Goal setting is important for any business, but it's especially important for small businesses. Because when you're just starting out, it can be tough to know what you should be aiming for. Are you trying todo this? That? Or the other? And that's where business goals come in. They help give your business direction and focus and can help you make important decisions about the products and services you offer, how they are priced as well as how you end up marketing them. So today, we wanted to discuss what business goals are and why exactly they're so important. Read on to see why and get our tips to help you set effective goals for your business.
Why are business goals important?
Business goals are important because they help you focus your time and energy on the things that will move your business forward. Essentially, they act as your north star and help you make decisions about what is worth and not worth your time. Without goals, it's easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day tasks of running a business and lose sight of what you're trying to achieve. So by setting goals, you can keep yourself focused on the most important tasks and be confident that every decision you make is helping you reach your objectives.
Here are examples of business goals (pulled from our marketing strategy questionnaire):
- Launch my business
- Launch a new product or service
- Make my brand more recognizable
- Increase number of leads
- Get better leads
- Increase sales and revenue
- Do a better job with SEO
- Get more clients
- Get more customers
There are a few things to keep in mind when you're setting business goals. First, while it is okay to have multiple goals for your business, each one should still be specific—meaning focused on one particular thing. So rather than setting a goal that is "overstuffed" with multiple things you want to achieve (like I want to launch a new product and do a lot of SEO for it), it would be more effective to set 2 separate goals:
- I want to launch a new product
- I want to do a do a lot of SEO around my new product
Taking this approach helps you understand the breadth (read: scope or amount of things) of what you are trying to do, and in turn, helps you create a realistic plan for achieving them (read: you won't overtask yourself). It will also help you figure out how to track your progress. We really recommend this simple approach because if your goal is too ambitious or unclear, it can be discouraging if you don't know what to do or see results right away. Finally, your goals should also be relevant to your business. What do we mean by that? Well, as a small business owner, it doesn't make sense to set a goal like "become a Fortune 500 company." (Not that you eventually can't...you just need to time your goals to be actionable with the resources you have.)
How to set goals that mean something
Now that you know why business goals are important and what makes for an effective goal, let's talk about how to set them. The first step is to take a look at your business as a whole and decide what you want to achieve. If you have a mission or vision statement, that is a good place to look for inspiration, but you can also think about doing a little research on businesses similar to yours. Once you have an idea of where your business stands and where you want it to go, you can start setting specific goals.
But to get back to the title of this article, what are we saying when we talk about setting goals that "mean" something? Essentially, we mean everything we just covered—each of your business goals should be focused on one particular and realistic thing. But the other thing we need to mention is your goals don’t mean anything unless they plug into your action plan. Because, in the end, if you don't know what to do after setting a goal, it doesn't actually mean anything for your small business. And that's where Enji comes in!
When you create your marketing strategy on Enji, we ask you what your goals are (as well as other things like your objectives), and after you've completed a quick questionnaire, your customized marketing plan is ready to go! It outlines the marketing tasks you should consider doing, the metrics (key performance indicators) to track, and makes it easy for you to create targeted marketing campaigns. Sound like something that would really help you drive your small business to success? Create your free trial account and start with Enji today!
