This blog was updated on 19 December 2018.
We all want to be successful, and setting goals is a huge component of long-term success, as research shows a direct link between goals and enhanced performance in business. Setting goals creates focus, allows you to allocate your limited time and resources efficiently and helps you decide what is and what isn’t important. On a more personal level, goals keep you motivated and allow you to feel a sense of achievement and confidence.
So how should you set your goals? Firstly start off by reflecting on last year. Did you set out any goals? Did you achieve them or were they forgotten about by February? What do you want to achieve in this year to be more successful? These are the types of questions you need to ask yourself to ultimately generate a list of goals for the year.
However, creating goals is often the easy part while actually achieving them isn’t as straightforward. This is because we tend to focus on the end result and not the process that gets us there. To help combat this issue, there’s a simple framework that can help. It’s all about these three steps – think big, act small, move quick. Here’s how it works:
1. Think Big
This is really important! If your goal is too small you run the risk of selling yourself short and not reaching what you’re actually capable of. Think big is all about your ultimate goal, like growing your salons profit by 10%. So aim for the highest, push the boundaries, and yourself!
2. Act Small
It’s great to set yourself big goals, but if you don’t break them down into smaller milestones then you’ll easily feel overwhelmed and classify your goal as impossible. A list of tasks that must be completed to achieve your goal allows you to focus your mind, time, energy and resources and consistently allows you to feel a sense accomplishment as you go through your journey – rather than having to wait until the end. Remember building momentum and confidence as you go is key. So instead of talking about increasing profit, you would work on tasks like training your staff to ask every client when they would like to book their next appointment. This simple task will increase your rebooking rate and therefore profit, ultimately contributing towards achieving your ‘big’ goal.
3. Move Quick
The final step is all about the timeline you put in place to ensure you’re achieving your milestones. Putting a timeline against your tasks is proven to make success more likely as it helps keep track of where you’re at in terms of your goal and allows you to readjust if necessary.
To finish, our final piece of advice is to write your goals down. It creates commitment and makes sure that you have something to refer to. Also remember to read through them often as by keeping the list in your wallet or on the wall of your office it reminds you what you should be working towards and why. So now that we’re refreshed after the holidays and back into it, why not give goal setting a go!
