2013 panAngle Goals

Who am I?A solopreneur with 15+ years of corporate marketing and engineering experience in the high tech industry. I design, create, and polish marketing collateral and technical documentation for small businesses like yours.

Who are You?A solopreneur like myself or a small startup with a passion to provide a product or service that solves a real problem. Like the rest of us, you can’t do it all by yourself or your team is already working over capacity. You haven’t got the resources to develop and deliver all the wonderful content that you dream up, and you could use a little help getting from A to B with someone who has been there.

Laurie Nylund Sandy, Utahwww.panAngle.com@pananglerlaurie@panAngle.com801-938-5376

Foster Lifelong Learning

My BHAG…

How I plan to accomplish my BHAG1. Begin a weekly blog on panAngle (called My Slant) focused on education.

The first step to being educated begins with learning and loving to read, and that will be an underlying theme for the blog. It will be directed at parents and teachers who are looking for ways to help their kids succeed, from the latest technology to new ideas on how to learn. Topics on adult education also-parents need to set an example of lifelong learning.

2. Write and publish interactive eBooks for children in two categories:• Read-aloud for ages 0-4, encouraging parents to read to their kids.• Easy readers for ages 4-7, encouraging kids to read by themselves.

3. Create an extension website for kids and parents around the books with additional resources for both. Create a “kid’s” blog written by characters in the stories that entice kids to learn more about the world they live in, with an emphasis on the ways people are the same no matter where they live.

4. Find and follow those people who are actively pursuing the same type of goals. Support their efforts in every way I can. Find partners to work with.

5. Attract and help clients and those in the “community” whose products and services are targeted in education or high tech to meet panAngle sales goal.

Progress to Date…

1. Created an editorial calendar with about 3 months of content ideas for My Slant. Four posts in various stages of readiness to publish. Dependent on publishing pA site.

2. Wrote two books (0-4 age group), illustration in process for the first one. See next page for example.

3. Domain name purchased (www.kinshipkids.com) and basic wireframe for website drawn up. Plans to contract a web designer – little time to work on this AND my S.M.A.R.T business goals currently.

4. Organically growing my connections on Twitter and FB with people who IRL would be friends. Have partnered with a Brazilian artist for books. Looking for others.

5. Two current clients in the education space. Two in the high tech space. Only one currently hits my target monthly sales.

Meet Jenny, a little girl from Chicago, Illinois. Five other characters (from India, Japan, China, Brazil, and London) are included in the Kinship Kids stories.

S.M.A.R.T. GoalsIn order to achieve my BHAG, my business has to make enough money to pay the bills so Kinship Kids doesn’t have to be a profit center, but it can cover its expenses. That effort is how I will celebrate achieving these goals!

Not that my technical writing business is JUST about making money. If it was, then I would most likely just go back and get a job in corporate America. But, being an executive in a technical field (hands-on, anal-retentive manager that I am) has always involved an 80+ hour work week with no time or energy left to do anything else.

And I really enjoy working with small techy startups and individual service providers. With my many years of business experience, I have a lot of skills and a broad network of contacts that I can put at the disposal of my clients, contributing value way beyond the collateral I create for them. I love the variety of working on different projects and the relatively stress-free lifestyle of managing just me. Their personal and professional goals become my goals, and then we both win.

So my SMART goals are driven by those ideas.

Top 3 Goals for panAngle’s primary business focus.

1. Develop 8 “ideal” clients with an average bill rate of $1K per month whose needs I can meet and exceed in 44 or less hours per month.

2. Improve my graphics skills to provide more complete and expert content for my clients.

3. Replenish my retirement fund after colleges expenses are complete.

Available Hours 24 hours in a dayx 7 days in a week168 hours in a weekx 4 weeks in a month672 hours in a month

Overhead Hours10 hours per dayx 7 days in a week70 hours in a weekX 4 weeks in month280 hours eliminated

Billable Hours 672 Available- 280 Overhead 392 Billable- 40 BHAG time 352 for clients

Per Client352 hours monthly /8 total clients44 hours per client

panAngle GOALS

Progress to Date…

1. Recurring Clients need to drive $96K in total sales SB – 2 projects per year @ $5K each (~$2K short annually) DL – $400 per month (~$7.2K short) DH – $750 per month (~$3K short) JC – $500 per month (~$6K short) CC – $2.5K every other month ($3K over)

Shortfall covered by one-off projects (whitepapers, case studies, etc.) and depleting my savings. Need to find 3-5 additional clients – DL doesn’t fit my ideal client scenario – and expand my billables with existing clients (unlikely with SB, DH, and CC). Finding these clients is a combination of using my existing network and “cold calling” the appropriate startups. Researching clients now to approach directly. Don’t need a website for people to find me – simply to confirm my credibility – and host My Slant.

2. Improve Graphics/Design SkillsWorking through several Lynda tutorials, websites, and books. Six months ago, I’d never used Photoshop. Now I routinely create good cover designs and simple graphics (sub-contracted out some graphic design initially). Looking for additional classes (in-person) locally.

3. Replenish My Savings1.5 years left of my son’s expensive college tuition. Once he graduates those expenses will be eliminated and the funds can go back into my retirement account – not that I ever plan on doing that!

Last, but not least…

My Secret BHAG Goals

P.S. Shhh!

I believe these truly audacious goals will only be solved through education. If a whole bunch of really smart, caring people work together, everything is possible. So, my secret is hope is that by fostering lifelong learning, this will be the eventual outcome.