Have you ever watched a TED Talk where a big-time executive spoke about getting lucky with their success? No. That’s because no business succeeds without clearly defined business goals! Truthfully, we can’t succeed in life without setting goals so why would we think a business can succeed the same way?! If you’re having a hard time coming up with business goals, stick with us - we have five steps that make goal planning for your business easier than you think it might be. The best part? Your business goals will be achievable.
Ready to set some business goals? Let’s go.
Goal Planning Strategy
The first step to creating a goal map is to take out some sticky notes or open up a Google Doc and start thinking about what you want your business to achieve this year. That’s right - we’re doing a sticky note exercise. So, let’s plot out a few business goals according to the 5 main goal categories:
Financial goals
Increase revenue
Grow business savings by 10%
Customer-based goals
Receive more Google Reviews
Reduce call wait times
Employee goals
Create a fully-paid employee retreat
Start a training program
Growth goals
Grow social following
Drive more website traffic
Social goals
Donate financially to organizations
Sponsor a community event
These are pretty basic but still easy to plot out, right? So, keep doing that. Plot out ALL of the things you want your business to achieve and stick each note to a wall. Then step back.
Now, divide each sticky note into two categories:
Short Term: goals you can achieve each month or each quarter
Long Term: goals that will take longer to plan out and achieve
Be realistic as you’re moving your goals into each category. Every goal you plotted out is going to require a lot of work and planning to make it happen. Look at each goal critically and think about the planning and execution involved in making those goals happen. You might find that the goals are too lofty and need to be scaled down - that’s OK, take it down a notch and place it into the right category. Once you have a great set of goals plotted into the right category, think about whether that goal can be achieved. Sometimes goals need to be very long term like over the course of a few years. Don’t take it off the board, set it aside so you can plot out what it takes to achieve that business goal over time.
Need help figuring out whether your business goals are att