Setting business goals is an integral and crucial aspect of financial success for any business. It’s a critical part of business planning. It is important that you set both short term and long term goals. Here we set forth a basic guide for goal setting.

First, set realistic goals. Goals should be or represent solutions to problems. They shouldn’t be arbitrary. You may need to research comparative goals or discuss your goals with the right marketing, financial, or business consulting expert.

Second, map out the steps to each goal. In other words, how to you plan to achieve your goals? What is your plan of action? What will you do every day to see to it you are inching closer to your goals on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis? For example, if you wanted to train for a marathon, you wouldn’t just run the marathon. You would have a daily plan in place for how you are going to increase your endurance and properly fuel your body. With businesses it is the same thing. How will you strengthen and properly fuel your business on a daily basis?

Three, recognize that goals, like the nature of your business, will change on a year to year basis and that it is important to re-evaluate your goals and processes periodically. Being flexible in your approach also has value. If you are training to increase your bench press, you may be hitting the bench press every day. However, tweaking the number of reps, the number of sets or your grip might help you see bigger gains. The same analogy applies to business. Minor tweaks in your approach help you stay flexible and can lead to better gains for your business.

Fourth, determine if your past strategies have been successful or are even applicable to the changing needs of the business. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. If over a reasonable period of time your strategies are not producing results and not helping you achieve your goals then it is time to determine a different approach. This is not always as easy at it sounds. It may be wise to discuss your approach further with professionals such as business coaches, CPA’s, business attorneys, or business consultants.