Goals for 2011

February is almost over and it’s a bit late to be publishing the goals for this year. But as it happened, these goals were there on my mind, just that I never got around to putting them down in writing.

For the last year, in January 2010, I laid down some targets (wonder why I didn’t call them ‘goals’ back then). And it gives me immense pleasure to look back and realize that they have been achieved! I think putting them in writing has some effect in the realization of the goals, although you may not actively refer the goals regularly. So I am going to put down some goals for this year.

One major difference this year, that has a great impact on my goals is the realization of the last years goal of starting a company. I am no longer a freelancer! I am now a proud entrepreneur with a team of my own! And hence, this years goals are going to center around my business, instead of centering around me as a person!

Growth/Expansion Goals

Last years goal was to make the company operational. That goal was achieved in August with my first employee. Then in December 2010, we moved out of my spare bedroom in my home to a new office premises. And the team has grown to six! This is beyond my wildest dreams as of January 2010. So I start 2011 with a bullish sentiment and hope to grow to greater heights!

I am currently relying on one client to give me all the work. My hiring and expansion was to cater to his work and it was all funded by him as well. Technically, all the equipment and the lease of the premises, though in the name of my company, belongs to him as they were paid for by him. While I am thankful for this assistance I cannot forget the risk of having all my eggs in one basket. I don’t have any suspicion of my client. I am part and parcel of his company as he solely relies on my company to deliver the projects that he undertakes. We are essentially his exclusive offshore development center.

But, it would be good to have more clients and not rely one a single market. There may be market conditions that may only affect his market. In such a scenario I am also susceptible to those market forces. If I diversify my client base then I can reduce the risk of dependency on a single client and a single market.

Since most of the projects we undertake are startup projects themselves, one area that I am planning to pursue is to signup for maintenance services where my client has direct conflicts to sign them up. There is already one project which we are winding up which is planning to go for a round of funding and if they become successful in raising the funding, then we stand a good chance of signing up with them for continued development and maintenance with a dedicated team.

Another area that I can look into is to serve the local market. While there had been some inquiries which were made, but I brushed them aside as I am currently running at full capacity. But if I can beef up my team a little bit more then I can look into taking up local projects. Even better still is if I can sign up with a larger company to take up their spill-over work. That will take the marketing and selling efforts off my plate.

But in terms of where I want the company to go is to develop our own online products. I have been toying with a couple of ideas that I think will earn a decent recurring income if done properly and marketed to the right niche audiences. Both the products are online services for small and businesses or startups or freelancers. Ultimately, I would love to have at least one of these products to be launched within this year!

Financial Goals

With the current agreement that I have in place with my sole client the company in itself does not make a massive profit. The client more or less foots the expenses and I earn a salary, which for various reasons I am keeping untied to the company accounts. However there is a small operating profit that the the company generates. Though the company doesn’t generate much of a profit, this operating model allows me to pay above industry salaries to the team and to maintain a pretty decent working environment. We recently upgraded the developer environments with second monitors and they have top of the spec development rigs!

Financially I would be happy if the company does not face any cash flow issues or doesn’t go into the red. But that is not much of a goal, is it? Hence I am going to set a goal of a revenue of $100,000 and a profit of $10,000 for the year. With my current revenue and profit margins this is going to be off by a significant amount, but I am going hoping that some of my growth and expansion plans will chip in before the end of the year to meet these goals.

Personally as well I am looking to upgrade my personal income target. I think 2011 should see an increase of my rates. I have tried to renegotiate my rates a few times but have been unsuccessful due to the costs my client has been footing in setting up my company. But the good news is I have looked at bidding on a few projects for my personal services and have managed to find clients who were willing to pay 25% more than what I am currently being paid. With that in view, I am setting a personal financial goal of $50,000 for the year, for my income for my services!

In conclusion,

2011 should be a great year for the company and for me personally. And I am looking forward to growing and consolidating my company!