Setting business goals

Setting goals is important to not only your personal life, but your business life as well. The thought process is that if you don’t set goals for the business, you won’t be able to achieve what you want on time. Not to mention, it makes tracking your progress more difficult. If you don’t set goals, you might not know what exactly you’ve accomplished over a given period of time, become frustrated at your lack of results, and give up. If you set goals, you will be able to see exactly which milestone you hit, when you hit it, and what your end results were.

But it’s not just as simple as saying, “I want $15,000 a month by the end of the year.” Instead, you have to set SMART (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound) goals.

Specific

• Well defined
• Clear to anyone that has a basic knowledge of the project

Measurable

• Know if the goal is obtainable and how far away completion is
• Know when it has been achieved

Agreed Upon

• Agreement with all the stakeholders what the goals should be

Realistic

• Within the availability of resources, knowledge and time

Time Based

• Enough time to achieve the goal
• Not too much time, which can affect project performance

To add to the SMART goals package, you also need to make sure your goals correlate with your personal life in terms of your family, friends, and health. If you’re making a load of money but you alienate yourself from your family, friends, or lose your health, what’s the point? If you aren’t having fun with your life, what’s the point? Money isn’t everything… Always remember the Suze Orman model of, “People first, then money, then things.”

The takeaway: Often times, you are your own worst enemy. Don’t set yourself up for failure. Create a new spreadsheet, write on your calendar, do what you need to do but catalog your SMART goals and note the results of what exactly was accomplished and keep track of how it made you feel.

Source: Project Smart