Goal Setting as a Small Business or Freelancer
Unless you went to business school, you’ve probably found the process of goal setting to be difficult. As a freelancer or small business owner, it can be a challenge to decide where to focus your efforts or how to evaluate your current model.
As a graphic designer, I understand that some goals can feel intangible or potentially unnecessary, but setting goals is a vital component of any business model. They allow you to track your progress, learn from mistakes, and work out a plan of action moving forward.
Here are some tips I’ve picked up for deciding and monitoring small business and freelancer goals.
Where to start with setting goals
Perhaps the most obvious goal for any business – regardless of size – is to make money. This is arguably where any business plan starts. But it’s worth digging down deeper into what that means for you and deciding on other important small business goals.
One way to do this is with the SMART goal system. This stands for:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-Based
In short, your goal setting should be based around clear, concise objectives that you can measure. Importantly, too, you should be able to realistically reach them within a given timeframe.
Your business goals don’t all need to be related to money-making. For example, useful goals can be things like redesigning your company website, increasing your reach through advertising, expanding your product range, and so on. Sure, these relate to making money in that they help you make more in the long-term, but that isn’t the primary objective of the individual goals.
It’s fair to say that specific goal setting will be unique to your small business or freelance niche. For example, as a graphic designer, many of my goals relate to expanding my reach and obtaining new clients in specific areas.
Spend some time thinking about your specific goals and number them on a priority basis. These can include reaching new customers (and how you’ll do so), reaching a particular financial target, increasing productivity, and so. Priority will be important for the next step.
When to measure your business goals
The key to successfully setting goals is to decide on a timeline and to stick to it. Numbering your goals on a priority basis is useful because it’ll help you decide which to tackle, and when. But what are realistic and manageable targets?
As the shortest timeline for business goals, I’d go with 90 days (3 months). 30 days could prove too short a time span for reviewing and assessing business goals, as you might be unable to track any significant changes. Three months, however, will give you useful data regarding how much money you’ve made and what impacts your changes have had.
You should review your goals on a quarterly and yearly basis. Which you review and when will depend on your priority list. For example, if you’ve set a goal of making X amount in a year, there’s little point in reviewing this after 3 months.
However, if one of your previous business goals is to redesign your website then you can monitor your progress after 90 days. If you haven’t completed this yet, ask yourself why.
When conducting a review of your small business goals, it’s important to ask yourself questions. These can include:
What worked in this quarter/year?
What didn’t work?
Why didn’t it work?
How do these factors impact your larger goals?
How can I change these factors to see improvement?
All businesses fail at one thing or another, this isn’t news. You shouldn’t get discouraged by a lack of success in some areas because, if nothing else, it provides useful information for streamlining your freelancer goals in the future.
Once you’ve identified things that didn't work (and there will be at least one thing per review), you need to assess a few things:
How much time did you spend on it?
What can you learn from this experience?
Can you reallocate this time into something more successful?
Even money related business goals can be reviewed this way. Take your annual financial target for example. If you didn’t hit it, evaluate why. Were you not marketing enough? Did you spend too much time on clients that didn’t provide enough value? How does this translate into an hourly/monthly wage?
In short, reviewing your goals on a regular basis allows you to measure them and to nip unsuccessful efforts in the bud before they take up too much of your time. Goal setting should be about moving forwards, and this is only possible through a good understanding of your past efforts.
How to achieve more with goal setting
Remember, setting goals doesn’t always need to be about making money. It’s also worth focusing on tangible things that add overall value to your freelancing career or small business.
A great example of this is to build up skills. Learning new skills through online courses will expand your services and, ultimately, will mean you can charge more money.
You might think this isn’t applicable to all freelancers or small businesses, but it is. Freelance writers can take courses in SEO practices, designers can take Photoshop courses, web designers have an endless list of skills they can improve, and so on.
The world of online courses is almost infinite, and there are courses to suit all budgets and skill levels. Part of your goal setting process should be working out where you can improve. Learning from unsuccessful efforts is key to this, as it gives you specific areas to work on.
Don’t be afraid to set business goals that don’t relate to profit. Spending money on yourself is vital for growing your small business, as you are the key to that business.
Some final thoughts
Setting goals as a freelancer or small business owner is vital for continual growth. You shouldn’t overlook the importance of even just setting a few, easily manageable goals.
It’s always worth reviewing your business goals too. Only then can you streamline your business and not waste time on things that don't work for you. Don’t be afraid to start small with your freelancer goals and work up to bigger things in the future.