If I was to ask you right now to show me your list of goals, how would you respond?
Would you bring it straight out with a detailed vision of the future, showing me what you intend to be doing and what you have achieved in 1, 3 and 5 years? How much money you want to earn, the car you want to drive, the house you want to live in and the amazing family life you have set up for your loved ones?
Or would you fumble around looking for scraps of paper, mumble under your breath and finally admit that you have no list of goals at all.
If you’re the latter, you’re in the 97% majority of business owners who have no targets or goals set, living day-to-day with their fingers crossed waiting for something to happen.
In this article we’ll discuss the importance of target setting, why setting your own goals is crucial to your business success and how to set them and stick with them. We’ll explore the science and the art of setting targets and discuss how by using this simple tool will take your business to the next level.
Why Target Setting Is the Single Most Important Part of Your Business (and Personal) Success
Heavy start and I don’t use it lightly.
It’s always an interesting discussion to be had with any new business owner. The idea of goal or target setting is a foreign one and in the past it was for me too.
The importance, to be blunt, is if you have no idea of where you want to be how on earth are you going to get there?
Let’s imagine you’re going on a long road trip. What’s the first thing you do?
Decide on the destination! You don’t just drive in the hope that at some point you’ll find yourself somewhere half decent. You have a final destination in mind and then work out how you’re going to get there.
In very simple terms it’s exactly the same in your business. The 97% of businesses with no destination in mind (or target to aim for) live on the day-to-day hoping that at some point they’ll get somewhere good. Often as soon as they hit a dead end they get stuck with no idea of how to get out of it simply because they don’t know where they are going.
That was mee - years ago! It led to debt mounting up, frustration, arguments at home and a miserable life.
I would suggest that target setting is the single most important part of your business strategy. Without it you have no strategic planning, limited business growth, no sense of goal achievement…frankly you should have stayed in an employed job. At least that way you will have your goals given to you by the boss.
Without targets in a shooting range, how do you know what you’re aiming for?
The same is to be said in business. You need to have a clear idea of what it is you’re aiming to achieve.