Welcome to 2019! With the new year always comes a big focus on goal setting, so I wanted to touch on it briefly. Since starting my own business (I started a law firm about 15 months ago), I’ve noticed how important it is to goal set and track – especially as a solopreneur.
Why?
Because you don’t have a boss.
You don’t have anyone to answer to.
You don’t have corporate goals to hit.
So who or what is going to keep you on track, motivated and with a measure of success to compare yourself with?
As the business owner, you are – by setting and tracking high-quality goals for your solopreneur small business.
I just finished setting my themes, goals and laws (rules that I must follow…I know I know, I’m a lawyer…I can’t help it…) for the year. These are split up into my firm goals, Solorepeneur Grind goals, and personal goals (income for the year, savings rate, exercise regimen, etc.).
If you want to take a peek at my 2019 goals, shoot me a DM (@solopreneurgrind on insta) and I’ll send them over if you need an example. I also want to go a little deeper into goals because I don’t just want to give surface-level advice here – I want to give you something deeper and actionable.
Last year I did an okay job of setting goals, but did a bad job of tracking them…and it hurt me.
Let me explain.
November was a tough month for me emotionally. Things were getting busier, inevitably there were some new business issues that came up, one file blew up in my face and it was affecting my mood, stress levels and sleep.
To be frank, it kind of sucked and I wasn’t feeling too good about myself.
Then the end of the month came around and I calculated my monthly billings to send to my bookkeeper…and lo and behold, I had a record setting month! I couldn’t believe it and was truly ecstatic for the rest of the week.
Now, the point of that story wasn’t to #humblebrag… it was because I learned a serious lesson. Mainly, that because I was so focused on my work and was only tracking one of my key goals/metrics once a month, it was easy to fall into the daily grind and forget about the bigger picture.
I got consumed with the work and the negatives and didn’t step back to evaluate or breathe until the end of the month – crazy!
Anyway, don’t make that mistake. I recommend keeping tabs on a few important goals/trackers every 1-2 weeks to keep you more grounded with your new business. Could be billings, sales, client calls, cold emails written, instagram posts, whatever.
Just have a few and stay on top of them – and when you hit those targets, enjoy it!
3 Tips For Setting and Achieving Your Solopreneur Goals:
- Keep it simple – When it comes to setting goals, less is definitely more. If you have too many goals, you’re going to spread yourself too thin and likely won’t achieve any of them. So just pick a handful of really important ones and focus on those – this is especially important when learning how to start a business, starting your new business, and throughout the entire operation of your small business.
- Make them specific and measurable – This is key so that you can actually track your progress and see whether you’re on track to hit your goal or not. For example, a goal like “make more sales” is too vague. A better, specific and measurable goal would be “increase sales by 10% compared to last quarter.”
- Set a deadline – This will help to keep you accountable and motivated to actually achieve your goal. If you don’t set a deadline, it’s easy to just push it off indefinitely and never get around to it.
Hope this helps with your solopreneur small businesses and if you want more insight like this, make sure to join the email list. All the best.
