If you haven’t set a goal, how do you know what success is? Does your success look the same as everyone else’s?
I’ve been working a lot (yes, welcome to the world of being a business owner, right?). Speaking at events, podcast interviews and client sessions keep me on my toes.
I needed the opportunity to have time out. I was invited to a charity golf day. I’m not a huge golf fan. I was then told I didn’t need to play, but could come along and drive a cart. With the thought of lovely scenery, and the opportunity to disconnect from work for a while, I said okay.
The perfect chance to have time out for 2 hours at the end of a very busy week, and enjoy some fresh air.
Playing golf was not one of my goals. I have played a few times in the past and it doesn’t interest me (the playing of it anyway).
I was happy to drive a golf cart and watch others playing and have a chat too.
Those playing golf asked me more than once, ‘Did I want to play?’ They were surprised when I said no. And even more surprised when I seemed happy and content not playing.
Because my goals for the day were clear to me, and I was achieving them, it didn’t matter if not playing golf didn’t make sense to others.
When you have defined goals, it is so much easier to stay focused and to have a chance at achieve them.
I apply this same logic to my business, and any clients I engage with. We all have to start with defining goals. Without them it makes no sense. After all if we don’t know what we are aiming for, how on earth can we achieve it?
So you say your goal is to achieve sales, welcome to being in business. Essentially, everyone one who is in business, and wants to stay in business, has a goal to get sales.
“If you cannot see it, you cannot have it.”
Everyone’s goals are different. Don’t expect them to be the same. So, even if you say to get more sales, this looks different depending on what your business is.
Having your Goals defined is your opportunity to articulate what you want to achieve.
So how many sales do you need to be successful?
When do you want to achieve these sales?
In order to measure your goal you need to define it in terms of being SMART. That is,
Specific – What is it you really want to achieve?
Relate your business goals to the stage of the business relationship you want.
Do you want to build awareness with people who don’t know of you yet?
Do you want to engage with people who know about you?
Do you want to convert people who are engaging with you?
Measurable – What quantities do you need?
Awareness – How many do you want people do you want to become aware of you?
Engagement – How many people do you want to engage with you?
Conversion – How many sales/ enquiries do you want?
Actionable – Can this goal be actioned?
This goal needs to be actionable. There needs to be clear steps to take to make it happen.
Realistic – Are you set up for success?
Understanding your business and what is currently working, is key to your success.
All goals need time and money invested. It needs to be assessed for being realistic. This is where it’s important to look at your ROAS you want to achieve.
ROAS is simply ‘Return On Ad Spend’ Regardless of if you are online or not with the advertising activity you are doing, you need to define how much return on your investment you want to achieve.
If you have never set this before for digital marketing, look at other activities you have done that have been successful and set the benchmark there.
Timed – Set a time frame.
How can you celebrate achieving your goal without a time limit?
Without a time frame, you are not accountable.
Time bound goals give us the opportunity to track, measure and optimise.
To keep my business on track I set personal, physical and professional SMART goals for 90 days, 6 months and 2 years.
Going to the golf charity day enabled me to achieve my personal 90 day goal of disconnecting from technology for 2 hours every week. No computer, no phone, purely the opportunity to be in the moment.
The added bonus was I got to socialise with other business owners and community members. (Something I realise that is so important as a business owner with a young family who doesn’t always socialise as much as they could.)
This holistic view ensures I’m in good shape to make the most of business success, after all, what’s the point of working if we cannot enjoy and celebrate our success?
How are you achieving your business goals?
