Time to embrace setting goals for your business!

That’s another year almost over.  How?  You tell me!  The years seem to be flying by faster and faster.  As you fight off all the colds and bugs the kids are bringing home from school and frantically look for presents to buy for your loved ones, don’t let goal setting for your business next year fester at the bottom of your to-do list.

What you do now can significantly impact the person you become, the business you run and the life you live this time next year.  Speaking from experience - personally, as a coach and a business owner myself. 

Goal Setting - “Do I have to?”

We could come up with a laundry list of excuses to not set goals.  There’s always loads of reasons why ‘I don’t need to do this right now’.  For example, I don’t need to do any goal setting for my business because…

Who knows what I’ll want to be doing this time next year? 

New Year’s Resolutions never work. 

Setting goals demotivates me when I inevitably don’t get anywhere near achieving them. What’s the point?

I don’t have time!

It’s such a drag!

Any of those sound familiar?

However you feel about goal setting and however you end up using it in your business (because it’s down to you, everything in your business is for the better or the worse!), having a specific goal you’re working towards can be really helpful.  Here’s why. 

It’s a bank holiday weekend and you want to enjoy the sun, or let’s be honest most likely rain.  You get in the car and start driving.  You’ve been driving for a few hours and you still haven’t found your little bit of paradise. 

Let’s rewind.  It’s a bank holiday weekend and you want to enjoy your time off.  You get in the car, get your GPS out, set the destination to Brighton Pier and start driving.  Depending on where you live, you may stop at service stations to refuel but you’re still on your way to fulfilling your desire to go somewhere fun for the bank holiday weekend. 

Just wanting to be successful without setting goals is like driving around with no set destination, no GPS, expecting rain and not even a good old-fashioned A to Z to guide you.  You’re going to be driving around in circles.  When you set clear goals, you can work towards your destination methodically and steer yourself away from detours, avoid distractions and head towards what you really want. 

Step-By-Step Small Business Goal Setting

The point of goal setting is to set yourself up for success in your business (and personal!) growth.  The intention is to help you, not to stress you out.  Here’s how I approach business goal setting.

Turn your wants into trackable steps

Let’s start with what you want.  Imagine this time next year.  

What would you like your life and business to be like?  

What are you going to be motivated to achieve even when things get hard?  That’s what we want to focus on. 

With that in mind, how can you measure your success throughout the year?  Consider steps along the way, for example, finally leaving your part-time job and working in your business full-time. 

How much money will you need to be making in the business for that to be possible?  Turn that into the number of sales you’ll need to make. 

What do you need to do to get those sales?  Turn that into the number of enquiries, email subscribers or any other marketing metrics that lead to sales. 

Pick out and assign a goal to each of the key touchpoints that will determine your success in achieving what you want.

Crack the code: Simplify & Achieve

Next, take a deep breath!  It can be overwhelming to outline exactly what you want and what you need to do to create the life and business you want because self-doubt can creep in.  You can do whatever you put your mind to, especially when you can see it laid out.  

Know your metrics for success - what you need to do each quarter, each month and each week to make that happen.  Map out your path to achieving your goals in detail so on any given day you know what you need to be doing to be where you want to be next year. 

This will make your goal seem much more achievable.  Making £20k might seem impossible, making any amount of money might seem impossible sometimes!  But if you break it down to smaller chunks it can make it less daunting and those small steps add up much quicker.  

As a disclaimer, the plan you create can change so don’t be put off from setting targets because it feels too rigid.  Life is wonderfully unpredictable; your wants can change as you evolve and who knows what unexpected opportunities might arise so you might need to revamp your plan.  That’s ok!!  In my experience, it’s easier to have a structure to start with that can be amended, than to wing it, drift along vaguely and hope it turns out alright. 

Cultivate the routine: Regular check-ins for success

Goal setting isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it situation.  It’s meant to hold you accountable and keep you focused throughout the year, no matter what life throws at you.  Create a routine for when you are going to check in with your goals so you can celebrate your progress and highlight any lack of progress.  Seeing how well you’re doing, as well as realising where you aren’t stuck, can be highly motivating.

For example, once a month take the time to look at your figures, everything you’ve done and things you haven’t completed.  Use your journal to reflect on where you are and go deeper inside to raise your awareness on what’s going on for you and your business.  A few prompts that you may find useful.

List everything you have done this month that has taken you a step closer to your business goals.  How does this list make you feel?

What have you avoided this month?  What are your reasons for avoiding this?

What has gone well?  What do you need to do more of?

What hasn’t gone well?  What do you need to do less of?

Why Now?

I don’t want you to finish reading this blog and click away thinking “Yeah I’ll get around to that” but you never do.  I’m going to challenge you to do your goal setting now.  Well, it doesn’t have to be literally right now.  At least mark some time in your schedule in the next week or so.  Don’t leave it until January because…

If you set your goals now, you can hit the ground running in January.  The sooner you set your goals, the sooner you start working towards them either with intentional action or subconscious changes in how you approach working on your business.  Also, goal setting might be a task that you want to come back to a couple of times until you’re happy with your goals and plan of action.  Uncover what you really want and plan the route to achieving it that suits your vibe.  Remember, these are for the year ahead and beyond, not just half-hearted new year resolutions, so can be implemented at any time and are ongoing.

You might find it helpful to have someone to bounce ideas off when it comes to what you want to do with the year ahead and how you’re going to make it happen.  That’s part of what I do!  I don’t give advice or tell you what to do, that’s not going to help you in the long run if it’s not aligned with you.  I’m known by my clients as the kind of business coach that asks the questions you need to answer to break through and move forward.

You can work with me 1:1 overcome procrastination and stagnation so that you can step into the woman you want to be and create the life and business of your dreams. Book a cuppa and chat call to see if 1:1 coaching with me could be a good fit.