Setting Goals and Achieving Them

calendarAn area many people struggle in is the simple task of setting goals and achieving them. It’s often overlooked because it seems so obvious and clear; many in business also get sucked in by the tireless day-to-day of their whole business. However, ask the truly successful how they built their business, and often something they will cite as a basic factor is having goals to strive for regardless of how large or small the company is (or how large or small the goal is). Having something to aim at in order to measure success even if it is something very small, can make the difference more than you might think. Setting up goals and a pathway to reach them is literally setting up the blueprints for your own success.

What goals to have can vary quite a bit, but the underlying theme is to bring definition to how you would quantify success in the field you work in. Maybe you’re a roofer and you set goals based around how many roofs you work on from spring through summer. Maybe your goal is sales based and you need to gain new business and retain existing customers. An entrepreneur or business owner would be the expert on what events taking place would help indicate success in their industry whether they were in terms of actual revenue or even just markers different departments of the company should be looking to hit; this article should be interpreted as a blanket guide to goal setting and achieving at large.

Goals should be both long-term and short-term. Start with the long-term. Who do you want to “be” in the marketplace in the ultimate sense? When consumers think of your product or service, how would you like them to visualize you? If you know the brand identity you seek well enough, there’s a good chance you understand a realistic or at least plausible time frame to get to this desired point of success. Mark the long-term time frame goal off as your “Point B” and consider where you start now to be your “Point A”. To set yourself on a course for where your trying to go, set goals on a yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily basis. I would caution from having too many to focus on because of it getting confusing and easier for them to slip through your fingers. Once you start doing this you will begin to see the roadmap that takes you where your looking to be.

Remember to keep these goals realistic. I don’t mean to seem like a pessimist in this sense, but it can take a toll on you to have goals set that are too ambitious or even blatantly absurd. Sure, sometimes the really intense goal makes you feel slick for a while, but often this is basically the result of leaving your emotions in control and allowing them to make business mistakes. Avoid them. Too high a goal will weigh you down. You will become tired, resentful, overwhelmed and dismissive about working toward what is simply not possible and that defeats the whole purpose of this. Remember it is not all going to happen in a day and it’s useless to spend a lot of time beating yourself up once you realize you can’t reach what was sort of a silly target from the beginning. Instead I would keep it as simple and realistic as you can. I’m not at all saying to set metrics that are “lazy” and easily achievable because that’s just as pointless. There’s no sense in feeling accomplished if you’re actually under performing. Set expectations where they should be if things go well.

When moving through a time to which you’ve set a goal, what you want to do is evaluate how you did in terms of making it. Maybe your crushing your own metrics of success right now. This is obviously not a negative thing, but it’s still a teachable moment. Did business pick up because of a recent event or holiday that skewed your numbers in a weird way? Can you account for some other force that is allowing you to easily beat your goals by such large numbers? If not, you likely set your goal too low. I would adjust it from there. If you’re coming up short on your goals, try to pick apart the reasons why for that as well. Fix the glitch and move on. You want to be basically on the nose hitting the goals you have set. In the end it means you understand what is happening around you. You are setting realistic goals and you are also achieving them. This is the habitual behavior of the most successful people in the world.

If your business struggles with setting and achieving goals, call Purple Diamond at 978-927-0626 or email Marketing Coach Charlene St. Jean at Charlene@purplediamondmarketing.com .  Don’t leave your success up to chance or allow months or years to pass by without setting and reaching sales and marketing goals!

 

13757_10205042654080952_6777316954586659264_nWritten by Guest Blogger – Ken Pellegrino.   Ken Pellegrino is a freelance writer and part-time marketer at Purple Diamond LLC with a background in business management, marketing, sales and customer relations. A graduate from Salem State University’s Bertolon School of Business with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Marketing, Ken shares his passion for marketing and sales with the owner of Purple Diamond, his mother, Charlene St Jean. In addition to his love of marketing, Ken is also a talented guitarist who enjoys both writing and playing music.