I think it is fair to say there has been a time in all our lives where we felt like we are working so hard, but we don’t feel like we are making any progress. That is why it is so important to personally and professionally celebrate the small wins and Jeremy Teff was nice enough to stop by the studio and share his knowledge with us about what celebrating wins and setting goals looks like for your business!
However, since there is no better time to start than the present, we are going to begin by highlighting some wins! An accomplishment for Jeremy is that he has been a new business owner for about nine months now and an achievement for Bryan and Loren is that this is the first podcast in Go Rogue X’s new studio!
So, when talking about goal setting how people in the industry view it, Loren provided a quote from Forbes that says, “More than 80% of small business owners confess that they did not track their company goals and yet an equal and if not higher percentage would likely state that goal setting is integral to business success.” Bryan elaborates on this by explaining if you didn’t set the goal initially and measure your results then you have no way of judging if what you put out is actually reaching people and or if they enjoy it or not. It is remarkably easy to catch yourself in a head down mode where you are working tirelessly and knocking out projects but not measuring where you are currently at.
Therefore, we asked Jeremy, what has been your experience setting goals as a business owner for the short-term and the visionary goals as well?
Defining goals early is important for both short-term and long-term goals because the day to day and week to week goals are the ones that will help you achieve the long-term goal. This is important because owners with young business can sometimes struggle with setting goals for the current chapter that their business is in because they are lost in the dream space of what their business can be. Therefore, an easy way to make sure you are setting short-term goals and staying focused on them is by writing them down because it gives you a visual representation of what you want your goal to be. You can write them on a piece of paper or you can use mobile organization tools like Asana that helps you keep track of and manage your work. Jeremy asserts that as long as he has crossed three to four things off of his to-do list for the day, they he feels like he has had a productive day because how you get to your goals and even the smallest movement toward your goal is equally important.
How do you focus your goals to achieve the correct things that you need to be focusing on for where your business is right now?
The best way to make sure you are focusing on the now instead of the later is to be sure you clearly define what your goal for the short-term is. For small business owners, it is often a one or two man show, so they are balancing a variety of different positions. Therefore, it is easy to get lost in all the things they want to accomplish instead of really deciding what is valuable to their short-term goals that will help them achieve their vision in the long run.
As a young business with so many things on your to-do list it is easy to not stop and celebrate where you are and where you came from, so how have you seen that within your business?
When business owners are always striving for the next thing it can always be about the results, money, or the numbers, but even though you might not have hit the goal you wanted, it is still imperative to look back and evaluate where you are currently and celebrate that you are up a certain percentage or that you accomplished a task. It can be hard to find a balance and life is never going to be perfect so it is essential that you stop and live in the moment and find joy in the moment. Jeremy emphasizes how it sometimes we can get so caught up and focused on making sure the client is happy with the end product that it can be tough to slow down and recognize the hard work it took to complete the project!
A valid point that Loren spoke about along with this is how it is meaningful that you are intentional about celebrating with the people who helped you get to where you are now and being humble that you probably didn’t get to this point by doing it all yourself. So, make sure you are fostering relationships with the people you want to continue to work with and with those who your goals.
Lastly, the final piece of advice Jeremy left with us with is that it’s okay if your goals change but always have something to work toward, stay positive, and wake up and tell yourself that you are going to accomplish something today!
