Get SMART: A Comprehensive Guide to Setting Realistic Goals for Small Businesses
For small business owners and entrepreneurs, setting goals for the coming year is a challenging but essential step toward success. A structured plan, with clearly defined goals, provides direction and focus, giving you a timeframe to accomplish objectives and measure progress.
The hardest part? Making your goals realistic. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, especially when you’re dealing with the day-to-day demands of running a business. But with the right strategies and tools, the process can be both efficient and rewarding.
So, let’s take a look at how to identify realistic goals and use proven strategies to provide the groundwork for sustained success.
Characteristics of Realistic Goals
A solid starting point for realistic goal-setting is to make them SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. This popular framework, developed in 1981 by George T. Doran, remains a gold standard for business planning. SMART goals align with your marketing strategies, project management efforts, and overall growth objectives, regardless of the size or scope of your business.
Whether you’re just starting out or focusing on expansion, these characteristics ensure your goals are actionable and impactful. For example, a goal like “increase sales” is vague and hard to measure. A SMART version might be “Increase monthly sales revenue by 15% over the next quarter by expanding our online presence.” This goal is specific, includes a measurable target, and has a clear timeline.
Strategies for Setting Realistic Goals
1. Start with your mission and vision
Clarify the overall purpose of your business and your long-term vision for it. Has your mission evolved due to market trends, competition, or unexpected challenges? Keep this big-picture view in mind as you plan for the year ahead. For instance, if you’ve wanted your business to become more eco-friendly, you might set a goal to include sourcing 100% sustainable materials by year-end.
Review your accomplishments from the previous year. Did you meet all of your goals? If not, identify the obstacles you faced and the lessons you learned. For example, if a goal to grow your social media following falls short, you can adjust by creating a posting schedule and investing in automation tools. These steps toward a consistent campaign will give you a more strategic approach.
3. Distinguish between short-term and long-term goals
Short-term goals, which can be completed within weeks or months, offer quick results that will keep you motivated. Examples might include hiring a part-time assistant or creating a promotional campaign for an upcoming holiday sale. Long-term goals require sustained effort and careful planning, such as opening a second location or doubling your customer base over the next three years. Balancing the two is key to maintaining steady progress.
Large goals can feel intimidating, but dividing them into smaller, actionable tasks makes them more manageable. For example, if a goal is to launch an e-commerce website to reach new customers, break it down into steps: research platforms, find a developer, upload product descriptions, set up payments and shipping, and test functionality. Develop a step-by-step plan with clear timelines and deliverables.
5. Prioritize effectively
As an entrepreneur, micro- or small-business owner, you wear many hats. Focus on goals that align with your top priorities, such as increasing sales, expanding into new markets, or improving customer retention. The 25/5 method can help: list your top 25 goals, prioritize the 5 most important, and set aside the others for later. This approach (often credited to Warren Buffett) prevents you from spreading yourself too thin.
6. Involve your team (if you have one)
Collaboration boosts buy-in and accountability. If you have employees or it’s a family business, seek their input during the goal-setting process. This ensures goals are realistic, aligned with everyone’s strengths, and achievable within your resources. For instance, if your team lacks expertise in a critical area, such as digital marketing, consider training or outsourcing to reach your intended market.
Large companies and organizations sometimes use the team-oriented OKR framework (Objectives, Key Results), a collaborative approach to goal setting that originated in the 1970s with Intel CEO Andy Grove. The goals are identified, with three to five measurable key results to achieve them. They’re typically set and reviewed quarterly, with periodic check-ins to stay on track. This may be overly complex for small businesses but may help small teams with clarity and transparency.
7. Use the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) website as a resource
As you begin your journey, or while in the midst of it, turn to your organization’s website for helpful tools and tips about marketing and project management to flesh out the details of your goals.
Once you’ve outlined your goals, apply the SMART framework to refine them:
Specific: Measurable: Achievable: Relevant: Time-bound: Tools and Metrics for Tracking Progress
Tracking your progress is just as important as setting goals. Here are several important ways to stay on course:
Key metrics: Digital tools: Regular reviews: Overcoming Challenges to Goal-Setting
Even determined small business owners face hurdles when goal-setting. To navigate them:
Stay flexible: Focus on what matters most: Reflect and refine: Address resource limitations Conclusion
Realistic goals are the foundation of small business success. By breaking them into actionable steps and leveraging tools to track progress, you can prioritize your efforts and stay on course. Remember, goal-setting isn’t just about results; it’s about consistent progress, whether starting a business or building and growing one.