We’ve all heard the grim statistics around New Year’s resolutions. Only 9.2% of people ever actualize their intended outcomes for the year ahead, with 80% ditching their goals altogether by February. The odds are against you, and every article distributed come end of December/early January wants you to know it.
For many small business owners looking back on last year with top-line goals unmet, it can be difficult to look forward with chutzpah. A new year doesn’t automatically translate to a new mindset.
If you’re feeling slightly defeated and less than satisfied with last year’s business performance, it’s time to hit pause on the pity party. Instead, hit the reset button on your small business goals in 2019 with the following tips.
Review Last Year’s Goals
As a small business owner, you likely know how easy it can be to put business-building tasks on the back burner. Your clients and customers come first, right?
Right. However, this isn’t necessarily a chicken or the egg situation. If you’re going to commit to better goal-setting in the year ahead, you’ll need to make the time for your business alone to review goal-setting from the year prior.
Celebrate the Successes
As you take a look back at major milestones from the year prior, be sure to celebrate your successes. Running a business of any size is hard work. Whether or not you feel satisfied with the current state of affairs, your wins should be held up as reminders of the progress that has been made thus far and what you’re capable of as an owner moving forward.
Learn from the Failures
Less fun, but possibly more beneficial, are the failures. If it helps, get visual on a whiteboard and list out what didn’t work and/or gave you the most grief in 2018. Identifying these bumps in the road will allow you to more readily avoid them with thoughtful solutions in the year ahead.
Plan SMARTly
As it relates to goals, SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Insert whatever acronym you like into the equation — the main takeaway here is that your small business goals for 2019 need to be held accountable to standards. After all, it’s not the goal itself that ensures success, it’s the plan you devise in how to achieve it.
Ask for Help
It’s hard to know when to ask for help as entrepreneurs and small business owners. There’s a sense of pride knowing you’re the solo driver of your vision. And the effort it takes to bring the right third parties on board can seem like more work (and added cost) than it’s worth to keep things afloat.
But if you’re continuously not meeting goals as expected, it’s time to ask yourself the hard questions. It’s time to consider that maybe the growth you want to achieve in the year ahead will only be possible with help from an outside source.
Keep Goals Visible
Simply thinking up a goal in your head without putting pen to paper won’t get you very far in achieving it. Again, you need to map out both objective and strategy, documenting as you go. Keep your small business goals for 2019 visible and make it a point to check on progress regularly. This will help keep you focused, and encourage ease around adaptability as new goals emerge in real time.
Setting Small Business Goals in 2019
Goals are never a guarantee, but they are one step closer to your desired outcome. Acknowledge the year gone by and then move forward with these tips for resetting your small business goals in 2019.