Do you have a goal for your business?

Just wondering as online affiliates, what are your goals in terms of business?

Is it just to earn enough to keep you in a nice lifestyle and have some free time/control compared to a regular job?

Or do you have big goals? Do you want to expand your company in terms of number of websites, or maybe you want to take on employees etc etc?

Finally do you have an amount of money that you think you'd stop working if you got it e.g. £1m, £5m, £10m, £20m, £50m, £100m, £1bn?? Are you working towards selling your company or happy with the regular income stream and keeping your sites going?

I'm just interested to know the mindset we're in on this forum?

Great question.

My first goal was to build a business that created enough income for me that I could quit my day job if I wanted to. This goal has been reached by me this year.
My second goal is to expand the business by setting up more sites and by doing joint ventures with other succesful affiliates.
My third goal would be to have a three-four person operation so I can concentrate on the long term strategies and goals and leave most writing and all technical stuff to other people. That way it is also possible to create a larger number of sites. I am now mostly a one man operation (except for my joint venture) and it is very hard to keep 4-5 sites fresh and updated with good quality content.

Money wise, it would have to be a very big number. At least 2 million. Too much money will make me lazy so if I were to go that route, It would have to be enough to live comfortably for the rest of my life or at least for the next 10-20 years. I do think I would be happy with a regular income stream as well as long as it keeps growing.

Other micro goals that I set yearly include:
total number of ndp's per month
growth in visitor numbers
better conversion to ndp
total revenue per month

Nice to read goals of other affiliates. So looking forward to your answers.

My biggest goals is to setup a business which i can present my kid(S) when 18 years old.
Daddy wants to give Nice presents. In our company (2 heads at the moment) we set goals Every year in terms of FTD's, visitors and Revenue. And we have reached them all the time since we started at Feb 2015.
At the start of 2017 we move in to a New office (first goal achieved). And from that we Will keep on growing.

In terms of selling or income to stop working. I need at least €2m to say goodbye to our website and working.
So if anybody wants to place a €2m bid on our company let me know ;) ;).

I plan on managing and growing the business for many more years to come... at least until I have finished putting the kids through school. I might also use the money to start a brick and mortar business that I can leave for the kids one day.

I doubt if a few millions will be enough or better said: I doubt, with the knowledge of having a few million, I would like to earn nothing anymore and live from an average income. I think I would always try to have some business. With a few million in the pocket, it's easier and more relaxed of course to build up a business. Also, working on something useful for me is nicer than going to fish every day or something like that. For sure I would also move to a place where the cost of life is cheaper and where the climate is way better.

I never had any goal. Just working and see where it goes. I got some websites, some are doing well, some I left for what they are because they were not working as well as I hoped for. I also started a joint venture with another affiliate, which is very promising. Besides of that, it's nice to work with other people that have similar ideas about how to run a website. It was a good decision to do this. Next goals are to join a project of a bigger team, to be able to focus more of what I am good in. And also, to pick 2, max 3. ideas out of the bunch of ideas about new markets, niches, etc that I am having. Also, perhaps trying to employ somebody or get some people I can hire for jobs I am not good in. In short: more focus of what I am good in, hence working a bit smarter instead of just working hard.

No goals. Never had*. Having goals as a sum of money is the way that is promoted by people who never did anything but wrote some GTD articles.

Goals are very restrictive. Once one has a goal, it is looming before his eyes and then there is either dissatisfaction, because it is not done or depression, because there is nothing to do. I think it is even some eastern philosophy that there are two miseries of life: to achieve and to not achieve a goal.

* I only saw, when I started, a certain sum, that was a symbol of wealth for me. Something I thought I will never have. Once I achieved it I felt like a king, then depressed, then I got broke almost and realised that it was a lesson for my pride and stupidity. So maybe this was kind of a goal.

I think one has to keep moving or die. Without movement there is a decline. It may be good maybe for last few years of life, who knows. I do not want to sit doing nothing even being old and waiting for death. But money does not help from fading away, bringing happiness or fulfillment. One of the biggest bullshits I ever saw is the Maslow pyramid.

But certain businesses are suitable for certain bankroll, so it is important to adjust and not to be scared to give up even something that still makes money. I have switched once what I was doing, because the previous market was depleted and too small for my bankroll. Now I am very slowly starting another transition. Even affiliate business will not be here forever and the % I am getting each month relatively to my bankroll is smaller and smaller. Still I hope it will last long.

I do not understand people who sell their business from ROI point and "retire". They either then sit after the sale on potentially inflated cash with zero interest or they "invest" the money into another company, probably vastly overvaluated and about which they know much less than about their own company.

I do not agree with this.

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With a few million in the pocket, it's easier and more relaxed of course to build up a business.

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It is far from being more relaxed. The most relaxed I was when I was hippie homeless with a little money just for my life. The more money I have the more stress it is. More money is more responsibility. It is more possibilities, more thinking, more choices, more mised opportunities and bad moves. More money also equals to more interactions with people. Everyone who has money, confirmed to me what I just wrote (unless it is a player from some pro league, celebrity or someone from this kind of world which is selling fake reality to masses).

It is like a video game. Having more money is like to advance to another level. It is certainly harder and not easier, but you have better weapons. But the weapons here is not the money. Money will not help. One really bad move and everything is gone. The weapon is only the experience and information.

For the last 5 or 6 years, every year my goal has been to sell my gambling sites and focus more on my (growing) non-gambling business activities... here we are ending another year, still have them, still doing ok... maybe next year then... or the year after that... or maybe I'll have them when the last ever gambler shrugs, gives up and moves full time to Virtual Reality...

I set weekly / monthly / quarterly / yearly goals in terms of output and productivity. Not so much financial / RMP ones.

Life goals... yep, different thing altogether.

Mark

I want to make it to 5 figure profit a month, at least for a couple of years. Pay off the mortgage and then me and the missus can go part time. I'd like to be semi-retired by 30 if possible.

Luckily for me i have done well in other business, and that's because i've always been a workaholic who's been willing to take risk. My goal with the ''websites'' business is something different.

I'm showing my daughter how anyone can make money from knowledge and a proper work ethic. Operating websites is very different to my normal dealings with property, managing storage space, operating disco's, building Sports modelling systems, data + information supplies, etc, etc.....

For me - it's all about the challenge of doing something diversified.

However, just a quick note - If i needed to make big money fast, it wouldn't be this game. While i can get 20-25K per month because of having the right contacts (people betting several million a month each in Asia), not everyone does. I really don't believe the (gaming) affiliate game has much of a future, and that's why i'm spending more time promoting other services and products!!

I would advise everyone to open their eyes - and, either go all in or don't expect much!

My first and foremost goal is to be earning enough to quit the day job. Once that is achieved I'll have the time to sit down and create some long term goals.

My goal is to try and maximise this for a few years then probably leave it or sell it if it's sellable.

Whilst I enjoy the money side of this business, there are elements of the work and business itself that I don't enjoy or find distasteful. I do have many other goals/ambitions that I would like to go for fully that at the moment are on hold due not really being able to ignore this opportunity to maximise this and get a decent amount of money built up.

The other goals I have are more passion projects that will require tons of time and probably make me very little money. They are to do with art, music, charity, community. I find there is something about running this business that has sapped my creative/artistic side - the daily emails pile, the regular monitoring of Google positions, updating offers and sites. It does become a bit of a drone, even if it's a financially rewarding one.

It is my intention to go hard for the next few years and then see where the bank balance is. Any 'retirement' from affiliate marketing would certainly not be a retirement from life itself.

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Originally Posted by RacingJim

My goal is to try and maximise this for a few years then probably leave it or sell it if it's sellable.

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Selling also has the advantage of being eligible for tax relief (in the UK) - pay only 10% on up disposed assets to £10m (instead of 40+%). ;)

No "strategic goals" just simple tactical targets which are usually related to finance.

The first was simply to replace a salary to become full time.

Now it's tactical incremental improvements :
- Get partner A to X revenue per month
- Get total monthly revenue to x per month
- Get annual profit to x per year.

I have no desire to own multiple sites, or have employees (prefer to use contractors for writing and development) which rules that out as strategic goals.

Selling at a decent multiple to annual profit would perhaps be a strategic goal but there would be a lot of work to package existing knowledge and processes so that someone else could take over. As with most small businesses most operational knowledge is undocumented.

However, I'd want 6-8x earnings (plus assets) and the general rate seems to be 1-2x earnings - the gap is so large that it seems unlikely - so there is little motivation to create an operational handbook and package the business for sale.

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Originally Posted by TheGooner

Selling at a decent multiple to annual profit would perhaps be a strategic goal but there would be a lot of work to package existing knowledge and processes so that someone else could take over. As with most small businesses most operational knowledge is undocumented.

However, I'd want 6-8x earnings (plus assets) and the general rate seems to be 1-2x earnings - the gap is so large that it seems unlikely - so there is little motivation to create an operational handbook and package the business for sale.

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Same here in that respect. As a one-man band it's going to be very hard to sell the business, as in many ways the business is YOU the owner, the knowledge, experience and feel you get for what works and what doesn't is very hard to pass on to someone - even if I wrote down a lot of strategies and processes in a guide book, a lot of the nuance would still probably get lost. It would only really work by selling to a direct, high quality rival who already was in the business and just wanted my betting accounts and sites to clear the way for them in some niches and to expand their reach.

Agree also on the sale value, there's no point cashing in for 1-2 year's revenue on something that potentially might keep paying you for 5-10 years of income when you've got a large signed up user base - I'd start thinking about it at 3x income but probably not worth it until about 5x, hence why people keep going I guess - you kind of get 'trapped' into carrying on - you're never gona give up on thousands of signups but you'll struggle to get what they're really worth off a buyer.

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Originally Posted by baldidiot

Selling also has the advantage of being eligible for tax relief (in the UK) - pay only 10% on up disposed assets to £10m (instead of 40+%). ;)

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Assuming you qualify for ER, which you should do. Should be careful to not invest any of the cash held by the company, or leave large surplus amounts as that could be seen as 'moneyboxing', but in principal you want to be getting ER where at all possible.

Private goals i don´t have or i don´t need. I have two cute boys at home and a smart, young and beautiful wife. All are healthy and happy. We building a house but planning to move back into a more sunny region ... there is all on the right track.

My business goals are pretty simple! After i skipped all other online activities then gambling and i can focus on that.
End of 2016 the plan was 50 FTD each month ... check
End of 2017 the plan is 150 FTD each month ...
End of 2019 i run "my" own online casino

I've started the following poll as the question of the week based on this thread:

How much would you have to be offered to sell all your affiliate sites?

Michael

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Originally Posted by Voids

I want to make it to 5 figure profit a month, at least for a couple of years. Pay off the mortgage and then me and the missus can go part time. I'd like to be semi-retired by 30 if possible.

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Same thing xx.xxx €/monthly , mortage paid , and semi-retired by 40 :)

In general - the same as above. But I do try to set short (1-2 months) and long terms (6-12 months) goals.

Keeps me on track knowing the direction i wish to go.