For the last few years I've popped up some goals for the new year, only to find myself not actually hitting any of those goals. I've come close, but no cigar.

For instance, if we look at my 2010 goals, we can see that I actually completed one of these, but only on a fluke, and I made progress on one. I lost 14 pounds this year, not quite that 25 but more than I'd lost in previous years, so that's a win. I also gave some live presentations that I got paid for, and traveled to do it, so I satisfied that, even though it was up from zero the previous year.

My big thought for 2011 is to integrate goals for this year with this blog. To whit, I have some goals for this blog, which impacts my website, and hopefully impacts my business. I'm not putting any personal goals on here because I'm recognizing that's for another place and not here. I need to have only business goals to track so that I can stay focused only on that when I'm here. Not only that, but my business goals impact the readers of this blog, the visitors to my website, the subscribers to my newsletter and anyone who might hire me for projects in the new year.

One other thing. I actually had already written out my business goals for the year and thought about them about 2 months ago, so I can easily bring those out. For the blog... well, that'll be a little bit of an addition at the end, after I talk about the first five goals.

Once again, I'll answer why I put up my goals. One, I think it's important to have goals so you know where you want to be and how you're hoping to get there. Two, when you share your goals with others, you're more apt to work on them. Three, when you write things down, it helps solidify them more in your mind.

Let's get to it; my five business goals for the year are:

1. Four CDM clients. Working on charge masters independently can be lucrative if the hospitals are large enough. On their own, doing short CDM projects , if you can get enough of them, can handle a year's worth of income. I only did one last year, and that was a subcontract; this year, I work harder on landing my own contracts.

2. Five paid speaking engagements. Last year I didn't put a number down; this year I am. At this stage of my speaking career 5 engagements isn't a year's worth of salary, but it helps build up the portfolio. I'm already scheduled for 2 non-paid engagements locally, and I feel that doing short local presentations gives you a great place to practice your skill. But in 2011, I'm ready to travel some for one or two day presentations; if you're in need of a speaker, give me a call.

3. Five new "permanent" web clients. Right now I have 3 web clients, whose websites I manage. That's not big money but it's money that I can consistently book, and that's never a bad thing. One problem with consulting is you get money in batches, but rarely on a consistent basis. More clients in this area won't really be lucrative, but it all adds up.

4. Six to eight webinars. This is probably my hardest one to fulfill because it's not totally dependent upon me... yet. I do these with a friend of mine because she has the software to do them, but I might have to find a way to create my own accounts to get this done. These can be lucrative if you get enough of the right people, but they're also great practice for doing life presentations later on. All that and you don't even have to leave your home to do them.

5. Two to three coaching clients. Once again, that number isn't enough to pay the bills, but I think it's something important to do. This past year I've counseled some people and gave some business advice, but it was either free advice to people I knew or a one time counseling and then it was over. True coaching clients should last at least 3 months to give both of you a chance to assess progress and growth. It's also one of those things that makes clients accountable, and if they're not you still get paid.

Those are the main goals for the business in general. For this website and blog, a few things will be sort of different. It probably hasn't been noticed by all that many people, but for the last month I've written at least one post every work day. On the inside, my rankings for this site have grown dramatically; new blog content on a very regular basis helps in rankings and visitors. I've had more comments in the last month than I had in the previous 6 months combined; that's astounding. Because this blog is hosted in the same space at my website, when I consistently add content the search engines consistently crawl this page, and my search terms move me up when people are looking for things I do.

Another thing with this blog is that I'm thinking about what to do with my categories. Most people don't notice them, but they help me find things I'm looking for when I link back to previous articles I've written on similar subjects. I've noticed that though I find ways of linking most of my articles back to the core principles of my business, I realize that I'm limiting their effectiveness in some fashion by trying to do it. I'm not going to lock myself up as much in the coming year. I will rely more on the tags in posts to get my point across instead.

And there you go; my goals for 2011. I expect to see great progress this coming year; I hope you come along with me.