Goal-setting is really important for entrepreneurs, but everyone knows that. You won’t find an entrepreneur or business person who says goals are unimportant.
What most people don’t understand about goals, though, is that they need to be managed. A goal by itself won’t do anything; it’s just a statement. But a properly managed goal can be achieved.
We’ll start from the top at the goal-setting process itself.
Creating a Great Goal
A goal can be simple – “I want to double my business this year” – but the simplest goals aren’t always the best.
You’ve probably heard of the SMART goal concept, which says goals must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant/realistic, and time-bound. This is a solid formula, so that earlier goal turns into this: “I want to go from $150,000 in revenue to $300,000 in revenue within the first 48 months of being in business.” In most cases, it’s realistic as a startup to double your revenue within two years, so we’ll go with that assumption.
You need some overarching goals to guide your business. But you can’t stop with just a few big goals. You have to go from big to small, and that’s where goal management comes in.
Goal Management: the System to Turn Your Goals into Reality
Goal management is built on the concept that big goals need smaller goals to be achieved, and those goals need even smaller goals.
It’s like a pyramid made up of increasingly-smaller goals as you go from top to bottom. We’ll call this the “goal pyramid.”
For example, if we take the big goal from above, we can create a smaller goal that will help us make it happen: “I want to create a marketing department with a starting budget of $150,000 within three months.” That’s a decent goal. There may be others.
Then, from that goal, you create smaller goals. You could have a series of them, such as:
- “I want to hire a director of marketing with a target salary of $75,000 within two months.”
- “I want to build a fully-functioning website within six months.”
- “I want to create a comprehensive marketing strategy with my new director of marketing within two months of the initial hire.”
Then those goals have goals for themselves. If you start at the bottom, and achieve the smallest goals first, in order that they can be achieved, you will gradually work your way up until your big goal is achieved.
This is the execution of goal management.
The Key to Goal Management
The essential key to goal management sounds simple, and for you, it may be: picking the right goals.
If you pick the right supporting goals, and accomplish them, then you will achieve your big goal; it is guaranteed. But, you have to pick the right goals.
How do you do that?
If you follow the SMART goal timeline, there’s one component that is really, really useful: relevant/realistic. Each goal has to be relevant to the one above it – i.e. if you don’t do this thing, you can’t do the bigger thing.
Each goal has to be realistic, too. If you want to do this thing, you have to make sure it can be done. Chasing after goals that just cannot be accomplished is a fool’s errand and will lead you astray. It’s okay to be a little ambitious with your goals – that’s how we grow – but a goal is useless if you just can’t get it done.
A deep knowledge of what it takes to succeed in your industry is also helpful. If you don’t have that knowledge, find someone who does. Use this insight as a guide. Find what works and seek to replicate that path of success as much as possible, stopping only to innovate when you find a better way.
If you develop a skill in effective goal management, there’s nothing you can’t accomplish. Goal management creates a blueprint for success. It takes you from point A to point Z seamlessly, from goal to goal. All you have to do is find a great team, put in the work, and get a little lucky; this is the blueprint for any successful business.
With your goals, start big and go from big to small. Stick with it and you’ll get there!
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