Small Business Owners: What’s Your Carrot for 2010?

carrot on a stick
Carrot on a stick to chase
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?

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