Practice business goal setting to avoid common pitfalls

Business goal setting is not a business model. It is about setting your ultimate outcomes and aspirations of what you hope to get from your business. A business is just like your personal life. In fact, I would think that most people take care of their businesses even more than themselves. They would do anything to make business successful. Unfortunately it is this mindset that sometimes this clouds judgment and many people ended up sacrificing more than they should for their business.

So just like in life, you need good business goal setting to prevent yourself from losing sight of your initial goal and turning your business into your burden. I have seen this happen to many people and I have seen it up close as well as I have family members who have experienced it.

In the worst case scenario, the big danger in being a business owner is that ;

1. Many people view their business as their child. After all the hard work, effort and time put into it, most are not willing to give up on it or make major changes to their business. This, as I mentioned earlier, clouds their better judgment.

2. The cost of shutting down (or selling) the business is too high for you to consider. Meanwhile the business isn’t making you much money, but requires a lot of time and effort to be put it. You are effectively trapped.

This is why business goal setting is so important to prevent that from happening. These are the benefits if you did the initial goal setting for your business when starting out ;

• Avoid being trapped in your business as the above scenario

• Keeps you on track to your initial business aspirations and plans

• You have something to reference against whether your business is doing well (clear judgment)

• By reviewing constantly, you never lose sight of your ultimate outcome

• Allows you set focus on the important things and not be distracted by small stuff

Business Goal Setting

Whether you are just starting your business, still in the planning stage, or have been a business owner for many years now, take the time to do business goal setting. Use a notepad and answer to the following questions as best as you can. Make it clear, specific and detailed. Use it as an action guide to keep you and your business on the track to true success.

What do I hope to achieve from this business? (financially, freedom, contribution, time, satisfaction, others)

Describe clearly what is your outcome for the business and the reasons for the outcome. What do you hope to get from it & why do you want to get that?

Answer questions like how do you hope it will affect you financially, physically, emotionally, time, freedom etc. Be specific and make it measurable. Like make X dollars profit per month. Gives you X amount of free time. Allows you to do X and X.

What steps must I take to achieve those successes? (these are the short term goals of your business)

What must you achieve or what steps must be taken for you to achieve each of those outcome. Brainstorm this and you will have come up with a good business plan.

How much resources (time, money, energy, health) am I willing to put in to this business initially? (give yourself a time limit for this initial stage)

It is inevitable that in the beginning, every business owner must put in a lot of time and effort into the business to make it work. That is just how it works, you are building a business for the future. Note the word building. After it has a solid foundation, usually (but not always) it would then require less maintenance.

However having said that, we should also try to maintain some balance and not do too much. Don’t work all hours of the night for consecutive days or weeks. Give it you all but don’t push it over the limit where it is affecting your health and it makes you very unhappy. It is not worth it. If slowing down means the business needing a slightly longer time to bring results, so be it. Part of the joy is in the journey.

If you find that you just have too much to do with very little time, try reviewing your tasks and only do the most important and urgent tasks first. If it’s urgent but not important, forget about it cause it will not have much impact anyway. Always remember the 80/20 rule. 80% of your results comes from 20% of your effort.

How much resources am I willing to put into the business (what is it costing me) consistently in the long term?

This is how much does it cost you to maintain and grow the business AFTER it’s foundation is set. If it takes up a lot of your time and energy, do something about it immediately. The last thing we want is to be a slave to our business.

How do I know if I have achieved what I want from this business

A way would be to describe what your lifestyle would be like when you have achieved it. What your daily life would be like?

What are the changes I should make to my current business to meet the goals?

How do I ensure that I do not get trapped and turn my business into a burden?

Here brainstorm ways for you to ensure you don’t lose track of your initial goal.

Final thoughts….

As with anything in life, proper and thorough planning is vital to success. Don’t jump right into the pool, always do your homework first.

Many people aspire to be a business owner, unfortunately many quickly found out that running a business is not what they initially thought it would be. Prevent yourself from getting into that group with proper business goal setting.

May you have a strong solid business.

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