5 CRITERIA FOR SETTING GOALS

All to often when I ask entrepreneurs if they have clearly written goals they say "not written, but in my head." Having thought about your personal and professional goals is great but writing them down is even better. Why? Writing them down makes them more tangible and links to the brain visually and kinestetically.

I've been fortunate to know some of the best athletes in the world that live in my hometown of Boulder, Colorado. Boulder is the kind of town where you can throw a rock and hit two or three Olympians at once (not that I've tried this). I've also been fortunate to know quite a successful entrepreneurs, CEOs, and investors. Many of them share a similar phenomenon and that is clarity of their objectives.

Here is a time-tested method for clarifying goals. It's called SMART goals:

• S = Specific: Your personal goals and the goals for your business need to be clear-cut and unambiguous. For example, if your goal is to start a business then you might write down something like this, "I am going to start a my own business in the fast-food industry." To be even more specific try stating, "I am starting my own organic burrito fast-food company."
• M = Measurable: The more specific you are about your business goals the more easily they can be measured. There needs to be some type of measurement or metric involved in goal-setting, or how will you know if you've reached them, or how will your partners and employees know? For example, "I will reach $1000 in organic burrito sales."
• A = Attainable: Goals must be realistic and attainable by you and your employees. The best goals require you to stretch a bit to achieve them, but they aren't extreme. That is, the goals are neither out of reach nor below standard performance. Goals that are set too high or too low become meaningless, and guaranteed you will naturally come to ignore them.
• R = Relevant: You, your partners, and employees have a laundry list of activities that you can choose to perform every single day. You will also have a number of different things that you could choose as goals. However, the essence of business success in choosing what not to do. Pick goals that are relevant to improving your business and that make you different from your competition. For example, if you differentiate by delivering speedy service then set goals that are relevant to that. I'm consistently amazed at the number of organizations and entrepreneurs that set goals that don't differentiate, they set them because they were considered a best-practice. This becomes particularly important if you are pitching your business to an investor. Your objectives/goals should make you distinct.
• T - Timed: Attach an expected date in which you would like to have achieved the goal. For example, "I will generate $1000 in burrito sales by October 1." I heard a smart business person say once that the difference between a goal and a wish is that a goal has an expected date of delivery.

I use the SMART criteria as do most of our clients. We think it's the best way to ensure that you are setting goals that will ultimately put cash in your wallet.