Well, 2012 has nearly expired, and a new year is upon us. And you know what that means, right?

IT’S NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS TIME!!!

I don’t know about you, but in my humble opinion, making so-called “new year’s resolutions” is really just a romanticized way of defining you goals for the coming year. Speaking in terms of marketing, business and life in general, I’m a huge proponent of setting and pursing goals.

GOALS GET THINGS DONE!

It’s really as simple as that. I could expound at lengths on the many virtues, benefits and sheer importance of striving to achieve definite goals –if you hope to get anywhere with your business or life in general, setting goals is the key.
When it comes to marketing and growing your business, setting goals can often seem like a daunting task, one that sends many a small business owner running the hills. It’s easy to understand why: defining a definite goal sets you up for potential failure. But, as outlined above, identifying and striving to attain definite goals is a powerful force that really makes your marketing program and your business as a whole GO!
So, how can you effectively balance your fear of failure with your need for forward progress?
In short: establishing a definitive goal driven strategy. A prime example of a definitive goal driven strategy is one which includes goals that are:

• Concrete
• Productive & Positive
• Reasonable, Realistic & Achievable
• Measurable
• Monitored with Accountability

Our friends over at HubSpot offers a great SMART Goals (their acronym) template, but really a basic Excel spreadsheet can handle the job: just write your goals in the first column on the left (with a brief description for each), and track your monthly progress in the columns moving to the right.
The real trick to this process, however, is…

Designing a Definitive Goal Driven Strategy

And that’s where the five elements described above come into play, so let’s explore these directives and find out how this strategy works:

Concrete

Your goals, they should be easily definable – identifying x number of new leads in the next year, bringing y number of new clients in the next year, earning z amount of income in the next year, i.e. Concrete.

Productive and Positive

Be sure your goals make sense, and are actually productive for your organization. Let’s say your goal over the past 3-5 years has been add new clients and increase revenue. And to your credit, you’ve consistently achieved this goal. But even though your client base has grown, you’re still running your operation with the same size organization, and you and your staff are overwhelmed. Growth is good, but if it out paces your staff and supporting infrastructure’s ability to provide consistent quality and service, you’re going to run off a cliff and lose existing customers, which in essence defeats your goal of growth. This year, perhaps your goal should be to expand your operation, take on new employees and focus on nurturing and refining existing customer relationships.

Reasonable, Realistic & Achievable

“I want 10 Ferraris in the garage, $20mill liquid in the bank, and to be known in my field of expertise as Master of the Universe – all by the end of the year!” While I love that spirit, and I would never discourage anyone from aiming for lofty goals, you do run the risk of setting yourself up for failure. Instead of over extending your reach (for the pie in the sky), consider setting your sights on something more reasonable. If, for example, you’re growth orientated, thinking in terms of percentages is often your best bet. Every business is different, but a 5%, to 20% increase (relative to the previous year) in your client base or income represents a reasonable goal.

Measurable

To determine your progress and when you’ve reached a specific goal, said goal must necessarily be measurable. For example, increasing your client base or income can be easily determined using quantifiable data. This is important because as you monitor your progress, you can tell if you’re on track or falling short of reaching your goal, and make adjustments as needed. Goals like increasing influence and expanding reach are subjective and far less quantifiable, making them difficult attributes to measure.

Monitored with Accountability

So you’ve identified concrete, productive, reasonable and measurable goals, and you’ve noted them all on your goal tracking spreadsheet. And then you turn around and file said spreadsheet away somewhere on your hard drive, where it remains, never to be revisit again until you happen to stumble upon it three years later in a clean-up effort. “Huh, I remember this,” you say to yourself in reflection. Yeah well, it’s a little too late now, bozo. Once you define and record your goals, you need to create mechanism by which your monitor progress set an end date. Put a monthly or weekly reoccurring reminder on your calendar and set aside some time to update yourself on your progress. Along the way, ask yourself: Am I on track? If not, what can you do to step things up? Did you overreach when you originally set your goals? Is it time to redefine your goals, and adjust your strategy? Measuring your progress on a regular basis with definite endpoint in mind is the key to staying on track and achieving your goals.

What About You?

Do you set specific goals for your business on an annual basis? Any thoughts about whether or not the strategy outlined above would work for you, and why or why not?
Talkback: let’s hear all about how you define and achieve your business goals.