Are you setting your business up for success? Read about practical goal-setting tips for your business and learn from these proven strategies to achieve your goals.
Building startups is not easy. Goal-setting is a standard business practice, you have to have the right experience to increase your chances of success. If you are a new startup founder, you might feel like you’re stuck. But always remember that you are not alone in your journey.
Matt DeCoursey, CEO & founder of Full Scale, shared an old saying, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” And, there is truth to that. Poor business planning is one of the reasons why most startups become unsuccessful. So how can you build business goals effectively? Let’s find out goal-setting tips in planning your startup.
Are you setting yourself up to win?
“If you don’t have goals, how do you know if you’re doing well or if you’re not doing well?” Matt continues, “Goals are a critical part of success in any business.”
Planning is an essential part of the startup process. Make sure that you are setting yourself up for success. Goal-setting is only one part of it. Draw out where you are and where you want to be. As a startup founder, you might not realize that one must enjoy the process as well.
Hernan Sias, host of the Business Bros Podcast said, “If you have a destination in mind and you know exactly where you’re going, then you can track how far away you are, how far off course you are, how close you are, what the speed is that you’re going, and how fast you’re gonna get there. So many different measures that you can measure if you have a goal in mind.”
You would not expect to get revenue right away. You might feel overwhelmed or overworked to achieve your vision. Keep in mind that being grounded in reality keeps you from gearing towards idealistic goals. That’s where proper business goal setting comes into play. How do you find that one thing that you wouldn’t mind working on hours in a day?
Where should I start?
Start with passion. When you think about it, passion isn’t something you learn in business schools. Instead, when you pursue something you love most, it functions as the best motivator to launch the business.
Achieving business goals in this fashion creates more significant rewards besides money. Your startup business goals should center around a solution to a big problem on top of gearing towards profit.
“What I really wanna know is how many people learned something that would impact the way that they conduct their business and make it better and easier for them to conduct business.
Figuring out a way to track that in a way that is quantitative rather than qualitative has been a really big struggle and it is for every single impact organization that I know of.“ says Lauren Conaway, Founder & CEO of InnovateHER KC.
When you align your business goals with what you’re passionate about, it creates a whole new business goal. Then, you act on it by building a plan for your solution. Once you have already drawn out your plan, it’s time to put it into action.
It helps to develop a learning habit that will help you in achieving your business goals. Now, what are effective goal-setting tips you can use for your startup?
Goal-setting Tips for Entrepreneurs
Getting started on your startup business goals should be easy. You have to have the dedication and discipline as a startup founder to see everything through. So what’s next?
Develop a business plan
Spend time to do your research and create your business plan. Define your goals and the milestones along with them.
If you’ve already decided on a product or service that you think people will be interested in, then it’s time to start building it. Without a clear plan, you might find yourself struggling. Instead, focus on specific goals that you want to accomplish and drive them to action.
Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Defining specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely goals means you have a sense of direction. This method has been around for quite some time but it’s never outdated. You keep realistic goals in mind to avoid being too overwhelmed.
Joel Johnson, CEO & Founder of Mixtape, shares that “it is good to document and track your goals because in the beginning it gives you things to work towards and then looking backward gives you the ability to measure what you’ve accomplished. By looking at your goals and where you landed you will be able to make decisions about what you should do going forward.”
Documenting the wins and losses of your startup journey will serve as a valuable reference for your growth. It’s understandable that, as a startup, excitement tempts you to want to scale fast. However, relevant timelines and milestones help create realistic projections for your business to scale accordingly.
Create Short-term and Long-term Plans
Review what you have accomplished daily. Why is this important? Writing down what you have achieved in a day helps you prepare for what needs to be done the next day.
Kyle Steppe, Founder & COO of KC Hemp Co., share one thing they do yearly. He says, “My favorite thing to do at the end of the year is set the next year’s goals. So we always start there with the 12-month plan.
Now we can have a five-year plan and you need to revisit that yearly as well. But basically, we like to set out at the beginning of the year that this is what we are accomplishing this year and we need to break it down quarterly and then even monthly to figure out what we need to be doing.”
Get into the habit of checking what little or significant progress you have made daily to keep focused on things that matter. Set short-term business goals that are essential for you to move forward to long-term goals. You cannot just concentrate on your big business goals.
Business Goal-Setting Simplified
Launching your startup business takes a lot of effort as a founder. But, what drives it forward is your passion for the work you do. So, create a company that is in line with your passion.
Set yourself up for success. Celebrate even the little wins. These help you stay motivated to push forward especially if it’s something you’re passionate about.
Moreover, you just can’t learn passion. But when you find it, build it into a solution for your customers. This is why it is imperative to look for the best goal-setting tips you can follow.
Developing your business plan takes time. Therefore, it is imperative to set SMART goals that will help you create relevant business goals. You need a team to help you build your business.
Here at Full Scale, we bring together experienced software development and marketing professionals who are goal-oriented. In addition, we support partnerships for software products and services that will help scale your business.
We support startup entrepreneurs like yourself, too. That’s why we created Startup Hustle TV to build a community of entrepreneurs who know the hustle. So, expand your network or talk about money, failure, or opportunities. Find your tribe by subscribing to our YouTube channel.
