10 Easy Steps to Help Your Small

Company Achieve Its Goals

BY 
ALYSSA GREGORY

 
Updated November 20, 2019

Goal setting is an important part of starting and owning a business. Without

business goals, you may find you are floundering in your business with no
direction. Your business goals can keep you focused on where you want
to be while helping you create a plan for getting there.

Once you're ready to get started with goal setting, these 10 powerful goal
setting steps will help you achieve even your most ambitious business goals.

Break Down Your Company's Goals

Siri Berting / Getty Images

The first step is to break down your goals. Business goals are often long-term
and require quite a bit of work, time, and effort. By breaking down your goals
in manageable action steps, it is easier to focus on what you need to do right
now and not get overwhelmed by the process.

A good way to break down your business goals is by creating an action plan
made up of individual tasks that each includes one clearly defined action. By
thinking in terms of baby steps, it's easy to make progress and have small
accomplishments every day.

Track Your Goals' Progress

Part of successfully setting goals is tracking how far you've come. Find
out what motivates you, and it can also help you plan future goals and action
steps.

You can track your progress by conducting weekly and/or monthly goal check-
ins that help you evaluate what you have accomplished and where you need
to focus more of your attention. It may also be helpful for you to create
milestones based on time and progress so you can easily tell if you're on track
for reaching your goal.

Commit to the Company's Goals

Effective goal setting requires clarity about what the goal involves, knowledge
on what type of effort will be required, and specific reasons why it is important
to you. It also includes a plan for how you will accomplish each step, and
perhaps most importantly, a commitment to seeing the goal through to
completion.

If you are unable to commit to the goal by taking the time to develop a
plan and scheduling the time to focus on the action steps that will bring you
closer to your goal, you will face an unnecessarily difficult challenge.

Build Your Company's Support System

A support system can help you reach your goals in a number of ways:

 Be motivated by the knowledge that you have a solid team behind you.
 Learn from the experiences and backgrounds of your team.
 Your team can cheer you on when you face challenges.
 You can be held accountable by your team for doing what you say you
want to do.
 Your team can provide a perspective that's different from your own.
 Your team can help you celebrate your successes.

Your support system can be comprised of family, friends, mentors, colleagues,

or anyone who supports you and wants to see you succeed. For colleagues,
be proactive by hiring the right employees.

Stay Flexible With Your Company's Goals

Very few things happen exactly as we anticipate, both in business and life. It's
vital to be able to adjust to changes and modify your plan as necessary to be
able to take your business to the next level.

While it's important to have a clearly defined plan for accomplishing your
goals, you should avoid rigidity and narrow-minded thinking. The more agile
you are and the quicker you can change directions when you need to, the
easier it will be for you to keep progress steady in the face of the unexpected.

Keep Your Eye on Your Company's End Goal

When you're working toward a long-term or ambitious goal, it's important to
break it down into small and manageable steps you can tackle every day. But
while you're focusing on taking it one step at a time, you should make sure
you are clear on what you are working toward.

Big picture thinking is an effective way to stay motivated and focused. Take

some time to envision what it will look like and feel like when you've reached
your goal. Then, return to that vision during the process to remind yourself
why this goal is so important to you.

Accept Your Company's Imperfections

A challenge for many is our desire to do everything correctly, each step of the
way. Sometimes, the idea of perfection and fear of failure holds us back and
prevents us from making progress.

When it comes to goals, forward-moving progress often trumps mistakes, so it

can be more important to keep the process moving than to wait until the
situation is perfect in order to proceed. It's also important to consider mistakes
provide a powerful learning experience. A misstep can open your eyes up to
new ideas and approaches you may not otherwise see.

Don't Stop Adjusting Your Company's Goals

We've outlined the importance of being able to change directions and accept
imperfection. In these situations, it's important to keep moving forward, even
when the situation is not what you expect it to be.

Although your path may change and your progress may seem minimal, the
only way to reach your goal is to keep taking it step-by-step and piece-by-
piece. Every time you complete a baby step, you are getting closer to
achieving your goal, and as long as you continue to move forward, you are on
the path to success.

Think Positively About Your Company's Goals

Being confident in your ability to achieve goals can play a significant role in
your success. You have to believe in yourself if you are going to achieve your
goals.
Thinking positively, encouraging yourself, and being encouraged by your
support team is vital. Positive thoughts can often carry you through tough
challenges, unexpected changes and other tests of your will.

Celebrate Every Goals' Success

It's important to celebrate your successes throughout your goal setting and
achievement process, even the small wins. By celebrating, you are taking time
to recognize the effort that went into your achievement while motivating
yourself to keep pushing through to the next step of your goal.

Celebrating success is also a good way to get closure on each stage of the
process, and to come back refreshed and refocused on your continued
progress.

By following these powerful goal setting steps, you will be able to break down
your long-term goals and take baby steps each day to get closer and closer to
your success.

Setting goals is a foundational step of building your business. Business goals are the
motivating force behind successful companies of all sizes. They keep your business
moving forward, and without them, you can’t get from where you are now to where
you want to be. While most people know the importance of setting goals, achieving
them is the hard part.

Other than your business idea, having goals is an essential ingredient in

your company’s success. A quick Google search will yield tons of results
about goal setting and what the most effective methods are. While there are
many goal setting strategies, what they all have in common are long term
goals, short term goals, and a roadmap of how to get there.

In this post, we’ll discuss the top five tips on how to set and achieve your
business goals for 2021.

1. Learn to set business goals properly

To set a goal, you must first learn proper goal setting. It seems obvious,
right? Yet, this is the area where many entrepreneurs get stuck. Without
thoughtfully created goals, you run the risk of spinning your wheels and
burning out. It’s better to pause and take the time to create your goals
rather than rushing into it just to say you did it.

The most well-known method of goal setting is SMART goals. The concept
of SMART goals was coined in 1981 by a consultant named George T.
Doran. Since then, it’s been used by countless executives and business
owners to grow and transform their businesses systematically. To help you
get started, here are examples of what SMART goals look like.

 Specific: Vague goals won’t work. Be as specific as possible. A vague

goal would be “grow my website traffic.” A specific goal would be
“drive traffic to attract 500 unique visitors per month.”
 Measurable: Your goals should include milestones and metrics. An
example of a measurable goal would be “produce two blog posts per
week to increase website traffic at a rate of 10% per week.”
 Attainable: Make sure your goal is realistic. While it’s great to shoot
for the stars, seeing results is what will ultimately keep you going. Big
long-term goals should involve achievable, shorter-term goals within
them, which allow you to see quick wins, keep motivation high, and
momentum going.
 Relevant: Make sure your goal fits with your overall business plan
and makes sense for you to go after. For example, you’ve determined
that your website is an issue, and it needs to be rebuilt. However,
when you look at the cost plus all of the time and resources it takes to
build a website from scratch, it may not make sense for your overall
business goals. Perhaps editing and optimizing your existing site
would be more worthwhile.
 Time-Based: Your goal should be time-specific and deadline-
oriented. Deadlines will allow you to work backward and see how
much activity is needed daily to produce a result.

“Studies have shown the most important element of goal setting is not
achieving every task exactly as you had imagined (or when), but putting
in the work at the beginning to determine and outline your goal. This
process of envisioning the steps to get where you want to be helps you
define the right path early on, so you don’t waste time aimlessly
wandering toward your goal.”

Allison Dundovich, CEO of Bloom Mindfulness

2. Clarify and commit to your business goals

Once you’ve learned to set goals, it’s essential to choose your goal and
commit to it. A common mistake is setting too many goals and then
completing none of them. Becoming hyper-focused on a goal supercharges
results. While there are several areas of your business that may need
improvement, it’s crucial only to pursue the most important goals.

1. Make a list of the areas of your business you’d like to improve.

2. List them in order from the highest importance to least.
 3. Choose the top 2 or 3 goals to focus on and make sure they’re
achieved before moving on to the other goals on the list.

After you’ve clarified which goal (or goals) you’ll go after, it’s time to
commit. This may seem obvious. If we choose to go after goals, of course,
we’re committed, right? Not necessarily. It’s easy to commit to a goal when
it’s new and exciting. But when reality sets in, you’ll realize that the day-to-
day demands of reaching your goal can be tedious and tiring.

Committing to your goals means sticking with it, even when it’s no longer
fun. It means showing up on the days that you don’t “feel” like it. It means
following through even when your goal has lost its appeal. When you
choose a goal, make the decision that you will continue even when it gets
hard. The practice of committing is a valuable life skill that yields success in
multiple areas of life, not just business.

“There are four quarters in a basketball game. Look at your business

goals the same way. Surely you have that huge 2020 goal you want to
accomplish, but every quarter there needs to be one or two mini-goals
that connect to your larger annual goals. Focus is a superpower, so if you
can tap into that superpower of being ultra-focused in accomplishing
those goals each quarter, that one-year goal becomes easier to achieve.”

Daniel Blue, President of Quest Education

Looking for more helpful advice? Download our guide for tips to help you grow
your small business

3. Learn time management

Once you have your goal and the steps it takes to get there, it’s time to get to
work. Getting started on your goals requires forethought. Remember, we
want to avoid burnout and spinning our wheels on unproductive
activities. Time management is necessary to make meaningful progress
toward our goals.

The freedom and autonomy you have as a CEO or founder can be a double-
edged sword. On the one hand, you have control over your schedules and
decisions. On the other hand, you have no one to keep you on track other
than yourself.

The antidote to not having guidance is time management. A Google search

of time management could lead you down the rabbit hole as this is a hot
topic that many entrepreneurs struggle with. Focus and prioritization is
especially relevant today with the ever-growing amount of technological
distractions.

One of the most well-known time management techniques in business

today is called Pareto’s Principle, or the 80/20 rule. Pareto’s Principle
states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your activities. In other
words, if you had a to-do list of ten tasks, two of them will be worth more
than the other eight. The reason why people lose productivity or don’t
accomplish their goals is that they procrastinate on the most valuable items
and waste time on the less productive tasks.

To put the 80/20 rule into effect with your SMART goals, make a list of
tasks that will help you achieve your goal. Then ask yourself, “if I could only
accomplish two things today, which ones would make the biggest impact on
my goal?” Those tasks then become a priority.

Not only will this help with prioritization, but it can be useful for other
areas of your business. For example, many business owners realize that
80% of their business is coming from 20% of their customer base.
Recognizing this allows them to double down on the 20% instead of
investing time into less lucrative aspects of the business.

“The Power of saying “No.” cannot be underestimated. There simply are

not enough hours in the day to get everything accomplished, and allowing
other people to set your agenda is an awful way to remain productive.
Saying “No” to irrelevant tasks that distract from the important priorities
in an agenda is the only way to be truly productive.”

David Reischer, Esq. Business Attorney & CEO of LegalAdvice.com

4. Track and measure

Once you’ve set your goals, how will you know you’re on the right track?
Right after you set your goals, decide how you’ll measure them. Do not
begin to work toward your goals without a tracking technique. You want to
be sure that your output is productive and moving the needle. You cannot
be sure of your progress without tracking. You’ll also want this information
so that you can repeat your success in the future.

Reaching your goals is an incremental process. It isn’t enough to set a goal

and then regroup once it’s been achieved. To make sure you’re headed
toward your goal, you must create key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs
are benchmarks that guide you along. They also enable you to experience
little wins on your way to the ultimate goal.
To create KPIs, determine your goal and then reverse engineer the steps it
will require. For example, let’s say your goal is to produce $25,000 in
revenue per month. You might determine that you need to meet with ten
customers per week to achieve your monthly revenue goal. To get ten
meetings, you’ll need to cold-call or email 65 customers per week to get ten
customer meetings. Your KPIs will look like this:

 Goal: $300,000 per year

 Monthly Revenue: $25,000
 Weekly Customer Meetings: 10
 Daily Number of Cold Calls: 13

By looking at the end goal and working backward, you can determine the
KPIs you need to achieve it. KPIs will show you where you are in relation to
your goal, but they’ll also motivate you.

Science has proven that we feel accomplished when we experience quick

wins or check off small goals on our way to bigger ones. When we’re just
starting, our goals can seem vast and overwhelming. That’s why it’s more
important to focus on incremental KPIs than the end goal.

“To achieve our goals, we implemented a key performance indicator (KPI)

system in accordance to each team and their workflows. The KPIs range
from project duration to ad revenue. The KPI per team is the most
important quantifiable measure of the whole team’s performance. Since
implementing this KPI system, company performance has dramatically
improved. We’ve seen great collaboration within teams, more innovative
thinking, a greater work ethic, and improved morale with the increased
transparency and being part of a team that is working towards a clear
and common goal.”

Kean Graham, CEO & Founder of MonetizeMore

5. Accountability and support

To achieve your business goals, accountability is essential. That’s why it’s so
important to involve others in your goal setting process. Whether you post
your goals publicly on social media or share them with your team, you must
let someone else know what you’re working on.

If it’s not your style to publicly proclaim your goals, an accountability

partner allows you to have skin in the game without feeling exposed. The
point of letting others know about your goal is to feel as though something
is on the line. If you keep your goals to yourself, it’s easy to let yourself off
the hook. When someone else knows about your goals, you’ll feel obligated
to follow through and avoid looking bad. There’s nothing worse than
someone asking you about your progress and having to explain that you
didn’t put in the work.

“Tips that I use to achieve my business goals are to write them down… but
then get an accountability partner and set up weekly calls to make sure I
accomplish them. When you have someone asking you about them, you
are way more likely to get them completed.”

Bryan Sebring, Owner of Sebring Design Build

Conclusion
Every business has different goals, but all goals must have a framework.
Loosely made goals without structure have the lowest probability of being
achieved. Before haphazardly throwing out goals you think will move the
needle, pause, and think through a strategy. Your goals must be adequately
set, committed to, and measured. Time management techniques and
outside accountability will assist you along the way.

Most importantly, make sure your goals are true to yourself and your
business. Your business goals don’t have to be the same as others.
Ultimately, you’ll find more success going after goals that truly motivate
you.

 Strategy 1: Set SMART goals 

 Strategy 2: Create a clear plan of action 

 Strategy 3: Mitigate distractions when you try to achieve goals in

business

 Strategy 4: Employ efficient time management

 Strategy 5: Use the “Eat That Frog” technique

 Strategy 6: Apply the Pareto Principle

 Strategy 7: Track progress

Strategy 1: Set SMART goals 

What are SMART goals in business

The concept of SMART goals is a helpful goal-setting technique that increases the

probability that you will achieve company goals. The SMART acronym defines what
a good goal should be like. SMART stands for:

 Specific

 Measurable

 Attainable

 Relevant

 Time-bound
How to set SMART business goals

To set a SMART business goal, you need to be highly specific about what result

you want to get. Describe your business goal in detail and make sure it
is measurable and achievable. While high-level, long-term business goals are
acceptable, truly SMART goals are set for up to a year. It should be something that
is a bit out of reach but still accessible. 

Relevant implies that your business goal must be in agreement with your or your
company’s values and beliefs. Time-bound means that there is a deadline for
achieving your target. And as the work goes on, be ready to re-evaluate and adjust
your plan to reach the goal.

Strategy 2: Create a clear action plan

Planning is often considered one of the most important stages on the way to
achieving your goal. Whatever your business goals and objectives are, a well
thought-out plan is what drives your goals to successful realization. 

What tool you can use to craft a good business plan

To craft a thorough business plan, you need a professional planning tool like Goals
by KeepSolid. It is a perfect solution for setting and achieving your business goals. 

Whatever project you create in the app includes a number of goals you need to
reach. Each goal is then split into manageable tasks that all together pave the way to
success. These tasks are your plan of action on how to achieve your goal
successfully. 

In the goal-oriented app by KeepSolid there can be no tasks, or activities, not

devoted to reaching the project goals, which completely eliminates any inefficient
work. Just define your objectives, craft a detailed plan, and start bringing all your
business goals into fruition!
Strategy 3: Mitigate distractions when you’re trying to
achieve business goals
Distractions are everywhere. Smartphones, social media, different information noise,
and so on… Given this, it becomes harder and harder to stay productive all day. 

What you need to do is to become aware of your distractions and make conscious

efforts to cut them off. Getting rid of distractions is certainly among the
helpful strategies to achieve business goals.

Have trouble focusing or face too many distractions? Switch off your phone (unless
you’re waiting for a call, of course) or at least turn off notifications of social media
apps, and plunge into the world where you’re entirely focused on the task ahead.

Turn all objectives into actionable plans with KeepSolid

Goals!
Go to the App

Strategy 4: Employ efficient time management

Another strategy to achieve goals in business and life is effective time management.
Those who efficiently manage their time can achieve the highest results. 

When you make your time organized, you not only manage your daily tasks more
effectively but also increase the likelihood of spending time on what really counts.
This could very well be achieving the big business goals you cherish.

To improve your time management, try the Eisenhower Matrix. It helps to prioritize
tasks based on importance and urgency, which, in turn, lets you easily figure out
what to do first and, in certain cases, what not to do at all. Here’s what the matrix
looks like: 
The matrix basically splits all your activities into four priority levels: Important &
Urgent, Important but Not Urgent, Not Important but Urgent, and Not Important & Not
Urgent. The last one should be immediately dropped, so just the three remaining
categories are worth your attention and show what you need to focus on. 

Strategy 5: Use the “Eat That Frog” technique

Mark Twain once said, “If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the
morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first”.

The “Eat That Frog” technique implies that you have to do the biggest or most
important task first thing in the morning. After you have “eaten” your “frog”, a.k.a. got
the most important task out of the way, you can tackle the other, smaller, and less
important assignments. 

While you may not see immediate results, this method does add up to achieving your
company goals and objectives over time. 

Strategy 6: Apply the Pareto Principle

The Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 rule, declares that 80% of the results derive from
20% of all your efforts. In sales, for example, this means that the major part of the
sales, 80%, comes from the key 20% of the customers. 

How to apply this to achieving goals in business? Figure out and focus on the small
set of efforts that produce the biggest results as opposed to going completionist-
mode and trying to check off 100% of everything. 

Strategy 7: Track progress

To make sure you are on the right track to achieving your company goals, it is
essential to constantly monitor the progress. When you do the monitoring, you can
evaluate and adjust the plans to reach your business goals. 

Progress tracking in business gives you an overview of how much is done and how
much more is left to do. If you employ the Goals by KeepSolid, you will be able to
easily monitor how you and your team are progressing. 
 Bottom line on setting and achieving business goals  
Achieving your business goals is what determines the overall success of your
organization. It may be difficult to always stay on track, taking into account the fast-
paced business environment, numerous distractions, and other factors. 

Deploy the right strategies, use professional goal-oriented tools like Goals by

KeepSolid, and you’ll easily achieve all your business goals and objectives!

Strategic goals represent critical or important achievements in

your organizational strategy. They’re objectives to be achieved
over the next three to five years, which link out to your measures
and initiatives. Here are a few examples:

 Balance the budget: A balanced budget reflects discipline in planning, budgeting, and
management. It is typically seen in the public sector, or within divisions or departments of
the private sector.

 Increase share of market: This customer strategy focuses on selling to more customers,

thus increasing the market share. For example, a landscape company may want to reach
more households; a hospital may want to serve a greater portion of the local population.

 Grow percentage of sales from new products: This objective focuses on the sales outcome
your organization is hoping to achieve. It emphasizes constant innovation, even on your
most successful products.

 Create a performance-focused culture: This objective can be used if your organization

wants to change its culture to one that focuses more on performance management or
incentives. This objective shows up a lot in government and nonprofit organizations.

(See 52 additional strategic objective examples in this article.)

These goals will identify what you’re working toward as an organization. The business
goal-setting process includes three phases: Pre-work before  goal setting, goal setting
itself, and ongoing management after  setting goals. The 18 business goal-setting
tips below are divided by stage, to help you take this process step-by-step.

18 Principles To Follow For Business Goal Setting

 Before The Business Goal-Setting Exercise
 Complete a SWOT analysis.

SWOT is a high-level strategic planning model that will help you identify where your
organization can improve and where it’s doing well. It’s an acronym for
“Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.” This detailed SWOT analysis
template provides the details of how to conduct the analysis. Doing the analysis
first will help you think through your strategic challenges and opportunities before
trying to set targets.

 Run internal and competitive benchmarking.

These exercises will help you compare performance in various areas across your
organization, and across your competitors’ or peers’ organizations. This information
will be helpful during the business goal-setting process by showcasing where you are
strong or weak.

 Do a market analysis.

Where do you see your industry headed? What is trending for organizations in your
space? A thorough market analysis will help you answer these questions.

 Review your past performance.

Without knowing where you’ve come from, it’s hard to decide where you should be
heading. Past performance can help inform a number of your future business goals.

 Solicit input from employees.

Gaining insight from employees is a smart strategy, as it will give your leadership
team insight from those on the “ground floor” of the organization. But if you do ask
for input, be open to actually using it—otherwise, employees will be less likely to
offer up their opinions in the future.

 Determine who will participate in the goal-setting exercise.

Determining who should be a part of this conversation is largely based on the size of
your organization. Will you involve mid-level managers, or just senior leadership?
What about your board of directors?

 Give all participants some pre-reading homework so they can come prepared.

You want everyone in the room to be on the same page and ready to go once the
meeting begins.
 During The Business Goal-Setting Exercise
 Be sure every goal ties back to your mission and your vision.

It ensures each goal is oriented on where your organization is headed in the long-
term, not just something you’re thinking about in the moment.

 Make your goals descriptive.

The more specific and descriptive you can be, the more likely it is that everyone
understands each goal in the same way. For example, a goal like “obtain at least six
new corporate accounts per quarter” is more transparent and easily understood than
“grow our customer base.”

 Be certain your goals are realistic.

Are all of your goals achievable? Are there some that are simply not within the realm
of possibility? It’s great to have stretch goals, but you should be able to reach them
within a three- to five-year time period.

 Make sure your goals are appropriately sized.

If you have any goals that are too large or too long, break down the goals into
multiple steps and apply target dates for each component.

 Consider whether your goals are measurable.

You won’t be creating measures that coincide with your goals just yet (we’ll discuss
that a bit later), but be certain your goals can be tracked, measured, and analyzed in
some way.

 Consider what actions you’ll take to achieve these goals.

Sometimes, avoiding contradictions across your goals is easier said than done. For
example, one goal might be to have 100% customer satisfaction while another might
be to maximize profit. These two things may be incongruent, so one may have to
give a bit in order to be realistic.

 Examine who will be responsible for each of your goals.

Who will ensure everyone stays on track? Who will ensure that reporting on progress
takes place each month or each quarter? Consider the roles and responsibilities
required to assure continuous advancement.

 Identify the resources you’ll need to achieve these goals.

 For example, if one of your goals is to develop and use a customer relationship
management (CRM) system, do you have the funds appropriated for it? Budgetary
limitations should also be considered during the goal-setting process.

After The Business Goal-Setting Exercise

 Meet regularly to check in on your progress.

This ensures everyone involved stays on-task no matter how much time goes by.
Keep in mind that some adjustments may be required as your team starts to pursue
these goals. Don’t be afraid to adjust as needed!

 Communicate your goals internally (and possibly externally).

Does everyone in your organization understand the goals and why you selected
them? The entire company is involved in reaching them, so every department and
every individual should understand how their performance impacts the goals—and
therefore, the overall success of the company.

 Make sure you have good data for the related measures.

Once your goals have been set, select measures (also known as key performance
indicators) that will help you monitor performance toward each goal. Ensuring you
have data that informs each measure is imperative.

Don’t forget to reward your organization as you hit your

goals!
The process of business goal setting can be challenging, but actually realizing a
business goal is even more so! So when your organization achieves a goal, take time
to acknowledge it. Knowing that the ‘wins’ are celebrated, not overlooked, will bring
renewed motivation to everyone involved. Good luck setting—and reaching—your
goals!

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