Goals – How To Set Them For Your Business

We all know we should do it both in business and in our personal lives as goals really are the most effective means of getting things done.

If you’re not a goal-setter do you know what you could be missing out on? If you do set goals how realistic are they?

Goals should stretch you but at the same time they should be realistic too, if they’re too easily achieved you won’t be working to maximum effect but if you’re setting the target too high you will deflated if you don’t get there either.

Along the way we’ve set many goals and worked with clients in this area too, here’s a couple of tips we’ve learned on how to determine what way you can set goals for your business;

Small goals – those ones that aren’t too taxing on you either in terms of time or finances, it might be a number of additional email subscribers or increasing the number of sales call you or your team make. They’re realistic but not so difficult that you’ll find yourself stressed out over them either.

Medium goals – these are the goals that might just make you feel a little uncomfortable. You might decide you’re going to appear as an interviewee on a podcast 3 times this year or that you’ll go live on your social media every week for the next 10 weeks. Not a big deal to some but for others, it’s just not their thing and simply reaching this target would be a real boost to both confidence and business as it may well be what you need to embolden you to try for something bigger next time.

Large goals – the sales you want to make, the projects you’d love to undertake, the income you really want, the audience you want to engage, the employees you want to add, etc. These are more about what you’d love for your business in the long term and it’s quite likely that a series of small and medium-sized goals along the way are the way to success in these goals.

And, in the image accompanying this post you’ll see the acronym ‘SMART’ – if you’re not familiar with this it’s a tool commonly used in business when it comes to setting goals and its broken down like this;

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Time-bound

Something to think about as you set your small, medium and large goals as each one should be considered carefully because they’re all ultimately working for the benefit of your business.

Why do goals matter?

Working with no end goal in sight is akin to watching a dog chase their tail, you may go around in circles but it’s not getting you anywhere. The term ‘busy fool’ is something many small business owners will be familiar with, for many that’s a phrase they feel more in their start-up phase whereas there are others several years down the line who having never set themselves any form of goal or target are still in this category.

Some business owners set off on their entrepreneurial journey from day one with a significant long-term goal in mind and the strategy in place to make their way there. Others make annual goals or if it’s a new idea to them it might be quarterly as they review and assess what’s working or not. Whichever option is best suited to you ensure it’s something you can break down into clear steps with deadlines for achieving or even checking in on them to adjust if needs be.

With each goal you check off your confidence as a business or individual is boosted, your business if they’re set properly will grow and over time you’ll find yourself challenging yourself with tougher goals because you KNOW you can do it.