain “learning curve” that you have to get over before success can be yours. You’ll save yourself hours of frustration if you accept the fact that “ya gotta be able to walk before you can run.”

Analyze YOUR individual situation and then accept the fact that YOU may have to put in EXTRA time and effort to “learn the ropes.” Master sailors are not built in a day!

Now, then, let’s CONTINUE and set up a game plan – a series of “little, baby steps” – and a REASONABLE and REALISTIC time frame in which to achieve them

THE BIG DOGS FIVE-STEP
INCOME PLAN

I. Your Step 1 Net Income Goal:

$0.00 / month, in 3 to 6 months

“Are you NUTS, Stan!? Are you telling me my initial financial goal should be to make NOTHING!?”

Well, not exactly. You’ll notice that there’s not a “minus” sign in front of that dollar sign; you’re not making a net profit just yet, but at least you’re no longer LOSING money. In other words, you’ve reached the break-even point, where you ARE at least making enough money to cancel out the money you are spending in your marketing endeavors.

This is an important first step, friends, and a step that 95% of marketers FAIL to achieve!

II. Your Step 2 Net Income Goal:

$250.00 / month, in 6 to 9 months

At first this doesn’t seem like much of an improvement over the figure in Step I, does it? But a net profit of $250.00 per month (over and above your business-related expenses) is actually a VERY significant benchmark for a number of reasons.

First of all, it’s a figure that is MEANINGFUL to most of us. It’s an amount of money that can purchase a number of CONCRETE items – items that we can all relate to. $250.00 per month is all or most of the payment of a new car – it is a substantial portion of our monthly rent or mortgage payment – set aside over the course of a year, it can mean that nice vacation for the family next summer – and so on. $250.00 per month EXTRA income for a family can make a BIG difference in lifestyle!

Secondly, $250.00 per month is a PSYCHOLOGICALLY IMPORTANT figure. In a recent survey conducted by Cutting Edge Opportunities Magazine – a magazine devoted to the home-based entrepreneur – thousands of people were asked. “What amount of profit on a monthly basis would you feel comfortable with and would allow you to feel that your home-based business was a success?”

The answer that the overwhelming majority of respondents gave? Yep! You guessed it! $250.00.

Y’see, even though we may all have been INITIALLY enticed into a home-based business by the thoughts of monthly vacations in the Caribbean, Rolls Royces, and million-dollar mansions, the REALITY is that most of us would be quite content with an extra couple hundred dollars of monthly disposable income.

Thirdly, $250.00 per month is an ECONOMICALLY SIGNIFICANT figure. According to the American Bar Association, over 80% of personal bankruptcies in the United States could be avoided if that family had an additional $250.00 per month in disposable income. In other words, in many cases just an extra $250.00 each month can make the difference between living a relatively relaxed, worry-free life and worrying about which of several bills one is going to pay.

Yes, $250.00 per month IS an important figure. If you are just starting out in your marketing business and have yet to achieve that mark, you will be SURPRISED at how successful you will feel once you reach that magical $200.00 to $300.00 per month figure.

III. Your Step 3 Net Income Goal:

$800.00 per month in 9 to 12 months

The typical part-time job in America consists of one paying around $10.00 an hour for twenty hours a week. Thus if you have an average part-time job, you are bringing in around $800.00 per month.

So your next “baby step” – your next income goal - should be an income from your business that will be equivalent to having an average part-time job outside the home.

IV. Your Step 4 Net Income Goal:

$2,500 -$5,000 per month in 12 to 24 months

Your Step 4 Goal is a little less concretely defined than your previous three goals. This is because your Step 4 goal is to REPLACE YOUR EXISTING INCOME from your current occupation; of course, YOUR current income can vary dramatically. Perhaps we should even redefine your Step 4 Goal as “the amount of regular monthly income that will allow you to quit your present job” IF that is what you desire. Perhaps, in your case, your “replacement income figure” is substantially LESS than the income you are actually earning because you would no longer have the additional costs of commuting, clothing, and dining expenses. Or, in YOUR case, your “replacement income figure” may be MORE than you are currently making because you may need to replace out of your own pocket the benefits (health care, retirement, etc) that your employer is now paying.

In other words, YOUR personal Step 4 Goal – your “income replacement figure” – is a number that YOU will have to decide on yourself.

And…..simply because you achieve your “income replacement figure” doesn’t mean you HAVE to quit your job! By golly, maybe you LOVE your work – maybe it’s what you wanted to do all your life and you’re content with it. That’s FINE! Still, when you DO reach that “income replacement figure” you’ll be amazed at how psychologically gratifying it can be KNOWING that you now have the option of leaving your job…IF you want to!

V. Your Step 5 Net Income Goal:

$8,333.00 per month in 24+ months

Now why in blazes did we pick THAT figure!?

It’s pretty simple, really. There’s a practical reason as well as a psychological reason.

$8,333.00 per month equates to a $100,000.00 per year income. And THAT my friends is an income that, from a very practical standpoint, will allow just about anyone to live a pretty dog-gone nice lifestyle.

And from a purely psychological standpoint, there is something mystical and magical about making $100,000 per year – that fabled “six figure income.” $100,000 per year always seems to be the figure that you see in the ads – the figure that is touted in the news articles – the figure that will REALLY make us feel like we’ve “made it.”

And rightfully so!

Anybody that can, starting from scratch, build a business in two years that generates an annual income of $100,000 is a genuine American success story and DESERVES a hearty round of applause! That, my friend, puts you in the UPPER ONE PERCENT of income earners!

Look at it yet another way: If you had a million dollars in cash to invest, you could pretty easily get a 10% yield. Ten percent per year on a million dollar investment is $100,000. In other words, when your business in earning you $100,000 a year in profit…..YOU’RE THE EQUIVALENT OF A MILLIONAIRE!!!

Let’s recap our Five-Step Net Income Goals:

Step 1: Generate an income EQUAL to your expenses (the “break-even” point) within 3 to 6 months

Step 2: Generate a net income (over and ABOVE expenses) of $250 per month within 6 to 9 months

Step 3: Generate the equivalent of a “part-time” income of approximately $800.00 per month within 9 months to a year

Step 4: Generate YOUR individual “replacement income” within one to two years

Step 5: Generate that fabled “six-figure income” ($100,000+ per year) within two to three years

Now let me point out two very important points about our Five-Step Program:

It is SYSTEMATIC. As we stated at the beginning of the article, to achieve success in any endeavor you MUST have a “game plan.” You have to shoot for a series of “little-baby-steps,” and NOT one giant leap. THAT is a sure recipe for failure. But to gradually achieve smaller goals over a period of time gives you that necessary feeling of accomplishment that will propel you to the next, and HIGHER, goal.

It is REALISTIC. What we’ve tried to do is to establish a time-frame to accomplish the five income goals that is both REASONABLE and REALISTIC for the absolute beginner to marketing – the NEWEST of the “newbies.” Can it be done is LESS time? Certainly! Of course! I’ve seen several experienced (note the emphasis on “experienced”) marketers start to earn a $5,000 per month income in less than 60 days.

And the term “newbie” is not a clearly defined one by any means. I’ve seen folks who are brand new to Internet marketing but they take to the Internet like ducks to water – they seem to intuitively grasp the basic principals necessary for success. They get over that initial learning curve in a matter of DAYS and reach their break-even point in their first few weeks. On the other hand, I’ve seen other newbies who may not get over that initial “learning curve” for months.

Now, obviously, the “Five Step Program” we’ve outlined above is not meant to be carved in stone. It is merely a rough draft to give you an idea how to establish your OWN Five Step Program. Each individual must formulate his or her OWN because of the many variables involved; How much computer and internet experience do you have? How much time do you have to spend on your business without completely disrupting your family life? What is your level of commitment? What amount can you COMFORTABLY invest in yourself and your business? And so on…..

Just be sure that YOU don’t fall into that age-old trap by simply saying to yourself…..

“I want it ALL, and I want it NOW!”

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