If you’re like most people, you’re probably wondering how on Earth you’re going to accomplish your business goals in 2018. For most business owners, sticking to your goals can be quite challenging. Depending on what your team dynamic consists of or what your financial outlook is, you may be wondering if you actually can complete what you’ve set out to do for the new year. We’ve endeavored to create useful information to help you in your journey and show you how to accomplish your business goals in 2018. Our team of expert consultants have put together these unique tips to show you that you can not only accomplish your business goals in 2018, but you may actually enjoy yourself along the way. We encourage you to take advantage of these tips to help make this coming year as successful as possible for you.
Excuses Are For The Birds, So Stop Making Them
We all do it. Making excuses can cause more problems than not. If you’ve made the decision to set goals, the bottom line is that you need to work towards them. Excuses are for the birds. If you’re like us, we have an array of ideas of what we’d like to provide to our customers in the next year. We’re huge advocates of setting and driving sales goals, as an example, but we know that circumstances can have a say in the outcome of those goals.
Let’s use an example to help clarify what we’re talking about. If you’re a home contractor and own your own business, you’re more than likely looking for new opportunities to grow your brand. It’s easy to let the little things during the sales cycle, such as relevant paperwork, proposals, follow ups, etc… , quickly fill up your calendar.
If you are working to develop other new business and forget to allow time for R&D for an existing customer, you’ve completely missed an opportunity to help make your customer’s experience better and lost your focus. It’s easy to say, “Well, at least I was trying to help a new customer.” As wonderful as that sounds, what’s the point of new business if you can’t maintain the business you have? Instead of trying to find a reason or excuse to accommodate your behavior, it may be wise to accept that you could have scheduled your time better.
The easy way out isn’t the best, and if you decided to make excuses instead of learning from your shortcomings and mistakes, you’ll miss out on valuable character building lessons.
Evan Carmichael has highlighted some of Brian Tracy’s best goal setting advice here.
Brian Tracy Goal Setting Advice – #MentorMeBrian
Defining Goal Types
It’s fairly common practice for individuals to set unachievable goals for themselves, but it’s not always intentional. You’ve probably been told at some point in your life, “You can do anything you want to as long as you believe you can do it.” Well, as much as that may be technically true, it’s really not the most efficient way of thinking. Understanding your strengths and identifying your weaknesses are two ways to keep your goals simple and attainable.
With that being said, let’s define what the two most common types of goals (simple and complex), and also define what an attainable goal is.
- Simple Goal – A simple goal is a goal that can be accomplished in a short period of time and has a very specific outcome. An example would be setting a goal to walk everyday at 1PM for thirty days. This goal is simple and measurable based on a specific outcome.
- Complex Goal. A complex goal is a goal that can be accomplished with more than simple effort and entails multiple factors that determine it’s achievement. An example of a complex goal would be trying to achieve a 30% increase in revenue within a six month period. In order to achieve this, many factors within many departments would have to be implemented in order to guarantee the achievement of a 30% increase.
- Attainable Goal. An attainable goal can be simple or complex, but provides the individual in charge of achieving the set objective with the means necessary to execute it.
However you decide to structure your goals, make sure that they’re as realistic as possible. It’s better to have one realistic goal than ten unrealistic goals. Accomplish great things this year with your business by keeping your goals simple
Don’t Do It Alone
This is the most important key to help you accomplish your business goals in 2018. When considering how to accomplish your business goals, factor in working with someone to help hold you accountable to fulfilling your goals. If you’re a part of a large agency, putting together a team of individuals to help fulfill the necessary roles to achieve this goal will create a natural accountability sphere. If you’re unable to have the benefit of working with a large group of professionals, here are some tips as to what you should look for in an accountability partner:
- Stay away from family members. That’s right. Count mom and dad out. Forget your sister or brother in law. Family members tend to have biased opinions and typically lack objectivity.
- They need to have actually achieved something. Relying on someone that hasn’t achieved their own professional or personal goals themselves is not the individual to help hold you accountable. Look for someone who excels at achieving their own goals goals.
- The word “no” needs to be a part of their vocabulary. Working with someone who understands boundaries and isn’t afraid to be honest is key to finding the right accountability partner.
If the individual you’re working with possesses all three of these conditions, you’ve most likely found the right person to help you achieve your goal(s).
Make Your Goals Enjoyable
Creating business goals doesn’t have to be dry and boring. Have some fun with it. If you’re working with a large team of professionals, make sure that you’re setting tiered goals and implementing an incentive plan. You can utilize incentives such as, if you accomplish your goals within your set time period, treat the team to a happy hour or implement a bonus. You can even take it one step further by creating visual aids such as scoreboards and metrics reports to help create healthy competition amongst team members.
If you’re a smaller company, these ideas also apply to you! Treat yourself to a nice lunch or take your office out to dinner if your goals are met on time. It’s ok to reward yourself for good behavior.
There are many ways and tips for accomplishing your business goals in 2018. At the end of the day, make sure that you’re not overshooting your goals and, instead, are keeping them within a realistic time frame and scope. Consulting with a team of professionals who thrive on accomplishing business goals will also help you devise your goal-setting strategy for 2018.
Fill out the short form below to discuss your objectives with the professionals at Elevare, today. Make sure to follow companies like Elevare on social media as well to take advantage of other helpful information to provide you with the steps you need to be successful. Knowledge truly is power, and keeping yours goals simple, attainable, and specific will help you achieve great things in 2018.
