We are fast approaching the end of another financial year, and right now is a great time to start thinking and acting upon ways to improve your business.

There is one key thing that can make the difference between having an ordinary year or having an extraordinary year. That thing is the goals and objectives you set for yourself and your business for the coming 12 months.

There's no right way to set goals. People do it in different ways. What's important is that you do set them. Some people write letters to themselves, others create pictorial maps, and some use the tried and trusted bullet-point list.

 Get Your Goals Visible

Whatever method you use, to have the best chance of success make sure you write them down and formalise them.

Your goals need to be visible, in your face on a regular basis and not gathering dust in your drawer. They can be documented in the form of a wall chart, a graph, a vision board, or in the form of a formal set of goals. Having them in a noticeable, readable and instantly recognisable form gives you a great foundation towards starting to achieve them.

Having Trouble Defining Your Goals?

If you're struggling to define your goals, try thinking beyond the time-frame you're looking at. You could ask yourself "what does success look like and feel like for me?". Then come back from that longer term vision to a closer time-frame. Consider what you should be doing in the next 12 months, and then next 3 months, and then next month, to head you towards that longer term vision.  Simply put, break down your long term goals into smaller bite-size manageable pieces.

As a business owner it's easy to fall into the trap of limiting your goal setting to your business. Your goals should take into account the big picture view considering family, health, and finances amongst others. As well as setting objectives you want to achieve, you could also set objectives for things you want to stop doing.

Making Time To Do It

The best time for goal setting is when you've got some quiet time away from your everyday business activities.

Whether you take some time out during your business day or use a part of the week that you are not working in your business, it doesn't really matter. Decide what works for you and make an appointment with yourself to do it.

Clear goals for yourself and your business for the next 12 months (and longer) will give you a direction to aim towards.

Create Your Future

Remember the past doesn't determine the future. Just because you may have set goals before and perhaps didn't achieve them, doesn't mean this will be so in the future. Goal setting can sometimes be a bit scary. There's always the risk of non-achievement in the back of your mind; and it can often seem that the bigger the goal the bigger the doubt.

More importantly, having a direction to head towards and clear goals and objectives could make a big difference. That difference may just be an extraordinary year rather than just an ordinary one.

We work with a lot of our clients to help them define their goals and objectives and then set plans in place to work towards them, monitoring and measuring their progress using state-of-the-art software tools.

If you would like to hear more about how we can help you and your business, contact the team at Envision Business & Wealth Advisors.