Setting Business Goals & Objectives

Setting up goals and objectives is important whether you’re an organization or a freelancer. Getting specific about these key pieces of your business can help you control the direction your business will go. 

Goals vs Objectives

So what’s the difference between goals and objectives? Goals are generalized statements that define the things you want to achieve and objectives are the specific actions you’re going to take to reach your goals. Goals are usually broad and long-term while objectives are specific, measurable actions usually containing a value and timeline. Some examples:

Goal: Increase revenue
Objectives: 
Increase annual sales by 20% or Take on one new client per quarter

Goal: Improve time it takes to respond to customer complaints
Objectives:
Hire one additional customer service representative by year end

Basically your goals are a list of places on a map that you want to go, and your objectives are the detailed directions of how you’re going to get there! 

Importance of Setting Goals & Objectives

Identifying what your business goals and objectives are can: 

• Inform your annual business strategies
• Improve communications
• Build a baseline to measure your success
• Keep people motivated and accountable 
• Help people understand expectations 

In my experience, better defining these key pieces of my business has helped me define my service offerings and work on projects that excite me; easily identify if a client and I are a good fit from the start; and keep me motivated and focused in my work.

So Where Do I Start?

There is a lot of information out there on how to best outline your goals and objectives. Here are a few guidelines that really helped me work through this process:

Review Your Mission Statement

Your company mission statement should naturally hold key phrases that can help you identify your goals. If it doesn’t suggest a clear list of things you hope to achieve, you may have to reevaluate to make sure it captures what your business is all about. 

Set SMART Goals 

Once you’ve pulled the clear list of goals from your mission statement, rework these into SMART goals. It’s likely you’ve heard of these before but SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. 

Hubspot offers a great article on the Dos and Don’ts When Making a SMART Goal. They provide a detailed description of what they are, how to make them and detailed marketing examples for you to work with. 

Focus on a Reasonable Number

I’ve seen the quote “You can do anything, but you can’t do everything” lately, and it couldn’t be more true when it comes to narrowing down your goals. It’s likely that after this process you’ve come out with a long list of things you want to achieve which is great! Document this list of goals somewhere and choose the select few that you feel are the most important for your business. You can always come back to your list and set new goals for yourself later on. Personally working with three to five goals is what works for me. I can easily remember three to five goals which makes it easy for me to check-in on my business plan on the fly to make sure the task or project I’m tackling aligns with my goals.

I encourage you to focus on setting up your business goals and objectives with the intention of creating a happier, healthier and wealthier you!