Today we’re going to review what Smart Goals actually are and how you can make yours work for your business. So, what is a smart goal? Are you using them in your business? First, let’s find out what the acronym S.M.A.R.T. is all about then we’ll see how you can use them in your business.
When making goals, it’s important to learn about the acronym S.M.A.R.T. It can help you make better goals. Each letter stands for a different area of the goal. If you create a smart goal, you have created a goal that is Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Reasonable, and Timely. Using SMART goals can set you up for success in your goal setting. So, how do you do that?
Let’s see how below:
S – Stands for specific, which means that your goal needs to be spelled out very precisely. Using language that leaves no doubt as to what the goal is, why you want to achieve the goal, and how you will get it is very important. If you are not able to be detailed in your description of the goal, it will be hard to meet it. Take the time to do this part right.
M – Stands for measurable, which means that you should be able to use this as a metric for which to determine success. If your goal can’t be quantified, then it’s not a full goal and you won’t know how to tell when you’ve succeeded. An example of a measurable goal is something like: “I want to add 100 dollars per week of income to our bank by writing five 500-word articles each week for a life coach.”
A – There are different things that “a” can stand for but it’s usually actionable, assignable, or achievable. The preference to really get something good done is to make your goal actionable, meaning something where you can do something for each day that will eventually result in an accomplished goal. Goals should also be achievable or you will only get frustrated. Be accurate about the time it takes to reach a goal, and what actions it takes to get there. Also, know who will be responsible for doing it.
R – This can stand for realistic or relevant, and either or both are important and are true. If you want your goal to succeed, it should most certainly be something that is realistic or you will fail. It should also be relevant to your life’s vision and match your values.
T – Various authors refer to the “T” in the S.M.A.R.T. acronym as time-bound, timely or trackable. All of these t’s are important parts of the goal-creating and setting process. If you don’t set a time limit and you can’t track what is happening, your goal will be hard to quantify or show as achieved.
Whichever words you use to help you craft your goals, the important thing is that you need to have a process to help you make smart goals. Smart goals are goals that you follow through on achieving and know when you’ve met them.
There are many tools out on the market you can use to help you create your goals. Below, we’ll discuss a few of them and how they can help you achieve your business goals.
Goal Setting Tools
You can use old-fashioned paper and pen to make and set your goals, but what’s the fun in that? Today, there are so many wonderful online tools and software that can help make goal-setting fun and easy. When something is fun and easy, you’re more likely to stick to it long enough to actually achieve the success you desire.
1. Milestone Planner – Join the thousands of organizations who have already discovered the power of Milestone Planner, the powerfully simple way to build and track plans. From strategic planning to managing the tactical things that need to get done, Create a timeline, set milestones, maybe even invite your team, and start making progress today.
2. Mint – If you need to get control over your finances, and want to set up goals such as establishing a six-month emergency savings account, starting a business, and other goals, you can use this software to track your financial success and projections.
3. Basecamp – This is really a project management system, but any goal has to have actionable steps involved or milestones and tasks to take to reach success. You can use Basecamp for any type of actionable steps and it will even email you a reminder to do the task. This can work with your business life or personal life.
4. Google Calendar – Where were we before Google Calendar came alone? Unorganized, for sure. This is such a handy calendar that you can use for the most important areas of your life. Be it family, personal, financial, or physical – you can set your goals and work your way back inserting actionable steps and tasks to do each day. You can then let it email you a daily task list so you never leave anything out.
5. VisonBoard.me – This is basic vision board software that you can use to create your vision board and then print it out. You can also use something like Pinterest to create a vision board if you need to be fancier about it. It’s fun to create a vision board, and paste it on your wall, fridge, or in public so that you can see the reality of your dreams in person.
6. Lifetick – If you want very in-depth goal-setting software, this is it. It helps you traverse the four important areas where you should be setting goals and then view how they overlap and work with each other. This software helps you define your core values, and develop S.M.A.R.T. goals as well as track everything.
7. GoalsOnTrack – This software is a lot like Lifetick but has features that help you “chunk down” any goal into reasonable and easy-to-follow steps. Their whole idea is that you want to do less but get more. This software’s features encompass the 80/20 rule and put it to work for goal setting and achievement.
8. Goalscape – If you like to visualize your goals in pictures, charts, and graphs then you might like Goalscape. You’ll create a kind of wheel with your goal in the middle and everything you need to do to reach the goal will circle it. So you can see it in one glance.
9. Smart Goals Templates – If you like templates, these are some free goal-setting templates that are based on filling in the blanks for your goals. They will help you go over the various goals-setting steps needed to achieve results in both your personal life and career and business life.
10. Fingerprint for Success – Fingerprint for Success is a professional & personal development platform for individuals & teams to make amazing things happen at work and in life! Coach Marlee is the world’s first artificially intelligent coach! Marlee specializes in developmental and performance coaching. Based on decades of evidence-based research into human development.
Whichever type of software (if any) you feel you need to use for goal setting and goal realization is up to you. The important thing is that you visualize the results of any goal, write it out, and then take steps toward achieving the goal.
Looking for help with YOUR Goals? I’d be happy to help you. Contact me here
There are plenty of business owners who have made their businesses successful through the effective use of goals. The better they become at implementing those goals, the more successful the businesses seem to become. And it is something that people get better at with practice. Why not use these successful experiences to help with your business? Resources to help with your business goals are the topic of discussion for today.
Learn More About Business Goals
The first resource is yourself. Resources found online can be a tremendous help when trying to learn about setting goals. Check YouTube.com for videos on the subject. Be aware that not every video will contain good information. And not every video creator has the expertise to offer. Take each video with a grain of salt.
Udemy and Amazon are also good resources for training on business goals. It takes more effort to get on these platforms, so it is likely to contain trainers/authors with a higher level of expertise. Both platforms allow users to rate the trainers which you can use as a basis for your decision.
Read Profiles of Successful Business Leaders
Many successful business leaders share how they became successful. You will find a common theme among these leaders in the area of setting goals. They may go about different ways to do this. That’s what makes these profiles valuable to use when trying to create your own. If you can find profiles of people within the same industry as you, that is a bonus. But, it is not completely necessary if you can’t.
Industry or Trade Groups
While you’ll see a lot of your competitors on these groups, most are willing to share stories of techniques they have used in their businesses. The information they give is usually relevant to your business as you typically join groups within your industry. LinkedIn.com is becoming a trade group of sorts with the groups that are contained within. Be sure to check this out. You can check mine out here. LinkedIn
Forums and Blogs
People look to forums and blogs for answers to their questions. There are bound to be forums that are within your industry or niche. You can ask for tips about the goals or your business on these forums. You will get much better results when you are active on the forum.
Outside Groups
Resources such as Meetup.com could be used to help with formulating your business goals. Find meetups with business owners in your area who are willing to share information on the topic.
I hope this information is useful for you and your business.
Why small business owners don’t set goals is the topic of today’s article. There are several reasons why small business owners fail to set goals. It’s a common problem and can adversely affect their businesses.
The following are some of the more common reasons:
Afraid of Failure
By setting goals, if the business owner doesn’t meet them, others may see this as failing. This can be a fear for the owner and could be a big reason why they don’t set goals.
They Are Not Sure How
This is one of the biggest reasons why small business owners avoid setting goals; they don’t know how. It’s one thing to list a bunch of desires and another entirely to create a plan that may actually move a company forward.
Afraid of Success
Just as strong as failing is what happens when a business owner sees success. Are their companies big enough to handle that success? If they set goals, they may have to take on more activities such as hiring and expansion of facilities, etc.
Are You A Small Business Owner That Doesn’t Set Goals?
Here are a few more reasons why:
Will Be Held Accountable
When you make your goals official, you now have a roadmap that holds you accountable. This means that the expectation is much higher and can put unnecessary pressure on these already busy owners.
Too Time Consuming
It takes time to brainstorm ideas and to create tasks that are associated with the goals. This is time taken away from core business functions. Unless they have employees to take up the slack, many business owners are sole employees and have to manage the day-to-day activities.
Why Bother? You Are the Only One
This was covered somewhat in the previous paragraph but when you are the only person in your business, why do you have to come up with goals? Many small business owners think they know what needs to get done.
Just Go with the Flow
Many smaller business owners are under the impression that they can just wing it, i.e., to go with the flow. The belief is that whatever is going to happen will just happen as if it’s meant to be. Setting up goals is a waste of time for people who feel this way.
While there are business owners who have been successful without setting goals, most struggle with their business. In fact, this could be the single reason why a majority of small businesses won’t last past a couple of years.
So, in conclusion, by having a roadmap, you will be in a much better position to see what is working and what needs help. It sure is better than going back to square one and starting all over again!
Here’s an example of a business roadmap, it’s a screenshot from Product Plan, a resource you might try using for your business.
How to stay motivated with your business goals and why you should. Today’s topic is about staying motivated with your business goals, why you should, and why it’s important to business success. YOURS!!
Setting Your Business Goals
When you set up your business goals, you have an initial surge of motivation. The planning stages are exciting because of what you may accomplish by proceeding with your plan. However, as time passes and other aspects of your job get in the way, you may feel less motivated to make those achievements happen. You begin to make judgments about everything.
Motivational Ideas
Here are some ideas on how to stay motivated:
Keep a written copy of your goals and tasks on your desk. Create a daily task list that you print out and keep near you as you work. Daily tasks are more granular than the task list that supports the goals.
Then you can check them off as you complete them. Make sure those daily tasks are as relevant as possible to the tasks on the master list. It’s understandable that you will have to perform tasks outside of the goals but try to keep those to a minimum.
The Benefits
Think about the benefits of completing the goals for your business. You will be responsible for bringing your business to a new level. Of course, that is dependent on what the goals are. However, even smaller-scaled goals will contribute to the success of your business in some way.
Sometimes, as you work through your goals and tasks, you may find some that are no longer relevant. Perhaps your has changed direction, and some of the previous goals are no longer valid. It is a worthwhile exercise to readjust and create alternative plans or even start from scratch. Speak with your mentor or coach if the changes are major enough.
Tracking Your Goals
Another way to motivate yourself to keep on track with your goals is to imagine what may happen if you don’t complete them. Your business may stagnate, or you may not be getting the recognition you deserve. This can be a great way to ensure that you push forward and complete your goals.
When you and your team complete a task, find ways to reward yourselves. This can be as simple as going out for a celebratory drink after work. Don’t forget to invite your boss, even if he or she wasn’t as involved as the rest of the team. He or she may have been more involved at a higher level than you realize.
Achieving goals often become habit-forming (the good kind) so the more you do it, the higher the chances you will succeed.
How to be grateful while creating your business. It is easy to expect success as if being successful was a right instead of a privilege and a gift. That’s today’s discussion because it’s not a topic that most people think about. Do you?
The problem with expecting to succeed is that, without more, the self-absorption of that expectation can slowly and subtly poison everything around you, including your business. True success is earned and when it arrives it should be, and needs to be, accompanied by a stirring sense of gratitude.
What Is Gratitude?
This gratitude is not simply about being grateful for what you have achieved. It is about being grounded enough in the moment of success to remember and recognize everyone who helped you get to this particular time and place. Without this grounded gratefulness any success is lessened and will, in all likelihood, be fleeting. Now you don’t want that do you?
Are You Obligated?
So how do you repay those how helped you in achieving your goals? Well, obviously, acknowledging those individuals and sharing the benefits of your success with them is a great place to start.
Yet, above and beyond taking care of your nearest and dearest, you also need to “pay it forward” by becoming a mentor and helper to others who are currently on their own journey towards success.
Think about how you can collaborate with someone else in order to further their efforts. See if you can contribute in some way to their projects. This contributiondoesn’t have to be monetary.
This gratitude can extend even further. There are people who are currently helping you every day that you may not see as mentors. Your customers are among these people. Without them, success becomes impossible.
Take the time to let them know how important they are. Your vendors are also equally important. Yes, they provide you with materials that you pay them for, but a truly grounded and grateful attitude would also recognize each of them for the critical element they play in your business.
Look outside the box and you’ll see that success is not a solo effort, it’s a team sport. Where is your team? Have you thanked them lately?
