We are going to talk about making sure you are keeping the pace up and achieving those business goals you set. Whether you set them January 1st or you set them last week. The problem many people have is that we always think we have time left and that we have time to work on these goals. What we learn is that we implement goals and unless we take the reins early and often, the goals never get achieved.
It is so important to set big goals as a business. It is important to have you striving for more as a brand, to have you feel accomplished and proven, not to mention those goals usually come with a monetary reward at the end. If you reach your goal, there is probably more product out or more service being done.
I regularly talk about celebrating the wins you have as a small business. Celebrate the first sale and the big sale and the on time deliveries after a busy week. Celebrate everything, Right? I mean why not? Give yourself a pat on the back for not screwing this up big time. I preach it but I am way harder on myself and rarely celebrate my wins and focus more on my incompletions. I didn’t meet this goal or I fell short with this client this week and didn't give them the attention they deserved. Rarely do I look back on that goal and say, hmmm… was it realistic to set that goal for that period of time? Or look at that client and know that I did give it my all and we showed up and crushed it that week.
Okay, so when we start focusing on the non celebratory things in our businesses we need to stop beating ourselves down for it and start thinking. Ask yourself and your team (if you have one!) okay, what happened here? What went wrong and when did it start going wrong? By starting to think like this and not just focusing on the failure. You will learn the difference between failure and growing as a brand.
If you are saying, Jana, you must be nuts. That doesn’t happen to me. I hit my goals every single month and I throw myself lavish dinners and champagne toasts nightly for all my wins. I want you to either A, Stop that lying or B. send me that method or C. Move those goals higher. If you are saying, yep I can think of three times this week alone where I didn’t get it done or I didn’t show up as much as I wanted. This next part is for you.
It’s Midnight, January 1st. You have made the goal to start drinking more water and less coffee. Week one, struggle bus but you are doing it. Week two you are doing better but you did wear two different shoes. Week three your friend invites you to coffee to talk strategy and you drop that resolution right down into the bottom of the latte and drink it till it’s gone! Most resolutions don’t even make it out of the first month of January.
Let’s talk about why goals and resolutions don’t get met.
They don’t have clarity. They have a great goal but they have no road map on how to get there. There are micro-goals to get you to the final lap of the goal and if those aren’t mapped out, then the goal essentially becomes unobtainable.
Motivation. If you get hyped at the beginning for this amazing end goal but nothing in the middle is getting you excited, that is where you lose motivation. Your “micro-goals” need to get you dancing down the hallway when you surpass them. I have met a lot of small business owners since I started my own company. Lots of them say the same thing, “I want that six figure income” What they don’t understand is that to get that you need to surpass the $1 income and the $1000 income and the $50,000 income. You need motivation to get there. You don’t just wake up and your bank account knocks and is like, “oh hey, we’re good last night $100,000 just showed up”.
Another thing you need to be aware of is burnout. If you are working towards a huge goal and every single day your micro-goals are large enough to cause you stress you are going to burnout. You are not going to make it to the finish line because you have exhausted yourself far before. I burn out easily. I know my limits and I regularly surpass them by miles and miles. Both in my work life and home life. I have started learning the words no, the 168 hour work week method (check out that post here), I have learned to leave my phone down at dinner, family time, sporting events for my kids…. Time adjustments have become a regular part of my life and it works well for me. But I don’t want to burn out and I want to achieve my 2021 goal as a company. So, it is in my best interest to set these boundaries.
Don’t contract comparison-itis. Yep, that’s a word (?) I have a lot of friends who are in the same field as me. I met them because they are in the same field as myself. We run our businesses very differently. We run out connections with out clients differently, our budget and invoicing differently… however, we are all succeeding in our own ways. If I was looking at Martha’s business and wanting the same goals she has on deck and strived to have her _____ then my business wouldn’t look how it looked today and I wouldn’t have the amazing clients that I have today. If the competition is doing something different from you or setting higher goals or increasing their revenue goals, that doesn’t mean it’s time for you to do that. Keep your eye on your business and have it’s best interests in mind.
What you are looking for is what you will find. If you are looking for someone else's success that is exactly what you are going to find. You are going to find how it works for their business and I promise you it is not a copy and paste method.
Lastly, Build awareness around where you are putting your energy. If your goal is gaining Brand Advocates this month (Yes, I had to sneak it in this blog too!), and you are spending hours coming up with a reel em’ in funnel for new clients… your time is not well spent. Your energy should fall in line with your long-term goals and your short-term goals. These micro-goals we discussed are daily that will get you to the finish line and that is where your daily energy should be used. Being aware of this will already make you more successful and goal orientated. Spending 4 hours on a Tuesday morning reading articles about Social Media growth and how to get more likes… that isn’t cuttin’ it. You need to reprioritize and create a plan that works for you and your brand.
I would absolutely love to talk to you guys about this! I have free zoom calls that you can schedule with me on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays or send me an email and we can chat there too! I look forward to talking to you!
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