In every business involving content creation or selling products, you should think about setting S.M.A.R.T goals to help you carve a direction you would like your business to head. Creating a plan in the form of setting a goal is important when you are looking at the type of work you are looking to do for the upcoming month or year.

The goals you choose to set for your business are the blueprint for the success you plan on having throughout the year. Regardless of what you are providing to the world, a goal is a great way to get that product to your audience.

So let’s discuss what the heck a S.M.A.R.T. goal is and how you can write one. 

After you read the article be sure to download your very own SMART goal template to help you get started. 

What are SMART goals?

A smart goal is an acronym for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. 

Let’s get into the specifics. 

• S-specific: your goals should be clear and specific otherwise you are not going to be able to stay focused or motivated. Which in the end will make it difficult to complete the goal. 

• M-measurable: Keeping track of the performance of the progress you and your goal are making. This will help you in sticking to your goal or modifying it should you need to. 

• A-Attainable: Set up a goal that you can achieve. The goal needs to be obtainable in order to feel and be successful. If you make it too broad or unachievable you’ll quit or think your efforts are not worth the time. 

• R-relevant: Keep your business goals in mind when setting your smaller goals. If you don’t do that then you will end up scattered and overwhelmed. 

• T-Time-based: Deadlines are a great way to motivate and keep you focused in helping you work towards something.

How to write SMART goals

Before even creating your goal lists, you need to do a brainstorming session. Just take a moment to get focused and jot down all the ideas you have in your head. You want to make sure that you’re focusing on the aim you have in mind for your business. 

What do you want to accomplish this month, quarter, or year? 

This is a useful step for writing, creating, and narrowing down the goals for your business. It’s also helpful in helping you get started and get more focused in the following stages of your planning. 

So, go ahead and write till your fingers bleed; just kidding, don’t do that. Write until you literally can’t think of anything else. No matter how big or small, get that brainstorm on! 

Next, when you decide what goal you believe will help you accomplish your business goals, it is time to get specific. 

Write out what steps you need to take to achieve your goal, and if you have a co-worker helping you, what tasks you will do to move the goal along. 

Once you hash out the details of the goal, you now want to come up with how you will measure the success. Create or watch trackable benchmarks.

For instance, if your goal is to get 5% more subscribers, you can use analytics from your email sign-up list to see how your goal is moving along. 

Keep in mind that your goal must be achievable. Ask yourself if the objective is obtainable? Or is it reasonable? 

At this point of creating your goal, you need to decide the reason for the goal. Why do you want to accomplish XYZ? 

Back to our subscribers example, how do you want to attract more subscribers? Does that goal align with what you envisioned for your business? If it does or doesn’t, look at your goal statement and modify it if needed. 

The last step in creating your goal is setting a timeline or a deadline. You want to literally see if you are coming close to reaching your goal. Plan out when you will start creating or implementing and when you should finish. 

Creating goals is essential for any business. Coming up with those goals doesn’t have to be hard. As long as you remember that your goals must be S.M.A.R.T then you are headed in the right direction!