Are you feeling stuck in your business, wanting to achieve more but not getting that much done? Do you feel like a hamster on a wheel going nowhere fast? If so, this post is for you. In this blog post, I’ll be sharing 11 goal setting prompts that will help you get unstuck and back on track towards your business goals. These are time-tested goal setting prompts from my experience as an entrepreneur myself, and they’ve helped me grow my own business. So take some time to work through these prompts now and see how much clearer your growth gets!

Goal setting is an extremely important business process. It helps you focus on what your business needs to succeed and will be a great way for you to measure your success.

Here’s what you’re going to get in this guide:

• 11 prompts for setting business goals

• What are SMART goals

• What to do if the goal setting process feels overwhelming

• Six types of business goals

If you want to grow your business, your process for setting business goals should include these 11 prompts:

1. What would make your business better this year than it was last year?  

2. How can I use my strengths more effectively in my work?

3. Which of my weaknesses can I do something about this year so they don’t hold me back anymore?

4. Where am I going with my business right now?

5. What’s one thing that could change everything if we did it differently or bigger at our company?

6. Who am I excited to see take on these tasks or projects with me and why?

7. What have been the most successful marketing strategies I’ve used this past year? How can I use them more extensively? 

8. What are my top 3 objectives for this next quarter?

9. How will they contribute towards my long-term goals?

10. What is the biggest challenge preventing me from achieving my business goal?

11. What is going to happen in my business if I don’t achieve this quarter’s goals and objectives?

Business owners don’t always set goals for their business. They may not understand the importance of setting goals, or they might be afraid to commit to a goal that they are not sure will work out.

Goals help you stay focused on what your company needs in order to succeed. Without goals, it can be difficult to measure how well your business is doing and whether or not you need change any aspects of your business plan.

Remember, if you’re not setting goals, then your company is missing out on a lot of potential growth and success. You might even be running in circles with no idea where you’re going! 

The 11 prompts shared with you above will help you improve your process for goal setting. This is an essential process for any business who wants growth. Improving it will not only just help you create better habits, improve productivity, get more done at work, but it will also give you a much clearer vision for your company’s future.

After you get an idea of what your goals could be, it’s time to get super clear about them. The process is called setting SMART goals for your business and here’s what it implies:

• Specific – Make your goal specific, be very descriptive

• Measurable – How can you measure your success? How will you know you have achieved your goal?

• Achievable – Is your goal achievable with your current resources?

• Relevant – How is your goal relevant to your bigger business goals?

• Timely – For how long will you work on this?

What to do if the goal setting process feels overwhelming

Many business owners find setting business goals a bit overwhelming, so if that sounds like where you are, here’s a simple exercise to get you in the right direction faster:

Write one goal for your small business to accomplish this month.

What are the three things that will make achieving it possible? What can YOU do about them now? How much time and energy should they take up each day? Write these down, too!

Here are six types of business goals to be aware of:

Your business goals can and should be different, because there are many aspects to your company. Some will be short term other will be long term goals (time-based goals), others will be specific to an area of your business (marketing, sales, team management), while some will be performance oriented (quantitative and outcome-oriented 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)

Here is an example of a business goal for growth

… and some tips for setting up your goal-setting process for your small business:

Your business goal is to increase revenue.

If you’re a salesperson, this is the first and most general goal to set. Increase revenue by focusing on more of what works in selling your product or service, such as better prospecting techniques or following up with prospects who have been.

Let’s apply the SMART framework:

Specific: I will increase revenue by 10%. Moving to a more affordable premise that will cut my rent by 7% will reduce the operational costs.

Measurable: I will increase revenue over the next 6 months by increasing sales/orders from my organic traffic, I need 10 new orders for an average order value of $50 to achieve this.

Attainable: I will do some historical optimization of the blog posts that are currently generating most leads. This will help me get more leads from organic traffic. I know that I am currently getting 50 orders per month from organic, if I get 25% more leads I will be able to get more orders from organic, thus increase revenue for my business.

Relevant: Going forward, when I increase my revenue by focusing on organic optimization, I will be able to grow the number of leads without investing in ads, which means that I can either enjoy higher profit margins, hire someone to write new content for me or improve my email follow-up so I can convert even more leads.

Time-bound: I increase my revenue by the end of September, six months from now.

You see how your business goals can become actual strategies for your growth?

Businesses that set SMART goals are businesses who know what needs to happen in the first place. They take the guesswork out of the process, so they get to accomplish more. Setting business goals is a key process for your business. As a leader, it is your responsibility to make sure you and your team are able to set business goals, list your priorities and understand how each goal can help your company make progress.

Remember that not all goals are equal or as important for your small business at this point. Evaluate your goals and objectives and figure out what is going to help you make tangible progress, what priorities make sense for your business growth right now – and not later.

Do you want to take on more responsibility or delegate some?

What is your vision and what does it look like in three years?

What are your business goals for the next three years?

If you don’t have any, it might be time to start thinking about them. Goal setting is essential for growth and success in a small business. It can help keep things on track when there are many moving parts, prevent burnout, and provide direction.

I hope that this blog post has helped inspire you with 11 prompts for setting business goals to get started with goal-setting today! But if you find yourself feeling overwhelmed by all of this information or need someone else’s perspective before starting out, please reach out here. We can chat more about how to help set your company up for long-term growth.

If you want to achieve more in your business, here are other goal setting articles that could help: