Every success coach will tell you that, in order to be successful at anything, one of the first things you’ll need to do is set yourself goals.
That goes for everything from learning a new language to becoming financially independent, and it’s doubly important as an entrepreneur.
The importance of setting goals for yourself as an entrepreneur simply can’t be overstated. One of the more important reasons is that, because entrepreneurs work on their own without a boss, a time clock or any real deadlines, they need to set goals in order to make sure that things get done, and done on time. The truth is, even entrepreneurs can procrastinate and, if that’s you, setting goals is one of the best ways to nip that procrastination in the bud.
Avoid procrastination
But goals go further than just helping you to avoid procrastination. Setting goals will give you a timeline that you can follow in order to measure your success. For example, if you’re selling widgets and you need to sell 50 of them per day in order to break even, setting a goal to accomplish that task, and then exceeding it, will not only spur you to action but also let you know when your business becomes profitable.
Of course if you don’t reach that goal you’ll also know that there’s still work to do (and widgets to sell).
Setting goals should actually begin before you even open your doors for the first time, or make a sales presentation to your first client. Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of starting a business without enough capital, or without the full amount of knowledge that they need in order to be successful. They rush in because they’re excited to get started and, in many cases, fail because of poor preparation.
Setting goals
By setting goals early, you‘ll not only be able to specifically determine when you should start your business, and what you need to start, you might just decide that the business you’ve chosen to start is the wrong one.
There are no limits to the amount of goals that you can set for yourself and your new business and, in fact, the more goals you set the better.
Smaller objectives and tasks would obviously have short-term goals assigned to them, while larger and more all-encompassing tasks would have long-term goals. You can set goals for the amount of clients you’re going to see, the amount of product you’re going to sell, the specific date that you would like to be “in the black”, the time period for hiring your first employee and practically anything else that relates to your upcoming business venture.
In the end, the most successful people are the ones who set goals and, once they’ve accomplished them, set new ones. As an entrepreneur your success or failure rides squarely on your shoulders and, if you learn to use goal setting correctly, your chance of success will increase greatly.
Hopefully you now realise how important it is to set yourself goals. We are able to offer advise on setting yours through one of our advisors. If you have any questions, please get in touch and we’ll be sure to get back to you with advice and information.
