Posted November 06, 2024 | By Donna St. Jean Conti
Are you ready for the road ahead? Failing to plan is planning to fail! DONNA ST JEAN CONTI encourages you to enter the new year with a strategy.
As we head into a new year, it’s an appropriate time to begin thinking of new goals and ambitions, including setting targets for your business.
Whenever this subject comes up, I remember a famous quote by Canadian educator Laurence J. Peter: “If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.”
What are the secrets to setting practical goals? It would be best if you made them lofty yet achievable, set metrics to determine success, and determine time frames and/or deadlines.
What makes an effective business goal? In the words of this article by Tech Target, a business goal is an articulated aim that a business wishes to achieve over a period of time.
While this idea may seem trivial or obvious, businesses must set goals to help shape everyday activities and decisions.
Goals provide a sense of direction and aid in gauging success. More importantly, having a specific goal provides motivation to work hard and grind away continually.
With that said, what are the attributes of an effective business goal?
An article from Entrepreneur says to aim for the following qualities:
Specificity: It’s important to be as straightforward as possible when defining what you would like to achieve. They provide the example that merely ‘raising money’ is not a goal; however, raising $10,000 by 1 July is.
Optimism: Phrasing your goal in a positive manner is essential. For example, aim for overall financial security rather than to pay your bills.
Realism: Setting realistic standards for your goals is critical.
Aiming to make an amount of money you have never made is unrealistic and will only demoralise you when it is not achieved.
Instead, aim to increase your sales by a specific percentage and take incremental steps from there.
Day-to-day design: Short-term goals are what you wish to achieve in the coming weeks, months, or years, and they can be steppingstones to larger ambitions.
Long-range planning: Long-term goals are those substantially loftier aims that can be achieved in the distant future and are only achieved by attaining more immediate goals first.
The Entrepreneur article mentions factors to consider when setting goals, such a show much money you have and how much you wish to make in your first year and each subsequent year.
The article also encourages you to consider your lifestyle, such as your ability and willingness to travel. It’s also important to factor in the number of hours you are willing to work and invest in personal assets that can carry varying amounts of risk.
Consider the gratification that you are looking to get out of your business. When set honestly, these qualities and factors go a long way toward making an effective goal.
Best practices
Although the qualities and factors mentioned are the essential building blocks of setting business goals.
There are some additional best practices to consider.
An article published by 15Five lays them out and states that if you are not the company owner, having support from leadership is an absolute necessity. Executives must decide where they want to be in the marketplace and create a roadmap of how the business will get there.
Getting executive support may take some convincing; however, explaining how people need to work more efficiently with clear goals, providing a productive solution, and showing how successful a team can be with this solution are steps in the right direction.
The article also details setting ‘hard and soft’ goals, celebrating incremental and small wins, common missteps and how to avoid them, and achieving objectives as a team.
The new year is nearly here, and this is a great time to start setting goals for your business. Staying specific, optimistic, and realistic is key, and understanding what you want out of your goals and securing the backing of leadership is crucial.
To set effective goals, ensure they are specific, such as raising a certain amount of money, rather than remaining vague.
Phrase goals positively, aiming for overall financial security instead of just paying bills. Set realistic goals, such as increasing sales by a specific percentage rather than unattainable figures.
Break these into short-term goals for immediate progress, which support achieving long-term, more ambitious objectives.
When done correctly, nothing is more satisfying and fulfilling than setting and achieving goals in business.
