Having a clear process for establishing business goals and scheduling time for a regular reassessment of them is almost like figuring out the driving route you’re going to take for a vacation. 

Without directions, even if you have a destination in mind, you’re likely going to end up lost, frustrated, and late, because the trip will most certainly take longer than if you had simply sat down long enough to figure out your route before you start. 

And without regular reassessment, you might end up moving towards a destination that’s of no value or interest to you anymore. 

Instead, if you set strategic goals that make sense for your business and your marketing endeavours, you can break down the steps it takes to accomplish them and will have a clear path towards success. 

You’ll not only know where you’re going but you’ll have a plan to get there.

Structuring goals for your business

Setting goals not only involves figuring out your final destination and the steps it’s going to take to get there but also ensuring that these goals make sense for your business. 

The most well-known structure for setting these goals is the SMART system; setting goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. 

While you may have used this in your personal life at one time or another, I want to encourage you to implement this across your business and marketing as well. 

S: Specific 

Setting specific goals means getting clear about what you want to accomplish. Rather than simply saying you want to increase leads, clients, or revenue, you might add number values or timeframes in order to make the goal more concrete. 

Consider: 

• What’s the overall objective? What specific results do you want to see?

• What needs to be accomplished? 

• Who is responsible for moving the needle? 

M: Measurable 

The second consideration in creating SMART goals is ensuring you have a way to measure the progress and results of your efforts. 

This will help you determine what’s working and what isn’t along the way, and in the end, will allow you to see if you’ve reached your goal. 

For example, if your goal is simply to increase revenue, technically you could check that goal off of your to-do list the moment you brought in the next sale (even if it was an extremely low-ticket offer). 

I’m guessing though, that you have bigger ambitions than making an additional dollar this year, and so you need to quantify those goals so that there can be a clear line drawn between reaching the goal and not. 

Consider: 

• What are the metrics that you could use to gauge progress and success? (Number of clients? Revenue dollars? Email list numbers?) 

• How do these goals fit into your larger business plan and goals? 

• Will you be able to know exactly when you’ve hit your goal?

A: Attainable or Achievable 

As a small business owner, you likely have a lot of energy and drive to make your business succeed. You’re excited, and have huge goals you want to bring to light. 

This is one of the reasons I love working with small business owners, so please keep that passion and those big dreams alive. 

But, when you’re creating goals for the next month or next quarter, you need to ensure they’re realistic given the resources you have available. 

The quickest way to lose that initial drive, is by setting goals that are unrealistic and overwhelming, to the point where you struggle to take action because it seems like your goal is incredibly far away. 

Set milestone goals that you can celebrate on your way to getting to those larger goals. The funny thing is, this route is actually going to get you to those larger goals much quicker. (Planning is a shortcut, it just might not seem like it). 

Consider: 

• How can you break down your larger goals into goals that are achievable in the next couple of months? 

• How much time, energy and money do you have available to commit to this initiative? 

R: Relevant 

Goals aren’t helpful unless they’re going to move the needle in the direction you want. So, you need to look at setting goals that are relevant for your business and target market. 

If your goal is to bring in additional revenue for example, your follower count on social media likely isn’t as important as the number of people on your email list that you can directly sell to, or the number of people who have expressed interest in working with you by booking a consult call. 

Look at where your efforts are going to be best spent, especially when you’re in the initial stages of your business, rather than trying to be in all the places at once. 

If you’re finding it hard not to be swayed by what other companies or entrepreneurs are doing, or by the new platforms and software continuously coming out, return to your data. Data-based decisions are going to be the antidote to any shiny object syndrome you’re dealing with. 

Consider: 

• Why do you want to achieve this goal? 

• What is your larger business plan? How does this goal fit into that? 

• How will this benefit the company? 

T: Time-Bound

All of the above is great, but if you don’t set a timeline for your goals, you’re going to find it a lot harder to get anything done. 

A timeline not only helps you to see the finish line but having that deadline in place is going to motivate you to take action, especially as the date gets closer. 

Consider: 

• When do you want to complete this goal? Can you break that timeline down any further? 

• Is this timeline realistic? 

What goals make sense for your business?

I’m a believer that you should be setting two different types of goals for your company. Business goals and marketing goals. 

Business goals

Your business goals are those that take into account the company as a whole. Consider why you started the company, the overall direction of the business, your values, the impact you want to make on the world, and how you’re going to be able to make those things happen. 

Often business goals will come in the form of a certain number of clients and/or revenue, which will allow you to gauge how many people you’re impacting. 

These goals also often work hand-in-hand. For example, revenue goals can help you to map out your customer acquisition plans by month in order to allow for predictability with work and income. 

Examples might include: 

• Increase gross profit by 20% by end-of-year by signing 6 new clients. 

• Delegate all customer service emails by the end of Q3.

• Increase customer retention by 10% by next month. 

• Create a competitive analysis of the marketplace with research into 3 other similar companies, by the end of next week. 

Marketing goals 

Your marketing goals are specific to the marketing activities and tactics you plan on using in order to gain exposure, bring in leads, and grow your business. 

Your marketing goals will ultimately make it a lot easier to achieve your overall business goals, as long as they’re aligned: taking into account your values, vision, and ideal clients. 

Examples might include: 

• Automate lead magnet and a series of 5 nurture emails in order to engage with potential new clients by next week.  

• Grow email list by 300 people by the end of the quarter. 

• Post on Instagram 4 times per week, starting next month for 3 months. 

• Increase client testimonials by 20% by the end of Q3. 

Again, you’ll want to ensure that you have set metrics to review so you can stay on track and measure your progress and that these goals are attainable based on the resources you have available. 

It might be helpful to review any metrics you already have from prior months in order to set goals that are relevant and unique to you. 

Guidelines for setting goals 

While SMART goals offer a great framework, there are still a few traps people fall into when setting goals that I want to help you avoid. 

1) Consider who else needs to be involved in this goal-setting process. 

As a small business owner, you may not have a huge team, but if you have any contractors or assistants, you may want to get them involved in the process. 

If your team isn’t aware of the goals you’ve set they may end up having a different perspective on where their time is best spent or what metrics are important. 

Ensure anyone who needs to is brought in on the vision. 

2) Find someone to hold you accountable.

If you already have a team, sharing your goals with those team members is a great way to stay accountable and on track. If not though, I’d still recommend getting a couple of trusted people involved in your vision. 

It’s very easy to self-sabotage, or give yourself a lot of wiggle room if you’re the only one who knows about your goals. 

Find a coach or a fellow entrepreneur who you don’t want to disappoint, and share your goals with them! They’ll help hold you accountable to your goals and your timeline. 

3) Make your goals visible. 

Similarly, ensure that you can see your goals daily. Write them on a sticky note and place it on your computer, or create alarms in your phone to remind you what you’re working on. 

It’s easy to write some goals down in a notebook and then forget about them when life gets busy, so you need to find a way to keep these goals front of mind. 

4) Don’t set your timeline too far out. 

Of course, you can have long-term goals, but don’t forget about the medium and short-term goals as well. 

Creating milestones for yourself will not only help to keep you motivated but they’re good check-in periods. 

Here you can reassess if the goals you’ve set are still relevant and important to your business or if they need to be modified.

5) Break down your goals into smaller steps.

Setting an end goal is great, and SMART goals give you a lot of direction. However, if you simply set the goal without breaking it down any further, it’s likely going to be an overwhelming endeavour. 

Instead, break down your goals into smaller milestones with shorter timelines attached to them. From there, figure out the specific to-do list items that you can work on every day to move the needle forward towards this goal. 

6) There’s a fine line between creating goals that are realistic and those that are easy. 

You want to ensure your goals make you a little uncomfortable; that they stretch you a bit. Yes, you also want to ensure your goals are realistic to avoid overwhelm and inaction, but if you set goals that you know you can complete you’re not going to be motivated to grow and push yourself in your business. 

7) Be flexible. 

Change is inevitable and if you set goals with no opportunity to shift or change them, you’re setting yourself up for failure. 

Instead, give yourself the opportunity to shift with the changing landscape and any world events. Have a plan but also be ready to make changes to it when something comes up that’s outside of your control. 

Have you set goals for your business? How are they going? Let us know in the comments!