Believe it or not, most businesses are not meeting every goal they set. In 2020, only 65% of small businesses reported meeting at least half of their goals during a six-month period.
Clearly, meeting every business goal is difficult to do. What can you do to improve your odds and get where you need to be this year?
If you’re struggling to meet the majority of your goals, that may mean that you need to rethink your OKR goal setting strategies.
Read on for five of the best goal setting strategies you can use to improve your business’s performance.
1. Give Your Goals a Hierarchy
Not all goals should be weighted evenly. Accordingly, the pursuit of all goals shouldn’t be weighted evenly.
When you review your goals each quarter, make sure that you are assessing the hierarchy. This goes for goals you established in previous quarters, because you may find that more important matters have come up in the past few months.
2. Break Long-Term Goals Down Into Short-Term Goals
Long-term goals tend to be the biggest goals on our list, which means that we need to create sub-goals in order to actually meet them. For example, let’s say your long-term goal is to increase profits by 10%. That means that sub-goals need to include things like cutting costs, increasing the mark-up on your products, and revitalizing your marketing strategies.
3. Make Your Goals Specific
This particular strategy goes back to the creation of short-term or sub-goals. Consider each goal you have for your business its own endeavor. In a way, you can think of goal setting as the creation of a mini business plan: understand what the goal is, why it’s worthwhile, how it will impact your business, and what you need to do to achieve it.
4. Make Your Goals Measurable
No goal is worthwhile if it isn’t measurable. If you’re not sure how to start creating measurable goals, it’s time to implement the OKR method. This method requires that you not only understand the objective of your goal but that you also examine the key results of that goal once it is achieved.
5. Avoid Unrealistic Goals
Ultimately, if you want to be hitting more goals this year, you need to make sure that your goals are realistic. Aiming high can boost productivity, motivation, and confidence, but it can also create unnecessary distractions and even unnecessary stress. By breaking down your goals into smaller pieces, making your goals specific, and sticking to only measurable goals, you can avoid chasing after unrealistic goals.
Implement These Goal Setting Strategies and Improve Your Odds Today
The truth is, most businesses aren’t hitting every goal they set for themselves in any given year. However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t examine your own goal-setting strategies and make sure they’re as productive and effective as possible.
Looking for more business news and tips? Take a look at our business section to find out what the most successful businesses are doing this year and how you can make their methods work for you.
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