One of the roadblocks many of my clients run into is the difficulty of setting concrete goals and objectives. It's easy to say "I want to earn $350,000 in 2009" but breaking that down into actionable steps is where most of my clients struggle.

I use a very simple system with my clients that has proven to be successful. It's not unique; in fact, I think many goals setting programs teach a very similar approach.

But I want to share it with you today anyway so that hopefully you can get started planning for 2009 while this information is still fresh in your mind.

You've probably heard of SMART goals - that's the idea that all of your goals need to be:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely

Problem is, most goal authorities advise that your goals should be a little lofty - they should "scare" you just a little bit. So it can be difficult to determine whether your "scary" goal fits into the SMART category.

Here's how I work through this with my clients - let's take the $350,000 annual income as an example:

First, we break that goal into its smallest parts. So a $350,000 annual income would become a $6,731 weekly income. I'm using 52 weeks a year to make the math quick, and I'm factoring gross income, not net.

You'll need to adjust for vacation time and taxes, if you'd like.

Now we run through the SMART system. Is $6,731 weekly income specific? Seems pretty specific to me. And it's definitely measurable (numbers make great goals since they are so easy to measure).

Sure the goal is attainable. Plenty of people are currently earning $6,731 each week, so we know it can be done.

I've heard it said before that there are no unattainable goals, only unattainable timeframes. Which brings us to the next criteria - and here is where most of my clients struggle...

Is a weekly income of six thousand plus realistic? Obviously, this is going to be subjective, but here's a good rule of thumb that I like to use: Take a look at your current income and add 20%.

By making several very easy tweaks to the current operations and marketing program, most entrepreneurs can realistically expect to increase their income by 20%. So, if you're earning $5,609 per week in 2008, you can realistically earn $6,731 in 2009.

But what if you're not earning $5,609 right now? What if you're only earning $4,000 each week? Here's where it gets a bit tricky.

To go from $4,000 to $6,731 would require more than a 68% increase in your current income. By making "normal" changes, you can expect a 20% increase - so how would you earn a 68% increase?

Here's a formula that I've found to work in most cases: for every 20% increase in income, you need a 20% across the board increase in successful marketing activities.

For your 68% increase, you need to do almost 70% more of what you're successfully doing now (successfully doing is the key here.)

So, if you currently attribute a sizable portion of our website traffic to article marketing, and you're currently distributing 20 articles each week, you now need to distribute 34 articles each week.

And if a good portion of your prospects are coming from your speaking engagements, and you're speaking twice each week, you'll need almost 4 speaking engagements each week.

If you are now selling 50 info-products each week, you'll need to sell 85 info-products in 2009.

And on and on and on. Run these numbers for all of your successful marketing activities and decide whether or not they're realistic.

If you haven't been keeping good track and measuring along the way, it might take some time to look back through the year and figure out what was actually working for you. But don't skip this step!

There's no point in increasing unsuccessful activities. If you've sent out 20 articles each week and saw no traffic from them, why would you waste your time sending 34 articles?

Keep in mind, we're looking at income only here. This does not take into account expenses and profits. Don't be surprised to find that an income increase actually reduces profits as your expenses go up also.

You need to run an entire cash flow and P&L projection in order to verify that your goal is actually desirable.

Hope this helps as your put your 2009 plan in place. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to business and marketing plans.

Don't forget your mission and vision statements, your target market profile, your marketing message, etc. My fill-in-the-blanks guide can help you put it all together.

Now, go find some more clients!