How to set goals and achieve them

Why before What - setting goals with intention

For most of us, a new year represents a new start, a time for creating new habits with the general aim of doing things better, or earning more money, or reaching the stars, if that is where you want to head this year. Small businesses can find the symbolism of a new start useful when it comes to setting business goals for the year.

There are oceans of articles to swim through, books to read, podcasts to listen to, all giving dozens of tips on how to set goals, how to add these to your business plan, how to set out strategies for success. And yet, if it was as easy as following a recipe, then how is it that so many business owners find themselves a little lost from time to time and seeking out information and support?

I've learned that building a business needs more than just a measured set of ingredients, mixed in a particular way and baked at a specific temperature for a set time. Every business is as unique as its founder and some business activities will work better than others depending on the beliefs behind the impulse to create that activity. Which brings us back to the business founder.

While you're trying to work off the Blue Monday feeling that seems to last all week in the middle of January, spare a few moments to think about yourself and how you relate to the business you've created.

Start off by thinking of the Why.

We live in a time of chaos, apparently. We were living in a time of chaos and uncertainty when I started off in business towards the end of last century (yes, I am that old!). Uncertainty goes hand in hand with business and always has. We cannot control everything around us. What we can control is ourselves, and our responses to what happens in our lives. 

As you start the year and work on those goals that you want to achieve, spare a short space of time - ten or fifteen minutes, perhaps - at the start of each day, to think about why you want to meet those goals. What do they mean to you as a person? Why are you putting your life's energy into that work? Your energy, as the business leader, is what will be poured into everything that everyone does that day. If you understand why, so will others, because you will communicate that in all your interactions; you will have clarity on the business purpose and that will sharpen up what your goals should be.

Focus on what really matters

We talk all the time about priorities, especially when setting business goals. Sometimes priorities take the form of something proactive to reel in more customers - an advertising campaign, or a social media giveaway, for example. Sometimes they can be about avoiding that terrifying 'zero' in the bank account and chasing your debtors. And sometimes, probably more often than not, they are driven not by what we want, not by the force behind the business purpose, but by the priority of others.

Yes, I know you have to rake the money into the bank account, but if you are clear on why your business is, you will become clear on what your business does, and then chasing payments, or telling everyone on social media about how great your business is, become day to day, natural-flowing activities rather than headache-inducing priorities. Same activities, different motivation. Suddenly, your business is flowing and goals are being met.

Set your business intentions and achieve your business goals.

You now understand the why, you have focused on what really matters. What next?

In our portfolio, one of our biggest clients is a property management agency. Their why (earning a living) was eventually understood to be: because having a decent home is one of the most important things in life and we have the skills to make that happen for many people. Their own client portfolio has doubled in the past two years and they don't have to advertise these days; customers come to them. 

The next step is almost a natural forward movement, like walking, like following a bridge across a river. What is your why? What is your business why? What really matters to you, will be what matters to your business. 

Let us know what your intentions are for the year, share your experiences with us, tell us: what is your why?