Business goals are regularly discussed in the corporate and business world – and for good reason. The most successful startups will have outlined their business goals as part of their overall growth plans and will still use them today to set strategic performance markers and monitor progress. But the goals you set for your business must be aspirational, of course, but also realistic to achieve. Setting unattainable goals can leave teams feeling demotivated and marketing strategies labelled unsuccessful, when in reality the business goal was overly optimistic. In this article, we explore how to set effective business goals that align with your company’s needs and long-term objectives.
SMART Goals
It’s one thing for businesses to set goals for themselves, but if these goals aren’t SMART, it’s unlikely that they will be attainable. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. It’s a model that was created to make goal setting easier and more beneficial to anyone using it. A specific goal refers to one that clearly states what the goal is focused on achieving, as well as who it’s aimed towards, what it aims to do, where you will do it, and finally why. A measurable goal outlines specific metrics that can be recorded to monitor the progress of reaching a goal, such as recording website users or email subscriptions. Then comes achievable. An achievable goal must be realistic and possible to reach in the time you’ve given yourself. For example, a fashion business in the early stages of starting out might set itself a goal to improve its website rankings on Google by 3 places in 3 months. Contrastingly, a business objective for this fashion brand that would be deemed unattainable would be ranking 1st position on Google’s search engine result pages within a month.
Relevant goals are those that are beneficial to or in line with your long-term aspirations or business goals. For example, a business looking to eventually move into an international market wouldn’t set itself goals that focus on expanding within a local area, as this wouldn’t support their long-term objectives. Finally, within the SMART goals framework, goals should also be time-bound. Time-bound goals are those that are set to be completed within a specified time period. Time-bound goals have an end date by which the goal will be reviewed and evaluated.
The following is an example of a SMART goal that immigration lawyers in London could set to increase enquiries relating to British citizenship.
General goal: Increase new business enquiries for British citizenship services.
Specific: Increase the number of enquiries from people seeking advice on British citizenship because these specific enquiries are highly profitable and an in-demand service within the legal sector.
Measurable: Generate 40 new enquiries either through website contact forms, emails or phone calls that are specific to British citizenship services without reducing enquiries for other legal services.
Achievable: There is consistent demand for British citizenship advice in London especially, and currently one third of our client base is dedicated to British citizenship services. Our website already receives regular traffic and is optimised for conversions through an online contact form. By improving our online visibility on search engines like Google and sharing targeted content on social media, we can attract more potential clients.
Relevant: Our goal is to increase revenue by20% by the end of this year. With more British citizenship enquiries, our client base will increase, which will contribute to further revenue growth.
Timely: We aim to reach 40 new business enquiries within 3 months. The first month will involve publishing new British citizenship content on the website and optimising key service pages so that they are discoverable when users search for British citizenship legal services.
