Do you have clearly defined business goals? Do you have both long range and short range goals? How often do you review your goals? Are you focused on these goals and are they realistic?
When I talk to business clients, they can often tell me quite quickly what their long range goals are but very few can tell me easily what their most immediate goals are. Why is this important, you ask? Well, without immediate goals how will the small business owner know if their business is making progress towards the growth they'd like to see? Small business owners need to have measurable and realistic immediate goals to strive towards. These goals should be the small steps they need to make in order to reach their long range goals.
I truly believe in the law of attraction which says you attract into your life that which you are thinking about. Thinking about our goals will cause business owners to take steps towards those goals and to "attract" the business growth they'd like to see. Goals give us direction and purpose. Goals help us to work "on" our business and not just "in" the business. Clear and defined goals give us focus and are the difference between a business that will survive and one that will not.
As I said earlier, most business owners are great at defining their long range goals -- but those long range goals are difficult to achieve if you have not broken them down into the shorter steps that lead to the larger goal. I recommend business owners have and develop a 5 year goal, a 3 year goal, a 1 year goal and then towards those goals have monthly and even weekly goals. In order to achieve that goal you'd like to "see" in one year you must know what you need to achieve monthly and even weekly to make that goal attainable. That means that a business owner may need to think in terms of how many products will be sold daily/weekly or how many new clients will need to be attained daily/weekly.
Focusing on the smaller daily/weekly goals then allows the business owner to put processes in place to make their goal a reality. Meaning if a daily goal isn't reached they can figure out how to make up the difference the following day or week. That might be offering special incentives, finding new ways to quickly market and sell their product in order to make up for "lost" productivity.
Use the SMART System
When it comes to goal setting, the SMART system is simple, down-to-earth and gets the job done. Each goal must be defined so that it meets the following criteria:
- S - Specific - broken down into the smallest, attainable parts
- M - Measurable - defined by actual numbers
- A - Achievable - can be reached with the correct amount of effort
- R - Realistic - based on where the business is currently at with an achievable amount of growth
- T - Timely - break those long range goals down to monthly goals so that you can determine if you will reach that long range goal
Record your goals and action plans on paper. Whether you write them down or type them, the very act of recording them will help you flesh out your ideas. Once your plans are complete, you'll have a detailed roadmap with directions to follow. Also, goals that are written down are more meaningful to us and cause us to think about them more seriously.
Review your goals and plans regularly. Make a monthly appointment with yourself if that's what it takes. This will help keep you on track as time unfolds. And at times you may find the need for readjustment of some of your goals which is perfectly okay. I actually think about my weekly goals each Sunday night and write them down right along with my "to do" list. This keeps me focused for the week.
Also, beware of "BHAGs"-- big, hairy, audacious goals. Super-ambitious goals are great when it comes to long-range planning and decision making, but they don't lend themselves to goal setting. Focus on attainable goals that you can realistically reach within the year. Those "BHAGs" do have a place but should not be the primary focus as you work in your business daily.
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