Setting reasonable and achievable goals for your own business is a difficult challenge to battle. Learning about your business’ possibilities and probabilities in an uncertain climate makes creating a roadmap increasingly tough. Disciplining yourself and/or employees to hit targets is easier in some circumstances than others, and the crux of this comes from your realization of what is achievable. Constantly failing to meet targets is going to look bad on the business’ reputation and damage the morale of those creating the targets themselves.
Being self-employed instigates regulation. Marking out your own hours, networking with like-minded individuals, and understanding what achievements can be made under your personal circumstances. Knowing what you want to achieve and what is achievable don’t have to be two separate entities, but they usually are. ‘Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?’ doesn’t have to be a feared question. Answering that question with assurance and confidence may be your ticket to fulfilling those very goals. Below are just a few ways in which you can set reasonable goals for your business:
What do You Want? And How Can You Get It?
An immediate component to setting a goal is knowing what it is you want. Do you want sales to increase by X amount for next month? Creating more brand exposure by using a new social media outlet? These things can be realized in several ways. Be specific with what you want. The more specified you are with your goal, the easier it is to streamline. You can set the right people to the task or educate yourself in the area necessary to make progress.
An example of one goal that many businesses want to achieve is going global. Expanding your business’ reach over different nations can be an incredibly daunting task to undertake, especially when you lack the understanding of how it all works.
New Horizons Global Partners provides an extremely detailed and comprehensible guide on what global mobility is and how you can set out a global mobility structure into your business. New Horizons has fantastic global mobility consultants that you can add to your team. Their experience alone can act as a fountain of knowledge into global mobility for your business. They will be able to contextualize which methods would be appropriate for you and your business. Adding members to your team with specialist knowledge means that your goals become more apparent in a prompter fashion. When you have those contacts around you that can analyze your business in specific areas, they will relay what progress can be made.
Time is Your Concept
There may be many factors in why you cannot stick to your own deadlines. This might be from the concept of your timekeeping itself. For something to be attainable in your business, it usually needs to be under constraints—the biggest constraint of all being time. Giving yourself too few hours to complete a piece of work renders it impractical, and giving yourself too much time means it gets dropped to the bottom of the pile. Setting yourself clear deadlines will give you that push to finish a project. Scheduling your time with timetables will also help. A physical representation of your time will allow you to divide it however necessary and will be a tangible thing you can glance at when stuck for what to do. Buy a planner/diary if you need something three-dimensional. If not, services like Google calendar or Nextcloud will fulfill your time-keeping needs. To reiterate, make sure you do not put unnecessary pressure on yourself to complete something or be over lenient with those precious working hours. If it’s a new task you need to finish, give yourself that extra time on the first occasion but dial it back when it comes to doing it again.
Skimming Some Off the Top
Self-employed or not, saving money is always a win. Sometimes cutbacks and reducing costs become a necessity of the working world. However, there are ways to save money without negative impacts. If your business needs to reduce their spending, check what you’re spending on! There are occasions when you don’t need to be spending on something at all. Checking what expenses you can claim for can be a budgetary lifesaver. Keep a detailed record of what expenses are being made as there may be money savers hiding amongst them. You can check what expenses you can claim by finding out online with a self-employed expenditure sheet. On top of this, if there are companies you constantly use, check to see if they have loyalty schemes or customer rewards for you. Obtaining gift cards or using discount codes is a good way to start.
If your business requires you to travel a great deal for work, plan it out! Establishing each step of your journey and coinciding it with the best price for your budget may feel like just a difference of loose change, but if there’s a constant need for you to hit the road, then it’s going to be saving you a bunch in the long-term. Planning these trips in advance will save you money on plane tickets or knowing the most cost-effective route to take when driving will save you fuel.
Believe in Yourself, That’s the Place to Start
This may be somewhat obvious but believe in yourself and your accomplishments. Optimism is a driver unlike any other. When you start to feel that ambition rumbling through your body, catch it! Being optimistic about your aims doesn’t mean ignoring the trials you will face; it just means that you believe that you can overcome them. Thinking optimistically is not an overnight fix; you have to retrain and rework your brain to look at that glass half full. When your mind drops the shroud of pessimism, it doesn’t have to just affect you alone. Optimism can be contagious. If you work with others, you’ll likely notice a change in their attitudes if your outlook lies on the sunnier side of the hill. Conviction in your abilities is a great thing to instill in others. Packaging that belief to one of your employees could mean that the unreasonable goal for last month is now reasonable for this month! Focus on the positive opportunities that could arise and prepare for the more challenging outcomes. Being able to see those possibilities launches you into a newfound state of determination.
Reasonable Goals:
Realizing what you want requires looking internally – Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty to find the changes that need to be made to your business.
- Be specific – Detailing exactly what it is you want to achieve makes it easier to apply yourself to the task at hand in a direct manner.
- Time is money – Scheduling and setting deadlines means targets are always being hit.
- Having more makes more – Saving where you can, opens new doors to new goals.
Be proud of yourself! Building a business and setting goals is a fantastic achievement already! You’ve made it this far, and you can do even more. Look back at where you were, look presently at where you are, and look forward to where you could yet go.
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