Goal Check-In: How is Your Business Doing?
Have you been meeting the goal or goals you set for your small business this year? Is something holding you back from making progress? Back in January, I talked about the importance of setting actionable goals and checking in on them regularly. Consider this your check-in if you’ve fallen off the wagon already! Even if you’re sticking to and completing your goals, I hope you’ll find this article useful for the goal revision strategies. Plus, at the end of this post, you can download my Goal Check-In Worksheet to help guide your check-in process.
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If you haven’t got one already, I recommend investing in a goals workbook. Having a dedicated place to track your business goals and chart your progress helps immensely. What’s even better is how easy a goals workbook makes it to get back in the game if you’ve gotten derailed. What entrepreneur doesn’t get distracted by the million other things we have going on in our life and our business? My favorite one to use is The Best Business Workbook, because it asks all the right questions and has sections for each area of running a small business. While it isn’t my aesthetic style, it has helped me reach every single goal I set!
Look at your progress
Where are you at in terms of reaching your goals? If you know where you are, it makes it much easier to see where you need to get to. Try making a point form list of the steps you’ve taken toward each goal you set for your business. Figure out which steps you still need to take based on the progress you’ve made. Tracking goal progress actively is the most important part of the process!
Determine what’s working and what’s not
Everybody works a little bit differently, and that’s okay! Sometimes what works for me might not work for you, though it could give you ideas of what would work better. The important thing is to be able to assess which strategies aren’t working, and figure out why. Stick with what’s helping you reach your goals, and change the habits or regular tasks which aren’t. Having a good project management system can help you reorganize your tasks to make more progress.
Learn to let go or revise
When you’ve written down your goals, it can be difficult to leave them unfinished. However, for a small business owner letting go of or revising goals that may no longer be important is crucial. Don’t be afraid to toss out a goal that isn’t getting your business where it needs to go, no matter what progress you may have made towards it. Trying to finish the other steps just takes your valuable time away from goals that will actually help your business grow and succeed!
Revising your goals might seem like cheating, but I promise it’s a legitimate strategy for making better progress. Sometimes a revision can be as simple as changing the “deadline” or expected time of completion for a goal that is taking longer than you thought it would due to unforeseen circumstances. Sometimes your goals will need a major overhaul. You can refocus them on the areas of your business which require more time and attention. When we set goals as entrepreneurs, we’re often looking forward into the future and making predictions. They don’t always play out the way you or I would expect, and that’s why revising goals is so important.
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To help with your goal revision efforts, I’ve put together a downloadable version of the check-in process I use to track my goals. Use this worksheet to list any progress you’ve made, and revise your goals accordingly. Fill it out every month or every quarter and see how many more goals you manage to complete! Download my Goal Check-In workbook here:
Feel like you never have enough time to make progress on everything? If you’re having trouble meeting your business goals, a virtual assistant can help! By hiring someone to take repetitive tasks, client care, social media, content creation, or administration out of your hands, you can rediscover the time needed to reach those big goals! Schedule a free consultation today, and we can figure out how your business could benefit from a little extra help.
