Setting business goals for the new year can be difficult. Everyone wants growth for their business in the new year. That is the overarching goal always. What can be tougher to create is goals that serve as steps to get there. These steppingstones are pertinent to reaching your overarching growth. Here are some steps that can allow you to begin building your steppingstones to your new year's goals.
Start with a reflection of the year you are soon leaving.
Many businesses spend the goal creation phase, just looking forward. How can you know where to go unless you have looked where you have come from? Analyze 2020 and what it has presented to you. For all businesses, this year has been filled with unprecedented challenges. But something is to be said about how you have overcome these unforeseen obstacles. Rather than just visualizing what worked and what did not, sit down and write these out. This part of goal creation can make new goal accomplishments possible.
After writing out what was good and bad or what worked and what didn't, you can begin writing out why your businesses' reaction to the circumstances did not amount to what you expected—finding out why or what was missing could be one of your first stepping stones in the new year.
Deciding a timeline for accomplishing your business goals.
The reflection period should give you essential information on how your business conducted itself throughout the year. It would help if you also had justified your business's activities and how they could have been improved.
Now, the next step is building your timeline for your goals. This timeline should be a reflection of how your business conducted itself within the current year. If you had written out many improvements that could have been made, you might need to have more concise monthly goals for your business. If you could only see minor modifications that need to be made, you may only need bi-monthly or quarterly goals. Remember that you are making these goals for your team to help you accomplish, so you must consider their work ethic when building your goals timeline for the new year.
Being sure your goals are measurable.
Ensuring your goals are measurable makes tracking your goals and comparing them to the previous year more effective. To gain investors or create buzz around your business, you must show proof of growth throughout your business life. While increasing numbers is suitable for your business, it is also important to show consistency in your development over time. This can create a greater sense of reliability around your business and its capabilities. Measurable goals can also make growth more attainable because you have proof to look back on from year to year. This may be another reason you want to set monthly or at least quarterly goals throughout the year to watch the growth toward your overarching goal.
It is also more effective to make your overarching goal measurable. While many set broad goals for the growth of either reaching more people or increasing revenue, what you need to ask yourself is how many more people you want to achieve, how much more income you would like to make, or increase automation to a certain degree. Being sure your measurable are also realistically attainable will make accomplishing them more useful. Achieving goals can release endorphins that decrease stress and increase happiness, so setting smaller goals closer together can increase motivation within the office.
Set business goals for the new year.
Now that we have provided you the background for building goals, this should make setting them easier. Each business, industry, and team is different, so it is up to you as the employer or CEO what works best for your business. But when in doubt, rely on the reflection period of your business. Your business is unique, and more often than not, depending on your work can speak books to where you can go in terms of growth in a single year. Many companies may work on a five-year goal basis. Just be continually evaluating as the market shifts to ensure your goal and timeline still have the same percentage of attainability. Lean on your team but allow them to lean on you too. Make your team a part of the goal-setting process because if goals can be set collectively, that makes as much in the accomplishment for your team as it is for you.
Say goodbye to this year and hello to the new year in the best way possible. Your business and your employees need it!