4 Common Small Business Goals to Inspire You

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Updated on 06/25/19

Setting goals in your small business is an important step in your business growth and development. Without goals, it is difficult to move forward, make progress and avoid feelings of complacency. It's also common to experience burnout and feelings of frustration if you're not being proactive about your business development. Setting goals and working toward them on a regular basis can help you keep your passion alive.

The goals you set will depend on a number of factors, and it's important to keep in mind that business goal setting doesn't necessarily need to mean growing the size of your business; there are many different types of business goals you can set.

Below are four common business goals that may inspire you to take a new direction the next time you sit down for a goal setting session.

1. Write a Business Plan

You can't successfully start a new business without setting goals, so if you're just starting on your entrepreneurial journey, you probably have a number of business goals on your list, with writing a business plan certainly being one of them. Despite its reputation, business planning doesn't have to be a long and painful process. These resources will help you get started:

How to Write a Simple Business Plan
Business Plan Outline for Small Business

2. Improve Your Bottom Line

It's probably safe to say that most small business owners would like to increase their profit, making it a very common small business goal. Unfortunately, it can also be a challenging one. Improving your bottom line usually requires two approaches -- raising rates (or selling more) and reducing expenses. If this is a relevant business goal for you, these articles will get you started:

10 Ways You Can Reduce the Cost of Running Your Small Business
How to Raise Your Small Business Rates without Losing Clients

3. Become More Productive

Many small business owners struggle with finding enough time to get everything done; it's a common challenge for small business owners who wear multiple hats. You may feel like you're constantly being pulled in different directions, or that business administrative tasks are eating up all of your time. If this sounds familiar, then a productivity goal may be the right one for you. Start with these resources:

4. Use Technology to Do More

Technology can not only save us money, but it can save us time, too. And since it's constantly changing, business goals for using technology in new ways are almost always relevant. Even if you're successfully using technology in your small business now, there are new tools being developed every day that can help you do even more in your business. These articles will inspire you to think of new ways to use technology:

More Resources

Whether you set business goals once a year, or every few months, it's important to be consistent in your goal setting process (the more frequently you work on your goals, the more successful you will be!). There are a number of different approaches to goal setting. Here are some tools that will help you figure out which process might work best for you:

Getting Started with Goal Setting
SMART Goal Setting 101
Backward Goal Setting