GETTING STARTED

After a year which none of us expected, I’m sitting down to work on some growth goals for my business. 

You might be wondering if it’s better to do this kind of thing at the beginning of the year. It feels like we should set goals and make resolutions at New Year, but actually setting and tweaking your growth goals for your business is an ongoing process – especially when we find ourselves in uncertain times, like now.

Reviewing your growth goals is something you need to do periodically throughout the year as your business progresses and adapts to a changing climate. You can start at any time, focusing on the rolling 12 month period ahead of you.

By the way, did you know that only 17% of business owners set themselves an exact income goal, target and deadline?

In this post, I’m going to help you avoid being part of the 83%.

WHY SET GOALS?

But first, why set goals at all? I find it’s the only way to avoid overwhelm and keep making progress without panicking about the amount of work it’s going to take to get there. Big goals are achieved by creating a series of milestone tasks, which are then broken down into micro actions. This is how you can take consistent action and beat overwhelm.

You might already have a financial business plan in place and financial goals are important in terms of keeping your cashflow on track, but growth can take many forms. 

Some of my key growth goals focus on improving processes that drive efficiency, which I know will free me up to do more of what I love and am good at, which in turn will drive profit.

As well as sales and financial goals, it’s really important to have goals which motivate you and make you feel really excited. When you do that, you’ll find that your financial goals fall into place much more easily. 

If you’re not sure if a goal is worthwhile, picture yourself in year’s time, first having achieved that goal and then, having not achieved that goal. Think how you would feel in either scenario. If you feel indifferent, then it’s a goal that you are unlikely to get fired up and about and therefore unlikely to achieve.

HOW TO SET GOALS

What really works for me is having 3 BIG GOALS for the 12 month period ahead, to focus on at all times. I read through them every morning before I start work and I make sure that I have an activity scheduled (even if it’s only for 5 minutes) that moves me closer to one of those goals.

Let me give you a quick exercise if you struggle with goal setting.

Start by writing down your vision for your life/work one year from now. Read it back to yourself and those big goals should be easy to spot.

The next step is to set a milestone for each quarter (3 month period) of the year and then assign those milestones to a month. Having large milestone tasks is vital if you want to measure your progress towards a bigger goal.

My top tip is that you need to set the bar really low in terms of what actually constitutes progress. Don’t be tempted to pack too many milestone tasks into one month. 

Here’s an example. One of my key goals for the year, is to remove myself from the day-to-day admin of the business within the next 6 months, so that I can completely focus on creating content and adding value for my clients.

That feels like an insurmountable goal – it’s going to take a ton of work. But I’ve broken it down like this…

Quarter One: 

• Make a list of tasks that I want to outsource (Jan)
• Create a job description and set monthly budget (Feb)
• Research Virtual Assistant agencies & post vacancy (March)
• Create standard operating procedure for all outsourced tasks (March)

Quarter Two:

• Interview & appoint (April)
• Begin training period (May)
• Transition to monitoring period (June)

Once you have your quarterly milestone tasks in place, you can start breaking those down into weekly tasks (I tend to add my weekly tasks to Mondays in my calendar and then break those down into micro tasks and schedule them across the week each Monday).

For example, in terms of my outsourcing goal, I need to be able to trust someone to do the job better than I can. And in order to do that, I need to train someone, and to train someone I need to document my processes.

So today, my micro step has been to create a Google doc and make a list of every task that I want to hand over. It has taken me around 10 minutes. I’m tempted to dive into the detailed planning but I’m going to leave it right there and tomorrow I’ll complete another micro task, and slowly it’s going to add up to real progress.

BE REALISTIC & REVIEW REGULARLY

If you’ve ever tried setting goals before and failed, it could be that you’re an over-optimistic scheduler, or maybe just a list maker who never gets through your list. A good exercise is to look at your week ahead and think about whether your schedule is truly achievable.

Have you got some activities in your diary that are just too big to tackle in one go?

ie. Sort out website, learn Facebook Ads.

These kind of biggish tasks are easy to put off or bump to another day. Instead, spend a few minutes breaking those down into micro tasks and get a few of those in the diary instead.

Once you have a plan, broken down into milestones, and a system for implementing it on a quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily basis, don’t forget to review your plan regularly. I tend to do this on the first of every month, when I record my sales figures and key performance indicators.

This quarter I made more progress towards a certain goal than I was expecting, so I’ve significantly increased my 12 month target and edited my milestone tasks to reflect that.

SEEK ACCOUNTABILITY

Although I coach other people, I still invest time and money on getting coaching and accountability for myself. Consider teaming up with a colleague who also feels they need accountability, or invest in an online programme where you can join an online community who will help you stay focused. 

Sharing your goals with others makes it much more likely that you will succeed. Good luck, everyone. You’ve got this!

If you’d like to join an inspiring online community, you can find out more about Melissa’s online membership, The Marketing Fix, at www.themarketingfix.co.