Make some goals

Goals are not like New Year’s Resolutions, meant to be cast aside as soon as the hangover wears off. Goals come in many forms: Short term, mid term and long term.

I sat down with someone today who wanted to know my goals. Specifically she wanted to know the personal ones, but because I run my own business, the professional is personal. Everything is intertwined.

So I actually had to think about my goals. It’s been quite a while, due to various personal disasters, since I’ve had the time to revisit them. Because my personal life has so changed, my professional goals are a little different, too.

Originally my mid term goal was to earning as much as I did at my last corporate job, which was $45,000 per year. The long term goal was to beat that, and to earn at least $45k after taxes.

If you’d asked me a month ago, I would have said my short term goal was to earn enough for the next meal. Mid term would be the meal after that, and long term would be meals for the week.

Now I have a little breathing room, and I can set some realistic goals while still having enough ready cash to feed myself.

Short Term Goals (three months)

• Gain two backbone clients within the next 2 months
• Produce my own marketable work

Medium Term Goals (6-12 months)

• Finish my memoir, pitch it
• Create further marketable work
• Earn a set monthly minimum

Long Term Goals (18-24 months)

• Publish the memoir
• Have 5 backbone clients
• Be clearing $4000/mo (doesn’t seem like a lot, but it is to me right now!)
• Be earning predominantly through my own products

What are your freelance goals? More money? More freedom by XX date? If you’ve not yet made the leap to full-time freelancing, how are you structuring your transitional goals?