Goal Setting and Planning

                Starting a business can seem overwhelming, especially when you’re also holding a full-time job. Goal setting and planning are crucial to success. 

 

 

                Use your business plan to map out your goals and the steps necessary to achieve them. When you know your overall business goals, such as how many sales you expect to make in your first quarter of business and when you anticipate reaching profitability, you can set smaller, interim goals to reach these larger milestones.

              For instance, suppose your business model is an e-commerce website selling apparel and accessories for teenage girls. In order to get this business up and running, there are several goals you’ll need to accomplish, including:

•  Developing a website
•  Finding sources of inventory
•  Finding prospective customers
•  Setting up mailing and shipping systems

            Each of these goals can be broken down into smaller steps. For example, steps to developing a website would include:

• Choosing a domain name for your website 
• Registering the domain name
• Finding a web hosting company
• Finding a web designer, website development company or website templates to create your website
• Determining what elements your website needs and how they will be laid out
• Choosing shopping cart and inventory software for your website

     

   The more detailed you can be in laying out each step to startup, the better. For example, “Choosing a domain name” could be broken down into even smaller steps: 

• Brainstorm domain names by myself 
• Brainstorm domain names with friends and family 
• Choose top five to 10 domain names 
• Visit domain registrars to see which names are available
• Narrow down options and select one

         If you break each step into smaller steps, achieving bigger goals will seem more manageable. When you’re starting a business part time, you’ll have limited time to work on your startup each day. Creating tasks you can complete quickly will give you a feeling of accomplishment and generate forward momentum.    

          Once you’ve listed your goals, sub-goals and the specific steps needed to reach each milestone, plan a timeline for your startup’s launch. Create a timeline that is challenging enough to keep you energized, but realistic enough that you don’t get discouraged. Perhaps you’ll commit to accomplishing one small task each day, or one intermediate goal per weekend. Your SCORE mentor can help you develop a realistic timeline and keep you on track.

 

 

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