Time to recap on my goals for 2009.

First, my business goals...

1. Get FreeArticles.co.za back over the R5,000 hump.

FreeArticles.co.za stayed earning under the R5,000 mark but I sold it for R50,000. Less than it's worth but I'm investing it and it does free up my time for other things, so I still feel like this is a win :)

2. Push GuitarForum.co.za over the R5,000 hump as well.

Not doing good in this regard. The site makes maybe R300-R500 a month. Maybe. However, I have a BIG plan in the works to transform the site into a Drupal site which will give me a lot more freedom in offering more/better/cooler features which also translates into easier monetisation.

Even though I feel off-target with this goal, I'm having fun with this site. I love it so I'm not concerned about the cash I'm not making with it ;)

3. Go under debt review and stop getting calls from banks and things ;)

Win + fail. Went under debt review, couldn't make payments. Creditors likely to be on my butt again soon.

4. Push SpotOnForex.com over the R20,000 hump.

On-target here. We've got an affiliate who is promoting us like crazy and we're about to start offering a managed-trading option where we do ALL the hard work for our clients. They seem very happy with this so far and it should boost their income in a very BIG way. So affiliate signups should skyrocket. Definitely feel on-target here :)

5. Push IconFarm.co.za over the R1,000 hump.

I've gotten the ball just barely rolling along on this one. We need to get more icons and designers on the site then I can push the SEO into top-gear and achieve this goal quite easily, I'm sure.

So far I'm getting the feeling that I should review these goals every 3 months, not 6 months. Reviewing every 3 months would probably inspire me to get back on course a lot faster. Not impressed with how I basically "forgot" about these goals! Moving on...

6. Push iThank.co.za over the 1,000 users hump.

Not even close. Haven't put any effort into this site at all. It has so much potential. Seriously off course here :/

7. Revive JogMyMemory.co.za and push it over the R1,000 hump.

Good things happening here. Got an investor involved who has funded some development in a new direction. Still lots of work to do but this one might surprise me and go over the R10,000 mark this year.

8. Develop semi-confidential projects that are potentially worth over R100,000 per month.

This is (if I recall correctly) related to JogMyMemory.co.za. Headed in the right direction but need to pay a bit more attention to this to get to R100,000 per month!

9. Get R1m funding so I can get other people to do the work necessary for some of these and so I can finally realise my vision of Maxiware CC being a solid web development and internet technology research house.

Way off-course but also not entirely convinced I still want this. The past few months have made me wonder if I would rather like to keep things very small, tight & easy. ie: Build sites over 3-24 months and then sell them. Rinse, repeat.

Having sold FreeArticles.co.za, I know what it takes to build a site I can sell and I know how to find a buyer. With bandwidth prices coming down, we should see more buyers entering the market, so there's a good chance I can make a very, very happy living out of this sort of web site flipping biz.

On to my personal goals...

1. Reach my 100 pushups goal and stay there or do better.

Fell off the wagon here. Stopped doing the pushups altogether. Not happy about this and would like to get back on track but not sure how to motivate myself to stick with the program.

2. Take at least one week-long holiday somewhere pretty. Can even be up the road, as long as it's pretty.

Took a weekend off in Mpumalanga. Was really nice but still not quite the week I was aiming for.

3. Pay everyone on time.

Rent has been on time every month. Quite a change from last year. Quite a relief. Other things have been a little less on-time :P

4. Help my mom, dad & sisters in some significant way.

No idea if I've achieved anything here. We've been doing little bits here and there for them but nothing I would label "significant".

5. Help other family as well.

Probably also a few very minor things here.

6. Build a repertoire of really awesome songs I can play on guitar. (Learn them first, duh :P)

A little bit of success here. I'm currently working on "Ten Words" by Joe Satriani and, also, a jazzy composition of my own. Not sure how many songs I need before I can call it a "repertoire" but I'm making a little headway here, which is good :)

A couple of disappointments in some areas while other things are progressing at an acceptable rate. One thing's for sure, I don't have the same energy as what I had in the beginning of the year, when I wrote this post. I need to revive that energy as it is, most likely, what is needed in order for me to achieve all these goals in the next 6 months.

One thing I've noticed is that, each time we move houses (we moved to Kempton Park in March), I lose all my motivational stuff, goals, quotes, affirmations, etc, that I had stuck around the house. That's pretty sucky as I lose focus and get beat down a whole lot faster. I'd like to pay some attention to having a more permanent way of reminding myself of my goals & aspirations.

Perhaps a wooden notice board? I'm not sure but I need to address that before I lose any more steam!