It can be a lovely feeling when a brilliant business idea pops into your head in a lightbulb moment!

But that’s the easy part – making it happen requires a practical plan. Without clear goals, your business could flounder and lose direction, or you might find yourself getting bogged down in the day-to-day nitty-gritty and losing sight of your original dream idea.

So how do you go about setting achievable goals in a small business?

Here are our top tips.

1.  Start with your big goals

It starts with your big ideas – or what you would really like to achieve with your business overall. Write your ideas down, and flesh them out.

You could have a brainstorming or mind-mapping session, and/or consult with a mentor or expert in your industry.

2.  Break it down into smaller chunks

Next, you need to break down your big ideas into measurable, actionable long-term and short-term goals.

Both have their place in a business. For example, long-term goals are important because they keep your eye on the future while informing your shorter term goals. Let’s say you had a long-term goal to increase revenue by 50% by the end of the third year in business. This would in turn enable you to set monthly targets in terms of sales projections and client acquisition, and to set and delegate tasks to make it happen.

3.  Measure your goal success

Check in on your goals regularly to see how they’re tracking. A monthly check-in is probably enough, although it does depend on the business. It’s up to you to figure out what works best for your situation.

4.  Adjust goals where necessary

While business goals are vital, it’s important to remember they are not set in stone. And while you don’t want to be constantly shifting the goal posts, there might be times when you need to make some adjustments – for example, if a goal is proving to be unrealistic, or maybe even not ambitious enough!

5.  Delegate everyday tasks

It can be hard to do it all yourself, and sometimes you need other people around you to delegate tasks to. However, it’s not always practical for every business to hire teams of people either!

An alternative is to outsource tasks to a professional virtual assistant, where you pay for services as you need them.

This can help to reduce stress, avoid burnout, improve your productivity and increase your business’s profitability and growth potential. You get to focus more on your goals, and avoid getting lost so much in the daily grind.

Get in touch with us to find out how AS Virtual Solutions can help you attain your business goals!