What do you want to achieve? Before you actually set up, decide what you want to achieve with your business. If you are already in business, review where you are going – are you clear about this?Why not take some time out to think about and write down your goals for your business?
Write it down Research shows that only 3% of people write down their goals, and on average these people earn 10 times those who don’t have goals. Plus research shows that people with up to date written goals are as much as 3100% more successful than people who do not have up to date written goals.
And make sure your business goals don’t conflict with things you want to do personally. When you are thinking about your goals, think about and write down your personal goals too. And if you are a multi owner business you will obviously need to discuss your responses with your colleagues, and agree on a shared set of goals for
business.
SMART goals Make sure that
goals you write are SMART. What does this mean? It stands for:
Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Timed Apply these five measures to each of your goals. What does it mean to you in reality? Once you have written down your goal as a SMART goal, think about what
effects would be if you didn’t achieve itl. What is
“pain” that you and those you love will experience if you don’t achieve your goal, ie ill health, poverty, unhappiness etc. (Why do this? Because recognising this pain is an enormous motivating force that will help you to work even harder to make sure you don’t fail!) Then decide what you will gain when you succeed - ie wealth, health, happiness, a prosperous retirement etc. What will you see, hear and feel? And what else will your success allow you to achieve/do? And finally write down
key things you will need in order to achieve your goal. For example, it could be new resources, contacts, skills, actions etc. Repeat this process using a new sheet for every single goal you would like to achieve.
Prioritise Next try and prioritise
goals you have written. Lay out all of your goals in front of you and decide which are
most important to you, which are less important and which (if any) are, on reflection, not important after all.