16 Sep 6 Goal Setting Tips For Small Business Owners

Whether in business or in life, if you want to achieve success, it’s important to first set goals. The great thing about goals, is that they can be fluid and flexible. There is no set equation for setting goals, and it’s very unlikely that two people or businesses have the exact same goals. They can change over time. The length of time you hope to achieve them in can vary. And you can always set more. They can be big goals or small goals, depending on how you look at it. But what’s most important about goals is that you have them and you are consistently working towards them.

Though the goals you have and the details around those goals can vary greatly from person to person, and industry to industry, there are a few hard and fast rules for goal setting. The first and more important is to establish your goals. That can be the easy part. Here’s a few tips for setting goals for your business.

Make It Achievable

The last thing you want to do is set a crazy, out of this world goal that is not even remotely possible to be achieved. I’m not saying that you should think small by any means, but it’s important to be realistic. You don’t want to bite off more than you can chew and then ultimately get discouraged and give up on your goal. Based on your current resources, what is it you are looking to achieve? You can always think about your initial set of goals as milestones towards achieving your larger, overarching goal or the mission of your business.

Make It Measurable

The next important thing to remember about good goals is that they need to be measurable. Every small business owner wants to grow their business, but it’s important to think about by when and by how much you want to grow your business. Establishing key metrics to track progress towards that goal is key to know whether or not you’re on pace to achieve it. Setting specific, measurable, and time-sensitive goals is the best way to keep yourself accountable and understand what you’re trying to achieve and by when you want to achieve it.

Make It Actionable

When you are setting a goal for yourself or your business, it’s crucial to break down that goal into actions that you will take to achieve that goal. Setting up a list of to-do’s, action steps, or sequences of actions is helpful in ensuring you will achieve the goal you set out to. Add those tasks to your calendar, assign them to involved parties, and hold yourself and your team accountable for completing them. You don’t want to set a goal without first thinking through a plan for achieving it. Even if you don’t necessarily know everything that will be involved, you need to know what the first few steps are towards achieving it and then go from there.

Make It Valuable

This one might be obvious, but there should be an obvious value or gain to be achieved from this goal. It doesn’t necessarily need to be financial, but you don’t want to spend time focusing on a goal that isn’t going to yield a valuable result for you and your business. You should also have a pretty clear understanding of what that value is and what it means for you and your business. And you should also have an idea about what goal you are going to replace the current goal with once you achieve it. What’s the next level that you want to achieve? What are you going to do with that value once you receive it?

Make It Flexible

Depending on the goals that you’re setting for your business, chances are, the details around the goal will not stay exactly the same throughout the life of if It might, but it might not. And it’s always important to be flexible. There are always situations that arise or opportunities that are presented that might alter the timeline, the actions involved, or the value of a particular goal. You can try to plan for them along the way, but nothing is ever certain, so being flexible in your goal-setting and tracking is important.

Make It Sharable

Whether for yourself or your business, establishing goals is the first step toward success. But you don’t have to do it alone. And truthfully, you shouldn’t. Share your goals with your family, your friends, your team, etc. This not only increases your accountability for achieving these goals, but these people genuinely want to see you succeed, and may have insights or skills that could be helpful in achieving your goals. They can also play devil’s advocate to help ensure you’ve thought through all of the details, actions, and metrics involved with your goals. Plus, they will be there to cheer you on along the way.

I like to do goal-setting exercises throughout the year. It’s very common for people and small businesses to review their goals annually or bi-annually, with monthly tracking along the way. The worst thing you could do is set goals and then don’t look at them again for months or years. Or set goals that would be nice to achieve, but you don’t know exactly how or why you would want to. That’s why it’s important to set goals that are achievable, measurable, actionable, flexible, and sharable.