Goal setting is a powerful process that makes you seriously consider what you want to accomplish (long-term and short-term) with your creative business. It helps you focus your attention, stay motivated, and drive for success.
If you’ve not set your business goals yet this year, now is the perfect time to take stock and reflect on what you’ve achieved with your creative business so far – and what you want to do next.
Review your business progress
To begin with, ask yourself… Did you achieve what you set out to do last year? Did you exceed your goals? Were there any hurdles that got in the way? Did your goals change during the year?
Don’t beat yourself up if you haven’t yet achieved what you wanted to. As long as you continue to build on what you’ve already done, progress is progress! Use your answers to help you map out some new goals over the next 12 months. Then break these down into smaller, quarterly goals that’ll help you get to your long-term objectives.
Six tips for setting attainable goals
To help you achieve the goals you set for your business, follow these tips below.
1. Make your business goals realistic and bite-sized
Aiming high is good – but don’t try to achieve the impossible. Be aware of what’s achievable. Sometimes baby steps are what’s needed to grow your business gracefully.
2. Put specific timeframes on your goals
Making your goals timebound keeps you accountable and your business moving forwards. It also helps you structure and organise the work that needs to be done to achieve your goals. Speaking of work…
3. Create an action plan for each of your goals
It’s not enough to know where you’re headed; you need to know how you’re going to get there. List out the work necessary to achieve your goals – all the individual tasks – then schedule out when they need to be completed and by who (you or a team member).
4. Consider what skills, talent and support you need to hit your goals
Maybe, to achieve what you want to do, you need to increase your own knowledge, recruit or train a team or find yourself an accountability partner. (If you’re a CE member, we’ll get you matched up with a fellow creative entrepreneur who can help you achieve your goals.)
5. Track and analyse your progress
Make reviewing your goals a regular process. You need a system in place to measure how well you’re doing. With seeing concrete results of your progress, it’s far too easy to sway off course. Tracking your goals can be as simple as updating a monthly spreadsheet to log metrics.
6. Celebrate your successes
After much hard work and effort on your part, it’s essential to celebrate milestones and achievements when you reach them. Rewarding yourself can really help to cement in your mind how far you’ve come – and motivate you to set and achieve targets you’d previously only dreamt of.
When setting goals, remember that each one is important, whether big or small. Each one will help you grow your creative business. As long as you’re always working towards your goals and are harnessing the right mindset, you’re headed for creative business success!
Looking for more motivational reading? Read more on goal setting here. You might also like this article on essential reading for budding creative entrepreneurs.
If you’re a CE member, you’ll find our Founder Files particularly inspirational. These are real-life stories of creative business leaders who’ve been in your shoes and have achieved incredible success. Not a CE member? Join us today to access our members-only exclusive content.