Set your Goal : Why You Need To set your Goal At Start of Every Year or Venture

Set your Goal : At the start of every year or every venture, it’s important to set out your objectives: what do you want to achieve and when do you want to make it happen? But without sitting down and writing out reasonable targets, it can be difficult to hold yourself accountable.

Goal setting, both short and long-term, is crucial to ensuring you not only hit your aims but also provides a framework that you can follow to stop you from falling behind. Small Fish’ Jon Dale explains that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

“If you don’t aim somewhere specific, there’s a great danger,” the tradesman business coach says on his website. 

“You won’t go anywhere. You might go around in circles. You might go somewhere you didn’t want to go. You might not go anywhere at all.”

Dale recommends a three-year time frame for his clients, setting out their targets in both monetary terms and business progress. 

For many of his tradies, their long-term goal isn’t just about growing and becoming more profitable, but also integrity – quality work they’re proud of and doing the best by their customers. 

He also encourages you to check-in with your goals from time to time to make sure you’re on track and also reassess your original objectives – has the situation changed? Do you want something different? 

The goals should also be used to help lead decision-making and form the first part of your strategy. “Your strategy is your plan for how you’re going to get from here today to that beautiful three-year goal,” says Dale.

However, while setting goals is paramount to achieving success, Dale warns that they can also be detrimental if they’re too unrealistic.

“If they’re too distant, unreachable or they seem too far away, even though they’re incredibly motivating, you can be left feeling like you’ll never get there or like you’ve barely made a dent in that enormous journey to get there,” he continues.

“That can leave you feeling demotivated and fed up and it can leave you not wanting to do the work.”

To help counter this, Dale has three suggestions:

1. Create short-term achievable goals so you know you’re moving in the right direction.
2. Monitor your progress and business growth, and see how they’re aligning with your
   business strategy. 
3. Take a moment to give yourself a pat on the back and see how far you’ve come.
   Reflect on the journey and look back at where you were at the beginning – that will
   give you a clear show of progress.

Looking to start your own business? Head to Qualify Me! to see how a tradesman coach like
Dale can give you the keys to success.