How to Set Achievable Goals in Your Business

Setting actionable and achievable goals is an integral part of owning and starting a business. Take a minute, and analyse the performance of your business for the last six months. Are you happy with it? If the answer is 'No,' you are like many other business owners who have trouble meeting their targets and are in severe need of going through this article. 

Without setting any goals for a specified limit of time, you might feel that you are floundering in your business without any specified direction. In contrast, setting up your business goals and the urge to meet them keep you busy and focused on hitting your targets. 

According to a Harvard Business School survey, only 14% of people set their goals and are ten times more successful than those who don't. 

However, once you are prepared to start setting your goals, here are some tips that will help you set up your business's achievable goals. 

Think About the Results You Want to Have

You may have heard this phrase: begin with the end in mind. It means that you should start each project with a clear understanding of your desired goal and then proceed by utilising your proactive muscles to get things going.

Accordingly, before you start setting your goals and get stick to them, I would recommend you to have a look at what you are selecting to achieve and ask the following questions to yourself: 

• Is this really what I want to achieve?
• Is it worthwhile to spend time and money on my set goals?

If you find yourself in ambiguity with any of the questions, it might not be the right decision to pursue it. 

Secondly, if you list up a lot of goals at one time, you may not be able to allocate your sincere efforts for that. So, take up the questions above and then determine which goals are the most important to you to stick to them. 

Always Set SMART Goals

Once you have decided to work on specific goals that you want to accomplish, be sure that your goals fulfil the given SMART criteria: 

• Specific 
• Measurable 
• Attainable 
• Realistic 
• Time-bound 

The most important part of goal setting is to remain specific and straightforward about your goals. By doing this, you will be able to track your performance and progress better to know if you could hit your goals or not. Thus, the more specific you will be about your goals, the greater your chances of accomplishing them. 

For instance, many business people set a goal to generate more revenues by the end of a specified year. But they don't always mention how much revenue they have to make by that time. A specific goal will be something like 'I want to generate 25% more leads than now' and provides you with all the particular information you need. 

Jot Down your Short-listed Goals

Keeping your goals in your mind would worth nothing more than vague ideas that get wiped out due to the lack of interest. But then again, once you jot them down, they become tangible and real. The next step is to remain stick with your set goals, and for that reason, you may keep your goals visible to you by putting them on the wall, sharing them on your computer screen, or any convenient place that remains your point of focus. 

This approach reminds you to work for your goals. And while writing your goals down, remain optimistic so that you become excited when you read them. 

Prepare an Action Plan

Many people set their goals but fail as they don't have an action plan to guide them at every step towards their goals. Your action plan must include an obvious idea about your destination and all related steps that need to be met to hit your desired results. 

While preparing your action plan, you need not avoid being creative and challenging. Remember those nuts that were hard to crack, and still, you did that. This approach will push you to achieve even harder goals than you reached before. 

According to Forbes, while preparing the action plan, use highlighters, markers, and coloured pencils because an action plan created in this way activates an inevitable part of your brain and makes the goals stronger in your mind. 

Create a Timeline

Including a timeline maker in your action plan will help you visualize tasks, roles, deadlines, and milestones to achieve your goal. Allocate a specific time to a specified part of your goal, and try to stick to it as tightly as possible. 

Typically, a timeline develops a sense of urgency that keeps pushing you to comply with your schedule and finish your goals. 

Start Taking Action 

So, now you have planned everything and put all the necessary ingredients in line. Undoubtedly, it is the best time to take action. Remember that you didn't do anything to only console yourself or show it to the people, instead stick to your thought of being invincible regarding your goals for which you have done a lot of work. 

Every step you take must get you nearer to your goal. 

Keep on Tracking Your Progress

After implementing all the strategies mentioned above, it now comes to track the progress and eliminate malfunctioning if there is any. Scheduling the tracking of your progress once a week will give you a clear idea if you are going in the right direction or not. 

The most widely recognized method of estimating whether you are on track to accomplish a business goal is to set key performance indicators (KPIs). You may have KPIs for the whole business and each staff member.

Similarly, if you see yourself close to your goal, you will feel more energized and motivated to get the process to the end within its specified time. 

Conversely, if you notice that you are behind schedule, take the necessary steps and ensure everything is happening the way you expected. 

Conclusion

In my opinion, crafting an actionable plan that leads to your desired goals is one of the critical factors that ensure your success in your business. Sometimes it truly gets ambiguous to set some achievable goals for your business. Nevertheless, I have thought of the most plausible plan that can assist you in setting attainable goals. 

You only need to remain stick, and then you will see how powerful and beneficial it might be for your business.