eCommerce Success Goals – what are they? and how to work out yours. with Chloe Thomas (episode 200)
To celebrate 200 episodes, and the end of our 2019 eCommerce MasterPlan Growth Series sponsored by Omnisend Chloe takes over the show to talk about Success goals.
What they are, how to identify them, and how to use them to make 2019 super-successful for you.
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A lot of people in eCommerce assume they need to reach certain benchmarks for success without truly checking in with themselves and what makes them feel uniquely successful. If you’re involved in business, it’s crucial to understand what growth you actually want and what growth is really necessary. As the last episode in the 2019 Growth series, this talk will focus on how to articulate and pursue the kind of growth you really want for your business and yourself.
The Two most Important Questions
1.) What do I have to achieve in order to cover the overheads of my own salary? In other words, what do I have to do to make sure the lights stay on?
2.) What do I want to achieve?
When you’ve worked that out, you can then figure out what the business needs to do in order to make that happen.
Defining Success for Yourself
It’s important to identify what specifically will make you feel successful at the end of the year. Success is a very personal thing that doesn’t necessarily tie back to numbers. Below are some examples that give an idea about how diverse personal success goals can be.
- Fix our SEO success decline
- Re-Platform the Website
- Finally Retire
- Quit my job
- Retire 10 years earlier
- Feel in control of my to-do list
- Expand onto Amazon
Your goal for success might be short term, long term, very big or seemingly small. Whatever it is, it’s important to define what’s important for you to feel successful. Frequently, the goal isn’t about the money, even though it’s important to remember that it’s money that ultimately makes it possible.
Every success goal that you have should leave you with a great sense of satisfaction when it has been completed. It could be something that is no longer annoying, or it could be a big achievement. Whatever it is, make sure it’s relevant to you.
Chloe’s Three Major Success Goals for 2019
1.) Run 2 Virtual Summits
2.) Re-write and re-launch eCommerce Marketing Book
3.) Do more work I enjoy and less I don’t
The first two of these goals are pretty straight forward, but the last one is ‘soft’ and tied to self satisfaction. For Chloe—and many other people—in order to have a real feeling of success, it is vital to have happiness in work.
While Chloe’s number three goal is crucial for the success of the business, her first and second goal are equally important and are a little bit easier to build into her forecast for the coming year.
From financial planning, to marketing and sales, building these goals up with purpose and intention is the best way to make them come to fruition by the end of next year.
Levels of Why
Once you have your most important goals, it’s time to drill down into the second why.
Identifying the success goal in the first place is about asking why (the first why). The second why is about getting clear on why achieving a specific goal is going to make you feel successful.
As an example, Chloe uses her goal of running an additional summit which will accelerate her learning curve for what she projects will be an important part of her business in the coming years.
Sometimes there are other priorities that supersede success goals. There might be cost or time implications, but when you understand the second why that sits behind the goal it’s easier to make good decisions for your business, and delay or prioritize goals as needed.
Success Goals Exercise
Grab a pen and paper and take the time to really think about and record these thoughts.
- What will make you feel successful this year?
- What are your success goals for this year?
- Are your success goals achievable? Get into the nitty gritty and see if you have the time, space and money to fit them in.
- What does your budget or business plan need to look like to make your goals happen?
Once you’ve decided what your goals are, articulate the second, and even third and fourth why’s.
- Why is that going to make you successful?
- What is the underlying why?!
Doing this is a surefire way to deliver a feeling of success throughout the year for you—not for someone else!
eCommerce Book Top Tip
- Boo Hoo by Ernst Malmsten
- by Mike Michalowicz
eCommerce Traffic Top Tip
- Email: Too many businesses are paying lip service to email but in order for it to work, you have to use it. You must plan out your activity. What are you saying? Who are you sending it to? Get onto an eCommerce specific email platform and take email seriously.
You can hear about all this on the podcast, for free – right now…
Tool Top Tip
- Streak for Gmail- Acts as sales CRM on google mail. Also has a send delay feature.
- Acuity – Used for calendar scheduling.
Growth Top Tip
- Keep Optimising! Bring rigour into your marketing. Weekly and monthly reports that are minimalists that can show you what you need to look into more deeply.
Interview Links
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