I’ll assume you’re interested in this financial management conversation and have been taking action. By now, you know where your financials stand as of the first half of 2008, and you have an idea of where you’ll be at the end of the year. What next?

First- name your focus. What describes you best?

• I need more clients
• I have enough clients- but I’m not making enough money, how can I make more money without working more?
• I have more clients than I can handle - I’m missing opportunities

Narrowing your focus will help you plan your time and your budget more effectively.  When we talk about focusing to get results, we’re talking about goals and action planning. Creating goals for 2008 is the next step in this exercise.

A note about goals: SMART is an acronym for the criteria for defining a goal.  S is for specific; M is for measurable; A is for attainable; R is for realistic; T is for timely. I’m always sure everyone has heard the term before, but this time I’m going to risk beating a dead horse and create a separate post as a reference.

After that, we’ll get back to completing this financial management forecasting and planning thread.