5 Steps to Setting and Achieving Your Business Goals in 2023

I wrote many business plans in college as well as multiple strategies while I was in corporate America. However, nothing felt as rewarding, and challenging, as writing a real business plan when I decided to become an entrepreneur in 2017. I remember I had a lofty vision and I knew I’d need funding so writing out a plan was essential.

Fast forward to 2022, I’ve worked with dozens of entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners who dread the process of creating a plan or simply don’t know how to get started.

Setting goals for the business can be very beneficial? because it provides an opportunity to start fresh and set the stage for success in the future.

Goals help provide a clear direction for your business and you ways to measure your progress and determine if you’re on track. If you want to be successful in 2023, her is how you can start setting and actually achieving your goals.

Step 1: Look back and reflect on the past year

In order to determine where you want to go, you first need to assess your current situation and learn from past accomplishments and challenges. For example, you might look at the different marketing strategies you employed last year and realize there is one that had a huge return and therefore decide you do want to invest more into the same one next year. In contrast, you can identify areas of improvement by looking back to examine what didn’t work or didn’t align with? your goals or your business. Maybe you hired someone who didn’t represent your company well or got a software that is too time consuming for your team to use. It’s important to examine all areas because they all impact the bottom line.

Step 2: Define your goals

By now you have probably heard of S.M.A.R.T. goals and they are popular because they work. It’s important to set goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Oftentimes, business owners have a general idea of what they want to achieve but don’t take the time to craft their goals and this affects the business if they can even get it off the ground. Instead of saying I want to open up a coffee shop in 2023, you need to write down multiple goals (S.M.A.R.T. ones) to? reach your dream.?

Step 3: Create a plan for achieving your goals

Write down specifically when and where you want to open, what type of coffee shop, down to decor, pricing, target market, etc., a timeline of the different steps you need to take pre-launch and when they need to happen, set realistic expectations that meet your budget and energetic bandwidth. These are some of the examples but as you reverse engineer and breakdown your goals, you’ll realize each step becomes more attainable.?

Step 4: Monitor your progress

Establish benchmarks and checkpoints for tracking progress. You simply won’t be able to know what’s working or not unless you have the information and benchmarks to compare and assess your progress. When it comes to business, take advantage of the analytics provided by softwares and platforms and combine the information into a single document to be able to see the whole picture clearly. For example, create a document to track social media growth and combine the analytics provided by Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, etc. in one place. This will give you a chance to see which platform is performing better and where you can focus your efforts.?

Make sure you allot to actually measure your efforts. I like setting weekly goals with my team on Mondays and doing the monitoring by Friday so that we can adjust and plan well the following week. Set a 1-hour window on your calendar to track your progress to ensure you actually get it done.?

Step 5: Celebrate your achievements

Recognize and reward yourself and your team for your hard work. Many times, you may feel burnt out because you are so fixated on the future and the end-goal and not celebrating your accomplishments. It’s easier to be our own toughest critic and not our greatest cheerleader. However, being able to recognize how far you and your team have come is essential to encourage you to keep going and make all your efforts feel worth your while.

Lastly, remember that? you can start planning and goal-setting whenever, the new year is a great motivation because it feels like a new start but don’t ever give up on your dreams simply because you didn’t have a plan by January 1st or if you didn’t meet a goal the first week of the year. I like to think of the year in quarters over a whole year. Setting quarterly goals makes them feel more attainable and it gives you that “fresh start” more often for improved focus and motivation.