Connect your goals to an action plan that will guide you to success

When I talk to clients about their goals, one of the missing pieces tends to be an action plan. 

They have their vision, but what’s unclear is how they’re going to (realistically) get there with their current resources. 

An action plan breaks down each goal you have into parts, taking you step-by-step closer to meeting the goal. 

Let’s explore this with a basic example of some short-term goals that are connected, with moving parts.  

Jane Smith owns a service-based business that provides technology implementation services and training to her clients. In Q1 of 2025, she wants to roll out a new workshop to her audience and bring in $3,000 in revenue. 

Some essential facts about Jane’s business:

• She’s fairly new to running workshops, but she’s introducing a new service to capture some of the frustrated DIYers for her done-for-you business. It’s a smart idea that helps her provide training that even existing clients may benefit from.

• At 500 subscribers, her email list isn’t huge. Her social media following is also fairly small, but they’re engaged, and she’s got a large in-person network she can share with.

• Her first workshop, which was held a year ago, had 12 attendees, but she’s hoping to get 20 signed up this time.

• Instead of doing an in-person workshop, she’s opted to do it virtually so she can record and provide the video to attendees to rewatch.

If you break it down, here’s what achieving her goal of making $3,000 looks like. 

Define the problem being solved and why people care

The most important question in marketing is “why.” Jane already answered that one – she’s hosting this workshop with a clear financial goal in mind for herself, and a new service offering that should appeal to her ideal audience. 

Now she needs to answer the next two important questions that her audience is going to ask:

1. So what? 

2. What’s in it for me?

Jane can plan her workshop, have a beautiful presentation deck, and prepare a clear outline of how the event will flow, but if no one buys or shows up, this is wasted effort. 

She needs to confirm that her workshop (and offerings beyond the workshop) are solving a point of friction that her audience needs support with badly enough that they’re willing to spend money AND time on it. Beyond that, Jane has to be able to communicate these selling points simply and succinctly.

Jane’s not a newbie, so she’s talked to clients and her business network, who all agree she’s onto something good. It’s a small test, but it’s enough data collection that she's confident to keep moving forward. 

Those conversations even helped her with some of the answers as to why people should care and what they want out of the workshop.

If she wanted to gauge her audience interest even more, she could send out an email survey, or put a poll on her Instagram stories with relevant questions and feedback requests. 

Send the right message with your price

A key component of the sales process is pricing decisions. 

At first glance, the math looks simple. Divide $3,000 by 20 and you get $150/person. Easy peasy, right? 

But Jane also needs to consider:

• Will she offer an early bird pricing rate? How will it differ from her regular pricing?

• What if she doesn't quite get 20 people signed up? 

• What if the value of the workshop is more than $150? 

Here’s where Jane needs to consider whether it’s more important to bring in 20 people or $3,000. 

These are two worthy goals, but they may conflict if:

A. The workshop is underpriced for its value and perceived as not substantive to her ideal clients.

B. The workshop is priced so high that the pool of people willing to pay for it within her current audience is too low to hit her goal.

C. The workshop garners so many sign-ups that once on the call attendees don’t feel seen or heard (which may impact Jane’s goal of finding people to work with her beyond the workshop).

Pricing sends a message, but you want it to be the right message. 

I tell my clients often that free is too expensive. I learned that lesson the hard way (as so many of us do). Even a low price can end up costing you depending on the value of the offer, and the audience it’s going to attract. 

There is a delicate balancing act when setting the price for the client you want. 

Jane needs to know her ideal client (the done-for-you (DFY) client she’s hoping to work with after the workshop) has the means to afford it, while not setting it too high for the DIYers who can still learn something valuable while filling out gaps in the room.

Since this is only Jane’s second workshop, she might not have found the sweet spot on the sliding scale of value and price just yet. But thinking it through in this context will help (as well as knowing she can always adjust appropriately for future sessions). 

Other considerations when it comes to Jane’s pricing include:

• Her hourly rate (an hourly rate isn’t necessarily a good pricing model but can be a helpful starting point for determining flat product or service rates). Consider,

• How long she’s spent crafting her skills (courses, education, years of experience, etc.)

• How long it took to put together the workshop

• Time spent creating and delivering promotional materials to encourage sign-ups 

• How much time will go into delivering the workshop (think prep-time before, Q&A after, email back-and-forth with attendees, etc.)

• Her values 

• Any tools or software she is paying for to create or deliver the offer

• Vacation, health, insurance, benefits, and sick pay (these should play a role in all financial business goals and strategies because you have to pay out of pocket for them as an entrepreneur!)

• Her business growth goals and motivations

• Her profit margins and profit goals (making enough so you she is able to sustain her business and lifestyle long-term, while avoiding burnout)

When it comes to the number of attendees, Jane might want to consider: 

• The level of interaction and engagement she’s hoping for from attendees

• The format and duration of the workshop

• Platform capabilities or restrictions

• Facilitation resources (will she be monitoring the chat and/or questions alone?)

Balancing each of these insights, goals, and desires with her client’s needs can be a challenge, but there is always a common ground to be found. 

Spread the word intentionally

Raise your hand if you’ve ever decided to do something, announce that it’s happening, and then forget to promote it regularly because you didn’t create a plan in advance.

Me. I’ve done this. And I absolutely know better!

So, when I say Jane shouldn’t do this, I say it from first-hand experience. Slapdash promotion will never lead to a successful sales outcome. At most it will lead to a couple of sign-ups here and there – numbers which may or may not justify hosting the workshop or putting the offer out into the world.

Instead, Jane needs to create an integrated promotional plan in advance that:

• Includes all of the relevant channels to target and show up on consistently to promote the workshop. These channels should be all of the places her ideal clients are regularly interacting with so they are likely to see the information.

• Reminds people more than once, twice, or three times that this workshop is coming, in a variety of ways, spread out over time.  

• Tells them to sign up—not just that the workshop is happening. (Humans, am I right?) There needs to be a clear CTA for people to follow-though on! Implementing early bird pricing or adding bonuses for the first few sign-ups can help evoke a sense of urgency with audiences. 

• Has a clear sign-up or purchase process to create a seamless customer experience (consider automation here). There’s nothing worse than purchasing something and then feeling uncertain about what happens next. Jane needs to outline her customer funnel clearly to include a purchase confirmation or acknowledgement email, clear next steps regarding timeline or workshop access, and regular updates with relevant links or calendar invites.

• Reaches audiences beyond her own. Jane could use event listings, or promote her workshop through friends, clients, and attendees to boost numbers.

• Demonstrates clear and tangible benefits of attending so people feel compelled to purchase. 

Remember that Jane also wants to try to leverage the workshop into some done-for-you clients. So, she’s also going to need to have a post-workshop follow-up plan taking into account:

• The people who signed up seem like a good fit for the DFY services.

• The kinds of reactions and challenges that come up for these attendees during the workshop. 

• Any unexpected opportunities she saw from other folks who attended the workshop. 

Based on these insights, Jane can put together a standard follow-up for everyone to get feedback and provide resources from the workshop. In addition, she can create a custom outreach plan for the folks who seem like a good fit for her new services. 

Like any service provider, she’s also going to be listening and learning about the people in the room to help inspire future relevant offers.  

Bonus: Set boundaries around preparation and promotion

This is just one workshop, which offers a springboard to other ways Jane can engage with customers and potential customers. 

With her top outcomes for attendees as a guide, Jane needs to set aside a reasonable amount of time to prepare and promote the workshop. 

Every minute a business owner spends working on something that has smaller returns (even if it’s valuable) is time they can’t spend on higher-return activities. 

The beauty of any workshop is the ability to iterate on it over time. Perfect is the enemy of done and Jane has the kind of expertise that’s going to make this workshop a win for attendees no matter how long she spends prepping for it. 

Full disclosure: I’m including this admonition as a recovering perfectionist who can’t help but over prepare for everything. 

Implementing clear boundaries around your work can help you protect your time, energy and resources, ensuring you’re building a truly sustainable business.

The small steps you take lead you to achieve your goals

Focus on the steps you CAN control. Jane can’t control how many people attend her workshop. 

But there are quite a few things she can do in the planning and preparation process to attract leads and maximize sign-ups to reach her goal. 

And, beyond the numbers, intentional planning and preparation can help ensure she’s able to deliver an impactful workshop regardless of the audience size. 

This looks like everything we’ve talked about:  

☐ Setting clear, realistic goals

☐ Creating an impactful offer that solves an issue or pain point her ideal audience is struggling with

☐ Outlining the marketing efforts that will help her attract as many relevant leads as she can – and committing to seeing these efforts through

☐ Reviewing the history of her lead sourcing and where the most valuable leads came from to lean into those sources

☐ Preserving time in her schedule for workshop promotion, preparation and delivery, as well as post-workshop follow-up

☐ Pricing the workshop appropriately 

☐ Consistently show up to promote the workshop within her network and digital marketing channels 

☐ Encouraging sign-ups and sharing through perks like early bird discounts or additional bonuses

☐ Creating a clear and streamlined customer journey for her audience to flow through

I used to find it hard to set goals because I’m a big-picture thinker and my brain doesn’t naturally break things down into the parts right away. So, big goals created big overwhelm. 

What I’ve learned is that it’s so much easier to think about the big picture when you can zoom in on the path you’re taking to get to your destination. 

Jane’s workshop is a small example of what you can do for your business, whether the revenue amount is $100K or $1M. The bigger the goal, the more steps and moving parts there will be, but the principle is the same at scale.

Each action is one dot on the line from here to your goal. That clarity makes all the difference when you’ve got so much going on in your business and life. 

Rest is critical: Here's how to boost your productivity and performance

If you've read my content before, you're likely already aware I'm not a fan of hustle culture or doing something just because someone says you should. 

Related reading: 

• There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ marketing plan

• Business books that you likely don’t need to read

• Challenge the status quo with your business—in good faith

In the corporate world, there are clear guidelines around your work; standards embedded directly into the culture and structure of the organization.

As an employee you (generally) have set working hours, specific deliverables, and a certain number of holidays and sick days. You have a contract in place. You have someone holding you accountable to your personal working goals and company KPIs. 

You also (hopefully) have check-in meetings where you’re able to talk openly with leaders about your progress, productivity, and desires. 

Now, this doesn’t negate the fact that management or corporations can still take advantage of their employees. 

From unrealistic expectations regarding project timelines or task turnaround times, to unpaid overtime, to salary increases or promotions being withheld, to unreasonable precedents set around answering emails after-hours – there can be a lot of toxicity in the corporate world.

In fact, one of the reasons I left the corporate world is because I got thoroughly frustrated with leaders who nod in agreement with everything you say, respond with all the right words, and then take action in an opposing direction.

However, in a healthy workplace you should be able to have open conversations around these expectations. You’d be able to set clear boundaries, negotiate changes or suggest improvements. 

As an entrepreneur, none of these systems, structures, rules, or guidelines around your work are in place. 

And while that flexibility and freedom can be exciting and empowering, it’s also a lot of responsibility. 

The line between productivity and overworking

If you want to improve your productivity, you can check out the over 500 million web pages with advice for you. If you want to level up your work performance, you've got over four billion pages of content to help you out.

There’s no doubt work and productivity have become glamorized in the Western world.  

And while there’s nothing innately with these concepts (I love my work and find a lot of fulfillment in the sense of accomplishment I get at the end of a productive day), there is an important distinction between:

1. Enjoying your work and being productive in pursuit of a goal, and 

2. Overworking to no end, toxic productivity, burnout, and exhaustion 

Here are some signs you’re overworking: 

• Persistent anxiety about your work and work-related outcomes

• Constantly worrying about other people’s perceptions of you 

• Micromanaging tasks due to fear of failure 

• Being lenient with your “boundaries” to accommodate other people’s schedule 

• Perfectionist tendencies 

• Struggling to relax 

• Avoiding asking for help 

• Volunteering for more work when you know your schedule is already full 

• Sacrificing your personal life for work-related success 

• Moving quickly onto the next project without celebrating your accomplishments along the way 

Hustle culture is prominent in our society. Being “busy” is worn as a badge of honour. Working long hours is often praised – even if someone else was just as productive in a shorter time period. Answering emails after-hours or on weekends is seen as going above and beyond. 

Comparison, FOMO (fear of missing out), and other external pressures often cause us to feel the need to continue to strive for more money, success, or “freedom” (in quotations because if you read my blog post on passive income you know that this freedom often comes at the price of more overworking). 

Combined, these habits, pressures, and mindsets are likely to lead to burnout and exhaustion. 

Here’s a quick checklist for signs you’re burnt out: 

• Lack of motivation 

• Lack of satisfaction 

• Decreased performance 

• Chronic fatigue 

• Difficulty sleeping or changes in sleep habits 

• Irritability, impatience, or unexplained frustration 

• Headaches and/or tension

• Withdrawal from social engagements and networking 

• Lack of concentration 

• Detachment from your goals and work 

Let’s chat underperforming 

I briefly also want to touch on the opposite side of the spectrum: underperforming. The main risk here is wasted potential. 

Whether you’re not being challenged enough in the corporate world, or have set such loose boundaries for yourself as an entrepreneur that your work has become almost effortless, being disengaged or uninterested in your work is another path to exhaustion (just in different ways).  

“When you operate below your abilities for too long, you stagnate. Skills degrade as you lose the drive for self-improvement. Creativity diminishes as you settle into a routine. Promotions and rewards seem unlikely, leaving you feeling stuck. Persistent boredom and lack of fulfillment often lead to depression and anxiety.”

– Michelle Myers, Women’s Leadership Today

Here are some signs your work might not be challenging enough for you:

• Procrastination and lack of motivation 

• Frequent errors 

• Feeling overwhelmed

• Questioning yourself or persistent self-doubt

• Lack of creativity 

• Boredom 

• Lack of fulfillment 

Other reasons you struggle can include life circumstances or neurodiversity (shout out to my fellow ADHDers!), which can compromise your executive function.  

How to start changing the script in your life and business 

After reviewing the above concepts: overworking, burnout, productivity, and underperforming, how are you feeling about your recent work performance? 

Are you in that sweet spot – excited about your work and feeling accomplished at the end of each day while maintaining healthy boundaries around your personal life? Or are you veering towards one side of the spectrum more than the other? 

It’s important to get super honest here! 

Gut check time:

• Are you benefitting from doing more or is someone else?

• Are you aligned in your work? Excited about it? Motivated to tackle new projects each (week)day?

• Do you feel appropriately challenged in your work? 

• Do you have clear goals set? Is doing more going to help you achieve the goals you've set? 

• What's the rush? Are you working towards reasonable timelines associated with your goals? Or are you putting unnecessary pressure on yourself? 

• What boundaries do you have in place? Have these been appropriately communicated with your clients, team members, and/or managers? Are you consistently upholding these boundaries?

• What systems and structures do you have in place around your work to support you? Are you automating redundant tasks? Delegating work where possible? Eliminating projects or tasks that you don’t really need to be doing? 

• When was the last time you reassessed your values? Are they aligned with your work? 

Granted, you may not love every element of your job, or be able to control every element of your career. Overall though, there should be feelings of fulfillment and excitement associated with your chosen profession. 

You should have clear goals and deliverables to work towards. You should be doing work that’s aligned with your values. You should be appropriately challenged by what you’re doing. And you should have clear boundaries and structures in place – whether you’re an entrepreneur or employee. 

You also need to make rest a priority if you're worried about performance and productivity in your business.

Why?

• You don't want to end up burning out.

• You need time for yourself, your family and friends, and to pursue other interests.

• Your health is too important to let your business take over.

• You will be more productive when you take a break, rather than pushing yourself too hard.

• Rest will allow you more stress resilience, enhanced problem solving, and the ability to make more strategic decisions. 

• Add any other points that are relevant, and re-order if you're inspired! 

This year, I’m taking my own advice 

Personally, I tend to get a ridiculous amount of work done. It's not always everything I want to do exactly when I want to do it, but I'm a high achiever. Even the Enneagram agrees with that statement (3w2 - that's me).

Performance and productivity aren't my problem. Instead, I'm more likely to need rest. 

Yes, I get downtime on weekends and I keep that time pretty dedicated to my family and rest. 

However, I have also gone through periods where I worked far too hard. One day this year, I actually worked at my desk until after 5am, and went up to get a few hours of sleep before a client meeting. Oops! 

For the first time since I decided to work full-time in my business, I made note of when I want to take time off throughout the year. 

In years past I’ve done this on an ad hoc basis and wait to see what my workload is going to be like.

WEIRD APPROACH, I know, since I'm the boss.

But as I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, the freedom and flexibility associated with entrepreneurial work aren’t always easy to uphold. 

We can work whenever, so we do. More hours worked seems to equate (at least in our minds) to more money made or more success, so we push ourselves to do more (forgetting that feeling productive and actually being productive are two different things). We allow our work to expand to fill all hours, instead of blocking dedicated time for work and rest. 

Productivity and performance are often about getting us to do more, more, more. To what end, though?

“Einstein wasn’t trying to “crush it” or “kill it” at work. In fact, the behaviors and language associated with hustle culture don’t typically lead to great accomplishments. What does is the pursuit of deeper, more personal goals like knowing and understanding important phenomena, solving complex problems, or making a positive impact in society.”

– Alice Boyes, Harvard Business Review

This year, I’m taking my own advice. 

I’m doing the preemptive planning and boundary setting required to be able to prioritize rest and vacation. 

I’m scheduling rest the same way I schedule my work. 

I’m setting expectations for my time off. 

And in doing so, I’m giving myself clear guidelines for when to rest, what that rest will look like, and what I need to do in advance to ensure that rest occurs. 

Regardless of whether you work in a larger corporation or as an entrepreneur, it’s up to you to advocate for yourself. 

It’s up to you to set your own boundaries. 

It’s up to you to do the above gut check often to see how you’re feeling about your work, energy levels, productivity, and motivations. 

Because rest is critical. But just as important is knowing when to take these breaks, and being proactive about them to ensure the rest actually happens. 

Goal setting and planning your marketing for a new year

The New Year is around the corner which means it’s time to get planning.

While it’s never too late to start this process, you’re sure to feel a sense of relief if you tackle it early – giving yourself clarity on where you want to go and what you want to achieve. 

Now, this post assumes you already have an idea of your goals for the year because that's a huge part of your strategy. 

If you don't have goals or haven't written them down, that's an essential first step.

Determining your goals

Here are some questions to help you think about your goals for the year: 

1. What revenue number do you want to reach this year?

2. What will you sell to allow yourself to reach that revenue goal? Break your sales down by offer, based on what you believe is realistic to sell.

3. Do you want to develop any new offers? When do you want to have them ready and how do these fit into your revenue goal?

4. Do you want to outsource any work you're currently doing? Can you do this with the revenue goal you've set? Do you need to stretch your revenue goal a little further to accommodate this?

5. Is there anything else you want to do in your business this year? For example, maybe you want to plan a rebrand, add a new content type/platform to your marketing, increase community involvement, implement new software or systems to maximize efficiency, or update your website. What do all of these entail? How do they play into your revenue goal? 

I have multiple other blogs on goal setting including a general introduction to the S.M.A.R.T framework for goal setting and how to structure your goals for your business, as well as the types of goals you can set for your business.

So, if you’re stuck, start there! 

Once you’ve developed a sense of your goals though, it’s time to embed them into your business strategy for the year. 

Developing a strategy based on your goals

This strategy will support you in determining the actions you can take to achieve your goals, based on your priorities, values, and the resources you have at your disposal to bring those goals to fruition. 

On the flip side, it also supports you in determining what you’re not going to do. 

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” ~ Michael Porter

Your strategy gives you an overview of your position in the marketplace, involving competitive analysis, potential challenges or barriers to success, and how you’re going to stand out from others in your industry as a unique business. 

Your strategy should also define who your audience is, the problems they have, and how you help with those problems. This part of your strategy should provide additional insights as to where it's most valuable to spend your time, whether on social channels, networking in person, or other marketing platforms that will most effectively reach the people in your target audience. For example, if your focus is on professionals, LinkedIn will likely be more valuable than Facebook.

You’ll also want to think about the places people find you most often before they hire or buy from you and put effort in there. Don't forget to consider local networking groups as a way to expand your reach!

Creating action steps and plans to take you to the finish line 

By this point, you should have an overarching idea of what you want your year to look like, what parts of your business you want to focus on, and how you’re going to allocate your resources strategically to make those goals happen. 

Now, we're going to start breaking down your goals into the steps you need to take to achieve them.

Because large goals on their own can be overwhelming, we need to find ways to make them more manageable so you’re motivated to get to work on them. 

Consider: 

1. How many people do you need to talk to about your services to make enough sales to meet your revenue goal? Determine how many consults you need to do per month/week. Or, how many people do you need to get in front of to make a sale? Determine how you plan to reach that number through organic social media posts, blog posts, your email list, paid ads, or a combination of all of these.

2. How do you plan to book those consults? Will you get them from social media posts, referrals, networking in person, or a combination of all three? For products, where will you direct this potential traffic? Do you have sales processes and automations set-up? 

3. Do you want to give a referral fee or discount for people who send you clients / customers? Will you establish this with specific collaborators (for example, other business owners who work with your audience) or will it be with anyone who sends you potential clients or refers a sale?

From here you can also establish some minimums that will help you achieve your goals:

• Platform/type of content = X posts per week/month

• Networking events = X times per month

• Networking follow-up = X emails per event and X 1:1 meetings per week

• Referral partners = X agreements for the year for X% of the client fees before taxes

• Affiliates = X referrals for the year for X% discount or money back 

This process is great a way to double-check that your goals are actually realistic. If you're walking through answering these questions and starting to feel overwhelmed by the amount of work you have to do to generate the business, get creative!

Think about what you can do to shift your plans to make more money. What can you do to work smarter rather than harder? 

Can you hire support? Outsource certain tasks? Is there a piece of software you can purchase to help reduce your manual workload? Can you automate redundant processes? Is there anything you’re doing out of habit or obligation that you don’t need to? 

Remember that the whole point of laying out a plan for how you're going to achieve the goals you set is to give you a way to structure the work you do so you can stay on track.

You don’t need to do everything. In fact, you shouldn’t. 

Trying to be omnipresent, especially if you haven’t yet built up the team or systems to effectively do so, is going to do you more harm than good. 

Instead, focus on 1-2 platforms where your audience hangs out, and that you’re excited about creating content for, and work on being consistent on those first. Otherwise, overwhelm can lead to inaction.

It's okay to look at your year and reduce your goals and activities for the times you plan to be away or busy because you know it's just not going to be feasible to work as much (or at all). 

In fact, planning for time away from your business is a good way to avoid burnout.

It's your business and your rules. YOU get to decide your goals and priorities. You also get to change your goals and priorities, even if it means you shift to less ambitious goals.

And that's why the plan is important. There needs to be a clear focus on your goals and the steps it takes to achieve them so you know what you’re signing up for and how to set yourself up for success. 

This initial planning can help you better prioritize you, your needs, and the work you need to do for your business (over other opportunities that will inevitably come up and distract you). That might look like setting boundaries, regulating your energy, and/ or setting up systems of support. 

That's also not to say though, you should devote all your time to your business and never stray from thinking about it. Quite the opposite.

I'm a big believer in setting both yes and no boundaries. And if you need to list these out to remember when something comes up that isn't aligned with what you want, that can be a great way to stay on track.

Remember, it’s your business! And if saying no is going to support you in growing a business that allows you to live your life on the terms you set, then it’s worth it, even if it means potentially taking a little longer to achieve the goals you set. 

The best part about that is it shows clearly that you're achieving the greatest goal of them all: deciding what's right for you and going for it.

When you shift your plans to make room for other priorities, it gives you more information about how to approach the planning process the next time to set even more realistic goals and intentions.

So, go forth and create your new year strategy. Be inspired. Dream big. Get creative. Set-up a plan to execute. And remember to do so on your own terms, keeping your vision for your life in mind, too. 

Goal setting: Know where you're going so you can make a plan to get there

Having a clear process for establishing business goals and scheduling time for a regular reassessment of them is almost like figuring out the driving route you’re going to take for a vacation. 

Without directions, even if you have a destination in mind, you’re likely going to end up lost, frustrated, and late, because the trip will most certainly take longer than if you had simply sat down long enough to figure out your route before you start. 

And without regular reassessment, you might end up moving towards a destination that’s of no value or interest to you anymore. 

Instead, if you set strategic goals that make sense for your business and your marketing endeavours, you can break down the steps it takes to accomplish them and will have a clear path towards success. 

You’ll not only know where you’re going but you’ll have a plan to get there.

Structuring goals for your business

Setting goals not only involves figuring out your final destination and the steps it’s going to take to get there but also ensuring that these goals make sense for your business. 

The most well-known structure for setting these goals is the SMART system; setting goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. 

While you may have used this in your personal life at one time or another, I want to encourage you to implement this across your business and marketing as well. 

S: Specific 

Setting specific goals means getting clear about what you want to accomplish. Rather than simply saying you want to increase leads, clients, or revenue, you might add number values or timeframes in order to make the goal more concrete. 

Consider: 

• What’s the overall objective? What specific results do you want to see?

• What needs to be accomplished? 

• Who is responsible for moving the needle? 

M: Measurable 

The second consideration in creating SMART goals is ensuring you have a way to measure the progress and results of your efforts. 

This will help you determine what’s working and what isn’t along the way, and in the end, will allow you to see if you’ve reached your goal. 

For example, if your goal is simply to increase revenue, technically you could check that goal off of your to-do list the moment you brought in the next sale (even if it was an extremely low-ticket offer). 

I’m guessing though, that you have bigger ambitions than making an additional dollar this year, and so you need to quantify those goals so that there can be a clear line drawn between reaching the goal and not. 

Consider: 

• What are the metrics that you could use to gauge progress and success? (Number of clients? Revenue dollars? Email list numbers?) 

• How do these goals fit into your larger business plan and goals? 

• Will you be able to know exactly when you’ve hit your goal?

A: Attainable or Achievable 

As a small business owner, you likely have a lot of energy and drive to make your business succeed. You’re excited, and have huge goals you want to bring to light. 

This is one of the reasons I love working with small business owners, so please keep that passion and those big dreams alive. 

But, when you’re creating goals for the next month or next quarter, you need to ensure they’re realistic given the resources you have available. 

The quickest way to lose that initial drive, is by setting goals that are unrealistic and overwhelming, to the point where you struggle to take action because it seems like your goal is incredibly far away. 

Set milestone goals that you can celebrate on your way to getting to those larger goals. The funny thing is, this route is actually going to get you to those larger goals much quicker. (Planning is a shortcut, it just might not seem like it). 

Consider: 

• How can you break down your larger goals into goals that are achievable in the next couple of months? 

• How much time, energy and money do you have available to commit to this initiative? 

R: Relevant 

Goals aren’t helpful unless they’re going to move the needle in the direction you want. So, you need to look at setting goals that are relevant for your business and target market. 

If your goal is to bring in additional revenue for example, your follower count on social media likely isn’t as important as the number of people on your email list that you can directly sell to, or the number of people who have expressed interest in working with you by booking a consult call. 

Look at where your efforts are going to be best spent, especially when you’re in the initial stages of your business, rather than trying to be in all the places at once. 

If you’re finding it hard not to be swayed by what other companies or entrepreneurs are doing, or by the new platforms and software continuously coming out, return to your data. Data-based decisions are going to be the antidote to any shiny object syndrome you’re dealing with. 

Consider: 

• Why do you want to achieve this goal? 

• What is your larger business plan? How does this goal fit into that? 

• How will this benefit the company? 

T: Time-Bound

All of the above is great, but if you don’t set a timeline for your goals, you’re going to find it a lot harder to get anything done. 

A timeline not only helps you to see the finish line but having that deadline in place is going to motivate you to take action, especially as the date gets closer. 

Consider: 

• When do you want to complete this goal? Can you break that timeline down any further? 

• Is this timeline realistic? 

What goals make sense for your business?

I’m a believer that you should be setting two different types of goals for your company. Business goals and marketing goals. 

Business goals

Your business goals are those that take into account the company as a whole. Consider why you started the company, the overall direction of the business, your values, the impact you want to make on the world, and how you’re going to be able to make those things happen. 

Often business goals will come in the form of a certain number of clients and/or revenue, which will allow you to gauge how many people you’re impacting. 

These goals also often work hand-in-hand. For example, revenue goals can help you to map out your customer acquisition plans by month in order to allow for predictability with work and income. 

Examples might include: 

• Increase gross profit by 20% by end-of-year by signing 6 new clients. 

• Delegate all customer service emails by the end of Q3.

• Increase customer retention by 10% by next month. 

• Create a competitive analysis of the marketplace with research into 3 other similar companies, by the end of next week. 

Marketing goals 

Your marketing goals are specific to the marketing activities and tactics you plan on using in order to gain exposure, bring in leads, and grow your business. 

Your marketing goals will ultimately make it a lot easier to achieve your overall business goals, as long as they’re aligned: taking into account your values, vision, and ideal clients. 

Examples might include: 

• Automate lead magnet and a series of 5 nurture emails in order to engage with potential new clients by next week.  

• Grow email list by 300 people by the end of the quarter. 

• Post on Instagram 4 times per week, starting next month for 3 months. 

• Increase client testimonials by 20% by the end of Q3. 

Again, you’ll want to ensure that you have set metrics to review so you can stay on track and measure your progress and that these goals are attainable based on the resources you have available. 

It might be helpful to review any metrics you already have from prior months in order to set goals that are relevant and unique to you. 

Guidelines for setting goals 

While SMART goals offer a great framework, there are still a few traps people fall into when setting goals that I want to help you avoid. 

1) Consider who else needs to be involved in this goal-setting process. 

As a small business owner, you may not have a huge team, but if you have any contractors or assistants, you may want to get them involved in the process. 

If your team isn’t aware of the goals you’ve set they may end up having a different perspective on where their time is best spent or what metrics are important. 

Ensure anyone who needs to is brought in on the vision. 

2) Find someone to hold you accountable.

If you already have a team, sharing your goals with those team members is a great way to stay accountable and on track. If not though, I’d still recommend getting a couple of trusted people involved in your vision. 

It’s very easy to self-sabotage, or give yourself a lot of wiggle room if you’re the only one who knows about your goals. 

Find a coach or a fellow entrepreneur who you don’t want to disappoint, and share your goals with them! They’ll help hold you accountable to your goals and your timeline. 

3) Make your goals visible. 

Similarly, ensure that you can see your goals daily. Write them on a sticky note and place it on your computer, or create alarms in your phone to remind you what you’re working on. 

It’s easy to write some goals down in a notebook and then forget about them when life gets busy, so you need to find a way to keep these goals front of mind. 

4) Don’t set your timeline too far out. 

Of course, you can have long-term goals, but don’t forget about the medium and short-term goals as well. 

Creating milestones for yourself will not only help to keep you motivated but they’re good check-in periods. 

Here you can reassess if the goals you’ve set are still relevant and important to your business or if they need to be modified.

5) Break down your goals into smaller steps.

Setting an end goal is great, and SMART goals give you a lot of direction. However, if you simply set the goal without breaking it down any further, it’s likely going to be an overwhelming endeavour. 

Instead, break down your goals into smaller milestones with shorter timelines attached to them. From there, figure out the specific to-do list items that you can work on every day to move the needle forward towards this goal. 

6) There’s a fine line between creating goals that are realistic and those that are easy. 

You want to ensure your goals make you a little uncomfortable; that they stretch you a bit. Yes, you also want to ensure your goals are realistic to avoid overwhelm and inaction, but if you set goals that you know you can complete you’re not going to be motivated to grow and push yourself in your business. 

7) Be flexible. 

Change is inevitable and if you set goals with no opportunity to shift or change them, you’re setting yourself up for failure. 

Instead, give yourself the opportunity to shift with the changing landscape and any world events. Have a plan but also be ready to make changes to it when something comes up that’s outside of your control. 

Have you set goals for your business? How are they going? Let us know in the comments!

How to match your marketing expectations to your resources

One of the most frustrating things about being a small business owner is seeing some of the extravagant (and often expensive) things that big businesses do to market their products and services.

In fact, the marketing budgets for these companies are often anywhere from 2% to 10% of their revenue (on average), and when you're talking about multiple millions in revenue, it’s safe to say that’s a very healthy investment!

Those of us who haven't quite reached 7-figures yet have to allocate our marketing budgets differently.

Scaling down your marketing as a small business means budgeting your time, energy and money.

Here’s how to start paring down, getting clear on what will really move the needle for your business and what’s the best use of your marketing dollars.

Determine your business goals so you can align your marketing

What’s the long-term vision for you and your business? How do you plan on measuring success? What conversions and KPIs are important to you?

When you have an idea of the overarching plan for your company, you’re able to better gauge which marketing activities will have the biggest impact. Data is your friend! Use it to guide your marketing choices.

Go deeper, not wider with your strategy

Get super clear on your target audience. Ensure you’re creating content and sharing marketing messages that resonate deeply with them, and that you’re using the platforms and tools they’re already on.

Consider as well where you already have success and focus on growing those platforms rather than continuously looking for the next new thing to start. Just because you see something working for someone else doesn’t mean it’s right for your business. (Again, follow the data!)

As discussed in a recent blog post about making data-based decisions, “it can seem fun and exciting to start something new, but in most cases signing up for the next piece of software is not going to make the same amount of impact in your business as simply sticking to what is tried and true, using the tools you already have and know how to use.”

If you have an engaged email list that's growing, perhaps you don't need to devote as much time to Facebook or Instagram. Or, if your blog posts are already gaining a lot of traction, it might be a sign that your audience enjoys the written word, and introducing video doesn’t make sense.

Yes, there might be some fear of missing out (FOMO) if you don’t appeal to everyone or aren’t on all the platforms, but each new tactic you implement requires more of your time, energy, and money. So, you need to get honest with yourself and weigh whether it’s worth each of these investments.

Focus on the resources you already have available to you, the target market that resonates most with you, and a defined strategy with a few tactics you can execute effectively.

Choose tools that are cost-effective and make your life easier

There are lots of freemium tools out there and I'm a big fan of using them! These are a great way to experiment and decide what works best for you before committing to a process or platform.

Why invest time and money if you don't know the impact of something yet? Or whether it will even work for you in the first place?

By testing first, you can figure out the impact, and then you'll already have the setup in place so you can make the monetary investment go further.

Important note: it’s also important to know where to draw the line on free tools. Consider your time and energy as well when you’re determining their effectiveness. If a free tool sucks up too much time and energy trying to figure out or if you need to do everything manually instead of an easy-to-use, automatic tool you could pay for, you might actually be losing money. Especially as a small business owner, most of your time needs to be spent on the tasks that will make you money. Namely, selling your services!

Choose frequencies that are realistic

Once you’ve established your target audience, the marketing messages that will speak most to them, and the tactics you want to use regularly as part of your larger marketing strategy, it’s time to determine your schedule.

These tactics will become part of your regular routine. If you choose to post on Instagram, you’ll likely want to develop a consistent posting schedule. If you choose to start a YouTube channel, having a recurring time subscribers can look forward to your content can help you gain traction.

You want these schedules to take into account both your audience wants, and what’s realistic for you. One doesn’t work effectively without the other.

For example, I recently started actively emailing my list and taking steps to grow my email subscribers. I could have said I was going to start with a weekly email but I know that isn't likely to happen right now so why put that pressure on myself?

I'm also just getting started and don't want my subscribers to be overwhelmed with my content!

There’s a balance that needs to be struck here, and by setting things up with less frequent cadence at the beginning, you give yourself the chance to adjust to the new workflow and show your audience why they should care.

Eventually, yes, I'll send an email weekly. For now though, I’m keeping it realistic.

FOMO is an illusion

Have you ever experienced the fear of missing out on a social gathering, only to realize that you didn’t really want to be there at all? You hate small talk, aren’t a fan of dressing up, and go to bed before 10pm anyway.

Let’s bring that perspective to marketing.

The reason we’re so insecure is because we’re comparing our own behind-the-scenes to everyone else‘s highlights tape.

– Steve Furtick

We see what other companies are doing and want to be doing it too, but we rarely take the time to envision what that would look like in our own businesses.  

Let’s paint a quick picture:  

• Longer hours and less energy because you’re being stretched thin on too many projects

• Less sales because you’ve got a confused audience who isn’t sure what you want them to do or where they should be consuming your content

• Overwhelm and minimal progress because you’re taking one step in 10 different directions instead of 10 steps on a defined path

Let’s shift our mindset and focus instead on JOMO - the Joy of Missing Out (coined by blogger Anil Dash as the positive counterpart of FOMO), appreciating:

• How far we’ve come and the growth we’re excited to see in our business over time

• The time and energy we have available to us when we’re not stretched in so many different directions, and

• The pressure that’s taken off of us when we don’t feel the need to show up in so many places

Stop comparing where you’re at with someone who’s 10 steps ahead of you! Recognize that you won’t be able to do everything a larger company can (right now) and that that’s okay. Focus on where you’re at and use the resources you have available to you.

Your growth will come!