A little while ago in a Facebook Group I asked a question: “What are you business goals for the next 90 days?”
I was so psyched that so many people had already started looking forward to the next 90 days. That’s why I love entrepreneurs… we are proactive people!
But as I was reading through the responses, I noticed something…
A lot of the business goals these entrepreneurs were setting were vague, not specific, and not within their control.
A lot of them were “outcome” goals such as “book 3 clients”, “have 1000 email subscribers”, “Have 500 IG followers”, and more. This was traditional goal-setting at work. Outcome goals are the potential RESULTS to taking a specific action. The challenge with outcome goals is that they are not in your control.
Setting goals of any kind is better than no goals but… you have no control over this happening. You can’t make people sign up for your e-mail list. You can’t make 3 clients book you. You can’t make 1000 people subscribe to your e-mail list. So focusing on this can cause undue stress and make your business seem like a failure.
When it comes to “outcome goals” you have to make sure you have SMART goals that lend a hand to that outcome.
Things like: talk to 10 people and invite them to have a call with me. This is something you can control. It’s based on your actions.
Other things you can control are: share my opt-in on my facebook page 3x a week, boost my opt-in to a specific audience, or invite people to a webinar where they have to give their e-mail address. These are all something you can control.
When I want to set good goals for my business I like to make sure they are SMART++ goals.
What are SMART Business Goals?
- Specific
- Measurable
- Actionable
- Realistic (with a stretch)
- Time-bound (a week, a month, specific day, etc)
(+) Excites you (because it’s connected to your “why”) (+)
(+) Recalibration is possible (If you’ve been falling off track you can adjust them) (+)
When your goals are set up this way, you can see if they are setting you up for success or for failure.
SMART Business Goal Examples:
- Every week I will message 10 people and share how they can work with me so they can start moving forward in making their dreams a reality. I am excited about this because it is in line with my purpose to help people!
- 3x a week I will share my opt-in on social media to attract people to my email list. I am excited about this because it moves people closer to working with me!
- I will host a webinar every month to attract new people to email list. I am excited about this because I get to help people and show off my expertise!
When you have goals like this it makes it SUPER easy to order your day-to-day actions so you’re not spinning your wheels!
If this goal doesn’t reach a 8/10 or higher on your excitement scale you are probably not going to do it! And it’s also probably not in alignment with the vision you have for your business and life! If this is the case check out this post I did on getting in touch with your vision and creating goals from that place!
These goal statements are in the SMARTER format and it’s extremely doable. You are able to create a tracker and check off a box or star each time you message someone! So you are able to celebrate your small wins.
As entrepreneurs, it’s important that we are aware of how to create goals that set us up for success so when those 90 days are up you have something to show for it!
Want some tangible help with this? Download the SMART Business Goal Setting Worksheet below, on me!
