After 2020, I think we can all say we want to take our business goals and own 2021! Though we don’t know much about what 2021 will bring. What we do know is that we need to own and take action in our businesses this year! For most people, they get really excited and set goals but don’t know how to properly manage them.
Setting actionable goals is vital to the success of your business. You need to manage, maintain, and update these goals, monthly and quarterly. As the year goes by you may need to pivot or add services or you niche down even further, and with that it may require you to modify or adjust your goals.
How to set goals unique to your business
First, you really need to understand your “why”. Why are you in business, why are you serving your clients, why did you get started? For some yes it was to make money but it was more than that. And once you have your real reason you are doing this you will be able to set goals that focus on you and your business.
For example, Susie started her business because she was sick of being a slave to her desk in the corporate world and she knew she was a bada** photographer and could own her skills if she branched out of corporate. She has a passion for photography and takes the best live action photos of anyone within a 100-mile radius of her.
She has a specific focus, skill and she knows why she is doing it. This will allow her to set goals that really make sense and matter to her brand and business so she can grow and adapt.
- Ask yourself why you got started?
- What are you passionate about?
- How does your why and passion come together to serve your ideal client in your niche?
Your goals should have 3 tiers
Your goals should never just be 1 number, if it can be measured numerically in any way you need to set a Good, Better, Best goal. But here are the parameters of that. Good should be well above what you are doing. Let’s use simple numbers.
Your business goal is to bring in $100,000 in revenue, let’s say last year you did $80,000. That is a considerable jump depending on your business size. So you should set your Better goal to $150,000 like it is going to be really hard to reach that but it’s doable if you have some crazy sales or an amazing launch. And your Best goal should be $200,000. Were talking at your current state to grow to that would be almost impossible but things would have to line up perfectly to make it happen plus some.
Do you see where I am going with that? It forces you to come up with scenarios that make sense. But also know and understand that you may need to reverse engineer these goals. What do you NEED to keep your business operating at its current and at your bottom line, like as lean as you can make it?
Also, consider what you need to pay yourself to keep your portion or household afloat. You need to add together these things in order to set goals and know that if you need $5,000 a month to keep your bills paid you probably need to increase your goals and make sure you can cover business expenses too.
- What does your business need in revenue to operate?
- How much do you NEED to pay yourself?
- What are your Good, Better, Best goals?
- Make sure to review these every quarter and year to verify they still align with your needs.
Taking Action on your goals
How can you make sure your goals are actionable? Let’s go back to the revenue goal. The premise is to create goals and be able to really take action! Well, you need to reverse engineer your goals and understand what it will take to get you there.
You need to make $100,000 in business. Which is roughly $8,333 a month. In order to attain that amount, you need to sell your XYZ service that costs $497. You need to sell approximately 17 of those a month. In order to get 17 sales, you need to be active on social media and following up with leads. In order to close 1 lead, you have to talk to 5. So to close 17 leads in a month you need to talk to 85 people. Or roughly 22 people a week, about 4-5 a day. Can you see how taking a scary thing like $100,000 a year or $8,333 a month turned into only talking to 4-5 people a day?
Do you see where we are going with this? If you can break those big scary goals down, and make them more manageable you can see what it really takes to bring these goals to life! If you can do this with all your goals (I recommend setting 4-6 goals and reevaluating the path they are on each quarter) you will see a huge improvement in your attitude, mindset, and business!
- Once you have your goals and why and know why you are here, take those goals and break them down.
- Review the breakdown and set tasks for each month/week to actively work towards them.
- Review these things each quarter so you can pivot or revamp your goals as needed. Our businesses are ever-evolving so don’t expect your goals to stay the same as well.
How are you going to take this information and apply it to your business and your goal planning? Remember you don’t have to only plan or set goals at the New Year, any day is as good a day as any to get started!
What is your next action step?
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