5 Reasons You Should Bother With Annual Business Goals
I recently posted a How To on goal setting for the year ahead. Maybe you read it, maybe you didn’t. But what I do know is that not very many of you are actually going to DO it. So I thought for those of you who are waffling, I’d dedicate some space to WHY you should set business goals.
Why You Should Be Setting Annual Business Goals
- So you know where you’re going
- So you know when to stop and celebrate
- So you can manage the overwhelm
- So you can stay motivated
- So you can adapt to change
1. Business Goals Help You Figure Out Where You Want to Go
If you only set one goal for your business next year, make it a revenue goal. How much money do you want to bring in? I’ve said it in this space before, and I will say it again, if people are not giving you money for whatever it is you sell, you’re not really a business. Revenue goals are clear and countable and it’s easy to measure your progress.
If you buy into this post, there are lots of other goals you could set (but no more than 3 big ones for the year ok?). If you’re interested in working less and enjoying more, you might set a goal to only work 4 days a week. If you have a client that you’d love to fire, maybe you set a goal of replacing that revenue. If you want to grow, maybe you set a goal of launching a new product in Q2. Specificity is your friend and if you’d like some guidance goal setting, you can check out my post on Why You Should Make Your Goals Countable. And, by the way, don’t just set your goals in your head, write them down.
2. Goals Help You Know When to Stop and Celebrate
So what if you hit your revenue goal in October. Do you know what you could do? Take the rest of the year off. I know our culture sends us different signals. Like when we hit a goal, what we need to do is quickly set the next goal and start climbing again. And if we hit that goal too easily, maybe often we doubt or chastise ourselves because we didn’t make it hard enough. Does any of this sound familiar? Or maybe, just maybe we should figure out how much revenue we want to bring in and when we get there we should do the dance, ring the bell and break out the champagne. Which one sounds like more fun to you?
3. Goals Help You Manage Overwhelm
One of the most powerful things about setting business goals is that they help you prioritize. And being clear about priorities is one of the most important items in an entrepreneur’s toolkit. It is especially potent against shiny object syndrome. If you decide you want to make $150,000 next year and the way you’re going to do it is you’re going to sell 40 $2,500 products/services and 100 $500 products/services and you’re going to do it via email marketing then you know exactly what you need to do. And every time someone comes to you and says hey, why don’t you sell $10 T-shirts, you can confidently say that’s not part of my plan this year. You don’t have to spend even one cognitive cycle on it. Imagine how good it would feel to just say no to all those things that are tempting you because you made a plan and you’re sticking to it!
4. Goals Help You Stay Motivated
As you achieve milestones and celebrate success along the way, it will boost your confidence and keep you going during the low points. Let’s be honest, entrepreneurship (like any job) is not a party 100% of the time. There’s lagging sales, website glitches, email malfunctions, pain in the butt clients, delivery people who send the wrong product multiple times, nail-biter payroll runs, and [insert your biggest headaches here]. Goals can remind you where you started and how far you’ve come. They make it much easier to see progress which is a powerful motivator.
5. Goals Help You Adapt to Change
As they say, the only constant is change. Goals can offer a degree of consistency and direction, even when external (or internal) circumstances fluctuate. Sometimes (many times) it makes sense to adjust and revise your goals during the year. But if you have written goals, you can make revisions intentionally rather than just throwing more spaghetti at the wall. This alone can radically reduce the stress associated with the ambiguity of entrepreneurship.
If you’re interested in setting some goals for your business next year, here are some posts that might help:
Create Your Business Goals for 2024
Make Your Business Goals Countable
Prioritize: The Number 1 Tool To Fight Overwhelm for Entrepreneurs
