Whether you are a small business owner or just a citizen of this great nation trying to excel in life, setting goals should be near the top of your plan of action. Goals give us direction and help us visualize what we are reaching for. These goals can be short-term, long-term, and everything in between. Without them, it would be like you were blindly wandering around your house, bumping into things until you finally found the kitchen. The kitchen, here, represents success.
Yes, goals are one of the most important things to your success. However, goals, if not treated carefully, could do the opposite of helping you. If you set too many goals, you might feel like your success stands atop an insurmountable mountain. If your goals are too broad or too distant, then it might seem like a marathon you aren’t trained for.
Goal setting needs to be done methodically, giving you direction, purpose, and peace of mind that success is near. One way to accomplish this is to use a strategy that breaks up your year into smaller periods, making each chunk seem more manageable.
For example, imagine setting a goal of expanding your office to accommodate more employees so you can take on more clients. On the surface, this seems reasonable and necessary for a successful business. However, many factors go into this goal when you start breaking it down. Office design, remodeling, and décor will be time-consuming, as well as new employee screening, interviewing, and training.
Then you have to consider that if you cannot get new clients, this was all for not. Therefore, you must put out feelers in the industry to see if more clients are waiting for you to expand. Also, you still have to maintain your current clients and operations.
The broad nature of this goal could debilitate you to the point that you give up and decide to settle for what you have in your business. However, breaking this goal into chunks, specifically 90-day goals, will make it seem more manageable and more attainable for yourself.
Why Do 90-Day Goals Work?
The 90-day year is an idea to manage your goals better. Setting smaller, 90-day goals instead of 1-year, 2-year, or 5-year goals will make each task less time-consuming and leave you less burdened. These small goals will eventually accumulate and equal that monster, long-term goal your business desperately needs.
It is the Perfect Timeframe
90-day goals are so successful because they are long enough to accomplish a meaningful task for your business and short enough to keep the average human’s attention. Humans are results driven. You want to see your efforts pay off by seeing that progress toward your goal. Pair that with the fact that our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter with the rise of technology, and 90 days is just the perfect time frame for us.
When you see the results sooner rather than later, your motivation will increase, and you will be excited to start that next portion of the plan. More extended time frames could lead to you second-guessing or giving up on an idea altogether.
Extended Due Dates Result in Procrastination
Pushing your goals further out will naturally lead the way to you telling yourself, “We have time. I can start on this next week.” In the world of advancing ourselves, this is a terrible thing to tell yourself. Next week turns into next month, next month turns into next quarter, and before you know it, time is up. You have to push the goal out another six months.
Ninety days, once again, is that sweet spot that helps eliminate the possibility of procrastination. With your goals so vital to your business, they can’t wait.
Shorter Timeframes Improve Relevance
If you are setting a goal to be completed in a year, you run into the chance that this won’t be relevant next year. Times change as fast as technology changes, and that is fast. What may seem to benefit your business today might be obsolete next year, and you will be stuck in the same position you were in.
Things can change in 90 days, as well, but the chances are much lower. These smaller, shorter goals will help you stay on top of the game and not get left behind.
How to Incorporate a 90-day Year
Setting goals is a skill in itself. A lot of thought and consideration goes into the process, trying to make sure that goal is timely, manageable, and pertinent to your business. Trying to revert your goals to smaller, 90-day goals will be tricky. Lucky for you, this article will give you a few things to take into consideration when making the change.
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What has your business accomplished in 3 months? You don’t want to use your old goals and give them a smaller time frame. This will set you up for failure. Think about what your business can do in a shorter time, and then start there.
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What is it that you want to accomplish? Look at the big picture here, and then start breaking that down into smaller, more manageable goals that can be accomplished in 90 days.
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Is your business at a place where adding more goals is a good idea? This goes for long-term and 90-day goals. Adding more things to your to-do list can seriously affect your business. Makes sure that you are in a comfortable spot to transition to 90-day goals because, as with anything, it will take some time to master.
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Do you foresee any complications that could arise? Plan ahead, and for the worst, then life goes a little smoother. This could be problems that might arise from within your office or also in the industry.
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What makes this 90-day goal successful? The goal gives you the endgame, but you must determine what that endgame looks like. How will you know if you met your goal? You do not want this to be a guessing game, so make sure you put in the time to determine this before you begin your quest to complete your goals.
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Follow the same steps when setting goals as you always have.
- Brainstorm
- Choose the goals
- Make the goals attainable
- Create a plan of action
- Schedule time to work on your goals
The points above are a starting point for when you begin your 90-day goal setting. Once you get in the groove of things, it will become easy, and you will find yourself growing your business and yourself.
Ready to Start Your 90-Day Year?
The 90-day year is not a magic button, but it is easy. You still have to put in the time and effort to ensure this goal will be met and exceeded. It just makes goal setting seem less daunting and more achievable. The team at Maennche Virtual CMO knows all about growing a business and how to set, achieve, and exceed goals.