Business Goal Setting for the New Year
As you counted down on New Year’s Eve, you may have already had your big list of personal goals you wanted to achieve in 2023: eat better, move your body more, and spend more time with the fam.
But as a small business owner, your resolutions list probably looks a little different.
If you haven’t thought about what you’d like to accomplish with your company in 2023 - now is the perfect time to do so!
In this article, we are talking all things business goal setting for the new year. I’ll take you step by step to help you identify what your goals are, how to achieve them, and what to do after.
Start with the big picture
While goal setting is fun to us Type A’s, it’s definitely a challenge. Figuring out what exactly you want out of your small biz when you don’t know what the next year holds is tough.
A lot of people get stressed with the specifics when they start business goal setting for the new year. So my first tip: start with the big picture.
Think about what drove your service based business’s growth and profits in 2022.
In what areas did you spend the most time and effort that resulted in clear benefits?
What areas did you focus on that didn’t pay off like you hoped?
What did your customers say was their biggest value-add from your services?
Click here to read about three potential growth areas small business owners often neglect if you need some inspo.
Then be specific
Once you’ve got the big picture list, you can start whittling down what items you’d like to focus more on in the new year.
Goals need to be actionable, specific, and measurable.
It’s all well and good to say you’re going to eat better in the new year, but “eating better” is subjective. Eating one salad in the first week of January and then ignoring your greens the rest of the month doesn’t mean you’ve improved your overall eating habits, right?
The same goes for business goal setting for the new year.
Say you run your own graphic design service based business. You’ve found that the customer service focus you implemented in 2022 really paid off and want to set that as a goal for the new year.
But what does that mean in terms of actionable, quantifiable steps?
Instead of “improving customer service” as one of your goals, make it specific:
Get ten new five-star reviews on Google
Reply to all customer inquiries within 24 hours
Create and implement a customer service satisfaction survey for new clients
Don’t over do it
Dream big, but don’t let your aspirations get too big.
A little contradictory, I know. But when you set unrealistic goals, it’s just as good as setting no goals at all - and maybe even worse.
If you are a small business owner, you know the limits of you, your staff, and your clientele. You know if you grew your business 10% over the last 12 months that growing %1,100 in the new year is probably not an attainable goal.
Goals need to be driving forces of growth, but if you set all of them too high and never achieve one, all you’ll feel is disappointment and dejection. Make sure your new year goals for your service based business are lofty but doable.
Set some deadlines
In the same vein as the last step, new year goals without a due date are just lovely wishes.
After you’ve created your list of actionable goals, create deadlines for each goal. Don’t set every single one to December 31st - that’s cheating. 😉
In our graphic designer business owner example from earlier, one of your goals is to get ten new five-star Google reviews. You want to get all ten by the end of the year, but break that down and give yourself smaller milestones to reach within that goal to make it more realistic. Try setting the mini goal of getting 3 Google reviews every quarter.
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Now commit!
Cool - you’ve got your goals, you’ve got your deadlines. Now buckle down and get to work!
Business goal setting for the new year means you’ve got to put in some hard work to make those goals a reality. Schedule time to dedicate to your new action items and make it a regular part of your small biz routine.
Assess you progress regularly
After a few months, it’s time to figure out how well you’ve done. Look at your list of goals and then write down the efforts you’ve taken to achieve them. What’s been working? What could you be more attentive to with your time?
Do you need to revamp any of the goals if your priorities have shifted? Don’t stress if one or two of your goals are simply not working for you. This part of business goal setting for the new year is all about self-reflection and analysis. Make sure your goals are relevant to you and your service based business.
Celebrate your accomplishments
If you didn’t take the time to celebrate your wins in 2022, make it a priority in the new year.
When you reach a goal milestone, break out the cake and champagne!
An integral part of making any change in your life stick - business or otherwise - is making it a positive experience. Reaching a business milestone is a big deal and you should show yourself some gratitude for a job well done.
I hope this article made the process of business goal setting for the new year a little less intimidating. If you need help as a small business owner in any aspect of goal setting, I’m always done to chat.
