9 Questions to ask yourself when setting goals for your business

1. What do you actually want to achieve? I know this sounds really obvious but it’s so important that you get really specific on exactly what you want to achieve in order to set some parameters & give you a clearer goal to work towards.

Eg. Instead of saying “my goal is to quit my job & go full-time”…a more specific version of this goal would be “My goal is to save X amount of money (I usually recommend at least 3 months worth of bills & living expenses) OR be making X amount on a consistent basis so I know I can leave my job & still have enough of a monthly income to cover the basics.”

2. Why do you want to work towards this goal? Writing down why you want to achieve a particular goal is a really useful way to really figure out if this is a goal worth working towards…or not! It can be easy to fall into the trap of setting similar goals to the types of goals you see other people set online, but sometimes that goal just isn’t right for you.

By getting really clear on the reasons why you want to work towards a goal (and putting it in writing!) you’ll also have a statement you can refer back to for an instant boost of motivation any time you’re struggling to get the work done.

3. How are you going to achieve this goal? Once you’ve set your goal, you then need to break down exactly what you’re going  to need to do to reach it. What are the actionable steps you need to take & what order do you need to take them in?

The more steps you break your goal into the easier it will be to take action so challenge yourself to break it down into at least 10-15 steps.

4. When do you want to achieve this goal by? Again, this is an obvious one, and doesn’t require any explanation other then to say setting a date and writing it down is really important - don’t miss this step!

5. What are the outputs of your goal? To make sure you know exactly what you’re aiming for, you need to consider what the outputs of the goal will be.

Eg. If your goal is to “Develop a marketing system that attracts & converts my audience into customers”, one of your outcomes could be to have a marketing plan that lays out how many times you’ll post on each platform & a tracker that demonstrates an increase in your conversion rate (side note: your conversion rate is the amount of people visiting your shop vs the amount of orders placed.)

6. How much time will it take to work on your goal? Again, pretty straight forward but most importantly you need to consider & plan out where will you find the time to work on this!

7. Is there anything you need to prepare to help you achieve your goal? - Is there any prep (e.g., learning, research etc.) you need to do before working on the goal? Are there any tools or resources you need to find/ invest in order to get started?

8. Are there any barriers you might face when working towards your goal? Can you foresee any barriers you may face when it comes to working on or achieving the goal? It’s important to identify this ahead of time so you can mitigate against it.

An example of a barrier could be, not having enough cash flow to order new materials or having unexpected childcare issues.

9. How will you measure your success? Ok, this is a big one and the most common consideration that gets left out of the goal-setting process! There is no point in setting a goal, if you don’t know what it will look like when you achieve it!

Write down exactly what achieving your goal will look like including any specific stats or metrics if relevant - this will give you a really clear measure to judge your success on so that when you do achieve your goal you can clearly see your success…and celebrate your achievement!