You’re not alone if you’re unsure how to clarify your goals for your small business – especially if you’re not even sure what you want.
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Often, when we think about setting business goals we think about some bigwigs in a Fortune 500 company sitting around a large table in a boardroom throwing ideas around.
And, yes, I’m sure they do sit around a big table and talk about what the company needs to achieve in the coming year in order to remain profitable and satisfy stockholders.
But that’s not us, is it?
So let’s just get that idea out of our heads so that we can get down to the business of clarifying the goals we want to achieve in our small online home business, shall we?
WHY YOUR SMALL BIZ NEEDS GOALS
Because even us little guys need to set goals for our small business if we want to remain in business.
In fact, setting appropriate goals is the first step we should take in order to move our business forward and make it successful.
But before we can set appropriate goals, we need to gain some clarity. We need to get crystal clear about what exactly it is that we want to achieve so that we can get to work making it happen.
So how do we get started?
GOAL SETTING 101
The first thing to keep in mind that a goal is an outcome you want to achieve. It’s likely to be a fairly big statement about something you want to bring into your life.
And here’s the kicker about goals – you don’t always have total control over the outcome.
The dirty little secret that lots of people won’t tell you about setting goals is that you can set them, do the work, and still fall short of achieving them.
Total bummer, right?
Hopefully that doesn’t deter you from even bothering to set goals. It shouldn’t. Because even though there’s no guarantee we’ll fully achieve our goals, it is a guarantee that we’ll never even get close to achieving the things we want if we don’t set goals.
And here’s the important thing to remember – while we may not have total control over the end result, we do have control over the process.
In other words, we DO have control over the projects and tasks that we choose that will make it more likely that we will achieve our goals.
So with that in mind, let’s talk about how to set goals while keeping in mind that sometimes we’re really outlining the completion of projects that support the achievement of the goal.
SETTING SMART GOALS
A little background on goal setting:
If you’re not familiar with the concept of SMART goals – or if you’re unsure what a SMART goal is, then here’s a quick rundown.
The word “SMART” is an acronym for Smart, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time Bound. These are the components that make up a good goal that is clear, specific, and doable.
Too often people set lofty, unattainable goals (or what is unattainable for the immediate future) and then are surprised when they fall short.
A SMART GOAL EXAMPLE
So let’s take a look at how to set a SMART goal by using the example of a retired teacher who wants to make a little extra income each month.
When we start out, our teacher just knows that she wants to earn some extra money each month so that she’s got more flex in her budget. But right now she’s not sure what kind of a goal to set or how to set it so that she’s got a greater chance of making it happen.
Since she’s currently not making anything extra, setting a goal of “I want to make extra money” doesn’t really tell her what she’s working for – and she won’t know when she’s achieved this goal. After all, if she makes $5 a month has she achieved the goal even though $5 a month won’t make any difference in her budget?
So it makes sense to start of with something reasonable – an extra $500 a month would be great. And she can easily know at the end of each month whether she’s earned this amount or not (and it’s an amount that makes a difference while not being so ridiculously pie-in-the-sky that she’s deluding herself).
But remember, she’s currently making no extra money and so it makes sense that it’s going to take some time and work to get that $500 coming in regularly. It’s not something that is likely to happen in just one month (although it would be great if it did – but that’s probably setting herself up for disappointment).
Therefore, a reasonable time frame for completion of this goal is to consistently earn an extra $500 a month by the end of the year.
She’s now got a SMART goal.
- It’s specific ($500 per month),
- measurable (she can tell each month whether she made it or not),
- attainable (it’s something that isn’t totally out of reach),
- relevant (it will make a difference in her budget each month)
- and it’s time-bound (she’s giving herself until the end of the year to achieve it)
This is a SMART goal because every component necessary has been accounted for. She’s much more likely to achieve this goal than if she’d said “I want to earn an extra million dollars this year” with no clue whatsoever how to make that happen.
The best goals follow the SMART rule and we want to strive to state all of our goals in this manner – because doing so helps us determine our projects and tasks.
TO CLARIFY YOUR GOALS, DETERMINE WHAT YOU WANT
But what about when you’re not sure yet about what you actually want – you’ve only got a hazy idea of what you want to achieve?
Well, if that’s the case, you’re probably still in the vision phase…and that’s okay. There is a way to turn a hazy vision into a clearer goal and turn it into reality.
One exercise I’ve found that helps us gain clarity in what we want is called The Four Realizations (you can call it whatever you want – I just made that name up).
HOW TO CLARIFY WHAT YOU REALLY WANT
It’s actually a very simple process to go through and when I sat down not too long ago to think about this it helped me figure some things out that had been eluding me for quite some time.
This is what you do:
- either label four pieces of paper OR divide one piece of paper into 4 equal quadrants
- label each piece of paper with one of the four realizations: Things I Can Do, Things I Cannot Do, Things I Want To Do, and Things I Do NOT Want To Do
- under each heading start writing things that apply to each realization. Don’t censor yourself and don’t judge your responses. Just be honest with yourself about the things you can and can’t do, and the things you do and don’t want
Once you’ve created these four lists, spend some time thinking about each one. You may discover some things that you hadn’t really admitted to yourself about the kind of things you do and don’t want in your life…and in your business.
For example, when I went through this exercise it became very clear to me that I no longer wanted to work 12 hour days every day. My health issues have imposed some limitations on me (whether I like it or not) that I need to honor in order to not totally grind myself into the ground.
I also realized that want and need more flexibility in my work schedule than I’d been allowing myself.
So now when I sit down to plan my week I don’t plan seven days devoted to work (yes, I used to be a serious workaholic). I’m planning for three work days during the week and then working Saturday and Sunday afternoons. This schedule wouldn’t work for everyone, but it works for the schedule at our house and that’s all that matters.
Because when I really examined our lives, I realized that we prefer to get out of the house to do our shopping and errands during the week and then stay home on the weekends when things are more crowded. Besides, we end up with doctor appointments for someone in the house during the week too so that always threw a clod in my weekly plan because I always felt like I should be “working” a Monday through Friday schedule.
If I hadn’t gone through the exercise I would still be planning a schedule that works against the natural rhythms of our life and ending up frustrated.
It’s so much better to just admit how our life works and then work within those parameters.
GETTING CLEAR ON YOUR GOALS MAKES PLANNING EASIER
Gaining clarity on your goals is the first step to creating goals that you can actually achieve. Once you’re clear about what you want, you can then determine the projects that will support the completion of the goal. Without clarity, you’re really flying blind because you’re working from a place of confusion.
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