Do you set annual goals? And do you routinely achieve them?
If you create a goal without formulating a plan to achieve it, you’re just making a wish. It doesn’t matter if it’s a business goal or personal goal, without a plan to get there it’s not going to happen.
What is your goal for your business? For almost every business owner, the annual goal is usually “increase revenue” or “increase profit.” But how are you going to achieve that? Will you create a new product or service? Bring on more customers? Reduce costs?
If you’re going to create a new product or service, how will you market it? Is it a good add-on for your existing customers? If not, how will you sell to new customers? And what is the plan to onboard these new customers? Because you won’t increase revenue if you don’t make the sale. And you won’t increase profit if you can’t deliver the product or service.
If your goal is to increase profit, how will you do that? Are you planning to reduce costs? Will you reduce headcount or become more efficient? Or both?
And for personal goals, how will you achieve them? Maybe you want to run a 5k or complete a marathon. What is your training plan? How often will you train? When is the event? Do you have the right equipment and nutrition? When will you train?
As you can see, goals without a plan to achieve them will be lost. You need to clearly define the steps to reach your goal. And you should also set deadlines for each step. Most experts suggest that goals should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time Bound. But even if you create clear SMART goals, you still need to create a plan.
For example, if your goal is to run a 5k this year, then a SMART version of that goal would be to “run the Turkey Trot 5k at Thanksgiving in under 45 minutes”. It specifies the race, the distance, when it is and a deadline. But what it doesn’t do is tell you how to achieve it (the “A” in SMART). To achieve this goal, you need to determine your training plan, equipment needs, etc. to achieve your goal.
Setting goals is an excellent way to challenge yourself and move ahead with your business and your personal life. However, if you don’t create an executable plan along with setting those goals, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
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