How to set goals for successful entrepreneurs with small businesses
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As we continue to go through a slow period for small businesses, many are wanting to focus on brightening their future endeavors by setting goals to help them succeed in the long-run.
You might have a goal in mind, whether it be for work or personal, but have no idea to go about how to set up a goal.
You might feel overwhelmed by your goal and feel stuck in executing your goal for the vision in your head.
You might have a roadblock on one section of your goal and don’t know how to overcome it.
There are many reasons why you might not be actively reaching for your goals right now, but it’s important to focus on setting goals that are manageable and realistic for your circumstances.
The following tips are here to help you learn how to set goals that achievable as an entrepreneur. Again, these can be personal- or work-related, but they prove the most beneficial at work during this trying time for small businesses.
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How to set goals for work
Setting Goals Tip 1: Why?
Just like with your business, understand why you want to accomplish this goal on a deeper level. You probably will come up with a few reasons why in the process of finding out why you want to set your goal, but knowing it on multiple levels will help you stick with it throughout your highs and lows.
A good goal-setting tip: Imagine there is a two-year-old on your shoulder. When you tell yourself your ‘why,’ listen to your two-year-old another time and continue to go deeper. Don’t stop until you can’t go another round.
Make sure when you go about devising your plan that you stay focused on all your whys and especially your deepest one rather than the supposed shallow one at the very top. This will help you stay preoccupied with succeeding in the long run.
Setting Goals Tip 2: Vision
Create a vision board. It sounds like advice you would give a grade-schooler but it’s so helpful when achieving your goals. This goal-setting undated planner will even help you envision your goal for as long as you need it with monthly affirmation and multiple to-do sections.
Just like with your why, you’ll want to be as detailed as possible when you’re envisioning how you are going to set your goal and what your goal will look like at the finish line. Make sure it’s something you can recall or look at when you’re feeling discouraged.
Don’t get caught up in the ‘how’ yet. You can acknowledge them but they aren’t the result that you want to focus on right now. You’ll want to stay focused on the result to see what you might have to accomplish in the future.
Setting Goals Tip 3: Break it down
So now that we have our tips for 'why’ and ‘vision’ down, we need to find ways to accomplish our goal. It can be overwhelming when we have a vision but no way to get there.
With our result in mind, you want to divide your goal into sections. Divide your goal even more until you better manage each on a reasonable basis. You might find that some tasks are too small or large for you to handle throughout your process, so adjust it as needed.
If you need to learn any skills to achieve your goal, this process might seem longer than necessary. You might have a few different ways to accomplish your mini-goal, like hiring someone for a task rather than doing it yourself, but no matter the way you get there, you’ll get there.
Setting Goals Tip 4: Write it down
Once you find yourself dissecting your goal, you’ll want to write it down with each of its parts. Writing down how you’re setting a goal will help you have more tangible proof that you are accomplishing your vision.
You should be writing down every step it will take on how to set up your goal’s vision. I would suggest you physically write it down rather than type your goal up. Writing helps you retain and process information differently than typing it on the nearest piece of technology available to you.
Nothing is saying you can’t keep two copies to evaluate your process later with a cleaner compilation of your steps, but you should prioritize your written copy more. You might even invest in a goal-setting planner to later write in time frames or deadlines that will help you achieve your goal.
Setting Goals Tip 5: S.M.A.R.T.
You’ve probably heard this acronym a few times if you are trying to find ways to set and accomplish your goals.
S.M.A.R.T., in short, means:
S-Specific
M-Measurable
A-Achievable
R-Relevant
T-Time-Manageable
When you’re going through each of these tips to set up your goal, you are working through the S.M.A.R.T method. You can keep the acronym to reference the process you’ve established for your goals every time you set yourself a new goal.
Whether you’re in the early stages of growing your small business as a successful entrepreneur or thriving and looking to take the next step, you can learn how to set goals in a methodological way. There doesn’t have to be stress about any of the processes until you set to accomplish your goal.
With this goal-setting planner, your plans to follow through on each step of your goal can be achieved.
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