Goal-setting For Your Business in 2019

Make the change for the business you want, rather than the business you have.

With the year drawing to an end, now is the perfect time to look ahead and plan for 2019, and beyond, – and that begins with setting goals for your business and you as the business owner.

Goal setting is an essential task for businesses, regardless of size, revenue or offering, as it helps to establish where you intend to go and tells you when you get there. Your goals help ensure you stay focused, gives you a direction and keep moving forward for ongoing success, preventing your business from becoming stagnant.

While we often think of goal setting as something we do at the start of each year, the truth is that goal setting, tracking and reviewing should be happening all year round, but the start of a new year marks the perfect place to start to review where you have been over the last year and where you want to go the next year. It is a great time to refresh your passion in your business.

Clarify your goals: Where do you want to go?

The first step is establishing what you want to achieve and what your goals are – both personally and for the business. You might be flooded with thoughts on what you want to achieve but you need to distinguish your long-term goals from your short-term goals.

Your long-term goal is often easy to identify, it typically aligns with your mission and reflects on the reason your business was started and is usually achieved over 3 – 5 years. This is the why you are in business.

Action task: Spend some time defining your long goals – “why” are you in business. Don’t forget your personal “why” you want to be business owner. Write them down in a diary or other place you can go back to easily and review.

Now you’ve established your long-term goal, your short-term goals will provide a roadmap to achieving it, and for this to be possible, they need to be SMART.

Be SMART: Use SMART goal setting

To ensure you reach your long-term goals your short-term goals need to follow the SMART criteria; specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based, this will make the process of goal setting more efficient and productive for long-term success and evaluation.

• Specific: What exactly will the goal achieve?
• Measurable: How will you measure if you have achieved it or measure your success?
• Achievable: Is it realistic? It should be challenging and ambitious, but not impossible.
• Relevant: What is the benefit and purpose of your goal?
• Time-bound: Establish a timeline and completion date to ensure efficiency. 

It is likely that your business will have more than just one short-term goal, you may have a few in order to achieve your long-term goal or vision. Consider breaking these down to time of 90days and remember small steps more often can reduce the feeling of overwhelm.

Action task: Develop your short-term goals and again, write them down in a dairy or other place you can go back to easily and review. Divide the year in to quarters and decide which short goals should be your focus each quarter.

A final thought

As a small business owner, you are most likely very skilled in your chosen niche, able to answer any of a million questions with ease but you need to take time and step back to reflect on the direction of your business, you are the captain and it’s important you know where your ship is heading.  

Establishing and setting goals is the first step to ensure your business is organised, focused and on the path for success.

However, having goals simply isn’t enough, it’s only the start. Ultimately your goals are only as effective as the strategies, resources, and people driving progress, which is why our next blog post will look at the key points on developing a strategy to achieve your goals.