Each month I stay accountable to my goals by reviewing the goal, the strategies, and progress. This month ended with a week-long vacation, and I outsourced some of my projects to keep up with the flow.

2022 Goals

Overarching theme: “Promotion”

2022 Goals

Goal 1: Who am I as a writer?

Obstacles

• A track record of success in the real estate niche
• Hard to break into new industries
• Not sure what will ignite my spark

Strategies

• Make time to “write for fun” and explore new topic niches

Progress: I haven’t done any “fun” writing exercises or sought work in a different niche. Grade: F

Goal 2: Increase my knowledge base and writing skills.

Obstacles

• Balancing the need to generate income and acquiring new skills. 
• Classes cost money, which eats into revenue.
• Finding the time

Strategies

• Read the free resources that come into my inbox
• Create a “learning” budget I can use on courses
• Dedicate a set time for industry reading and learning.
• Create themes for the month to focus the learning

Progress: I attended a professional development workshop this month! It was a free seminar on using Upwork to generate leads. The budget is still intact. That was on top of continuing to read emails that have interesting and relevant topics.

Grade: A

Goal 3: Promote me.

Obstacles

• Time spent prospecting for new work
• Competition may be fierce
• I’m a shy person who doesn’t like to talk about myself
• Finding the byline writing opportunities on the immense World Wide Web

Strategies

• Launch a “how I edit” series on my website blog
• Find byline opportunities
• Make my website even easier to see my writing
• Dedicate a time to job hunt

Progress: The workshop essentially was about self-promotion. I used the strategies from the workshop to tweak my bio. It’s been working extremely well, but I haven’t finished implementing the changes. I need to make time. I also pre-made some video series and scheduled them out. Grade: A

Goal 4: Maintain income stream of [confidential) through 2021. That’s an average of [confidential] per month.

Obstacles

• Limited time to work
• Reduced need in the market for writers
• Managing my time wisely

Strategies

• Reduce Upwork dependance so more money comes to my pocket.
• Charge the rates I’m worth..
• Work at least 5 hrs on my working days. 
• Track each month how much time is spent writing on projects versus time invested and rate earned. 

Progress: I worked the most hours of any month this year, hoping to get extra income for some future expenses. I continued to outsource some work to make sure important tasks were done on time. Still, even with the loss of income from some outsourcing, my July monthly income was 135% above the target. It has been my best month to date by $35. It’s tempting to look at the outsourcing and think ‘I could have blown it out of the water,’ but that’s the cost of doing business. I also had two projects that are way undercharged, but when contact is done, that will change.

After that workshop, I’m considered rethinking my position on the reducing Upwork dependance. I’m getting 1-2 leads a day, more than I can handle.

Grade: A