How to Set Goals for Business - Success Tips for Solopreneurs
Like most small business owners, you’re likely always looking for ways to improve your business. Maybe you want to increase sales, expand your customer base, or just make a little more money. Having clarity on what you want to achieve with your business is key to succeeding. If you are struggling with how to set goals for business, this post will help. And, in order to grow as a solopreneur, there are different types of goals that we need to set.
Why it’s Important to Set Goals for Your Small Business
Without goals your business is like a ship without a rudder. A goal provides you with a target to work towards and a focus for all your business building activities. Without a written goal, you might easily be distracted by the next shiny object and not make any real progress with your business. And, many solopreneurs only set money goals and don’t take it any further. But goal setting does not have to be limited to money goals.
Three Different Types of Business Goals:
1. Strategic Goals
The most critical type of goals to set in your business are strategic goals. Strategic goals relate to your daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual activities. By setting strategic goals for building your business, you can then build a plan on how to meet each goal with specific activities.
For example, maybe you’ve set a goal to land 5 new clients next month. Now that you’ve determined your end result, you can work backwards and figure out which activity or activities will get you there. Are you going to spend X number of hours networking and making connections online or offline? Or focus on cold outreach? Maybe post a live video 3 times per week? Run Facebook ads? Whatever it is, make sure your plan to reach your strategic goal is something you can do consistently.
Another example might be around content creation. I know some entrepreneurs who have set a goal to blog every day for 30 days or to create and post a YouTube video every day for 30 days or even, do a live video every day for 30 days.
2. Professional Development Goals
Setting professional development goals is almost as important as strategic goals. In order for your business to grow, you should always be growing personally by learning new things. Your professional development goals might be skill related or, they might be mindset related. And, you should consider setting goals in both of these areas. For example, you might consider taking a sales course and, a course on how to better manage your stress levels.
3. Financial Goals
Without clearly defined goals, it can be difficult to measure your progress and stay on track. The most common type of goal that solopreneurs set are financial goals but often, it’s an overall annual or monthly income goal rather than measuring against the different areas of their business. For example, you might want to set a money goal for each product or service that you offer or, for events such as product launches or paid webinars. And, if you’ve got a specific event coming up, set a goal for the number of sign ups you’re planning for.
Setting goals is a key part of any business, and it’s especially important for solopreneurs. By setting clear goals and keeping yourself accountable, you can stay on track to reach your targets and achieve success.
If you need help reaching your business goals and are considering help from an online visibility expert, don’t hesitate to reach out to me for a discovery call. I would be happy to discuss what’s possible for your business and how I can help you get there.