How to set your goals for 2024
I don’t have to tell you that goal setting in business is important, right? You know that it is. But actually setting goals, breaking down these goals so that they become actionable steps and then following up is something else.
And it has been something I have been running into myself time and time again. Especially when things start to get really busy, it’s just so easy to forget about the goals you set altogether or not take the time to check if you are reaching your goals.
But I noticed that this was often the case when the goals were random, they were not tight to anything. Think of goals like growing newsletter subscribers to 2000 or increasing website traffic to 2000 page views, because that seemed logical steps based on where I was at the moment of setting the goals.
And yes, both goals can help me achieve my overall goals for my business. They are not wrong things to aim for. But they were more vanity goals instead of that they were logical targets that were part of a clear strategy to reach my goals.
So what if instead of setting ‘random’ or vanity goals like growing newsletter subscribers to 2000 we would set our business goals based on our business and life vision?
Isn't that the key to transforming your business to be more aligned? For it to be less draining and overwhelming?
In this blog, you will look at how you can turn your vision into actionable goals.
How your vision impacts your business
Step 1: Where do you want to be in 10 years (yes, I saw you rolling your eyes when you read this, but hear me out)
Step 2: Set your business goals for the year
Step 3: Break down your business goals for the year into quarterly and monthly goals
Step 4: Breaking down goals into actionable steps
How your vision impacts your business
I know, I know, everyone tells you that you need to have a vision for your business, you need to know your Why. But what if your why is to make money? To contribute to paying the bills, to do fun activities or to go on holiday.
As Simon Sinek says:
“It all starts from the inside out. And it all starts with Why. As a business, you need to know what, how and why. Money is not a why, it is a result”
So if you feel that money is a selfish reason as it isn't client-focused, can you flip your thinking and see it as the result of what you're doing
This way, you don't just have a business to make money, but your business is ‘the vehicle’ you use to support you in living life on your terms.
When you have this perspective, you have the space to look more clearly at a why that can help you come up with a strategy to transform your business to be more profitable and sustainable so that you can make that monetary goal happen.
What happens if you don't have a clear vision?
If you have no clear vision, what are you going to base your goals on?
Without goals, how do you know what to focus on?
And without focus, how will you make sure your business will be a success?
And without it succeeding, how will you be able to make that contribution to your family?
So you need to have that big vision for your life in mind, to be able to set goals for your business. So let's look at that first.
Where do you want to be in 10 years?
I always hated this question in job interviews because I felt that if I would actually say what my goals were (like taking over the position of the people doing the interview) I would not get hired. So I would keep my goals small and would mention the level just above the position I was applying for.
But I have big goals and am not afraid anymore to say them out loud and make the changes I need to get closer to these goals.
Because what happens if you keep your goals small? It will limit your achievements. If you set goals based on the time, knowledge and resources you have now you are limiting where you can go.
But when you think about where you want to be in 10 years from now, you don't feel the limits of time, knowledge and resources. So take some time right now and dream about where you want to be in 10 years. What would your ideal life look like? Would you live somewhere else? Would you work 4 days instead of 5?
Now I want you to think about where you would need to be in 5 years to be on track to your 10-year vision?
Next, I want you to think about where you would need to be in 12 months to be on track to your 5-year vision?
I know I called this blog post 'how to set your goals for 2023' but what we're actually doing is defining where you need to be in 12 months to be on track for that 5 and 10-year vision.
So instead of creating random or vanity goals, you're actually working towards something bigger. And when you can break this down even more as Garry Keller explains in his book: The ONE thing, by saying what is the one thing I can do right now/ today/ this week / this month / this year to be on track, you're connecting what you do today to your tomorrows. Because it's not about everything that you can do but about what you should do and making sure it happens.
So let’s look at an example of a goal and break this down into business goals for the year.
Set your business goal for the year
Let's say your goal for 2023 is to spend more time with your family without sacrificing the money that you are making.
But what does this actually look like? Is this no more working on evenings? Or no more working evenings and weekends? Before we can define what you need to focus on you need to be clear about what you're trying to achieve.
For this example, the goal will be to stop working in the evenings which equals 2 hours for 4 days. So you will need to find a way to work 8 hours less without it compromising your revenue. Your long term goal is to cut back to work only 3 days a week so to get there, not working in the evenings is a great first step.
So let’s break this down further.
Break down your yearly business goals into quarterly and monthly goals
Now ask yourself; to work 8 hours less each week, what needs to happen in the coming 12 months?
Your first tough probably goes to reducing the time you spend on clients projects. You can think about things like:
Optimising your workflows
Updating your client management program
Make your project management program work better for you
And while systems and workflows are absolutely necessary to transform your business to be more streamlined and profitable, I believe this is only a piece of a much larger puzzle. And a piece that can only be put in place when all the other pieces have been put in place.
Let me explain what I mean by that.
As a designer, you know that you can't design a website for a client without them knowing who their ideal client is and what their struggles are so that the copy, images and design speak to those ideal clients. So when you're designing the website you're assembling all the information you received instead of trying to figure out who the ideal clients are (or at least that's how it's supposed to be, but we've all had projects where this wasn't the case)
So how does this example relate to setting up or improving client management systems and workflows?
When you're setting up these systems without having all the steps of your client process, your content creation process etc on paper that you can build into your systems you're basically doing the same thing as designing a website while trying to figure out the ideal client at the same time. While you should do the prep first before the built.
So then the question becomes, what do you need to do, know or have in place before you can set up or improve your systems?
Let's break this up into the 4 quarters of the year. A year might seem a long time to work on working 8 hours less, but I'm making the assumption here that most of your time is spent on client work and that you don't have a lot of time to work on your business. So in practice, this means you actually need to save more than 8 hours on client work because you also need the time to work on these goals. If you're able to invest in help, the timeline can off course be quicker.
QUARTER 1 - reduce time by 2 hours
+ Productivity: you'll need to review how you’re spending your time. From there you’ll need to look at what tasks can be eliminated, what can be automated and where you need to spend less time because there is not enough return on your time investment.
+ You'll need to know what your ideal week looks like and what the best way is to spend your time to reach your goals so that you can structure your weeks by using theme days, time blocking and task batching (remember what I said above, it's not about everything that you can do, but what you should do)
+ Project Management system: Set up or work on improving your PMS & create workflows for repeating tasks that you have included in your theme days to save time.
QUARTER 2 - Increase profitability
+ Business model & product suite: By now you probably have been able to reduce the hours worked on evenings a bit. But as part of the goal was to keep earning the same amount of revenue you'll need to dive into the services you offer and evaluate if they need to change. Maybe you need to reduce the number of revisions or the timeframe for the service.
+ Profitability: You will also need to review the pricing and the profitability of your services and make sure you’re not just getting paid for the hours it takes to complete a project.
+ Create a monthly check-in process to evaluate what is working well and what isn't so that you know what to focus on next.
QUARTER 3 - reduce time by 3 hours
+ Evaluate current client process: Now you have made changes to your services and the pricing you need to gain an understanding of what your process looks like now including emails, contracts, proposals and invoicing.
+ Update client process: Update your workflows to cover each step of the client process from inquiry to requesting feedback
+ Templates: Create templates (emails, client questionnaires, how to give feedback instructions) to improve the client process
QUARTER 4 - reduce time by 3 hours
+ Project Management system: Update your PMS with the new client workflows
+ Client Management system: Then it's time to set up or work on improving your client management system so that you can give the best client experience possible but can save time doing it.
Now you know what needs to happen each quarter, you can spread it over the months and break this down into actionable steps.
Breaking down goals into actionable steps
Now you need to break these quarterly and monthly steps down so you know how to spend your CEO day time blocks and what you need to start doing on a daily basis.
Let's look at your January goal: the goal for this month is to work on your productivity. To do this you will need to:
Know how you are spending your time at this moment -> start with tracking your time -> you will need to do this daily
When you have done this for at least 1 but preferably more weeks, you can evaluate how you're spending your time -> you will need to add up your time for tasks you have done several times, dd up all the time you spent on client projects, make a list of all the tasks and cluster them. Then you need to review how much time you spend on each cluster and the individual tasks and evaluate if the time you spend on each task makes sense. As in, is there enough return on your time investment in regards to the task? And if this task is getting you closer to your goals.
Then pinpoint where there is room to eliminate, outsource or automate tasks
With the information, you got from all of this you can then work on your February goal: creating your ideal week and structuring your weeks by using theme days, time blocking and task batching.
This is how you are proactively working towards making your goals happen. As each day, week, month and quarter you are doing those tasks that will make it possible for you to build upon the next day, week, month and quarter. But not only that, you're able to clearly see your progress along the way (isn't that what often trips us up, not seeing the progress we want) and by implementing things like time tracking and monthly review processes you're also becoming the person you need to be to make your 5-year goals happen.
AND THERE YOU HAVE IT
There you have it, a step-by-step plan to set your goals for 2023 and make the things you focus on for next year part of a bigger plan.
I mentioned a lot of concepts very quickly in the blog, so be sure to click the links throughout the blog if you want to learn more about those concepts.
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