Do you remember the 1980s Robin of Sherwood television series? It's the one with the Robin Hood who has that gorgeous hair and striking fey quality that fits so well with the mystical retelling of the legend. One episode in particular comes to mind because it contains a perfect metaphor to illustrate the third step of inspired business planning -- to identify specific objectives and targets related to your business intentions.
In Robin Hood and the Sorcerer, Robin discovers his higher purpose through Herne the Hunter. Robin's intentions as an agent of light are to disable the forces of darkness and help the poor and dispossessed. By entering the Sheriff of Nottingham's archery contest, his objective is to reclaim the silver arrow, a powerful old artefact, for the forces of light. Robin's target is to hit the middle of the bulls-eye, a feat he accomplishes by splitting an apparent winner's arrow in half. And so he wins the silver arrow!
Like Robin Hood, once you've discerned your business's higher purpose and set intentions inspired by this purpose, it will be beneficial to create specific objectives and targets for each intention. Doing so will bring much more clarity and focus to your business-building activities and help you to win your own "silver arrow", whatever that may be.
Becoming a Skilled Archer for Your Business
For some spiritual entrepreneurs, understanding their business purpose and creating intentions are the "easier" steps of the inspired business planning process. Setting objectives and targets seem to be a bit more challenging. This may or may not be the case for you, also.
To facilitate this exercise, it might be helpful to define objectives and targets and distinguish them from intentions. Intentions are the broader goals that will help you fulfil your purpose. Objectives are more narrowly-defined goals that are consistent with your intentions. Targets are the results you're aiming for with each objective (usually quantifiable, but they can also be unquantifiable or measured by a timeline). You may have several or more objectives and targets for each intention.
Here's an example:
Intention: I intend to build heart-centered relationships with my target market.
Objective: Find and engage in opportunities to interact and connect with my target market authentically.
Target: Participate in six online and offline relationship-building opportunities each month.
Objective: Create and deliver an inspiring and valuable "signature presentation" geared to my target market.
Target: Complete two speaking engagements monthly.
Some Questions to Get You Started
The place to start is to revisit your intentions and assess whether or not they cover all the areas of your business you want to include. Some categories you may want to consider are:
- business management and administration;
- business support;
- relationship-building with your target market;
- service and product development;
- promotion; and
- financial well-being.
If you were to create an intention for each of these categories, answering the following questions will lead you to your objectives and targets for each intention:
Business Management and Administration
Objective: What planning, financial and administrative systems do I need to have in place to manage my business with ease and enable it to be sustainable?
Target: What am I aiming to accomplish in these areas and by when?
Business Support
Objective: What kind of support do I need in order to grow my business?
Target: How many people will this involve and what roles will they play?
Relationship-Building With Your Target Market
Objective: What are five different ways that I can build heart-centered relationships with my target market?
Target: For each objective or method, how can I measure my progress?
Service and Product Development
Objective: What services and products can I develop as my "signature" offerings that will meet a need for my target market?
Target: How many clients do I want to have and/or how many products do I want to sell monthly and/or yearly?
Promotion
Objective: What are five different ways I can offer these services and products to my target market with integrity and in ways that feel authentic to me?
Target: For each method, how will I measure its effect?
Financial Well-Being
Objective: What will allow me to have financial flow in my business?
Target: How much will it cost me to operate my business? How much money do I want to attract through my business monthly and annually? How much money do I want to attract through each service and product monthly and annually? How will I price each service and product to meet these targets?
Consider using mind-mapping for this exercise to engage both your left and right brain in the process. Use a large sheet of paper for each intention, and write your intention in a circle in the middle of the paper. Write your objectives for that intention in their own respective circles surrounding the intention circle in the middle and attach them to it with lines (or arrows). Then near each objective circle, write your target for that objective and create a circle around it. Connect each target circle to its corresponding objective circle.
Gaining clarity about the details of your successful business and expressing this clarity on paper is a powerful way to activate the law of attraction. Enjoy this process, and allow it to get you excited about your business! It will help you to see more clearly, so that hitting the bulls-eye becomes a predictable outcome for you every time you shoot your arrow.
Copyright 2008 Mary C. Davis
Related Articles
How to Use Intention to Build Your Business
By: Mary C. Davis | 08/06/2008 | Religion
When you consciously set intentions for your business that come from your higher purpose, you're in complete alignment with the universal force that allows the act of creation to take place. This is the second step of inspired business planning, and it will help you "set the tone" for your success.
Zen and the Art of Business Building
By: Mary C. Davis | 24/06/2008 | Motivational
Determining what tactics to use to build your business can seem overwhelming, and it's easy to get lost in all the available advice. This is why it's important to deepen your connection with your own wisdom and trust your own guidance. Doing so will help you discern what action steps are right for your business -- the fourth step of inspired business planning.
Opening the Heart of Your Business
By: Mary C. Davis | 30/06/2008 | Motivational
Doing financial projections is an opportunity to open the heart center of your business -- the fifth step of inspired business planning. Rather than just being a mechanical business exercise, this is a metaphysical process that allows you to circulate a sense of abundance and joy.
Is the Healer Archetype Limiting Your Business?
By: Mary C. Davis | 31/03/2008 | New Age
The healer archetype is a pattern that can limit those who embody it when it comes to financial well-being. Yet, it's possible for healers to transform the shadow aspect of this archetype and develop flourishing businesses.
Joyous Action: Poetry in Motion
By: Mary C. Davis | 10/04/2008 | Motivational
It's easy to lose yourself in action when building a small business, with no awareness of how your inner state is affecting you and your results. Developing your ability to align your thoughts and emotions with joy will amplify the power of every action you take and make business building easy and fun.
Finding the Higher Purpose of Your Business
By: Mary C. Davis | 02/06/2008 | New Age
Connecting with the higher purpose of your business is the first step of inspired business planning, and it underpins all subsequent steps. If you operate from this perspective, your business will be aligned with the true purpose of your life - to awaken. As a spiritually-oriented entrepreneur, this is the key to your business's success.
Got a Question? Ask.
Ask the community a question about this article:
Q&A Powered by:
Latest Motivational Articles
Your 30 Day Personal Development Challenge
By: Tim Ryan | 08/09/2008
Is there anything you really wanted to change about your life. Any old habit you wanted to break or any new habit you want to develop? Think of how much richer your life could be if you developed new more fulfilling habits.
Love Sprang To Life And She Captured My Heart
By: Linda Dipman | 07/09/2008
I winked at a woman never expecting more than a date. Instead I found the woman of my dreams. A woman that I would spend the rest of my life with. A woman who turned out to be my perfect match, all because I trusted God to lead me down the right path.
Succeed With The Right Mental Attitude
By: Paul Hata | 06/09/2008
By a wrong mental attitude we have set in motion a train of events that ends in disaster. People who die in middle life from disease, almost without exception, are those who have been preparing for death. The acute tragic condition is simply the result of a chronic state of mind a culmination of a series of events.
Be Happy As You Want To Be
By: Paul Hata | 06/09/2008
To be happy is relatively easy, just decide to be a happy person. Abraham Lincoln observed that most people for most of the time can choose how happy or stressed, how relaxed or troubled, how bright or dull their outlook to be. The choice is simple really, choose to be happy.
The Basics To Setting And Achieving Your Goals
By: Paul Hata | 06/09/2008
The basics of setting goals give you short-term and long-term motivation and focus. They help you set focus on the acquisition of required knowledge and help you to plan and organize your resources and your time so that you can get the best out of your life.
Your Online Business and Marketing Catalyst
By: Daniel Gonzalez | 06/09/2008
The idea of starting a business is one that floats around in many people's mind. It's not new to life with the internet. I knew long before there was an internet and this thing called online business, I had a destiny to have my own business. But do you know what it takes beyond a positive attitude to make your vision flower?
The Great Investment
By: Tiya Cunningham-Sumter | 06/09/2008
There is no greater investment, than the investment you make in yourself. Believe me when I tell you, you're worth it. You deserve your time, your energy and all that you give to everything and everyone else. Please go after what's really important to you.
Winning Success Strategies: The Same Actions Will Always Get You The Same Results!
By: Ken Donaldson | 05/09/2008
The ego-driven smaller self tends to live in the predicting-the-past-and-forgetting-the-future mode.
More from Mary C. Davis
Opening the Heart of Your Business
By: Mary C. Davis | 30/06/2008 | Motivational
Doing financial projections is an opportunity to open the heart center of your business -- the fifth step of inspired business planning. Rather than just being a mechanical business exercise, this is a metaphysical process that allows you to circulate a sense of abundance and joy.
Zen and the Art of Business Building
By: Mary C. Davis | 24/06/2008 | Motivational
Determining what tactics to use to build your business can seem overwhelming, and it's easy to get lost in all the available advice. This is why it's important to deepen your connection with your own wisdom and trust your own guidance. Doing so will help you discern what action steps are right for your business -- the fourth step of inspired business planning.
How to Use Intention to Build Your Business
By: Mary C. Davis | 08/06/2008 | Religion
When you consciously set intentions for your business that come from your higher purpose, you're in complete alignment with the universal force that allows the act of creation to take place. This is the second step of inspired business planning, and it will help you "set the tone" for your success.
Finding the Higher Purpose of Your Business
By: Mary C. Davis | 02/06/2008 | New Age
Connecting with the higher purpose of your business is the first step of inspired business planning, and it underpins all subsequent steps. If you operate from this perspective, your business will be aligned with the true purpose of your life - to awaken. As a spiritually-oriented entrepreneur, this is the key to your business's success.
The Seven Steps to Creating an Inspired Business Plan
By: Mary C. Davis | 02/06/2008 | Motivational
Inspired business planning integrates spiritual, intuitive approaches to business development with practical methods, resulting in businesses that prosper materially and on many different levels. This process will appeal to you if you're a spiritually-oriented entrepreneur who wants to create a successful business that serves a higher purpose.
Joyous Action: Poetry in Motion
By: Mary C. Davis | 10/04/2008 | Motivational
It's easy to lose yourself in action when building a small business, with no awareness of how your inner state is affecting you and your results. Developing your ability to align your thoughts and emotions with joy will amplify the power of every action you take and make business building easy and fun.
Is the Healer Archetype Limiting Your Business?
By: Mary C. Davis | 31/03/2008 | New Age
The healer archetype is a pattern that can limit those who embody it when it comes to financial well-being. Yet, it's possible for healers to transform the shadow aspect of this archetype and develop flourishing businesses.
Self Improvement 
