Running a successful business requires careful planning and goal setting. That is why it is important to set actionable goals that you can actually achieve. To help you create effective and achievable goals, SMART is a good framework to start with.
The acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.
Let’s dive deeper into what each one of these five terms means and how they can help you develop actionable business goals.
Specific
Your goal should be specific enough so that you know exactly what you are aiming for. This gives you a clear target to focus on and keeps your motivation high. When setting your goals make sure they are clear, concise, and easy to understand. Avoid overly broad goals and instead break them down into smaller more manageable tasks that will help you reach your overall ambition.
Your goal should be clear and precise so that you know exactly what your target is. For example, instead of saying “I want to make more money this year”, try something like “I want to increase my monthly revenue by £2,000 by December 31st.”
Measurable
Making sure that your goal is measurable helps track progress towards achieving it. You should have tangible metrics in place so that you can easily measure success along the way. This way, if something isn’t going as planned you can adjust accordingly to get back on track towards achieving your goal.
You need a way to measure your progress in order to determine whether or not you are on track for achieving your goal. This could be a number (like the example above), or it could be something else—like a certain percentage increase in customer satisfaction ratings.
Achievable
It is important to set realistic goals for yourself so that they remain achievable. When creating goals think about what resources are available – time, money, people – and make sure the goal is something attainable given the resources at hand.
Make sure that your goal is realistic and attainable within the given timeframe. If it feels like an impossible task that will require too much work or resources, then scale back until it feels doable.
Realistic
Similar to achievable but slightly different; when creating a realistic goal make sure that it fits within the context of your current life situation. For example if you have young children at home then don’t set yourself an ambitious goal of working an extra 10 hours per week as this may not be feasible given all other commitments!
Analyse whether or not the goal is realistic for where your business currently stands before committing yourself to it completely. It also helps to break down larger long-term goals into smaller short-term ones so that achieving them seems more manageable in the present moment.
Timely
All effective objectives have a timeline associated with them so that they can be accomplished within a certain period of time.
Having an end date puts pressure on yourself which helps stay motivated when working towards achieving the goal. It also allows for better planning since there is less room for procrastination when working with an established deadline.
Quick Tip
It’s helpful to include some sort of reward system in order to keep yourself motivated throughout the process; something like “for every £500 increase in revenue I will treat myself with a massage or a meal out” can help keep things fun and exciting.
Conclusion
Setting SMART business goals helps keep focus on what matters most while allowing progress to be tracked along the way towards reaching them.
Creating actionable business goals doesn't have to be complicated or overwhelming - by using the SMART framework, you can easily create specific, achievable goals that will help guide your business towards success! With enough dedication and hard work, these goals will become reality before you know it - so get ready and start planning today!
The Confident CEO Journal is a great resource for CEOs who would like additional guidance around setting SMART goals as there are prompts included at the beginning of each month which invite readers into self-reflection around their own personal objectives and ambitions for the coming weeks and months ahead!
