How to Set Your Business Goals

Scenario: "Dude, here's our goal: Do better this week than last week. Yay! Woohoo!" If you wanted to generate spectacular results today, what goal would likelier get you to do so?

1. a) "Close a lot of sales today."
2. b) "Close 5 sales today."

If you chose the precise (b): Ding! Ding! Mutha Ding! Yay for = You. Setting clear goals subconsciously compels your badass to soar higher than a coked-up ostrich with wings.

Why Most Businesses Get Sluggish

Most company-builders -- and bless their hearts -- know:

1. They need to make money.
2. Seek "to make money."

But without clear goals to drive them, they settle for mediocrity through ignorance. Instead of:

• growing revenues by 100%,
• fattening profit margins by 10%, and
• increasing employee ROI by 50%,

They zone into the: "Hey, if we just make money, it's-all-good!" - aimless mentality. Without a benchmark to measure performance, they become accustomed to sucky results -- without knowing it.

"So, how do I set my goals to drive performance?"

Use this kick-booty template: I will achieve: ______________, in _____ days*. (*The number of days can range from 0.1 to 1 gazillion.) The more precise your goals, the likelier you'll achieve them. For instance, samples of awesome goals could include:

• Achieve $10,000 growth in profits by April.
• Grow web traffic 300% by March 2008.
• Network with 5 CEOs by the end of this year.
• Increase referral rates by 50% before June.

Here's what we like to do:

The Goal-Knocking-Down Game

How to play:

1. Keep a prioritized list of your goals for the year.
2. When you complete each one -- cross them off from your list.
3. Scream: "One-down, 99-to-go. Yay! Woohoo!"

It's similar to your list of -- if you have one-- "X things To Do Before I Go Belly Up." It becomes a game-of-sorts -- where you try to knock down one pin-after-another. Then, instead of thinking of each goal as a chore, you see each goal as a challenge -- motivating your booty to kick major booty.

"But, what if I don't achieve my goals?"

Then you suck. We kid. We kid. Ha! You won't -- or shouldn't -- achieve 100% of your goals. If you're achieving every one of your goals, you're not setting high-enough goals. (And vice-versa: If you're achieving zero of your goals, you're setting your goals way too high.) Find a happy medium: where you can accomplish your goals -- as our main guru notes -- 50-70 percent of the time. That drives you to shoot for the mutha-!@^^%^ stars, instead of settling for mediocrity. (And in those times when you can't reach those stars, those ambitious goals will likelier land you on the moon. Yay!)

And, when you don't achieve your goals....

Use that as a sign that 'Something needs fixin'.

1. Did you have the right resources?
2. Did you have the proper people in place?
3. Did you set clear milestones?
4. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Then, re-set your goal date -- and start shootin' for it once again.

Set spectacularly clear goals. Soar.

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