For the past month and a half we’ve been running a poll here at Small Business Trends, asking a simple question:  What is your top 2010 resolution?

While it’s not exactly a statistically-sound survey, the results are pretty interesting. They paint a picture of a fitness-conscious group who are seeking more sales revenues in our businesses, and who feel a need to balance the personal and work elements of our lives.

The following chart shows the top 10 vote getting categories for the top 2010 small business goals.

Here is how the responses break down:

• 18% of you want to lose weight
• 13% want to increase sales by 10% or more this year
• 11% intend to start a home business
• 10% of you are really aggressive on growth, and want to increase sales by 45% (when you combine this group with the second largest category above, the total of those who want to increase sales jumps to 23% — clearly, getting more sales is important)
• 9% of you want to manage personal time better
• 8% of you plan to exercise more
• 8% want to get a job (I assume that must mean your business is either not working out as intended, or you have been laid off and are considering starting a business but would really prefer to get a job)
• 5% want to learn social media
• 4% plan to work on process improvements to your businesses
• 2% want to stop smoking, drinking or other bad habits

Only the top ten vote-getters are included in the chart.  The rest of the responses had smaller percentages.

The  poll was designed to be deliberately broad. It intentionally covered the business and personal aspects of our lives, both. After all, as small business people we have business interests, and we have personal lives. Sometimes it’s hard to separate the two.  Here’s what I found so interesting: the results were almost evenly divided among business and personal goals — demonstrating that we are human beings, not just businesslike robots.

The poll allowed you, as readers, to add write-in choices. Others could then vote for that write-in choice. Interestingly, 4 of the top ten vote-getters were reader write-ins — proving once again how valuable “crowdsourcing input” can be. Those top 4 that started out as write-in votes were:  start a home business; increase sales by 45%; exercise more; get a job.

Are you surprised by these small business goals for 2010?

From Small Business Trends

Small Business Goals: Fitness Conscious, Want Sales, Looking for Work-Life Balance