Setting Smart Goals For Your Business
Updated: Jan 17, 2024
Written by: Jeraldine Peters, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Starting a new business can be an overwhelming venture, and newer business owners can quickly become consumed with the many tasks associated with owning a new business. But we didn't start our business to quickly give up when overwhelmed. We aim to have successful, thriving businesses, and therefore it is important that one has some sort of structure to manage their business.
To develop such a strategy, the business owner needs to come up with some desirable outcomes or goals to guide the direction of the business. Having goals help business owners focus on activities that actually help to grow their business.
So how does one set goals that help their business grow? The answer is; they set SMART goals that help them focus on business-building tasks and income-generating activities.
But what does this mean for business owners? SMART goal setting means that focus is placed on actual steps that will lead to the desired results. Goals should meet some specific criteria to be considered SMART. One can set SMART goals by ensuring that they are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. Here are some more details.
Specific: Are your goals detailed enough to be easily identified when reached? How can you make them more specific? Specific goals help us pinpoint what it is we are aiming at. Being as specific as possible helps us identify and focus on goal-reaching steps.
Measurable: Having specific criteria allows you to measure your success level and how close you are to achieving your goals. It is important to determine how you will identify if you have reached your goal.
Achievable: How possible is it to achieve your goals? Do you have the required skills, knowledge, or budget to achieve the goal? You need to know the steps needed to be taken to get to that goal and whether you need help in achieving it.
Realistic: How challenging is your goal? It should not be too hard to achieve nor too easy. You should also be mindful of your capacity or ability to complete it. Something to consider might be whether or not you need to achieve another goal, such as earning a certificate, before moving towards achieving your desired main goal.
Time-based: Setting a reasonable time for achieving your goals is also important; it puts a sense of urgency on your goals. Timelines help you to also tick off checkpoints or milestones to identify your progress or mini-goals on the journey to the main goal. One example would be losing 8.5 pounds each month in your quest to drop 100 pounds in a year.
Considering these criteria for SMART goals, try rewriting your goals based on the desired outcomes. You may also want to adjust how you worded your goals to focus on your outcomes more positively. Reframing your goals helps bring a different perspective to goal setting and increases your chances of achieving them.
I’ve written an e-book with the 7 steps I take to get into the right mindset for setting SMART goals. Grab a free copy here. To get more support in setting goals for your business, reach out to me on Instagram or join my free Facebook Group for tips to help you build a strong business.
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Jeraldine Peters, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Miss Jer Peters is a certified business coach and digital marketer who helps ambitious entrepreneurs to start, grow and scale successful businesses to create their desired life through entrepreneurship by learning how to stand out online and attract more sales. After spending years working corporate jobs, she opted to take on entrepreneurship, and through her rewarding journey, she found a way to also help others unlock the key to the future they desire. She now devotes her time to working with entrepreneurs who are either just starting or have been in business for a while but have been struggling to figure out how to make it work to have the results they need. By addressing the foundations of their businesses, she helps them set their business up for growth and scale via paid or organic methods. She believes that there is always more to life than what initially seems possible.
