Smart goal setting is an absolute must for people who want to succeed. Without clear goals, you will not have a solid direction on where you’re heading in your life.
For running a business, goals can help take your business to the next level, but there are different things you have to factor in.
The following are three tips for goal-setting for modern entrepreneurs.
1. Set SMART Goals
Set specific and measurable goals so you’re more likely to achieve them. One of the best methods of goal-setting is setting SMART goals.
Ensure that your goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bounded.
You have a better chance of achieving SMART goals than those that are vague, too broad, or don’t have a specific target date for completion.
If you not sure exactly how to start creating your own SMART goals, check out this complete guide to powerful goal-setting that is full of tips and real-life examples.
2. Redefine Your Time
Time management is always an important skill to have, but this is especially true when you’re an entrepreneur. As such, you should start thinking in terms of focus days, buffer days, and free days.
This idea is based on Dan Sullivan’s Entrepreneurial Time System.
It’s a unique planning system that structures time into three very different kinds of days that are pre-scheduled to assure the highest payoff for your efforts, while still allowing abundant amounts of free time.
- A focus day is where you spend at least 80% of your time operating in your core genius doing the things that create bottom-line results.
- Buffer days are spent preparing and planning for a focus or a free day — either by learning a new skill, locating a new resource, training your support team, delegating tasks to others, and so on.
- A free day extends from midnight to midnight and involves no work-related activity of any kind.
By cycling between these different types of pre-scheduled day structures, you’ll actually be to get more things done while still maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
3. Share Your Goals
Since you’re working with a team to help you accomplish your goals, it’ll work out much better when you have your team’s buy-in.
While having clear, direct goals may help teammates have clarity, allowing individuals to set their own objectives can be more effective than setting their goals for them and telling them to meet them.
When they make goals themselves, they’re more likely to be motivated to follow through.
And if you’ve chosen the right people to be on your team, they will choose goals that align with yours.
And vice versa, listening to the goals of your team members is something to take into consideration when you’re setting your business goals.
Take a look at your current business goals.
Are they SMART goals? Write an action plan on how you’re going to accomplish them.
Should you do it yourself? Delegate to a team member? Hire it out? Some goals will come way easier than you expected by simply taking action.
As the beloved originator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series, Jack Canfield fostered the emergence of inspirational anthologies as a genre—and watched it grow to a billion dollar market. As the driving force behind the development and delivery of over 100 million books sold through the Chicken Soup for the Soul® franchise, Jack Canfield is uniquely qualified to talk about success. Jack is America’s #1 Success Coach and wrote the life-changing book The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be and Jack speaks around the world on this subject. Check out his newest book The 30-Day Sobriety Solution: How to Cut Back or Quit Drinking in the Privacy of Your Own Home. Follow Jack at www.jackcanfield.com and sign up for his free resources today!
Image courtesy of Bench Accounting.
