Setting goals in business is one of those loose things that as business owners, we tend to skip over. It’s up there with business plans and cashflow projections. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in business, it’s that there’s some things which you just can’t gloss over and setting goals is one of them.

I’ve been in business for 6 years (at the time of writing this) and I did what everyone does, jumped in feet first and said yes to everything that came my way, because I think it’s safe to say that every new businesses first thought is making enough money.

When you realise you need to pivot your business

I realised very quickly that some of what I’d said yes to wasn’t exactly working out for me. It wasn’t the flexible lifestyle that I was after. I was tied to my phone, just as I was in a 9-5.

But I didn’t have a back up plan. I didn’t know how to pivot, without risking losing any of this precious money. And so I carried on as I was for 4 more years.

If I had taken the time to set goals, even if I’d done it at the point when I realised I wasn’t happy, I would have had direction.. A timeline. But I was now busy and ‘didn’t have the time’ to make any changes.

How did I pivot my business?

I’m glad to say I’ve now out of that situation, on the right path and I’m now scaling my business in a direction that is duly considered with my dreams, passions and quality of life.

But it didn’t just fall from the sky… It took setting big dream goals, that aligned with my ‘best case scenario’ to enable me to then set smaller goals, annually and quarterly that would steer me in the direction I wanted the business to go in.

So, if you’re reading this and thinking “woah, this is me”, then sit down and get super clear on wat you want from your business. What you want it to do to enable you to have the dream life you want… And really start to pull that closer to you and think what smaller steps can you do in your business to make that happen.

The reality is, it won’t just happen overnight. It takes ‘you’ to make it happen. It’s not chance or even luck… It’s getting crystal clear on what you want, how you’re going to get it and flipping going after it.

So what do you say? Are you going to sit down and set some goals now?