As this year is coming to a close, we are once again in planning and strategizing mode for the upcoming year.
It’s a time to reflect on the year that has passed, and a time to look forward to see what we want to accomplish in the new year.
One of the key pieces to setting up for a new cycle of business is to consider your goals. Business goals, personal goals, any goals you want.
When you know what you want, you can plot the course or the direction that will take you there.
By putting a tangible goal on paper, and then determining the steps you need to take to reach that goal, you can break it down into manageable steps … and get it done.
It’s important to think about goals for various areas of your life too.
Say you want to take a vacation. You do a lot of planning for that. You think about where you want to go, and what you want to do while you are there, but you also start to look for the best price, the best time of year to go. Then maybe you start to save your money to purchase the vacation, or to bring your spending money for those optional side trips you want to add. The point is you put a lot of planning into what you want to do on your vacation, and you should use the same principle for your business.
So here are a few tips to help you set effective goals:
1. Be precise. By putting dates, times and other key information in your goals, you can actually measure your achievements – especially if you break your goal down into bite size chunks. Celebrate your success each step of the way!
2. Prioritize your goals. If you have more than one goal, you want to be sure that you are putting the priority where it needs to go to gain maximum success sooner. So if you want to get 3 new clients, and you want to take some new training, prioritize the revenue-getting goal ahead of the training.
3. Write goals down. It’s much easier to remember what you are working towards when you have it written down. If you can, post your goals on a wall in your office so you can see them every day. The more you are able to see your goals in front of your eyes, the more the urge to reach them will stay at the surface of your mind.
4. Keep things bite-sized. Nothing will slow a goal down that have it overwhelm you. You can set a big goal, but remember to chunk it down into smaller, achieveable goals so you can move along each of those easily.
5. Be realistic. While it’s important to stretch yourself, setting goals that are too lofty can cause real disappointment. If you are new to goal setting, start small and gain your success that way. Stretch yourself with goals that will make you work just that much harder, but be sure to be realistic. If you are just starting your business this year, you don’t want to shoot for 6 figures by June (not that you can’t, but that could potentially be an unrealistic expectation).
6. Review. Once you have achieved a goal, you want to do an assessment of how it went. If you achieved it too easily, make the next goals more difficult. If you struggled, note why that happened and be prepared for the next set of goals so that doesn’t happen again. Be sure to note also what you have learned as a result of working towards a goal, so that you can change your path for the next time.
Goal setting is the best way to help you remember what it is you want from your business (or your life). Being able to manage goal setting effectively is a skill to master in your business.
Having a set path is the best way to visualize and achieve your success!
If you want some help to plan your goals for 2013, I invite you to book a laser session with me for just $49! http://www.yourvamentor.com/services/laser-mentoring-for-virtual-assistants/