Setting SMART Goals
The First Step to Great Success

(Part Two of a Two-Part Series)

“Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I’ll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I’ll give you a stock clerk.” —J.C. Penney

“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” —Seneca

Last week we discussed the importance of goal setting. This will enable you to chart your course to success. Otherwise you may wander aimlessly, wondering why you never see the results you’d like.

In his book, Attitude is Everything, Paul J. Meyer explains that goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Tangible. Remembering this will help you to define your goals in such a way that you will be more likely to achieve them. This is what makes goals SMART:

SPECIFIC
Make your goals as specific as possible. For example, don’t just say “I want to make more money.” Make that goal more specific by defining it like this: “I want to increase my income 50% by expanding my services and marketing those services more effectively.” Defining goal specifics can help you take specific action to see the end result; whether it be acquiring new skills or learning how to market successfully, you’ll be on the path that will take you to your desired destination: increased income.

MEASURABLE
The above goal is also measurable; you can assess whether or not you’ve increased your income by 50% and if that increase is related to the expansion of services and the manner in which they’re being marketed. Only when you set measurable goals can you truly see your progress, and that alone can motivate you to continue your journey forward.

ATTAINABLE
You’re setting yourself up for failure when you set unattainable goals. The goal to make your one-man accounting firm the national leader is unattainable, unless, of course, you possess superhuman accounting ability. A goal is attainable when you can break it down into smaller tasks that build upon one another until you see the end result. To determine whether or not a goal is attainable, ask yourself these questions: Can you break the goal down into doable tasks? Do you have enough time, energy, and resources to accomplish these tasks? And will the successful completion of these tasks lead you closer to your goal?

REALISTIC
Setting a goal to loose 100 pounds in one month is unrealistic (and unhealthy). This goal needs a longer timeline in order for it to be realistic. When you set your goals ensure that you can attain them with the time, energy, and resources you have available. An unattainable goal is also unrealistic. But an unrealistic goal can be altered in order for it to become both attainable and realistic. For example, it may not be realistic or attainable for you to double both your client base and your income in one month. But if you give yourself more time, say 6 months to a year, that goal becomes both realistic and attainable.

TANGIBLE
A goal is tangible when it can be experienced by the 5 senses. You can see more money coming into your business, you can hear the positive feedback of your clients, and you can touch your new office building. Intangible goals are vague and ambiguous. Avoid that trap by asking yourself how your goals are tangible. Not only does having a tangible goal make it more likely that you’ll accomplish it, but it also makes it easier to envision your success. And taking the time to see, feel, touch, taste, and smell the accomplishment of your goal will enable you to realize your success more quickly.

While it’s important to have goals, it’s more important that those goals be SMART. When they’re SMART you’re more likely to accomplish them. So take the time today to write your goals down and assess whether or not they’re specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and tangible. Only then can you steer your business towards the success you desire.

It’s amazing how much mileage you can get from a little confidence. As an accountant you’ve probably spent a lot of time determining your most valuable business assets and how to preserve them. But have you considered how to secure and improve the one asset around which everything else revolves? YOU. Without you, there would be no accounting practice. There would be no clients. There would be no income. It’s time you acknowledged your value in order to advance your business to the next level.

Trust your instincts

While your impressions may seem somewhat whimsical, remember that you have experience and training which informs your instincts, giving them great value. You need to learn how to trust them as you move forward and advance your business. This means attending to those impressions as you interact with clients, peers, and other professionals within your community. Start with the small impressions first. Once you gain confidence in your instincts you’ll be able to move on to bigger and better things.

Be yourself

Accountants are known for being reclusive and somewhat introverted. If this describes you, we’re guessing you may feel somewhat uncomfortable when interacting with clients and other professionals. But it’s important that you be yourself. Doing so may make you feel self-conscious, but you’ll come across as genuine and trustworthy, two traits greatly admired in business-more so than a good sense of humor and witty dialogue.

Value your own services

If you’re not charging what you are worth, you don’t value your own services. Without saying a word your clients will sense a lack of confidence and will devalue your work as a result. When you come to recognize just how much you’re worth, you will exude self-assurance and promote your practice with ease. You’ll find you don’t have to negotiate your fees as often and you will begin to attract clients willing to pay for quality work.

Talk yourself up

Don’t apologize for what you do or how much you charge to do it. Once you come to value your own services you’ll find this step becomes much easier. You’ll welcome opportunities to talk about what you do and how well you do it. You’ll recognize that you’re only providing potential clients with the opportunity to benefit from your services.

Invest in yourself

YOU are your most valuable asset. It makes sense that you would invest in yourself. Consider ways you can improve your skills and become even more valuable to clients. This may require that you receive additional training, earn credentials, and learn new skills.

Universal has a DVD 4-Pack designed to introduce you to all the valuable services we offer, each and every one of them intended to enhance your accounting career. This power pack includes:

Introduction to the Professional Bookkeeper Program. Learn how becoming a Professional Bookkeeper will improve your accounting skills, enabling you to expand your business and become a full-service financial provider.

Yes Sample Marketing CD. Learn how to introduce your services to a potential client. Use this either for role playing, watching it while meeting with your client or passing them out.

Start Today and Have Your Own Bookkeeping Service. Learn how to make over $80,000 per year working from home while getting more clients than you can handle. Know how to charge your client so you can afford to take that next vacation while they get such a great deal they will be telling all their friends about you.

The Art and Science of Getting Clients. Learn how to get more clients by using our proven methods.

Purchase the DVD 4-pack and add to your reference library while learning how you can enhance your best asset. Order now!

Create an Elevator Speech and Sell Yourself in 60 Seconds or Less

“So what do you do, anyway? “… Has anyone ever asked you that question before? It’s usually in a setting you aren’t expecting that from, and from someone that you didn’t think would ask. If you’ve ever stuttered through your answer, then the best thing you can do is to create a striking, clear, and succinct “elevator speech.” “Elevator speech, what the heck is that?” It’s a brief description, of you, your business and the services or products you provide, like a quick infomercial, that can be delivered in the usual time it takes an elevator to carry its occupants to their floor. It is an essential tool in the marketing of your accounting or bookkeeping business. And if honed and practiced, can be used to grow your business the way you want to. Like your business card, your elevator speech is a calling card of your business, and if you word it right, you can get the person who asks about your business interested in doing business with you. so that at opportune moments you can network effectively, explaining what you do and why you do it so well that everyone deserves to hear about it.

The Hook

So you can capture at the opportune moments, network with other business people effectively, while giving an interesting tidbit about your services you should begin your elevator speech with a hook that piques the listener’s interest and makes them want to hear more. Tactics on this vary as widely as there are people and different personalities. One way I heard used was, “Well, it’s not brain surgery, but can be a critical tool that will help keep your business alive and ticking…” Another hook I’ve heard, “What I do is not as complicated as rocket science, but to the average business owner it might as well be…” You can consider using a quote, sharing a quick anecdote, or asking a question. it’s something said “in the moment” (every moment someone asks) that is quick and not burdensome, and captures the attention of the listener right away.

The Conversational Tone

Your elevator speech should not be perceived as a sales pitch. Occupants would opt to walk up flights of stairs rather than be stuck in an elevator with a relentless salesperson. Think of your brief description as the introduction your business would give where it able to talk. It shouldn’t sound canned or monotonous.It should be exciting and engaging, communicating your passion for what you do and how well you do it. You should practice the speech so that it sounds natural and conversational. That it rolls off your tongue at a moments notice and in such a tone that is friendly and inviting. And it’s important that you not drone on and on. That’s why it should be no longer than 60 seconds. In fact, you may consider having two versions of your elevator speech: the 30-second version and the minute version. The elevator speech you deliver would depend on the given situation.

The Details

There’s nothing worse than asking a question and getting a vague answer is there? That is the same thing with your elevator speech. Without significant details, your elevator speech is generic and uninformative. More importantly it will turn people off to you and your services and products quicker than you can say “Shazaam!”. The main question you need to ask yourself is, “What do I do, that would be a great benefit to my potential customers?” If you have current customers, ask youself the same question, “What do I do that brings them back to me every week or month?” How do I make their business life better? Easier? More profitable? Other questions you can ask yourself is: What do you do that’s unique? What sets your services apart from others? Who are your clients and what problems do you solve for them? What could you do for the listener to make their lives better? When you have brainstormed on what you do and identified what it is that makes you the “bomb’ to your clientele, write it down, if it’s too long simplify it. If it’s like everyone else’s, use different verbs or adjectives to describe your business. Remember, this could be the only time you get a chance to peak the interest of that one person who could make all the difference to your business. Be ready for it.

The Request

You should always end your speech with a request. Will you ask for the listener’s business card? Will you ask them to take your card and give you a call if they’d like to learn more? Do you want them to refer their family and friends to you? You bet you do! So be in the moment and take care of it. You may decide to have optional requests in mind so you can end your speech with a request that responds best to that particular situation.

One tactic that has been found effective is right after you have given your elevator speech to ask them about what they do. Then once they have given you their “speech” ask them one or two additional questions about their business. Such as, “That’s an interesting industry, how many employees do you have? Or “How did you get into that interesting business?”. Better yet ask them a question that arises from their own elevator speech. Don’t make it to laborous, or take too much of their time with this, but after asking these questions, don’t hesitate in asking for their business card. By so doing, you become notched in their memory of someone that was interested in what they do. That could be all you would need for them to take your call or the appointment the next time you call on them.

A Final Note

While you can always give your speech in an elevator, the elevator speech is designed for any networking situation, places where you can introduce yourself and your business to potential clients. This may be at a convention, a conference, the grocery store, or the dentist’s office. Remember that anyone can be a potential client or can refer you to a potential client. And with your elevator speech on the tip of your tongue, you’re ready to sell yourself in any given situation with comfort and ease.

Marketing Is Only One Tool Of The Many You Need To Be Successful

Marketing your business is essential to keeping your business healthy and growing. You can do the right kind of marketing, with cost effective strategies and actions that will allow you to achieve the type of accounting / bookkeeping business you imagine for yourself. Building a Successful Accounting Business is only one of the modules you get when you purchase Universal Accounting’s Professional Bookkeeping Program.

Having a solid understanding of the Accounting and Bookkeeping methods and procedures is also essential to the successful business. Don’t hesitate any longer, take the steps needed to bring those dreams about your business into reality. Here’s what you will get along with Universal’s business marketing knowledge.

If It’s Accounting, It’s Universal

The Low Down From Universal

All you need to know about accounting, bookkeeping and tax preparation in one place

	Start Today DVD Start Today and Have Your Own Successful Accounting and Bookkeeping Service. FREE video teaches you how to make more than $80,000 per year with your own bookkeeping service!
	Professional Bookkeeper DVD Become a Professional Bookkeeper Earn the Money you Deserve. FREE video shows you how to make more in the accounting profession.
	Professional Tax Preparer DVD Become a Professional Tax Preparer. FREE Video teaches you how to make more than $100 per hour with your own tax service!
	Art & Science DVD Learn the Art and Science of Getting Accounting Clients. FREE video shows you how to build your accounting practice by $30,000 to $125,000 per year!

Universal is committed togetting to you the right information so that you can benefit from it in your professional career. We are dedicated to assisting those like-minded individuals to becoming successful in Accounting, Bookkeeping and Tax Preparation. Let’s get to answering that ever-important question of how can the Professional Bookkeeper’s training help you to get to that level of income that you are searching for in your accounting/bookkeeping career.

How To Develop Your Child’s Financial Skills

As a financial professional you understand, more than others, how important it is to train a child early to understand the value of money so that he or she will grow up to make good financial decisions. Try the following strategies to develop young people’s financial skills:

* Encourage family discussions on finance. At some point each day, discuss finance with your child. For example, have a conversation about whether an item’s value is worth its price.

* Play savings games. For example, if your child is going to the movies, agree to match the money he or she brings back home. This trains your child not to spend everything in his or her pocket at a given time. You can also encourage your child to come up with game ideas.

* Emphasize the benefits of savings accounts. Let children know that it’s good to save money in a piggy bank at home but better to have their money in a savings account. Explain that they will get more for their dollar. When discussing interest, always use language that children will understand.

* Relate stocks to companies that young people recognize. Talk about companies like McDonald’s and Disney. Tell your child that “if you owned stock in McDonald’s, every time you see cars in the parking lot, you’re getting some of that money.”

* Discuss security issues. Explain that if someone steals your child’s piggy bank, nobody replaces that money. If your house should burn down, his or her money will probably be gone. But if something happens at the bank, he or she has insurance.

* Encourage goal-setting. If your child wants to save for a bicycle, suggest that he or she price the bicycle and divide that by the amount he or she is saving per week. Then your child will know how long it will take to save the money.

Learn How to Make $80,000 per year with your own Accounting and Bookkeeping Business.

New Offer From Universal

Canadian Residents Now Have Their Customized Professional Bookkeeper Course

This past summer Universal Accounting Center sent out a survey to all our newsletter subscribers, in attempts to see what your needs were. Many of our Canadian residents requested accounting tips specific to their country. Universal heard the call and has responded.

Universal’s Customized Professional Bookkeeper Course
UAC’s PB course is one of its most popular, training students in the day to day accounting of small businesses. And that’s an extremely valuable skill when you realize that over 80% of accounting opportunities are with the small business sector. Not only that, but accounting and bookkeeping jobs continue to grow at an amazing pace; the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that by 2008 accounting jobs will increase by 20%. They explain, “As the economy grows, the number of business establishments will increase, requiring more accountants and auditors to set up books, prepare taxes, and provide management advice.”

In effort to bolster its support of Canadian residents, Universal Accounting Center has customized its Professional Bookkeeper course to include a supplement highlighting Canadian payroll taxes. The supplement updates the PB program with verbiage and forms specific to payroll taxes in the country. In addition, UAC will begin presenting bookkeeping seminars in Canada in March, promoting programs nationwide.