What better way to start the new year than with a blog post that meets one of my RUN Marketing content goals. Starting as I mean to go on, gold star for me.
This year I'm not going to be putting too much pressure on myself or setting unrealistic goals. I know that if I expect too much then I'm setting myself up for overwhelm, overwork and feelings of failure. Not for me this year thank you!
I'm also not setting many goals for the full year. Too much can change in a year and what is important now may not be by the end of the year. RUN Marketing is in it's infancy and I have no doubt that it will evolve a lot over the next 12 months. I want to be realistic and flexible with my goals so that they can grow with my business.
Instead I'm getting SMART, setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound goals. I've used this system time and time again throughout my career as both an individual and a manager and it works.
Specific - What do you want to do? Make sure you're clear on exactly what it is that you want to achieve and don't make it too broad. Be detailed about what it is that you want to achieve.
Measurable - How will you track your progress? Is there a quantifiable measure that you can use to track against.
Achievable - How will you accomplish it? Do you have the skills, tools etc. to be able to achieve your goal.
Relevant - Is this relevant to your overall objectives? Is the goal contributing to your overall mission and objectives and helping you to meet them.
Time bound - When do you want to do it by? The goal should have a deadline. This doesn't have to be set in stone but you need an idea of whether it's a 1 month or 12 month goal.
Here are two of my current goals to show you how they can vary. Some may be lengthy and detailed whilst others are short and straight to the point. The SMART framework can feel complicated and you may find yourself overthinking but step back and check that it meets the S-M-A-R and T.
Write and share 2 blog posts every month.
A perfect example of not needing to overcomplicate your goals. This goal is short but it's SMART. It's specific, I know exactly what I need to do, write and share 2 blog posts. It's measurable, 2 posts every month. It's achievable, I have enough topics to write about and I know I can allocate time to do this. It's relevant, the RUN Marketing mission is to empower businesses with knowledge to achieve their online potential, writing and sharing blog posts contributes to this. It's time bound, every month I need to write and share two blog posts.
Earn more money via RUN Marketing in 2022 than I would have earned in my previous employed role.
This is the only full year business goal that I have set for RUN Marketing. As I mentioned before I don't want to set many full year goals as the business will develop and evolve in this time, but this one is clear for me whichever direction the business grows in. I want to be able to support myself and my family, by doing something that I love, on my own terms, in the next 12 months. This goal is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. I hope to be able to come back in 12 months time and tell you that I've exceeded this goal but I know I'll be happy if I just meet it. It's within my reach and I have all the right things in place to be able to achieve it.
I hope this has got you thinking about your goals. It's not always about setting sky high goals and striving for things that are currently unattainable. Setting a mix of big and small SMART goals and reviewing them regularly helps to keep us focussed and motivated. Small successes and meeting goals helps us to build, grow and develop new goals along the way. And failure is ok too, we learn from it, we build upon it and we adapt moving forward. I wish you every success for the year ahead whatever your goals are.
If you need marketing support for your small business or start up RUN Marketing can support you. We offer flexible online marketing & e-commerce consulting services to suit the exact needs of your business. We're passionate about helping you harness your online potential and grow your business to meet your goals. Take a look at our services or get in touch to find out more about how we could work together.