OMG! Creating the Best Business Plans and Objectives Ever!

As your vision becomes more crystalline, stronger and concrete, it’s time to set some business goals and objectives.

The operative question arises: What are goals and objectives?

Let’s examine what they really are:

* They’re desired future conditions and outcomes that are predicated on taking specific action;

* They revolve around tasks to fulfill;

* They set a higher standard in terms of end results, but still realistic to attain; and

* They’re meant to serve as accountability barometers which motivates you toward action

Goal setting helps to ensure progress and productivity. For instance, as a writer, I may set a minimum number of words to write per day - say, 3000, without compromising quality should I go over that benchmark.

Here are some other purposes for goal setting:

* Prioritize tasks - You should have short-term and long-term goals. Even if you don’t write them down (although it would be better if you jotted them down), formulate daily goals to meet.

As an entrepreneur, you’ll have an unending stream of tasks to complete. A daily goal plan will help you determine which tasks need your immediate attention and which ones can wait.

* Goals will help you track your progress, or lack thereof, if applicable - You’ll immediately be able to see if you’ve reached the benchmarks you’ve created.

Under no circumstances should you alter goals, setting the bar lower, to accommodate procrastination or laziness. Let the goals propel you to work harder, and refuse to take shortcuts.

* Goals will prevent you from becoming distracted - When I’m having a very unproductive day, I look at my daily ledger and see my intended goals for that day. When I fall short, I simply become much more focused at night, trying to make up for any foot-dragging.

The idea is not to let goals pressure you negatively where you’re feeling overwhelmed and helpless trying to complete them.

They’re merely a reminder of your potential. Just recall when you initially made them and the mindset you possessed when you created them. You thought you could accomplish certain tasks then. There’s no reason to think that you can’t accomplish them now ... unless such goals were unrealistic.

7 Common Characteristics of Effective Business Goals

Now that you have a firm idea of what business goals are and what their purpose is, it’s vital to understand how to construct effective business goals.

Here are 7 characteristics that will make you an exemplary business goal setter:

1) Goals should challenge - Perhaps at the beginning of your entrepreneurial venture, you can make the goals a little easier to attain. Once you see small successes, you’ll have the confidence to achieve bigger ones.

But ultimately, goals should be sufficiently challenging to require a sizable amount of effort. You can’t accomplish great things over time if you’re not accomplishing important tasks each day.

Again, goals should not be virtually impossible to reach. Sure, I wish I could write 20,000 words a day, but I accept the fact that I’m not that kind of prolific writer. It’s all about knowing yourself, your skill set, and the time that you can allocate to an endeavor.

Challenge yourself without undermining and discouraging yourself.

2) Goals and objectives must be descriptive - You must avoid writing goals that are vague. If you cannot concretely see all the details involved, it’s time to develop a new plan.

This is not just applicable to business goals but personal ones as well. Visualize that financial windfall that is about to occur - where you’re living, how you’re spending your time and money, and how you’re continuing to grow as a person and a marketer.

See the intricacies of your world when you meet specific business objectives.

3) Goals should be time dependent - It may not be a question of now or never as success can occur at any point of time. However, when you devise goals, it’s imperative that their time-focused.

For example, my short-term goal is to write and add 4 blog articles to this 'Getting Started’part of the website in the next 4 weeks. If I don’t place any time restrictions on this goal, I may procrastinate with this task, or I may choose never to finish it.

While time constraints can pressure you, they also can motivate you and propel you toward purposeful action.

Set short-term business goals along with those that are long term. These types of goals will support your day-to-day activities.

4) Goals should encompass milestones - Examine school textbooks and notice how each chapter typically offers questions at the end of a lesson to determine the student’s level of proficiency. The student’s confidence grows with successful completion of those questions. (Review is necessary if students cannot answer questions.)

Analogously, you’ll have to take a measure of your levels of progress as you strive toward reaching goals.

For example, if your goal is to become a super affiliate within a year, it’s important to define the amount of commission you expect to reach on a monthly basis.

You may examine how to increase the number of subscribers on your list, investigate what niches contribute to most of your sales, or look at how to build more traffic or conversions.

Regardless of any methods used, measurement of goals is an absolute necessity to see that you’re on the right track.

There’s no way to reach a lofty goal if you’re not surpassing the milestones along the way.

5) Goals should be task-oriented - I am an advocate of ‘to do’ lists. Such lists help you see all the tasks that you need to e address and complete.

Think of goals as your business’s overall ‘to do’ list. You’re defining those tasks that merit your attention, with descriptive language and action-oriented words.

Your goals will help you manage a daunting undertaking by allowing you to focus on individual steps.

Imagine you’re a product creator of software, for instance. Here are some typical task-oriented goals:

a) Take a barometer of market demand and determine whether the software can solve a problem (week 1);

b) Cleverly structure the coding, reducing bloat and unnecessary scripts (week 2);

c) Engage in demo testing, encouraging others to try your software, and request their feedback (week 3);

d) Tinker with the software, adding those modifications you think will improve your product (week 4);

e) Craft the sales letter and squeeze page, and figure out the best means for customers to access your product (week 5); and

f) Get other affiliates on board, asking their support to market your product (week 6)

Of course, there are many other tasks to fulfill with your software product, but I just wanted to give you an example of task-oriented goals.

6) Goals demand action - I have a friend who is very adept at writing business goals. His goals are challenging yet attainable, detailed and task-oriented, and easily understandable and actionable.

Ironically, he is much better at constructing goals than following them. His life is so frenetic that he becomes distracted, and his goals just live in a word document, scarcely carried out.

Goals should breathe life into your business, and you have to breathe life into your goals.

Take massive action and be open to subsequent accountability. You won’t have a boss to answer to if you choose to remain inactive, but other consequences may surface as money wanes.

Goals without action are merely hopeless wishes.

7) Goals require tinkering and modification - Before, I listed some hypothetical goals of a software developer. But let’s say gauging market demand is a much more time-consuming process than just a one-week activity. You have to be flexible in your goal-setting and schedule to make everything click.       

You’ll need to track your results and adjust goals accordingly. This is especially important when applying the Pareto Principle, determining where the 20% of your effort is producing 80% of your results. The trick is to be malleable, and amplify that 20% effort to gain a better outcome.

In the simplest terms, see what works, and what doesn’t. And here’s a little bonus: As you plan and change direction, when necessary, keep a keystone habit or two - anything that can help you sustain or increase your productivity and enhance your mood.

For example, when I face writer’s block, my keystone habit is to say positive affirmations for 5 minutes. I get calmer and more receptive toward stimulating new thoughts.

Find your dependable keystone habit as you shift course.

How to Write Business Goals    

You may believe that writing goals is a strenuous exercise - one that entails a lot of business acumen. But this type of exercise is well within your capabilities.

Again, if you can easily create a ‘to do’ list, you can become an expert goal setter. It’s all about envisioning where you’re going and how to get to that desired destination.

It depends on tasks, time, and specific details, just meant to serve as a guide from getting to Point A to Point B ... and eventually, on to Point Z.

No one is judging your writing prowess, your degree of analytical thinking, or your ability to conceptualize the complete picture.

They’re a personal support device, illuminating your path.

You also can’t make the mistake of believing that creating goals is a waste of time. You may rationalize that you already know what you have to do.

But you’ll often miss key steps if you don’t take the time to create business goals and objectives. 

Even if you’re an entity of one, with no employees or outsources, compiling goals will set you up for short-term and long-term success.