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This isn’t a motivational book on goal setting. However, I strongly suggest you set clear short-term and long-term goals for your copywriting business. In his popular book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey says, “Begin with the end in mind.” Good advice. In my experience, without a clear picture of where you want to go, it’s all too easy to waste time spinning your wheels.

I’m hardly an expert on goal setting. In fact, I admit my history of setting and achieving goals is shaky. Sometimes I feel I got where I am more by accident than by design. But the times I felt most energized and motivated were when I set out to achieve a clearly defined goal.

Author and sales coach Tom Stoyan suggests writing your goals down and reviewing them at least once a month. Because I spend so much time at my computer, I keep my goals in a computer folder named Goals and review them frequently. Inside my Goals folder are four separate files: 90-day goals, one-year goals, three-year goals, and overall goals.

My 90-day goals tend to be very specific. Among my 90-day goals for this quarter, for example, are to attract another Fortune 500 corporate account, get another major mail-order copywriting assignment, and ride my bike around Lake Simcoe (a goal I set before I realized how big Lake Simcoe was).

My three-year goals and overall goals tend to be less specific and more lofty. One of my overall goals, for example, is to be an outstanding father. One of my three-year goals is to be among the top 2 percent of successful freelance copywriters in my two target markets: marketing managers of business-to-business Fortune 500 corporations and direct-mail marketers. Because I market my services to these specific groups, it’s easier for me to gauge how I stack up against other freelance copywriters in the same markets.

When I began my copywriting business, I didn’t define many goals and tended to drift. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Set some milestones you want to hit within the first few months and years of your copywriting business. Write them down and review them often. Remember: goals evolve. You can, and I’m sure you will, change them as you go along.

Ask yourself: “Where do I want my business to be in three months? A year? Three years?” Your three-month goal might be to get your business up and running and secure your first copywriting client. Your one-year goal might be an income objective — to consistently invoice $3,000 per month, for example.

I like to think of goals as a road map. There’s always a way to get from where you are to where you want to go. You merely have to find the best route. Just remember, as with any journey, you are bound to encounter bumps in the road, hitchhikers, bad weather, and unexpected obstacles, and at times you’re going to run out of gas. But I firmly believe that if you keep your destination in sight, you’ll eventually get there.

One last note about goal setting: Don’t forget to celebrate when you reach a milestone. When I was starting out, I worked hard to win that first major corporate-writing assignment. When I did, I got my wife to take a photo of me proudly holding the purchase order. That picture is still pinned to my bulletin board where I can see it each day. It’s quite motivating. (And the company that gave me that order is still one of my clients.)