Running a business can be hectic, and oftentimes it’s hard to find the time and energy to figure out what to focus on. If you feel like your business goals are slipping through the cracks, don’t worry! This blog post will help get you on the right direction with 27 goal setting journaling prompts.

It’s easy to forget about the long term as business owners when we’re so focused on what needs done in the moment.

To succeed you need to know what are your business goals

Business is hard. Running a business, having a successful career, and being an entrepreneur are all incredibly hard tasks. 

It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of running your business and forget about what you really want to achieve with it. Without goals, it’s impossible to truly achieve and measure success.

Setting business goals is one of the most important things you can do for your own personal development as well as that of your company or organization. I created this guide on goal setting so that you have clarity when starting out on setting them for your business!

To ensure your goals motivate you, write down why they are valuable to you. The journaling prompts in the post will take you on a journey of self reflection, and the answers hold the answers to what needs to be improved or changed in order to achieve what you desire in your business.

Setting business goals is both a process and a skill.

It’s not something we are able to perfect overnight. Goal setting is process that as business owners we slowly become aware of, and the more we practice, the better we become. It’s like learning to play an instrument, or a new language. No practice, no growth. And yes, repetition and improvement makes perfect.

In essence, goal setting is about taking responsibility for what you create. You don’t have the power to know what you don’t know, to travel back and forth in time, or to know ahead of time what’s going to happen. However, you do have control over who you are, how you think, and how and what decisions you take in your life.

At the end of the day, know that you are a powerful creator. You do create your reality through your thoughts and inner image. If you don’t believe you can do it, you won’t. If you believe there is a way to do it, then you will. It is just a matter of time and daily workout of your accountability skills.

Here are some of my favorite journaling prompts for business goal setting

I use these journaling prompts to help me get clarity, motivation and discover my why when it comes to setting goals and objectives for my business. It’s the same process I use to guide my small business and marketing consulting clients.

In essence, goal setting is about taking responsibility for what you create and what you wish to achieve in your business. You don’t have the power to know what you don’t know, to travel back and forth in time, or to know ahead of time what’s going to happen. However, you do have control over who you are, how you think, and how and what decisions you take in your life and business.

At the end of the day, know that as a business owner you are a powerful creator. You do create your reality through your thoughts and self image. If you don’t believe you can do it, you won’t. If you believe there is a way to do it, then you will. It is just a matter of time and developing healthy habits.

27 Journaling Prompts to Help Business Owners with Goal Setting

1. What DO you want for your business in one year from now?

2. What DON’T you want for your business in one year from now?

3. What are 3 non-debatable milestones for growth (success) in your business for the next 12 months?

4. What would happen to your business, team or family if you wouldn’t be able to achieve those non-debatable growth milestones?

5. What might be holding you or your team back from achieving those milestones?

6. Are there any limiting beliefs around you or your team being able to achieve those goals that are stopping you from succeeding?

7. What does business success mean/look/feel to you?

8. How do unmet growth goals make you feel?

9. How are you showing resistance to following up on achieving your goals?

10. What are three energy drainers in your organization?

11. How can you improve your time management and boundaries to have more focus and energy in your business?

12. What are three things you can do today to bring your company closer to where you want to be next week, next month, next year(s)?

13. What resources do you need to achieve your short term and long term goals?

14. What are some of the resources you currently have that would help you achieve your goals?

15. What skills, abilities, processes, information or team members would you need to achieve your objectives?

16. What are some business areas where you excel in?

17. What are three short-term goals you want to achieve this month?

18. What are three long-term goals you want to achieve this quarter?

19. What do you want to achieve this week so you can hit your monthly priorities?

20. What would happen if you didn’t follow through on your goals this week?

21. Are your goals relevant to your long term business goals and objectives?

22. What are some of your biggest wins in the past week, month, year?

23. What do you do to celebrate your progress?

24. How will you know when you have achieved your business goal?

25. How will your company look when you will achieve your goal(s)?

26. How will your team and customers benefit from you achieving your goal(s)?

27. What kind of business owner do you want to be in the future?

Take a few minutes to write down your answers for each one on how it would make you feel, what is stopping you from getting there, and what resources you will need.

If you feel stuck or overwhelmed by the amount of questions, you don’t need answers to all of them. Identify the questions that speak to you and work on those.

Example:

I want my company to be in the top 10 go-to businesses for my niche, without increasing the number of my employees and without adding more marketing channels.

I don’t want my company to lose any more revenue over missed customers due to my employees not knowing how to best close sales.

I want to be the kind of business owner that knows how to balance work with family life, I want to be someone who is clear on his/her priorities and does his/her best to identify the key aspects that are going to move my business forward. I want to be an entrepreneur who is not afraid to receive input from my employees, I want to feel confident about being able to achieve my vision.

My business is really good at converting leads into customers, but we don’t know exactly what happens.

If my business is not going to hit these goals by the end of next year, we will be in a position where we are going to need to reduce operations and lay some people off. I will be stressed and feel confused about what is the best direction to go next.

A few things to keep in mind:

• These goal setting journaling prompts are just the first part of the process. This is useful to go through when you are unclear about what you can achieve, what your future could look like, what you and your team need to get more customers and to better serve them.

  It’s also a good way to get you in the right headspace for figuring out your goals and objectives. Setting business goals is a process that you will develop over time and that will be a stepping stone to your success as a small business.

• The process in itself is based on developing smart goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely).

As a business you can SET SIX types of goals:

• time-based goals (short term and long term)

• performance based goals (usually very specific short-term objectives)

• quantitative goals (measurable based on numbers or statistics)

• qualitative goals

• outcome-oriented goals (focus on the result you’re aiming for)

• process-oriented goals (develop the process that will lead you to the result)

In a future post, I will walk you through the goal setting theory and how you can put that to use to have a clear goal setting process for your business. You will also discover how to select goals that will move your business forward. For now, focus on developing the vision for your company.

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