Over the past three articles, we’ve talked about tasks to complete to close out your business year and steps to take to prepare for the New Year.

Now, before we celebrate the ringing in of the New Year, we have one final project to complete — setting goals. These are not quick New Year’s Resolutions you throw together and forget by February. These are concrete, actionable goals you want to achieve for your business in the coming year.

Read below for the final “challenge” in your December 30-day challenge.

 

Structure your goals with the SMART approach

More than 30 years ago, in 1981, the publication “Management Review” talked about setting SMART goals. This acronym stands for:

• Specific — each goal should be about just one item and defined in a specific way; it should not be vague.
• Measurable — the goal should contain a metric so you can evaluate if you succeeded in achieving it.
• Achievable — the goal should be within reach and in your control; you don’t want to set such a lofty goal it’s impossible to achieve or one that relies on the action of someone else.
• Results-oriented — the goal should be stated with an end result in mind; this is imperative to determining if you were successful.
• Time-sensitive — you must set a deadline for your goal; again, this is the only way to know if you achieved it.

 

So what does a SMART goal look like compared to one that is not?

 

A typical copywriting goal may be — I plan to land more clients next year. Let’s break that down by our SMART definition.

• Specific — no — it’s about one idea, but it does not contain specifics. How many clients? This is a vague goal.
• Measurable — no — it does not contain a metric. Again, how many clients?
• Achievable — yes and no — while it is achievable to land more clients, since the goal is not specific or measurable, we don’t know how many you’re trying to land. Is it achievable to land one client? Probably. Is it achievable to land 100 clients? Probably not. This goal is also somewhat out of your control. While you can determine how many prospects you’ll reach out to, you can’t control if they accept your proposal.
• Results-oriented — yes and no — the result is to get more clients. But again, without knowing how many clients you’d like to add, you don’t know what the intended result is.
• Time-sensitive — yes and no — The goal is next year, but when. Is it next calendar year? Within the next 12 months? At some other point in the year? The goal needs to be more specific with the time frame.

The Right Stuff

Let’s look at a goal that follows the SMART definition — In the next calendar year, I plan to grow my professional network by sending out five new LinkedIn connection requests every weekday. Let’s break that down.

• Specific — yes — it’s about one idea — growing your network. It’s specific to LinkedIn. You’re going to do it every day, Monday through Friday, but not on the weekends. And, it includes a metric.
• Measurable — yes — with this goal, you’re specifying five connection requests a day. It will be easy to determine if you completed this task on a daily basis. If you end up sending three connection requests, you did not succeed in achieving your goal.
• Achievable — yes — the goal is well within your reach of being able to complete on a daily basis and is completely in your control.
• Results-oriented — yes — the goal is to grow your network, which by itself is a vague concept. But, by adding in the five daily LinkedIn connection requests, we know the result we’re striving to achieve.
• Time-sensitive — yes — not only does it have a deadline of the next calendar year, it also has a daily deadline.

This latter goal is more concrete than the first, making it something you can systematically work towards.

 

Set your SMART goals

Now that you understand SMART goals, you may want to set between three and five SMART goals for the New Year. These goals should prioritize the areas of your business you want to work on in the coming year. You don’t want to set too many because you want to be able to focus on the aspects of your business that need the most work.

Look at the main areas of your business — client work, marketing, accounting and administrative work, and finally, professional development. Determine which areas need the most work and set goals accordingly.

Without breaking them down here in the SMART framework, potential goals to consider include:

Client work

• Improving your phone skills to communicate better with your clients
• Responding to client emails and phone calls more quickly
• Improving your writing skills for your clients’ projects
• Asking every client for testimonials and referrals
• Staying in better communication with your clients when you’ve completed their projects

Marketing

• Adding a new marketing strategy
• Conducting a cold email, warm email, or direct-mail campaign
• The LinkedIn example we mentioned above
• Updating your website and portfolio
• Starting or adding to your email list
• Starting an e-newsletter
• Producing more content for platforms like LinkedIn and your internal newsletter
• Becoming more consistent with your social media activities
• Adding another social media channel

Accounting and administrative work

• Creating systems for all your accounting and administrative work
• Creating templates for repetitive work such as invoices, proposals, and contracts
• Learning and starting to use software to become more efficient
• If you’re ready or close to being ready to outsource some of this work, researching VAs, bookkeepers, and other people you could work with

Professional development

• Determining how many AWAI programs you’ll take, which ones, and when you’ll take them
• Attending a professional development conference, either in person or online
• Joining an accountability group

 

Plan to hold yourself accountable

Once you’ve set your SMART goals, plan ahead to check in quarterly or monthly to see if you’re on track to achieving them.

During these check-ins, you can adjust your goals to accommodate the changes that have occurred during the year. These adjustments may be more common during the second half of the year, particularly in the last quarter.

 

You’re now ready for the start of the New Year

If you’ve followed along with the tasks outlined in the December Challenge, you’ll have completed five tasks to close out the year, including a performance review; taken up to 10 steps to get your business ready for the New Year; and set three to five SMART goals to keep you on track during the upcoming year.

 

Congratulations! Now, you’re ready to ring in the New Year!