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© 2000 Elena Fawkner

       What is your vision for your business?  Where do you see it
       being, in one, five, ten years?

       We all start our businesses with a vision of what our life
       will be like as an entrepreneur.  If you left paid
       employment to establish and run your own home-based
       business, before you took that step you first envisioned
       what it would be like to work from home.  Perhaps you thought
       of the convenience of not having to commute to and from the
       office every day; the comfort of working within your own
       environment; the flexibility of setting your own hours; the
       rewards of being home with your children.  This vision was
       obviously compelling enough to motivate you to do whatever
       it took to break the bonds of corporate servitude and set
       you on a path of self-determination and independence.

       Congratulations.  You are officially an entrepreneur.  Now
       what?

       You have achieved your vision of convenience, comfort,
       flexibility and family life.  What are you envisioning now
       for the future of your business?

       Making the break and starting your own home-based business
       is an important step and represents a significant change in
       your life and your lifestyle.  But it is only the first of
       many steps you will take along the road to success in your
       business.  Just as your vision of working from home
       motivated and propelled you towards your objective, so too
       will the vision you have for what comes next propel you
       towards ever bigger and greater achievements.

       Do you have a vision for your next step?  If not, how will
       you know what you are working towards?  How will you know
       when you get there?  How will you know if you will EVER get
       there?

       Visions, or dreams, are what your subconscious acts upon to
       create your reality.  Visions can be both positive and
       negative.  If you envision yourself in ten years time as a
       supremely successful businessperson (and you must also
       visualize all of the trappings of success so that "success",
       whatever that means for you, is a tangible, clearly defined
       thing), and you believe in the deepest part of your being
       that you will be successful, then your mind will
       subconsciously seek out ways to bring that vision to life.
       Equally, if you envision yourself in ten years time doing
       pretty much what you're doing now, then you can be pretty
       confident that that's EXACTLY where you will end up.

       So, ask yourself, where do I want to be in ten years?  What
       do I need to do within the next five years to bring me
       closer to my vision?  What do I need to do within the next
       year to bring me closer to where I need to be in five years
       if I am to achieve my ten year vision?  What do I need to do
       within the next six months, one month, one week, today, NOW?

       This, of course, is classic goal-setting process.  You've
       heard, over and over again, that you need to set goals in
       your life.  To fail to set and achieve goals is to fail to
       achieve anything.  The focus of this article though is on
       the crucial importance vision plays in the future success of
       your business.  It is only when you have a vision in mind
       that you can even have the starting point you need to begin
       to think about setting the goals that will get you there.

       So, how do you go about constructing a vision that is
       compelling enough to continue to motivate you through the
       inevitable ups and downs of the lifecycle of a business,
       that gets you up and moving every morning, that continually
       challenges you to find new and better ways of doing things?
       You may be saying at this point, well, I know I want to work
       from home and make enough money to live the kind of life I
       want.  But have you really sat down and thought, long and
       hard, about exactly what kind of life you DO want?

       What limitations do you place on your own thinking?  Do you
       believe there is a limit to the amount of wealth you can
       create for yourself within the next ten years?  Do you think
       in terms of $100,000 a year?  If so, why not $500,000 a
       year?  Why not $1,000,000?  What if the sky was the limit?
       What if you had a completely blank page with no limits?
       What if you could create, from scratch, EXACTLY the life you
       would choose if it was yours simply for the taking?  Think
       about that.  You can have ANYTHING you want!

       Make a list.  Want $10,000,000 in the bank?  Write it down.
       Want a happy marriage?  Write that down too.  Want a PhD?
       Add that to the list.  Want to donate $500,000 to your
       favorite charity?  That goes on the list.  Go through every
       area of your life and write down the highest ambition you can
       think of for each area.

       When you have finished your life plan, and this may take you
       several days or even weeks, brainstorm for ideas how you can
       leverage your business to bring you closer to your vision.
       (You will, of course, also need to think about non-business
       ways for those objectives that have nothing to do with your
       business.)

       If one of your goals is to make $1,000,000 a year, then
       obviously you need to think about how you can generate more
       income from your business.  Write down as many ideas as you
       can think of for the next five minutes.  Then prioritize
       them on efficiency principles.  What will give you the best
       return for your efforts bearing in mind your overall vision?
       Express them as objectives.  Within what timeframe could you
       reasonably expect to achieve this objective?  What steps do
       you need to take between now and then to achieve your
       objective?  These are your sub-goals.  Write them down and
       allocate achievement dates next to them.  Do this with all
       of the elements that make up your vision.

       Now take your list of objectives and sub-goals and work
       them back in time.  If one of your objectives is to be
       independently wealthy in ten years time, one of your major
       sub-goals may be to take your company public within five
       years.  What steps do you have to take between now and then
       to be in a position to float your business in five years
       time?

       Work all of your objectives back like this.  You should end
       up with five year goals, one year goals, six month goals,
       one month goals, one week goals and, finally, a daily to-do
       list.  Once you have mapped out a plan for your vision to
       this level of detail, you will find that literally every
       task you perform in your day to day life is geared toward
       the attainment of your vision.

       You WILL achieve your vision.  It is inevitable.  Our lives
       are a function of our deepest beliefs about ourselves and
       our world.  The key to "success" and "happiness" in life is
       to create a positive vision of what that means to YOU.

       A word of caution, though.  Make sure your vision is truly
       what you want because you WILL get it.  As the old saying
       goes, be careful what you wish for.

_________________________

Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ... practical ideas, resources and strategies for your home-based or online business. http://www.ahbbo.com