Goals are probably the most important part in planning for the future. Without them you are just floating along with no direction. Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” I feel nothing could be closer to the truth.

With the New Year right around the corner, comes a new set of goals to achieve. So what kind of goals are you going to set for your business? Product development? Revenue? Sales? Scaling? How are you going to accomplish these goals? What KPI’s will you use as measurement?

As a first step, review your goals from the previous year. You had goals last year right? Ask yourself the following:

• Did I accomplish my goals this year?
• How were they accomplished?
• If they fell short, why?
• Who was instrumental in accomplishing them?
• What goals will be carrying over into next year?

These questions, and any other relevant ones, will help you look at where things currently are and what you still have left to accomplish, and create a strong foundation for the coming year.

Once you have reviewed the previous year, it’s time look forward to the next one. It all starts with a simple question. What do you want to accomplish this year?

It’s important to have a good mix of both lofty and reachable short and long term goals. Remember to challenge yourself; don’t make it too easy, but be realistic with your expectations. Going from 100k to 10 million in sales probably isn’t going to happen.

Now that you have established your plan for the coming year, it’s time to get to work. If you don’t act quickly, the year will be over before you know it and you’ll still be spinning your wheels.
It’s always smart to start working on a few short term goals while you plan out the longer ones. This way you can start accomplishing things right out of the gate. Getting off to a hot start is an essential part of a successful year.

Remember to periodically check your progress. This is where setting measurable KPI’s comes into play. You should always know exactly how close you are to accomplishing what you set out to do, and how much further you have to go. It can be something as silly as a thermometer to measure sales or a more advanced Excel spreadsheet. Whatever works for you, keeping tabs on how close or far you are to accomplishing the goals you set one of the most important parts of achieving them.

If you set reasonable goals there is no reason you shouldn’t succeed in 2016 and beyond. Push yourself to make this year better than the last, but be realistic about what you can achieve.