Are you setting goals for your business?
It’s something you know is necessary, yet somehow, it’s a struggle to actually do it.
In my experience, the reason behind this is simple: you know that if you set goals, you can also fail at them.
And while this is a very understandable fear, it’s also a surefire recipe for never moving ahead in your businesses.
So, in this post, I’m going to share five goal-setting tips that will motivate and inspire you to not only set goals – but to set them in a way that will increase your productivity and ensure you consistently move toward meeting those goals.
5 Goal Setting Tips for Busy Business Owners
Before we jump in, you might be asking yourself, “What is goal setting, anyway?”.
To put it simply, goal setting is having an action plan in place for meeting your goal objectives.
While this idea isn’t complicated, it can be hard to know where to start.
So, the following are five tips for goal setting in your business — even if you’ve never set a goal in your business before!
1. Write Down your Goals
The first step to setting goals is the simple act of getting your goals out of your head. You can use a notebook, a Word doc, a Google Doc, or a project management tool. It doesn't matter what you use. It matters that you do it.
Keeping your goals in your head is undoubtedly less scary, but it’s also far less effective. When you don’t write down your goals it becomes much easier to forget them, avoid them, or ignore them altogether!
One way to ensure your goals stay top-of-mind is to include them on your vision board.
If you don’t have a vision board (or don’t want to create one), simply write out your goals and pin them up in a prominent place: like on your office corkboard.
You don’t need to get all fancy about it – simply writing down your goals and keeping them in a visible location is enough!
2. Consistently Take Action Towards Your Goal
Here's a novel idea, and the next goal setting tip to achieve more in your business — take ACTION on your goals. Wild, right?
Yet, I see many business owners not taking action. Instead they sit down and brainstorm a whole bunch of goals (which is GREAT), but then never actually do anything to reach those goals.
As a business owner, no one is going to remind you to take action towards your goals. That’s completely on you.
This is why it’s so important to set both long-term and short-term goals. Then set smaller milestones that act as checkpoints along the way to achieving your bigger goals.
“You must take action now that will move you towards your goals. Develop a sense of urgency in your life.” H. Jackson Brown, Jr.Click To TweetSetting those milestones will help you take strategic action on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis. You'll know what to do and when.
To further support weekly and daily activities on those goals, use the Daily Achievers' Weekly Action Planner. This planner will help you focus on what really matters so you win every day.
These mini-goals are what will move you toward your big goals faster than you thought possible!
3. Always be Setting Your Sights Higher and Higher
The next tip for setting goals is to keep setting your sights higher.
When you start to make progress toward your goals, it’s easy to become complacent. It’s rewarding to meet a goal, put a big checkmark beside it, and celebrate your success!
But don’t let that be the end of things.
Every time you meet a goal, set a new one: a bigger, better goal. Stretch yourself. Get out of your comfort zone.
This is the way to always be growing, improving, and staying motivated!
“One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.” —Michael KordaClick To Tweet4. Set SMARTER Goals
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to set effective goals. However, there is a bit of an art and science to it.
You may have heard of the SMART method of goal setting. It’s an easy way to ensure your goals are clear and actually attainable. To really elevate your goal setting, try setting SMARTER goals instead.
“All good performance starts with clear goals.” Ken BlanchardClick To TweetSMARTER stands for:
Specific – Be as specific as possible identifying as many of the “who’s, what’s and when’s” as possible
Measurable – Determine how you achieve your goal. Use specific units of measurement whenever possible (dollars, percentages, views, etc.)
Actionable – Make sure you can take measured action steps towards achieving your goal
Relevant – Be certain that achieving your goal will move you closer to a bigger goal (think long-term and short-term goals)
Time-keyed – How many ways can you attach time to your goal? Think due date, day of the week, time of day and number of times something occurs. Add what makes sense.
Exciting – Does your goal inspire you? Are you enthusiastic about it?
Risky – Does your goal feel just a bit scary? Does it challenge you?
This is a simple yet very effective way to make sure you set goals you’ll actually achieve!
5. Regularly Review your Goals
The final of our goal setting tips to achieve more in your business is to regularly review your goals.
Don't just write your goals down, stick them in a drawer, and never look at them!
Les Brown recommends reviewing your goals twice a day. And while twice a day is likely overkill, it IS important to regularly revisit the goals you’ve set.
In fact, I recommend scheduling regular times to check on your progress, adjust your goals, and celebrate your successes.
This shouldn’t take long. I use the Daily Achievers' Weekly Action Planner to ensure that the work I do every week and every day is work that matters to reaching my goals.
Once a week, I assess my progress so that I know I'm on track. And then once a month I check to see where I am on my goal progress. I also do a quick check-in to make sure that the goals I set are still my priorities. Then, I make any necessary course corrections.
I highly recommend blocking planning time into your weekly and monthly schedules. In the long run, it will save you time and ensure that you're staying on track to achieve your goals.
“Review your goals twice every day in order to be focused on achieving them.” Les BrownClick To TweetA Final Thought On Setting Goals For Your Business
If you want to achieve goals, you need to first set goals – it’s that simple.
I trust these five goal-setting tips have given you a good place to start. When you're clear on your goals, it's easy to improve your productivity and achieve more than you ever thought possible.
And, of course, don't forget to download the Daily Achievers' Weekly Action Planner. It comes with a short video to help you use it most effectively.
I would love to know: What goal(s) are you going to set this week?
