The Watering Whole

first posted by Al Bell on July 6, 2018

How important are Goals!

Hi friends! What’s up? Hope your week has gone smooth. I cannot complain.

The first of year had me thinking. This is a good time to assess how important goals are and the need to have one. See, they are very much like a mission statement for a company. In the mission statement, the company shares what its overall intentions are with respect to providing its service or product.

It does not provide many details as to how the mission will be carried out. It is designed to be a clear and concise message to all, of the company’s goal within the industry or market.  Also, all departments, regions, districts, and employees develop strategies to reinforce the mission.

So, one’s business goal(s) should mimic the same dynamics. Sure, you might not be as large as other companies but the principle of setting goals is universal for the progressive, goal-oriented, and task-completing entity.

Today, I will share some tips on why setting goals are important to have if you intend to progress in business or anything worth evolving.

Why are goals important?

1. Point out how far you have come-Goals highlight just how far you have come from the start. Depending on what strategies employed you may or may not have sold or provided much from your initial launch of the service or product. A progress report of just how far and how well your business is doing helps. When I started blogging(last Jul/August) I did not know what to expect. I just love to write and saw a platform to share thoughts. I did set a goal though to engage with 3-4 blogs weekly and to write at least a post a week. If on track, I would at least submit by the 6-month mark 26 posts and hopefully engage a following of about the same. To my surprise, I actually made both goals. So looking back, I was motivated to continue.

   

2. Establish a current position-Understanding your business’s current position is important too. Current position establishes a reference dollar or quantity amount to help set a goal. With this, one can make a sensible goal to achieve. So as mentioned in the previous point, when I started I had no previous data to build from. Actually, zero blogs with zero traffic and zero followers were the data. Lol. Using this as a launching pad was all I needed. From here I made a few initial assumptions to establish a goal.
3. Where to go-After a goal has been set, it has to either be met, not met, or exceeded. If it has not been met, then it must be reassessed and evaluated so a determination of what strategies can still be used or removed. So a year into my blogging experience has revealed 90 followers and 40 published post. For me, this is good but when I assess the reality of it I missed my mark by 12 on the blog post submissions but exceeded the number of followers. The data reveals to me that work still needs to be done but is certainly encouraging regardless.

My GOAL nuggets:

• Don’t get confused by another’s progress and business successes
• Your goals are YOUR goals. Own them and learn from them
• Learn from others successes don’t be discouraged
• Remember Goals equal Past Strategy, Present Strategy, Future Strategy
• Seek and learn from others. (Eg. Writers, Authors, Bloggers Community)
• Make realistic goals

Hope this helps. Are you meeting your goals? Have you been setting goals? What golden nuggets do you suggest?

Credits: Pixabay, Unsplash (unsplash.com/@leio)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/annlatham/2017/11/12/the-importance-of-strategic-focus/#62afa2ff587d

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-business-strategies-4630.html

https://www.inc.com/mareo-mccracken/the-real-reason-setting-goals-is-so-critical-to-success.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffboss/2017/01/19/5-reasons-why-goal-setting-will-improve-your-focus/#763cc358534a