Goal For February, Update

Will I make it? Hmmm . . .

Well, here we are 20 days into my February 21 day challenge goal of giving out 100 free service gift certificates, and I haven't broken 50 yet . . . As of Friday, I have only been able to give out 48 to certain business people, who I figure to be great centers of influence, and prospective customers for my service. Just researching businesses and trying to come up with a viable name list of people to see has taken extraordinary amounts of time.

I really had forgotten how difficult it is to contact people these days, and then to get them to give me an appointment. Getting through gatekeepers has been tremendously time consuming, and I haven't been particularly effective at this. I haven't been focused on sales for a couple of years now. Am I rusty! (this is not a question)

I will give out 100 by the end of this month though, even if I have to mail some of them out. Talking to someone and handing them material in person is much more effective, but even so, I want to get them into as many hands as possible quickly. Next month I will have another 100 to give out. And the next month . . . I really need to get good at this somehow. Meanwhile, I have my hands full servicing my present customers' needs. Maybe I will have to change strategies and mail them out to preserve my time in operations.

Regarding my walking goal of 100 km, I have only completed 57 km so far with only 8 days left. Tough month you could say. I will have to walk 6 km per day for the rest of February to hit my goal. I can do this . . .

Al Smith

Time Crunch . . .

February is just whizzing by! I am working flat out trying to complete my February Challenge of giving out 100 free service certificates to prospective clients. I really did not realize just how much time this would take out of my schedule.

Halfway though my 21 days (Feb 1 - Feb 21), I am feeling the time crunch, and am somewhat overwhelmed at the immensity of this task. When setting goals aggressively like this, sometimes strategies and deadlines must shift.

Even my walking goals have taken a hit with me barely going 28 km at the time of this writing and only 16 days to go the other 72!

How in the world am I going to do this?

One step at a time . . . ?

Al Smith

Goals and Goal Setting

First let me preframe these conversations. I am not here to brag. This is not what I am about. Everything I share here is designed to help others see that we are all similar. We are all ordinary people trying to do the best we can. Everything I document here is achievable by anyone. I just want to demonstrate that with a little focus and desire, we are all capable of positive growth.

In keeping with the strategy I have laid out for 2005, I am going to add a new challenge each month and incrementally build on each success, so that by the end of 2005, I will have huge momentum and goal achievement. The physical energy I will need to get it all done is substantial, so I need to start there.

I am going to walk/jog 100 kilometers per month for a total of 1200 km by the end of the year. In January I started the year off with a bang by entering the 21 Day Challenge at the Total Life Success Forum. I was successful even while facing mental confusion and physical injury. It is all recorded in a previous post linking to TLS Forum.

So, with January over, it is time to start a new challenge for February. This month, I am again going to do my 100 km, and in addition, I am going to kick off a major promotion for my company, Metro Pest Control, which serves the Greater Vancouver, Lower Mainland area from Richmond, B.C.

This second challenge for February, starting today and ending February 21, is to find 100 companies or individuals of influence, that I want to do business with, and give each of them $100 - $500 worth of free pest control service certificates to use on their different properties to try out our company's service. Now, you might say that this would be easy. Giving out free service would seem to be a no brainer, and that part is true.

You could go broke real fast by making these kind of mistakes. Giving them out to the right individuals or companies that will try you out and keep you on is somewhat more difficult. Remember that most people are already busy, and getting their time to show your product is difficult because everybody out there wants some of it. We are not the only game in town. Those who are in sales will know what I am talking about, as will those in business or management, or purchasing.

This will also become a monthly goal and run from February through November, 10 months of giving away 100 - $100 free service certificates. During the course of this year I am going to giveaway up to $100,000. worth of free certificates to attractive prospects for my service.

Yeah, I know, even my wife thinks I've gone over the edge. Huge risk brings huge rewards, you must make it worth their while to take a hard look at your products these days. I have cut back on my Yellow Pages advertising, brought my territory in tighter, and am using some of that money to spread over this promotion. I am going to target and expand my core business of property managers and real estate holding companies through this promotion.

Well, I have been long winded enough. Wish me luck. I will post my progress and whatever challenges that come up right here in the blog.

Al Smith