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8 
My ‘carrot’ in growing my business in 2010 is mainly to be able to spend more time for my family – so, yes, I plan to get my business to run on autopilot. What’s your carrot? 
Small Business Owners: What’s Your Carrot for 2010?
Carrot on a stick to chase
No, I wasn’t turn into a donkey chasing a carrot to get me moving – wait, I do chase a carrot! (does it make me a donkey?)
Seriously, a donkey or not, I do place a carrot in front of me – I need something to ‘chase’. Why? Because the carrot motivates me to make things happen. Let’s talk about this later in this article – but first, let me share my carrot in 2009.
Looking back, in 2009 my carrot saves me from personal bankruptcy (due to the closing down of my 2 franchise units) to thrive in making money online and web property investing. All thanks to God and to the people who have helped me along the way.
My carrot for 2009 was: “To avoid bankruptcy and cover my family monthly living expenses with income from online methods.”
I’ve made it (and ate the carrot), and I am ready to place another carrot in front of my face this year.
My carrot for 2010
I have placed another carrot for me to chase for this year.
My carrot for Noobpreneur.com: “To get 20 business bloggers to join Noobpreneur Blogging Team and transform this blog into one of the ‘lighthouses’ in the highly saturated small business/entrepreneurship online niche.”
My carrot for my personal endeavour: “To get six-figure semi-passive online income and spend more time with my family.”
Why a carrot-on-a-stick is so important?
Maybe a ridiculous or somewhat degrading concept to you, but the carrot-chasing idea has helped my business and my personal life in many ways.
I have mentioned above, we all need carrot to allow us the privilege to chase something. Why a privilege? We all know that sometimes it’s surprisingly difficult to answer this question: “What do you really want with your life?”
We do have dreams and goals, but finding out what you are really wanted with your life is pretty challenging. Looking for answers can get you walking in circle throughout the years, and once you finally find the answer, it’s all too late.
Placing a carrot-on-a-stick in front of you allows you to stop procrastinating and wasting time, and start to pursue something that can get you closer to find out what you are really want with your life.
In business, you need carrot to help you achieve your target. The carrot is something that ‘urges’ you to get going and find ways to achieve your business’ targets, whether a sales target or any other targets. To better explain, how about this for a carrot: “We have to achieve $x sales and y% market share this year, or else, that darn XZY company (a competitor) will leave us in the dust.”
Remember, the carrot is not the end – it’s only a mean to get us to the ‘end.’ And fortunately (or unfortunately?) – there will actually be no end, because once you run out of carrots to chase, you will find your life empty and bland.
So, yes – you and I need a carrot to chase!
What is your carrot?
I have shared my carrot(s) for 2010. What’s your carrot?
Ivan Widjaya
Pursuing dreams
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Mine is a bit on similar lines. I dont want to make my blog a lighthouse as such but first make a plan for rgadual success and effectively implement it so that my blog gets a bit coverage elsewhere too. At a personal front more discipline and more productivity are on the cards ofcourse ;)
For me the carrot is being able to continue to work with and advise entrepreneurs but on a larger scale through blogging and writing. By enlarging my potential audience I hope to be able to greatly increase my effectiveness at doing the job I love.
Chanda,
Yes, I agree – discipline and productivity are indeed keys to any success :)
Tyler,
That’s a laser-target carrot :)
Just wondering, are you on a consulting business?
I have a friend who told me that working chasing a carrot on a stick is not a good idea…but now this got me thinking, this might work if you look at it in a different perspective. Thank you for enlightening me with this.
Christina,
Some things just can’t be generalised :) If it work for me, it doesn’t have to work for you… The key is to find something that motivates you. Some people print their target or goal on a super-big piece of paper so that they can see it often wherever they look… Some other people make to-do list – some sort of “1000 things to do before I reach 55″… and some other just enjoy chasing carrot-on-a-stick (just like me.)
Just remember – no goal/target/milestone, no achievement. And believe me, people can be pushed to the limit to do extra-ordinary things. The carrot-on-a-stick does the trick for me :)
Thank you for that advice, it’s been quite a while before I was able to reply, we moved out actually. Anyway, you’re right and I’m thankful I’m hearing a different point of view. Who know it might work for me as well but first things first…”to-do-list” is really a good idea. I have one but I think it lacks something. Thanks again…
Cheers, Christina :)
Good luck in your endeavours!