Are you nervous about setting goals in 2021? If so, you’ll definitely want to check out today’s podcast episode because I’m going to dive into three specific tools that will help you go get in 2021 in your business. These are especially designed for navigating the uncertainty and some of the challenges that may lie ahead.
I want to have a conversation about setting goals for your business in 2021. It’s a really tricky topic for host of reasons. I will leave you with three tools or three hacks to help you navigate no matter what you’re juggling. It will help set you up for growth in the future. So let’s dive in.
Set Micro Goals
Don’t toss out your idea of setting goals. Instead, I want you to embrace setting micro size goals.
Here is a recent personal example. Within my company I have several brands that I manage. One of the brands has a website that is outdated. For 2-3 year, I’ve looked at it and thought I need to set aside time and really update the website. It’s not bad. It is mobile friendly. But it doesn’t give off the visuals that the brand could.
During the holiday season I wanted to work on this website. But I knew that I would still not have the time to do the full redesign. I would need to hire the team of writers, graphics, etc
So instead, I said I’m going to do the same thing that I teach in my classes. I’m going to get a site up that does the job. It will have a couple of pages up, with better visuals, and a few ideas about what my business does. But it’s not the full redesign. I’m not going to spend the hours and the money yet. I’m just going to basically turn this into a micro goal so the visuals will look better .
This is how I want you to think. Instead of spending a couple of months working on this project, I spent a weekend. It made me feel incredibly accomplished. Are there things that I know I need to work on and adjust and fix? Most definitely.
But, done is the new perfect. I’m going to repeat that again.
Done is the new perfect.
So rather than pushing it off, I realize that in this environment I may need to rework the whole business again anyhow. So, better to get something up that works. It’s not perfect, but it will do the job.
I want all of us to embrace this right now. You may not be able to sit down and set the annual goals that you might have set in the past . What do I want for my business? What do I visualize? What do I see in this upcoming year for my company?
I don’t recommend doing that activity now. But, let’s not toss out the baby with the bathwater and not setting any goals. Instead, set goals that you can get done within a week or within a month. Maybe within even two or three months.
The site is still not done. But, I can happily dust off my shoulders because I am no longer feeling that website shame of an outdated site. I’m much closer to the end goal. Set micro goals. Let’s not stop setting goals. But set ones that you can get done in a shorter timeframe. Don’t get overwhelmed by trying to set the BIG annual goals that you used to set in the past.
Take Action Daily
I will be the first to acknowledge that some days you may only get to spend 10 minutes. That’s perfectly fine. I don’t think that the quantity of time is what’s going to matter.
Your ability to stay consistent is what matters.
Last summer when we were experiencing the upheavals, I couldn’t sit down and concentrate for several hours. The world was just going to craziness between COVID, the Black Lives Matter movement, and everything. I found it very hard to concentrate.
One of the things that I kept hearing from my fellow entrepreneurs was the need to take a moment and kind of “woosah”. They needed to get their bearings straight rather than work on the bigger picture things. So I started offering related coaching appointments. What’s the immediate action that you’re going to take? Let’s talk about the action you’re going to take for today or this week. Even if it is only 20 minutes. But let’s get clear and specific. You might need to take time to heal mentally, emotionally, physically. I understand and respect that.
However, the entrepreneur in me also knows that there is something incredibly powerful about when you show up consistently.
Set your timeframes really, really small.
If you have goals that you know that you want to achieve, set one- two hours a week that you’re going to work on it. Make a commitment every day it’s 10 minutes.
Here is another example. There are a few workout online videos gaining traction. They are 10 min long. I understand that videos in general are going to pick up a lot of traction. We are all home. But I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the 10 minutes videos are picking up major traction. I can walk in place for 10 min and then sit back down. I want to encourage you to find ways to be consistent around taking action daily. Don’t make those actions 3 hour long goals or 10 hour long goals. Set 10 minutes. 20 min. A half an hour. That is a commitment you can make to yourself on a daily basis and follow through on.
Find a community of goal orientated people
Here’s the final step for goal getting – surround yourself with a community of voices that are in line with your goals.
During the first week of the pandemic, I had a number of conversations that were completely disheartening. I had clients cancelling their contracts. It was a lot to be able to handle. Rather than sit down and cry (which was very tempting), I reached out to my fellow entrepreneurs. I wanted to know what they were hearing and what they were saying.
I did speak to a handful of people who were employees. But, there was something very different about my entrepreneurial friends. They looked at adversity different.
Most of my entrepreneurial friends said
Well, okay, Plan A is not going to work. How are we going to figure out plan B?
- Regardless of the type of business that the other person had.
- Regardless of where they are in their businesses.
I found it so uplifting. Even if we didn’t come up with solutions. Nobody knew what to do about moving forward. But, at the very least, we were able to have a moment where someone else agreed and they would not let you sit in that space and sulk. They would not allow me to sit there and think this is the worst thing that has happened.
You want to find other like minded people who are thinking in the same way.
I tend to find this community from groups I’ve joined. I definitely have it in with my 3 month sales coaching group. We build that sense of community.
You’ve got to make a commitment about finding like minded individuals who are on the same path. You might have different educational backgrounds. You will probably have different businesses. You may be in different stages of business. But it doesn’t matter. It’s about mentoring. When things hit the wall, you will find a way to be able to create something new out of something that looks really ugly and uncomfortable.
It did take some time to figure out how to move forward. But if I had not had that community, I would not have been open to the opportunities when they came down the road.
Surround yourself with someone else that thinks like you. Even if you hit roadblocks, you’re going to find a way out of it. Sometimes you may be taking really small steps forward. That’s fine. But the key is that you want to be around like minded people and keep asking questions.
So I hope that this podcast episode has given you some ideas. Definitely stay tuned for the next episode where we will be diving into more ways to help you uncover what you don’t know you don’t know about running a successful business.
