We are continuing our topic about goals in today’s article. One thing I can’t stress enough is how important it is to have business goals. So, we’re going to discuss how to set and achieve business goals so your business will be as successful as you want it to be.
It’s important to have real, specific goals in your business. These goals can be financial, personal, or simply involve an aspect of your business (“build an effective website” for example). It can sometimes seem overwhelming to determine goals, and even more overwhelming to think of achieving them.
Here are some great tips on doing both of these.
1. Set Your Goals With Intention
How do you set business goals, anyway? As you sit down to determine your goals, here are some things to keep in mind that may help.
* Money – How much money do you need? Have a number here – $1500 a month? $100 a week? $50,000 a year? Financial goals are very different for everyone. Just make sure you have a real number. You might want to set two financial goals – long-term and short-term.
* Strategy – As you develop a strategy to reach your goals, you will have goals within that strategy. For example, if your goal is to start your own small business making hand-sewn handbags, then your strategy may be to make ten handbags to have available before beginning and to sell all ten in your first month.
Within this strategy, there are steps – you will need to schedule in the time it takes to make the handbags, and determine the amount of money needed to buy the materials. Then you may also need to set up a website and post ads to get the word out.
Even within these steps are more steps – setting up a website involves multiple steps, as does advertising. Break everything down into small, specific steps and look at it on paper.
* Time – Be honest about how much time you have. So many times it’s tempting to set goals we can’t reach because we just don’t have a grasp on how much (or how little) time we have. Also, hours on paper seldom work out exactly right in real life – you need some breaks (no one is a machine), and life happens.
For example, if your kids are in school from 8 am to 3 pm, you may think you have seven hours to work that day. But if you’re honest, it may be more like five by the time you factor in lunch, bathroom trips, driving to and from the school if you drive your kids, and so forth.
2. Achieving Your Goals
If you have been honest in the above exercises, achieving your goals will be much easier and likely. Still, you can be as detailed and careful as you want on strategy lists and such, and still have trouble reaching your goals. Below is a good example of How to Set and Achieve Business Goals.
Keep the following in mind:
* Keep track – Keeping a record of your business ventures, expenditures, income, and overall progress toward your goals can help you get a handle on how well you’re doing. This can also help you see areas in which you need to improve and areas where you excel.
* Accountability – Some sources suggest an accountability partner, goal buddy, or whatever you want to call someone who holds you accountable for reaching your goals like a mentor.
* Marketing – It is important to have a marketing plan. How will you get your name out? How will you tell people you are open for business? This is an important component of any business goal.
3. Tracking Your Success
Once you have laid your plan out, have a tracking method to look back on at the 3-month, 6-month, 1-year, 5-year progress. Then you will see how much growth you’ve attained in such a short amount of time. If you remember the saying, “Rome wasn’t built in a day” you will realize that a business doesn’t grow overnight. It takes time and the right goals for your business to succeed.
If you are looking for help creating your goals or looking for a mentor, that is where I can help you. Book a FREE Consultation Call with me today and let’s get started!
Today’s topic of discussion is all about the 5 Tips to Setting Realistic Business Goals. Most people think that setting goals are easy, and they are, but you need to get down to the specifics. Just what kind of business goals will help you create a successful business?
When it comes to setting your goals, it can be tricky to find that middle ground. If you set goals that are too high, you might get discouraged. If you set them too low, you may end up bored or complacent. You might even become disillusioned with your business. So how do you strike a balance?
The 5 Tips To Goal Setting
The tips below should help you to make your decisions.
1. What do you want?
First, you need to determine what you want. Go ahead and brainstorm – make a list as you do. Put it down on paper and don’t hold back.
2. Assess your list
Now, take a look at your list. Make a sub-list of steps you have to take to reach each of those goals and dreams. Are there some items on your dream list that involve steps you can’t take? If you cannot take the steps necessary to achieve that goal, then it needs to be modified or removed from your list.
What Comes Next?
3. Strategize
As you are making your sub-list of steps, you need to develop definite strategies for those items on your dream list that are achievable. Being able to see what is necessary to achieve that dream can help you decide whether or not to pursue it. Because the strategy may in fact be doable, you might be unwilling to take those steps for personal reasons. That is fine; it’s your list and your goals.
Go ahead and don’t judge yourself – if you can’t/don’t want to adopt a certain strategy for your own reasons, then cross that goal off the list. The point is to narrow things down.
Determine a timeline for your goals. Do you need to make more money right now, as in this month? Or do you have more long-term goals, such as eventually quitting your day job? On your master list, write down your timeline. This will help you further narrow things down – if the goal can’t be reached within your allotted time, then it doesn’t belong on your list of goals.
Being 100% Honest
5. Know yourself
So, one of the keys to succeeding is to be really honest about your strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes we think we can do it all, or do anything…and other times we think we can’t do anything. Neither of these extremes is likely to be true! If you can, ask others what they think they can see you doing. Once again, break out your pencil – list things you like to do and abilities you feel confident about. Just about any skill or attribute can be channeled into helping your business succeed.
These list-making exercises can help narrow down your goals and keep them realistic and reachable.
Need help figuring out how to create your goals? Let’s set up a time to do that. Here’s my booking link to make it easy for you to schedule a time to get together. → Calendar Link I would be more than happy to help you.
If you missed the SMART GOALS WORKSHEET you can get it here →Worksheet
I hope you enjoyed today’s article on goal setting. See you next time!
Why it’s important to set goals for your business is today’s topic of discussion. Why do you think they are important? Bet you can’t guess what mine are!
The Importance of Setting Good Goals
Goals are very important when it comes to the success or failure of your business. Why are they so important? Goals act as a roadmap for you to follow. They let you know where you are going, and if you are getting there on time. You wouldn’t get in your car and start driving without having a destination planned out. So why would you approach your business that way?
I know I always get out my phone and pull up Google Maps and put in my destination before I even drive out of my driveway. Do the same for your business, you need a real destination before you get lost.
Targeting your Goals
All goals should have a few things in common. A goal should define what you are trying to accomplish and when you want to accomplish it. Goals should be realistic and there should be a way to measure them. All goals should be written down and available for viewing on a regular basis.
Simply writing the goal down will significantly increase your odds of achieving it and having it displayed as a visual reminder will also help motivate you.
Even if you have never taken the time to set goals for your business, you are actually very familiar with the process. At some point in your life, you have more than likely taken out a pen and paper and mapped out a plan for accomplishing some type of task.
Writing out goals for your business is no different than writing out your grocery list.
Mapping out the Process
By clearly defining your goal, you are telling yourself where you are going. Instead of having a goal of “I plan to spend more time promoting my Virtual Assistant business”, clearly define the goal as “during the next three weeks, my goal is to spend 10 hours per week promoting my Virtual Assistant business”.
The second goal tells you what you are going to do and for how long you are going to do it. This is mapping out the process. Creating a roadmap for you to follow.
Once you know where you are going and when you want to be there, you can figure out how you are going to get there. Using the example above, you know that for the next three weeks, you need to be spending 10 hours per week promoting your business.
Now you can start defining mini-goals. Do things such as writing articles and submitting them to reprint directories. Try emailing past clients and letting them know you are accepting new projects. Send press releases to the media, and so forth. You get the idea now right?
Your Intent of Creating Goals
Goals can also serve as a great way to challenge yourself. Are there some things you have been meaning to do, but keep putting off? Start setting weekly challenge goals. Do things such as blogging one post each day for a week straight.
Or adding a new message each day to your autoresponder or even writing an article each day and submitting it to a reprint directory.
Rewards for your Goals
Have fun with your goals and reward yourself with a gold star when you accomplish one of them. Once you have collected 10 gold stars, treat yourself to a spa day or some other indulgence.
By setting and achieving goals you will find your business taking off and will feel a great sense of enthusiasm and accomplishment.
One of my goals is to help other women in business reach their goals.
I offer one on one mentoring services, so if you’re looking for help with your goals reach out to me. Use this link to check out what I offer and let’s set up a meeting to discuss. Meet with me here.
Today’s topic of discussion is all about the Five Things You Can Do Today to Achieve Your Goals. There is a lot more to achieving any goal than just having the goal. But it is the first step.
You may wonder how some people seem so great at achieving their goals while other people aren’t so good at it. Part of the reason why some people fail is that they do not have a specific goal, one that is clear and focused. In addition, they do not have a schedule of action to actually work toward achieving the goal.
In order to meet any goal, start with these 5 things:
Clear, Specific, and Doable Goals
Each Goal Needs Set, Actionable Tasks
Schedule Everything
Take Action on Each Goal
Rinse and Repeat
How To Create Clear Goals
For any goal to be achievable it must first be clear and very specific. It also must be possible. You do want to challenge yourself a bit and set the goal high. But you want to ensure that any goal you set is possible. Therefore, you will need to do a little research in order to set a goal.
For instance, let’s say your ultimate goal is to lose 50 pounds. Obviously, anyone who needs to lose 50 pounds and sets their mind to it can do so. But they can’t and shouldn’t do it in one month. So an unreasonable goal is “I want to lose 50 pounds in a month.”
Instead, a more reasonable and doable goal is to state “I want to lose 50 pounds in 30 weeks.” This is in line with health recommendations not to lose more than 2 pounds per week and gives you a little cushion for plateaus and other issues.
Being Specific With Your Goals
Any goal that you really want to meet needs to have the “why” and the “how” included with the “what” of the goal. In the example above you want to lose 50 pounds in 30 weeks, which will be a little less than 2 pounds per week. You’ll need to look at your diet, compute the number of calories you should consume and the amount of exercise you need to see those results.
Thankfully, today there are online calculators to help you determine this easily. But let’s say that you determine that if you consumed 1800 calories a day, and walked for 20 minutes each day, you would achieve the goal that you set within the time limit.
So, now you need to include planning your meals and fitting in the exercise necessary to reach your goal. But because of the research you did, you know exactly what is needed to be successful with the goal you set.
Planning The Tasks
You can see a clear path to success just by going further and adding these actionable tasks:
* Eat 1800 calories a day * Walk fast for 20 minutes per day
Seeing that in black and white you can see that it’s very doable and achievable. But, there are a few more steps necessary to achieve your goals.
Scheduling Your Goals
Do not leave anything to chance. Instead, schedule the work necessary to reach your goals into a real calendar. Writing a list isn’t good enough – you need to schedule everything so that you don’t miss a single day due to losing track of your schedule. You’ll need time to eat healthier, which requires more chopping and cooking. And you’ll need time to fit in the exercise, which is going to really take more than 20 minutes due to prep time and recovery time. You need to be realistic about how long each thing will take and schedule them into your day properly.
No goal will ever be achieved if regular action isn’t taken each day. Each morning, look at your calendar and follow through on the plans that you’ve made and the criteria you’ve set for yourself to get things done. All you have to do is the minimum necessary each day to reach your goal. When you get through each day having done the minimum, you’re a success – each and every single day. There is nothing else that can be the result of daily activities other than success when you think of it this way.
What’s next?
Finally, you’ll need to repeat these steps every single day. When you make very specific and clear goals with very specific steps to achieving the goal, you will soon discover the secret to success that seems to escape so many people. The real secret is in the doing. It’s like going on a long hike – if you take one step at a time, moving in the direction of the map that you’ve planned out for yourself, you will get to the end and you will be a success.
Reaching your goals is just a matter of setting reasonable and realistic goals, and then setting up a schedule of actionable tasks and steps that bring about the end result you want.
You can start today to achieve your goals. I hope you enjoyed today’s article on the Five Things You Can Do Today to Achieve Your Goals.
Remember, I am always here for you if you need help with creating your goals. I offer one on one mentoring sessions that will help you create, plan and execute your goals.
Just sign up by using the link above. Pricing starts as little as $55.00, yes…really!
Today’s topic for our goal series is How to Prioritize Your Goals. In order to prioritize your goals, you’ll need to have a good understanding of what you need to be happy in your life.
The Four Areas of Goal Setting
Below are the typical four areas in which most people make goals:
1. Family – Spending more time with your kids or partner 2. Financial – Saving toward your six-month emergency cash or starting a business 3. Physical – Being healthy and more active 4. Personal – Getting more education, or devoting more time to spiritual pursuits
Where Will YOU Focus?
Within each of these areas are numerous concerns, but most goals can be summed up into one of these four areas. As to which goals are most important at any given time, you’ll need to ask yourself some questions to determine where to place your focus.
Which goals nag at you most often?
– What keeps you up at night that worries you? Are your finances suffering because you cannot earn enough money at your current job? You’d like to figure out how to get off the debt treadmill? This is a goal that fits in with all four of the areas. Financial stress can cause a lot of problems with your health. And even your personal development as well as cause problems within the family.
Which goals can be accomplished most easily?
– Some goals are very short-term but give maximum impact without too much work. For instance, maybe you have a goal of walking 15 minutes per day. This goal may only fit in with the personal and physical areas above, but walking 15 minutes per day will not take much away from the other areas. This can give you huge results and a feeling of accomplishment.
Compile A List Of The Most Critical
Which goals would give you the most pride in yourself?
– Will you feel better if you lose 20 pounds or will you feel better if you spend 20 minutes extra with your son? Keep in mind there is no wrong answer, although being healthy might ultimately give you more time in terms of years with your son.
Which goals have the most permanent results?
– When choosing whether to spend that extra money on your degree, determine how permanent the results will be. Realize that no one can take that degree from you; it will always be an accomplishment. What is it worth?
Estimate What Is Important
Which goals will still impact me in 5 years, or 10 years?
– If you start a business today, and work daily toward meeting the goals of that business, what will be different in five or ten years? How will that impact you now and in the future?
Which goals align with your core values in life?
– Any goal that fits into all four areas of your life is worth pursuing if it also fits into your schedule at the time.
What Goals You Control
Which goals are completely up to you, that you control 100 percent?
– Remember that you cannot control what anyone else does. So if any goal relies on the participation of someone else, and you don’t have their participation, you might want to switch gears and focus on something only you control.
Which goals are just for you?
– Some goals are completely personal in nature and have nothing to do with anyone else. For instance, you might want to read a particular author that has nothing to do with anything but your own pleasure. This is totally alright.
Which goals are just for others?
– There are “shoulds” that often get in the way of proper goal setting and these are goals that are only for other people. Your spouse wants you to lose weight, your mom wants you to go to college, your best friend wants you to start a business. None of these are a good reason to do something, although as long as you know going in why it’s okay to make it a goal.
Are Your Goals Rational?
Which goals cause you the most fear? Why?
– Sometimes the very thing you fear most is what’s best for you to do. Look clearly at your goal and figure out why it frightens you. Sometimes it’s the unknown, and like ripping off a Band-Aid, just doing it might be the best cure.
Which goals make you excited?
– Some goals immediately send tingles down your body and into your mind, pushing you forward to doing it. These are goals that are easy to do and probably impact your life a lot. However, do pay attention because if it’s a goal of becoming the high scorer on a video game you might want to question your “why”.
Which goals are most realistic?
– The best goals to put first are the goals that best fit into your life today, cover all four areas of life, and still fit into your schedule and where you control 100 percent of the effort.
When you answer all these questions, you’ll be able to see how the goals practically organize themselves.
Try making a spreadsheet and adding each goal to the four areas, then choosing the ones that cross the most areas to add to your schedule first.
