So, you got the mindset, you figured out a killer idea, well awesome you made it pretty far already. I want you to stop, take a victory lap. Really you earned it, most of my ideas didn’t make it this far. Now how do you bring this killer idea into something you can monetize? This is where I am going to take a segue out of business concepts and touch into time and project management.

One of the many hats you will wear as you consummate your idea is project manager. Project management is in its core the systematic setting, tracking of, and execution of goals. There is a lot of acronyms you can find SCRUM, agile, you can get a PMBOK book, you can spend untold fortunes on gurus. What I want to talk about is SMART goal setting.

Smart stands for

• Specific
  A Goal must be concise and well defined
• Measurable
  A Goal must be measurable so success can be determined
• Achievable
  A Goal must be actually achievable
• Relevant
  A goal should be relevant to the overall strategic direction
• Time-bound
  A goal must have a deadline (They are your friend)
  

So for an example. The goal of loosing weight is not a good goal by the SMART framework. It does not have any way to measure it, nor does it have a time to complete. Stating you want to loose 20 lbs in 6 months is perfect. You know how much and by when. From that you can calculate calorie macros and set up exercise schedules to bring you to your goal. Ok back to entrepreneurship, take your idea and a pad of paper. Break down your idea what are the components, materials, licensure. What these exactly are will vary, common ones are a website, an LLC, perhaps some tools, maybe a license. Once you’re done with the big picture take separate sheets of paper one for each item you came up with and break those down into separate steps to complete/aquire.

Once you have these sheets of paper, what you then do is make the dreaded to-do list. In the interest of efficiency, you should try your best to figure out which of the steps can be done at the same time. You should then take your calendar and schedule deadlines for these items.

There you have it how to be SMART about goals. Once you have a plan you need the discipline to enact it. I cant really help you with that. But as always good luck!