Everyone needs clear goals to succeed, and everyone has one at the beginning. Unfortunately, those goals can easily be lost. You have to hang onto them tightly to achieve them.

It Was OK at the Beginning

Here is John Doe running his own online business. He added free stuff on his Web site as an incentive to increase sales. It was a good idea, and he got a good result. He was so excited about the result that he put more and more freebies on his site. Because of his hard work, his site became one of the best freebie directories on the net. But he could no longer increase sales as he had done the first time.

Lost Purpose

Why? We cannot make money by just giving freebies away. A few freebies are more than enough. To make money, he needed other products to up-sell, not more freebies. Because he focused too much on freebies, he forgot this simple rule.

This scenario may sound stupid to you, but we often forget the fundamental purpose of tasks. While you are narrow-mindedly working on something, it is easy to lose the purpose. Make sure to stay on track. Otherwise, you will never get close to your goals, no matter how hard you work.

Conflict With Your Policy

Moreover, you will make policies or standards along the way, or, perhaps you have some already. Those policies can be another trap. Each policy had a purpose when it was created, but as you strictly follow that policy, soon, you will forget why it exists. Let's say you made a policy for better customer service. You frantically follow that policy. But then following your policy becomes more important than listening to your customers. You forget the policy was made for better customer service. Remember that your policy isn't your customers' business at all. If you treat the policy better than your customers, they will do business with others. Before saying, "That's our policy," think twice about the purpose of that policy, especially before saying it to your customers.

When you are stranded while you are running business, just re-think about the fundamental purpose of your business. You may find yourself on a wrong track. Get back on a right one, and restart making money.

© September, 2002