Since the market is becoming more competitive than ever, it’s important that businesses find their goals to achieve and to be successful.
According to the US small business administration, half of the new businesses end up surviving for five years and one-third of them make it to 10 years.
Creating smart goals can help in surviving the competition, connecting with the audience, and advantages to using it in the right way, and here is how you can start your business.
What You Should Know About SMART Goals?
SMART goals stand for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.
They are the most impactful in the business, they can be for marketing strategies, overall growth, and project management.
With this, you get the encouragement to look into the market and help in evaluating the stacks up of business.
It provides the strength, identifying what is working well and tracking the progress along with the room for doing the improvement.
Here is what you should know about setting SMART goals :
S Stands For Specific
The first includes having a specific and clear outcome in mind, and it is considered one of the keys to making the SMART goal.
When you have a specific goal, it means that you can narrow down the focus, be it data collection, marketing, customer relationship management, or sales.
Here you get a concise picture of exactly what you are looking to achieve and help in staying on track by highlighting all the needed steps to accomplish the set goals.
M Stands For Measurable
The next after you are done with setting goals is to make sure the metrics are for use and to evaluate the weather and when you are going to meet the goals.
When you have a measurable goal and objectives, it can be quantitative.
A Stands For Achievable
It’s important that what you set as goals are achievable in business. This is not about something you shouldn’t dream big, but having feasible steps will help in making the goals achievable.
It also helps in finding if the goals are under your capacity or not, saving the resources, time, and efforts in case it’s not.
R Stands For Relevant
Well in the case of business smart goals, relevance is referred to the pertinent characteristics of the business.
Since most ones attract a bigger range of audience and to boost the revenue, relevant goals can help in identifying what you will do in order to help in growing the business.
T Stands For Timely
Having a timeline for the goals can help in planning and executing in the right way, also you can help in much more organized and easier.
Also having the deadline can help in staying much more motivated and help in a team to work together towards finishing it.
Plus working towards the goals which come with time restriction help in improving the results.
Why Does Your Business Need The SMART Goals?
When you are in business, there is no doubt you need to be successful. However, you need to have goals. And not just any goal, it should be SMART goals.
Also having goals like increasing the turnover or opening the new branch is not going to be enough since it’s vague thinking.
The truth is, having clear SMART goals helps you in having a much easier way and understanding what you need to do.
The acronym of SMART goal, it says
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time Bound
Also when you have the smart goals, it helps your business :
- SMART goals are strategically designed in order to give the business project much more support and structure.
- Also, it helps in getting a clear idea of what you want to achieve and comes with a deadline.
- You can track the progress, stay motivated and assess the process overall.
- You can be more focused as you have more control over the project.
- It helps you in hitting the deadline and creating excitement when you are about to achieve it.
- When you are SMART, goal setting helps you in stopping feeling anxious and overwhelmed.
How To Set Your SMART Goals In Business?
Well in order to set the SMART goals for the business, including how you can do it, you can start with :
Start With SMART Acronym As The Outline
The first thing you can start with is writing down the goal, then use it to break it down into goals in order to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.
Provide the details about the goals with the use of acronyms. You can also use this for forming a list format, flow chart, and outline whatever can help in organizing the thoughts and help in reaching your business goals.
Use The Questioning Model Of Past, Present, and Future
Next, start asking yourself some questions like what you have done, what is the current outcome, or what you want to be at the end in a month, quarter, or year.
Pick up the model from the past, present, and future. This can prompt you to use and ask for much better.
Use The Data From Marketing Software
Marketing software can help you as it can be a great foundation when you are creating SMART goals.
You can collect the current campaign, use the report and analytics all in one place.
You can write the goals depending on the quantitative data that you have collected. The data can be the starting point, it can help you in determining what you are starting to do with.
Why Are SMART Goals Important In Business?
When it comes to business where your success depends on data and writing ways of planning as well as setting goals.
There are SMART goals that are important, it can start with :
- Help you to have clear goals which improve having clear intentions, instead of having not broad or vague goals.
- Provides the method that you can gauge for success by setting benchmarks by meeting them.
- Helps in giving sensible objectives which are much more achievable and realistic.
- Cut out the irrelevant and unnecessary work that might take away what is actually important for the business.
- Set the clear beginning and have the end for reaching the goals.
What Are The Wrong SMART Goals For Business To Avoid?
When you are setting the SMART goals, there are some of the do’s and don’ts that can help you as well as the business.
Setting unrealistic goals and trying to measure without having the consideration of performance in precious, overly short time frames as well as including too many variables could lead you off course.
Here are some of the unrealistic SMART goals, here are what you should be knowing :
Traffic Goals For Blog
Well, blogs are good for business especially when it’s online, however when you have the blog and you are boosting the traffic and have set the goals regarding that.
Specific
The goal of having the blog traffic by increasing the frequency of publishing it from five to eight times per week.
Your two bloggers might have to increase the workload from writing two posts each week to turning into three posts per week.
Editors will increase their workload from writing one post per week to two posts per week.
Measurable
The goal here is to boost the 8% increase in blog traffic.
Attainable
The blog traffic boosted 5% last month when increasing the weekly publishing frequency as now you have to boost from three to five times in a week.
Relevant
By boosting the blog traffic, you are boosting the brand awareness and generating the leads more, giving the opportunity for sales to boost.
Time-Bound
The set date is the end of the month.
SMART Goal
At the end of the month, the blog will increase to an 8% lift in traffic by boosting the publishing frequency per week from five to eight posts.
Link Building Strategy
Another important goal that can be a problem when you are setting the wrong SMART goal, it might seem like :
Specific
You want to boost the organic traffic to the website by developing the link build strategy. It helps the publisher to connect with the site.
This helps in boosting the ranking in the search engine, allowing to generate more traffic and organically.
Measurable
The goal is to create 40 backlinks that connect with the company’s homepage.
Attainable
There are more than 500 low-quality links and with the given number, it generates 10 new inbound links each month without outreaching the part, and the addition of 40 inbound links from using the single link building campaign.
Relevant
Organic traffic is the top source of creating new leads and backlinks are the biggest factors when it comes to search engines, especially Google.
So building the link with high quality when its publications help in organic increases in ranking which leads to traffic boost.
Time-Bound
It takes four months
SMART Goals
Over the four-month, it takes 40 additional backlinks, this direct to the website and will collaborate with other people to develop the strategy for outreach.
Email The Subscription Goal
The next goal can be the email subscription goal for the email which is the important part for the small business.
Specific
The goal is to boost the numbers in email blog subscribers boost from Facebook advertising the budget on the blog post in order to acquire the email subscribers.
Measurable
The goal here is to increase the subscribers by 50%.
Attainable
Since you are starting using the tactic for three months, email blogs have been boosted by 40%.
Relevant
By increasing the number of email blog subscribers, the blog drives the traffic, boosts brand awareness, and drives the leads to the sales team.
Time-Bound
Within the three months
SMART Goals
Within the three months, you will see an increase by 50% in the number of email blog subscribers by boosting the advertising budget on Facebook.
Landing Page Performance
Another goal that you can have for the small business, this can help in boosting the landing page performance.
But the wrong SMART goal can be :
Specific
You want the landing pages for generating the leads by switching from one column to two columns.
Measurable
Your goal is to boost a 30% increase in order to lead generation.
Attainable
When you do the A/B test to the traditional one column and two-column form for gaining the highest traffic for landing pages. You discovered two columns are converting around 27% which is better than one column, it’s a 99% significance level.
Relevant
If you are generating contest leads and also have more sales, close customers.
Time-Bound
It’s within the one year
SMART Goal
One year from here, the landing pages will help in generating around 30% more leads by switching forms from one to two columns.
More Webinar Sign Ups
The next wrong goal you might set for the more webinar sign-ups for the business.
Specific
You want to boost the sign-up numbers for the messenger webinar on Facebook and promote via using the blog, social and emails.
Measurable
The goal is to boost the sign-ups from 15%.
Attainable
The last messenger on Facebook webinar saw an increase of 10% in the sign-ups when you promoted only the email, social, and blogs.
Relevant
When you are webinars generating more leads, the sales increase and more opportunities to be in close.
Time-Bound
It can be April 10, the day when the webinar starts.
SMART Goal
By April 10, this is the day of the webinar and there is an increase of 15% sign-in as promoted through the email, blog, social, etc.
Facebook Video View
The next goal you want to boost the view for Facebook, the smart goal that might be wrong for this is :
Specific
You want to boost the average video per native video as it cuts the video context mix that includes from eight topics to the most popular five popular topics the most.
Measurable
The goal is to boost the view by 25%.
Attainable
When you cut down the video content mix on your Facebook from 10 different topics to 8 popular topics.
The average views for the native video by boosting it by 20%.
Relevant
By increasing the average view on your native video on Facebook, for this, you need to boost the social media following as well as brand awareness.
It also reaches more potential customers with your video content.
Time-Bound
Within the six months
SMART Goals
Within the six months, you might see a 25 % increase in average video views per native video on your Facebook. This is when you cut down the content mix from eight to five topics.
Examples of Business SMART Goals
For the business, using the SMART goals can help in achieving the objectives and becoming successful.
Also with the right use leads to better use of resources, time, and energy to grow the business and stay in the market for a longer time.
However, here are some examples of how SMART goals can be used in business. It includes :
Creating Marketing Plan For Business
The first example includes a marketing plan for the new business, and it should be within 1 month.
When you are starting the business, there are plans and then more plans to make. To create the marketing plan, you need to have the SMART goals, it includes :
Specific
You need to create a marketing plan that should have a specific outline. It helps you in following exactly what’s needed and covers all the important information.
Measurable
Each week of your month, you finalize 25% of the details in the plan to ensure the completion within its deadline.
Achievable
One month gives you plenty of time for doing the market research and analyzing that the company needs to come up with a great marketing plan.
Relevant
Without having a solid plan, the company might miss the crucial component that leads to success.
Time-Bound
The time limit you get here is one month.
Pay Off The Debt Within The Months
The next goal of yours is to pay off around $10,000 of your business debt within the 30 months of the timeline.
Setting the goals regarding finance is an important step that leads to much more control of the business.
Well, when you use the SMART goals, the outline looks like this:
Specific
You need to pay off the debt of $10,000
Measurable
You can measure the progress, and monitor the cash as it goes from your account.
Also, you can track the accounts as it goes every month to month.
Achievable
You can achieve this by spending less on items that are related to growth goals, and it will work as encouraging vendors to make their payments on time and also in full.
Relevant
You have to highlight all the video penny and project opportunities throughout the year from which you can benefit from increasing the investments once you paid the debt.
Time-Bound
Within the debt will be paid and you achieve the set objectives
Setting Up The Remote Sales Networking System
In 2020, the scenario turned real to several companies due to the pandemic hit.
Setting this for a SMART goal for the transitioning to start the remote operation. Also, it’s an important part when it comes to effective sales culture since the time is so stressful.
To set this as a SMART goal, here is what you can go with :
Specific
Every member of the remote sales requires it to be connected and operational.
Measurable
The task requires completion when the network system is separated so the remote workers are able to complete their given work.
Achievable
Although it might seem like an ambitious goal, you can move this to the top priority list.
Also, pull all the resources temporarily from the projects which are in the longer term in order to complete this important goal.
Relevant
Remote work can be a good step up, however, it’s not just because of the pandemic but even after that.
Remote networking allowed different co,[anes to continue cooperating without much hassle.
Time-Bound
The limit of this goal is seven days.
Ensuring The Overseas Factor Works Are Getting Paid
As the costumes are going to be conscious of where the goods are coming from, and the demand for ethically sourced products.
If your sources are ethical products, then you earn customer loyalty and charge a premium.
However, the word ethical is much vaguer and there can be a lot of things.
Different companies have their own different standards of ethics which they are willing to implement.
Depending on your company and its standard when it comes to ensuring all the overseas factory workers are getting paid and have their living wage within a certain month, let’s say 3 months.
This can be an important goal that you can use with using the SMART goals, it includes :
Specific
This focuses on all of their overseas factory workers and has their living wage paid.
Measurable
You require the cost of living data from the partners overseas, then evaluate the compliance with the living wage goal. Also sketching the new partners which can be based on the region by region.
Achievable
Since you already work with factories overseas vetting the suppliers and choosing the new partners, this is based on the update requirements to make your goal achievable.
Relevant
Maybe customers base their habit of spending on ethical values. Sourcing the products ethically and it will help you in winning many loyal customers.
Time-Bound
The goal is to accomplish this within three months.
Increasing Reviews From New Year By 30%
The growth of the companies nowadays is related to how popular their brand is and also with their brand awareness in the market.
One of the goals that can help you in cultivating the brand and increasing the brand awareness throughout the whole year.
One SMART goal you can set as a review from their new customer increases by 30% every year.
This includes :
Specific
This can be the increase in customer reviews by 30%
Measurable
You can measure the progress via the monthly reporting and show if you are reaching out to the target or not.
Achievable
The increase in customer reviews from the last year by boosting 20%, this belief in believing the 30% target is much more achievable.
Relevant
Based on the research to date, this increase in the number of customers from corres[pmds and boost the increased sales to better in growth channels.
Time-Bound
This is one of the year-over-year comparisons.
Growing Your WordWide Market Share
The next goal can be to grow the worldwide market share of the top-selling software as it should be atleast 10% by the year’s end.
Growing in the market share is the goal of the organization, it can be small or large.
Specific
You know the geographical area, it has the product line and the growth level, it can be around 10%.
Measurable
This will be easier to measure for making goals and tracking the new customers, growth in new and different markets, and the overall growth in the current markets.
Achievable
This helps you grow, overall by 8% last year by 8% and feel the boost to the increasing goal which is much more doable.
Relevant
Growth in the market share offers the result in boosting the higher revenue as well as customers among other beneficial points.
Time-Bound
The goal here is to reach by the end of the year.
More To Explore:
- 20+ SMART Goals For Teachers Examples
- How To Write SMART Goals? Key to Achieving Your Dreams
- Ultimate Guide On Setting SMART Goals For Managers
- SMART Weight Loss Goals And Achieve Them – 10 Examples
- SMART Goals for Time Management: Ultimate Guide
“Vision, strategy, and inspiration – these three words describe me the best. I am the founder of “TheLeaderboy” dedicated to leadership and personal development. As a self-taught practitioner, I have been studying the principles of effective leadership for the past decade and my passion lies in sharing my insights with others. My mission is to empower individuals to become better leader