5 Business Goal Setting Mistakes to Avoid

When you set the right goals for your business, it can really boost your success. However, ineffective goal setting can significantly impact the business, rather than help it.

Here are 5 mistakes to avoid when setting your business goals.

Not specific enough

One of the biggest mistakes you can make when setting business goals, is making them too vague. It’s crucial you make the goals as specific as possible if you want to make sure they are achievable.

A good example of a vague business goal is where you state you want to increase your profits. While this is certainly a great goal to have, it doesn’t exactly give you much to work with does it? How are you going to increase your profits, how much do you want to increase them by and what steps can you take to do it?

These are just some of the things you need to consider to break your goals down. The more specific your goals are, the more likely you’ll be to achieve them.

Setting unrealistic goals

Just as detrimental to your progress, is setting business goals that are unrealistic or attainable. You may know what you want to achieve, but just as important is how you go about it. Consider the time frame. Are you able to achieve the goal(s) within the set boundaries of completion?

Keep in mind, unrealistic goals can really damage productivity and motivation. Why, because if you don’t achieve them, you’ll become frustrated and demotivated, with the potential to give up prematurely.

Prioritizing the wrong things

The key to effective goal setting is to prioritize your goals. Think about the areas of the business which need the most work or improvement. While you may want to expand overseas for example, is the business ready?

You’ll need to make sure your company at home is performing well before you even consider expanding overseas. So, before planning to expand, set goals to improve your existing business so that when it does come time to expand, you can focus your efforts on that, rather than having to deal with issues at home too.

Consider expanding the reach of your customer segments locally before going abroad.

Failure to review your goals

Setting goals is just one part of the process. However, you also need to make sure you review them frequently. Assess where you are. Address what you find. Modify applicable changes and then adapt to being back on course. Without reviewing your goals, you’ll have no idea whether or not your efforts are paying off.

It’s important to regularly review and track the progress of your goals to determine whether any changes need to be made. Stay the course!

Not prepared for failure

Finally, you need to understand that just because you’ve set business goals, it doesn’t mean you’ll achieve them. In fact, failure is pretty much guaranteed at some point. Life happens!

However, it is through your failures that you learn how to succeed. Success is not without some level of failure. Don't focus upon failure, rather set your goals and be as realistic and specific as you can, but don’t assume everything will run like clockwork. Be prepared for failure and then be ready to come up with an alternative goal if something does go wrong.

By learning from these mistakes, you’ll have a much higher chance of succeeding and ensuring you actually fulfil the goals that you set.

 What is your plan to achieve your business goals? Let’s chat!

-Coach Jo