SMART Goal Setting

Setting clear and specific goals completes effective planning. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attractive, Realistic and Time phased.

S: SPECIFIC & STRETCHING
A goal needs to be specific. Unclear goals lead to vague attempts to
achieve them. Specific, stretching goals extend you and in most cases lead to higher achievement.

M: MEASURABLE
You need to be able to evaluate your progress. Determining how to measure your goals can be difficult but try to keep it as simple as possible.

A: ATTRACTIVE
If you don't want it, you're unlikely to put in a sustained effort. Your goals need your buy in, so be clear on your cause behind the goal.

R: REALISTIC
You must be capable of achieving the goal, is it manageable in the time frame and with the current resources you have at your disposal?

T: TIME-FRAMED
You need to have an appropriate time frame in mind. If you are not able to assign a clear deadline within your goal, you may need to make your goal more specific. You need to have benchmarks along the way to help keep you on track.

Some Useful Tips:
To ensure that your goals are "SMART", ask yourself the following questions and make sure that the measures and timeframes are precise in the way you have written your goals.

• What specifically will you be doing differently?
  How will you know if you are achieving this?
  What will it look like, what will you see/hear?
  How will you measure/evaluate your goal?
  What's the expected timeframe for this?
  How realistic is this?
  How attractive is this to you and how committed are you?
  
  
  
  As always I would love to hear your comments and thoughts around the articles. Place your comments below around how you set your goals.

Do you still feel the excitement?

This week I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of small business owners on the topic of Business Success. As I was speaking I realised that after 18 years of being an entrepreneur and small business owner, I am still excited by my work. That I really do love what I am doing right now! It was a privilege to be able to share with them, the steps I have used to create my business success.

I thought it would be nice to share these steps with you (again!), especially at this time of the year, when we can take the time to reflect and think about them further.

1. Have a Positive Enhancing Mindset - clear your mind of any negative thoughts. What you think about, you bring about - so wouldn't it be better to have thoughts that bring you health, happiness and success! It is your mind, you are in control of what you think, so take time to remove any limiting beliefs you have and replace them with beliefs and habits that will support you and move you into great success. If you are stuck on how to move into a Success Mindset than I would recommend working with Joanne Prior - click here to find out more about Jo's work.

2. Be who you are - allow you to shine through in your everyday work. Clients are drawn to you not only because of what you have to offer them but also because of who you are.

3. Be clear on who your Ideal Clients are and what problems/challenges you solve for them. The clearer you are on your ideal clients, the tighter your marketing message will be. The easy it is for you to attract the clients that you enjoy working with making your workday even more exciting and fun.

4. Understand that Marketing is key to your business success. This one concept is so important to grasp, because at the end of the day if you are not marketing consistently, your business won't grow.

5. Appreciate your clients. If you have worked out clearly who your ideal clients are, then adoring and appreciating your clients should come easy. How do you show appreciation to your clients?

6. Honour and respect your colleagues and contacts. Along with your clients, your contacts are an important arm of your business. I have to say that I love my contacts and colleagues their support allows my business to grow and develop. I also get so excited when I am able to refer them work and I am always looking at how I can connect different people together.and I am happy referring them

7. Work with a mentor. Since 1995 I have engaged a mentor to work with me. What I have always found is that my mentors have challenged me to step out of my comfort zone in relation to my business goals. At times this has felt uncomfortable but knowing that I have some one there to brainstorm ideas with, to show me a different way of doing things has always been very beneficial. To help me achieve my business goals for 2010, I have decided to engage two mentors ~ each one has a very specific role that they will play. I learnt long ago that I don't need to do this all by myself, that having this support allows me to grow quicker than what I would by myself.

Whether you are just starting out or have been in business for a while, I hope you still feel the excitement of what your business can do for you. That you still feel excited about the people you are meeting and the outcomes you are achieving. Is there something that you need to do differently? Now is the time to reflect on how wonderful 2009 was and consolidate your plans for 2010.


As always I would love to hear your comments and thoughts around what success means to you. Please place your comments below.