Now is the perfect time to start considering your business goals for next year. Not in December and certainly not in January but right now. If you don’t get why goal setting is important, then read on.
We’re going to convince you that chasing every shiny object and the latest squirrel is not an effective strategy for your business.
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Content Strategy from Scratch workbook
Daily Achievers’ Weekly Action Planner
[Theresa] The new year is right around the corner. And here you are, poised to begin this one without a clear understanding of what you want to achieve.
This is maddening to me because many of the struggles solo entrepreneurs experience are totally avoidable. Taking the time to understand what you really want and then creating effective goals will make marketing your business easier. End of story.
[Meghan] Of course, simply setting goals won’t eliminate all of your struggles with marketing, but it does minimize them.
Types of Goals
[Theresa] That’s a great point. Setting goals WILL minimize your marketing struggles. That’s just one of many benefits of goal setting.
Before we dive into why goal setting is important, let’s touch on the different types of goals.
[Meghan] Good idea. First up are long-term goals.
Long-term goals are those you want to achieve in the distant future. They typically take you a long time to accomplish.
Here’s an example:
My business will gross 500K by the end of 2027.
This is a long-term goal because your deadline is five years away. Think “big picture” when it comes to long-term goals. Long-term goals are critical because they inform your short-term goals.
[Theresa] That’s right. Short-term goals are those you want to achieve in the near future. Yearly goals are examples of that.
For instance, if your long term goal is to gross 500K by the end of 2027, your short term goal may look like this:
My business will gross 100K by December 31, 2022.
Short-term goals require more immediate action. Their purpose is to lead you closer to your long-term goals.
In other words, I’m doing this to achieve that.
The Problem With Goal Setting
[Meghan] Now that you understand the difference between long-term and short-term goals and how they work together, let’s discuss the bigger problem.
[Theresa] The issue I see is that you’re not setting long-term goals and you’re not really setting short-term goals either.
Instead, you’re setting what I call “in the moment” goals. These are super short-term goals. They are typically projects or to-do list items that you want to get over the finish line right away. And by right away I mean, today or this week.
“In the moment” goals are deceptive. As you cross items off the to-do list or finish the project, you feel a sense of accomplishment. But the question is are you really accomplishing anything?
You can say yes IF those “in the moment” goals are part of an action plan to achieve your short-term goals and, therefore, your long-term goals.
[Meghan] However, if you are just taking action without a solid grasp of what those tasks or projects are helping you achieve, then the answer is no.
Completing a task or project doesn’t mean that you’ve accomplished what matters to the success of your business.
Why You Aren’t Setting Goals
[Theresa] This is a common pitfall. As a matter of fact, before I fully embraced goal setting and planning, I operated by those “in the moment” goals.
I felt on top of the world on the days where I crossed everything off the list. But that was always short-lived. I was always on the hamster wheel. Always busy.
Unfortunately, all the time and effort I put into the tasks and projects I worked on weren’t leading me anywhere bigger. In other words, I wasn’t really being successful.
And that’s not the only consequence. Because I didn’t have clear long-term or short-term goals, it made it nearly impossible to competently market my business.
I don’t want that for you. I want you to slow down for a hot minute and set some goals so that you spend your days doing the work that matters to your business and your marketing. When you do what matters, you win every day.
[Meghan] So, the question we pose to you is, “Why aren’t you setting goals?”
While that is personal to you, some of those reasons may be that you
- Don’t know where to start
- Fear making the wrong choices
- Believe that you’ll stifle your creativity
- Think that setting goals isn’t that important
Why Goal Setting is Important
[Meghan] And, if that last reason resonates with you, keep an open mind because we’re about to share five reasons why goal setting is important to your marketing and business success.
1) Creates a Bridge to Your Future Vision
[Theresa] The first reason why goal setting is important is that your goals create a bridge to your future vision. In other words, the goals you set this year should be moving you towards the life you envision for yourself later.
[Meghan] However, as we explained earlier, a lot of times you may set “in the moment” goals that don’t really lead you anywhere.
Instead of thinking about the bigger picture—that future vision—you:
- Work off of to-do lists
- Focus on accomplishing projects
- Think about what you want to do TODAY (without knowing why it’s important to tomorrow)
- Chase the latest strategy or tactic
There are consequences when you don’t spend time thinking about what you want life to look like in the future and how your business and marketing fits into it.
[Theresa] When you’re always focused on those “in the moment” goals without understanding the bigger vision, you never get to where you’re going. And how could you get there? You don’t know where “there” is!
Your goals should help you build a bridge from where you are right now to where you want to be in the future. And your marketing goals, in particular, play an important part in your strategy.
[Meghan] When you don’t start building that bridge, you will find yourself standing in place. This inevitably leads to self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and negative self-talk.
Plus, your productivity and your marketing suffer because you will do work that’s not effective for your business.
2) Dictates Your Direction
[Theresa] The second reason why goal setting is important is that your goals dictate your direction.
You come to a stop sign and find that you have two choices—left or right. If you know where you’re going, it’s easy to make the correct choice.
[Meghan] But when you don’t know where you’re headed, you could choose the wrong path. That leads to making bad choices, ineffective marketing and loads of wasted time—which you know I hate.
[Theresa] While the path to goal achievement is never a straight line, you can avoid unnecessary twists and turns by setting the right goals.
For example, let’s say that you choose to start a blog. Without setting clear business blogging goals to help you understand what you’re trying to achieve, you risk:
- Wasting time producing content that doesn’t resonate with your audience
- Alienating your target market
- Creating an ineffective marketing channel
- Becoming frustrated because your efforts are fruitless
[Meghan] By setting a goal for your blog, you do a good job of avoiding all of that.
In other words, your blogging goals point you in the correct direction to begin with, which gives you a better chance of making the progress you desire.
I mean, why work so hard only to realize months later that all you did was dig yourself into a hole? That’s not a productive use of time or energy. And, it’s not helpful for your marketing either.
3) Keeps You Accountable
[Theresa] The third reason why it’s important to set goals is that your goals keep you accountable.
When you set goals and write them down [LINK], you can clearly see the steps you need to take to achieve them. It becomes much easier to take responsibility for the smaller tasks that help you reach the bigger picture simply because you’ll know what to do.
[Meghan] And I’ll be blunt. When you don’t set goals, you’re not accountable for anything. That makes it much easier to not take any action at all or to keep procrastinating when challenges arise.
You’re also likely to start playing the blame game as to why you’re not seeing the results you want.
So, create a little accountability for yourself by establishing marketing and business goals. You’ll achieve more and be much more productive in the process.
4) Enables You To Track Your Progress
[Theresa] The fourth reason why goal setting is important is that your goals enable you to track your progress.
It’s quite simple. You’re either making progress or you’re not making progress. And if you don’t have a goal to work towards, you’re not making progress.
When you set a goal and outline the steps to achieve that goal, it’s easy to see exactly where you are in your process. In other words, you’ll be able to track whether or not you’re making any headway.
[Meghan] Right. I’ll say it again: what’s not inspected isn’t respected. That means you gotta assess what you’re doing if you expect good results.
Having clear goals helps you track your work and progress. It also helps you identify when you’ve gotten off track.
This is even more critical when it comes to your marketing productivity. There are consequences for straying off your path with your marketing. You can waste money and miss out on leads, which means missed revenue and wasted time.
Don’t get me wrong, you will waste some time and lose some money with marketing. That’s inevitable and a normal part of doing business. But, goals improve your chances of meeting your milestones and guide your work down the right path.
5) Informs Your Actions
[Theresa] The fifth reason why goal setting is important is that your goals inform the actions you take.
You might be wondering how this is different from the second reason, which is that your goals dictate your direction. And that’s fair. Let me explain.
When you set a goal, it should be helping you achieve something bigger. Think big picture vision or long-term goal.
For example, right now the revenue I generate in my business is 90% from private coaching clients and 10% from group programs.
My long-term goal is to flip that around. That is to say, I want 90% of my revenue to come from group programs and digital products and 10% from private coaching clients.
So I set a short-term goal this past year that pointed me in the direction of group programs. That goal was to launch a group coaching program in May and September.
The actions I took throughout the year helped me achieve that short-term goal. So I didn’t focus on generating 90% of my revenue from group programs. I focused my actions on all the parts and pieces that help me launch a group program.
If the task or strategy didn’t align with that goal, I didn’t do it. If an opportunity popped up, but it didn’t help me achieve that goal, I said no.
Additionally, it was easier to set a marketing goal to support my efforts. This helped me identify the right marketing strategies and tactics to use. So, it was a win all around.
[Meghan] By the way, what Theresa just explained is why she was able to do what she did this year. She set a long-term goal then created short-term goals to achieve it. And, she focused ONLY on those tasks that supported her short and long-term goals.
Your path should be filled with the RIGHT actions, not just any actions. Your goals are your North Star. Make sure the tasks you do every day, week, and month are leading you towards it.
Final Thoughts About Goal Setting
[Theresa] Great point. We hope you’re inspired to create goals for next year so that you can achieve the success you deserve.
[Meghan] We’d like to leave you with one more thought in case you’ve not yet been swayed by the reasons we shared already. The goals you set in your business provide a level of clarity that has its own set of benefits. Things like:
- Gaining confidence
- Easier decision making
- Better time management
- More time for family, friends, and fun
[Theresa] I completely agree. Having goals just makes everything easier.
And remember, we’re big fans of starting small. You don’t need to set 10 goals for next year. Start with one or two that will help you focus your attention and action on growing and marketing your business next year.
You can totally do this!
[Meghan] You can! And don’t forget to download the Content Strategy from Scratch workbook if you need help with content marketing goals. It’s a template for coming up with your content goals and related tasks.
[Theresa] And if you need help with planning those goals and tasks, be sure to download the Daily Achievers’ Weekly Action Planner.
We’d love to know, are you inspired to create your own goals? Let us know in the comments.
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