How do you create a SMART business goal? What are some good SMART goals examples for business?
Goals aren’t just for personal development or setting your relationship up for success, setting clearly defined goals can also help your business flourish. As a business owner, SMART goals will help keep your business not only on track but also growing into the enterprise you’ve always dreamed it could be.
If you’re left asking yourself, “Why are SMART goals important?” you’re in the right place. Setting business goals is important because:
- They give you a target to strive for.
- They keep your business on track.
- They are a way to measure success.
- They ensure everyone at the company is on the same page.
To make sure that the goals you set will do what’s mentioned above and more, you need to make your goals SMART.
SMART is a handy acronym commonly used for goal setting. This acronym guarantees the goals you set are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. By using the SMART goal framework, you’ll be more likely to see the goal through and achieve it by the time you defined it.
No more forgotten goals, unspecified lofty dreams, or ideas that left your team more confused than ever, it’s time you start seeing your business goals as something that delivers you success.
Now that we’re on the same page as to why business goals are important and how we can make them SMART, let’s dive into our 11 SMART business goals examples. Each of these examples are actually templates that are customizable for you and your needs. Simply input the underlined specifics to make them work suited for your business.
#1. Create a Marketing Plan for (social media platform) That’s Ready to Launch in (specific time), with (quantity) Posts Ready to Publish
Marketing plans are an important part of keeping your business relevant and in front of your target audience. While most businesses have basic marketing goals, you want to ensure yours are SMART.
You should choose the social media platform where your target audience spends the most time and follow a strategy tailored to that platform. Your marketing manager should be able to guide you with these decisions.
By filling in the blanks for your business, you’ll be able to adjust this goal to what works for you. Your goal might look like this:
- Create a marketing plan for TikTok that’s ready to launch in 1 month, with 15 videos ready to publish.
- Create a marketing plan for Instagram that’s ready to launch in 2 weeks, with 10 posts and 30 stories ready to publish.
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#2. Create, Launch, and Place (quantity) Ads on (platform) for a New Lead Magnet in (time frame)
Lead magnets are something your business gives away for free to attract new users or clients to your business. Many times these are free downloadables, discount codes, or a free consultation. Typically, in exchange for the freebie, you ask for this person’s email and are able to add them into your email marketing strategy to ideally convert them into paying clients or customers.
While it’s entirely possible to get your lead magnet in front of your target audience organically, ads certainly speed up the process. Make the goal customizable for you and your audience by choosing the ideal platform to run the ads.
When you fill in the blanks for this goal, your goal might look like this:
- Create, launch, and place 3 ads on Facebook for a new lead magnet in 2 weeks.
- Create, launch, and place 2 ads on Google for a new lead magnet in 1 month.
#3. Enroll Each Team Member in an Online Course, Geared to their Role in the Company, by (time frame)
As a business owner, a key aspect of success is keeping you and your employees up to date with the freshest strategies, platforms, and tools. With an online course for everything these days, there are plenty of options to ensure you and your employees stay relevant in your industry.
To save you time, allow your employees to suggest a few courses that they feel are valuable to their role in the company. These courses shouldn’t teach them the basics of their job but instead should teach them a skill that will level up what they already know.
For this goal to work well for you and your team, you simply need to define the start time:
- Enroll each team member in an online course, geared to their role in the company, by the start of Q2.
- Enroll each team member in an online course, geared to their role in the company, by July 15.
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#4. Increase Website Traffic by (percentage) Month Over Month by Hiring an SEO Specialist
For most businesses, an increase in website traffic translates into an increase in sales or clients. The issue can be having the bandwidth and skills to make that growth happen. By hiring an SEO specialist, you’ll be able to hand over the reins to someone who truly knows the industry, without taking away any of your precious time.
The only aspect of this goal that you need to fit to make work for you is the percentage of growth you’d like to see. In many cases, this percentage will be based on how well your site is already optimized. An SEO specialist can help you decide on this number based on realistic expectations.
Your goal could look like this:
- Increase website traffic by 10% month over month by hiring an SEO specialist.
- Increase website traffic by 4% month over month by hiring an SEO specialist.
#5. By the (time frame), We Will Add (quantity) New Clients on a Monthly Retainer of (a dollar amount)
If you run a client-based business, this is an obvious one all business owners need to add to their list. While it can be easy to simply have the ever-running goal of “I want more clients,” making this goal SMART by adding in specific goal parameters will not only help push you to achieve the goal within a certain period of time, but it’ll also allow you to celebrate when you’ve accomplished the goal.
The general mentality of “more” means that you’ll never actually feel as though you’ve achieved your goal in business. Even if you add 100 clients to your client list, you won’t feel satisfied. Whereas by making the goal specific and measurable, you’ll know exactly when that goal has been achieved.
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SMART goals examples for business might look like this:
- By the end of Q4, we will add 4 new clients on a monthly retainer of $2,500.
- By the start of Q2, we will add 2 new clients on a monthly retainer of $7,000.
#6. Increase Revenue by (percentage) Year Over Year by Launching (quantity) Products (time frame)
Depending on your type of business, how you should best go about increasing revenue might not be client-based, like the goal above. If you’re a product-based business, the clearest path to increased revenue will be by launching new products or re-launching fan favorites.
The launches might happen per year, per quarter, per month, or even per week, based on what types of products you sell.
A few SMART goal examples for a product-based business could be:
- Increase revenue by 15% year over year by launching 1 product per quarter.
- Increase revenue by 3% year over year by launching 2 products per year.
#7. We Will Improve our Customer Review Score on (platform) by Focusing on (plan of action)
Customer reviews can make or break many businesses. Whether you’re selling a product or working with clients, reviews, and testimonials are key aspects of success. Most businesses should focus on their customer review score on Google, as it’s the one most users go to first. Although, I’ve left the platform open for you to fill in since not all business reviews will be relevant on Google.
If you sell online products, you’ll most likely be more interested in improving your customer reviews on Amazon or getting written or video testimonials from happy clients to share on your own website.
Based on your business, you’ll fill in the platform and strategy that will suit you best. For example:
- We will improve our customer review score on Google by focusing on improved customer service and enticing satisfied clients to leave honest reviews.
- We will improve our customer review score on Amazon by emailing reminders to review to all customers who purchased our product within 10 days of delivery.
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#8. (Time frame), I Will Meet with Each Employee for (quantity) Minutes for a 1:1 Chat to Discuss Any Issues, New Project Ideas, and Gauge General Employee Happiness Levels
Ensuring your employees’ happiness at work is a key aspect of a healthy, thriving business but it’s something many bosses tend to overlook. Unless there’s a huge problem or a lack of productivity, it can be easy to assume our employees are content. This is even more relevant now that so many of us work remotely and don’t have face-to-face contact with our employees anymore.
By scheduling well in advance 1:1 time with each employee, you can give each person an equal chance to discuss things that are working well for them and those that aren’t. This not only gives you and your employees to get on the same page, it also can help strengthen bonds and create a sense of comradery at the workplace.
If your team is more than 15 people, you can also delegate this task to managers and have them relay the summaries of these calls.
A SMART goal example for business for this could look like:
- Each quarter, I will meet with each employee for 30 minutes for a 1:1 chat to discuss any issues, new project ideas, and gauge general employee happiness levels.
As you set these SMART goals examples for business, you can encourage your employees to also set SMART goals for work, specifying objectives to be achieved within a certain time frame, like six months.
#9. Increase Business Productivity by Establishing Automated Workflows Through (online tool or platform) by the (time frame)
The perk of businesses moving more online and less in-person means increased opportunities for automation. It can be easy to fall into the habit of manually sending out email reminders or inputting client data but by automating these processes, we can save ourselves extra time that can be used for more lucrative projects.
Optimizing workflows can feel like a daunting task so if you’re unsure how to best tackle this challenge, delegate it to a member of your team. Give them time to learn the new platform and test out different ideas but by making the goal time-bound, you’ll make sure this goal still gets checked off in a timely manner.
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There are a plethora of online tools and platforms that can automate more processes than you can imagine. You or a team member will need to decide which is best for your business.
Once you have your tool or platform selected, your business SMART goal might look like this:
- Increase business productivity by establishing automated workflows through Airtable by the end of Q2.
- Increase business productivity by establishing automated workflows through Pipefy by January 15.
#10. Reduce and Optimize the Number of Tools Used by the Team to (quantity) that Cover a Wider Scope and Reduce Bouncing Back and Forth Between Platforms
To tie our goal examples from above to this SMART goal, automating our workflows shouldn’t mean adding yet another tool to our repertoire. It should also be about reducing the number of online tools or platforms we even need to succeed as a business.
With so many tools and platforms being pushed towards us every day, it can be tempting to give them all a shot, but by forcing you and your team to bounce back and forth between platforms all day, you’re actually killing productivity.
Instead, an important aspect of business development should be optimizing the platforms you do use. By narrowing down and focusing on the ones that can do the most for your business, we can optimize our workflows and productivity levels even more.
Small businesses rejoice- this not only will save you time but, by cutting down on the number of monthly platform subscriptions, it’ll also save you money.
Setting SMART goals examples for business, like this one for your own business might look like this:
- Reduce and optimize the number of tools used by the team to 3 that cover a wider scope and reduce bouncing back and forth between platforms. The three platforms will be Basecamp for client and project management, Airtable for database management and automated workflows, and SurferSEO for content optimization.
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#11. Reduce Burnout by Ensuring All Employees Clock Out at (time) and Don’t Work Over the Weekend
Whether you realize it or not, as the boss, you set the tone for how much or how little your employees work. While you might be thinking, “I don’t want my employees to work a little amount of time,” it’s a common misconception that time equals productivity.
What actually correlates to productivity is your employees feeling supported by you as a boss, knowing the goals they should be striving to achieve, and having healthy boundaries around their work.
By focusing on the goal-setting process, like you’re doing by reading this article, you’re already ensuring you and your employees will have clear, measurable goals to work towards. By taking goal #7 to heart and setting up a time to meet with each employee, you’ll be on the right track towards making sure your employees feel supported and comfortable at work.
The only piece of the puzzle left is to set healthy boundaries between work life and home life. As the boss, you set the tone for this balance. Set up automated daily reminders for employees to clock out by a certain time, make it clear you don’t expect any unpaid overtime, and schedule any emails to be sent on Monday instead of the weekend.
To make this goal work for you and your team, you simply need to insert the time you’d like your employees to clock out by. For most businesses, this is 5 p.m. but it might look different for you.
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Start Setting SMART Goals for Your Business
With these 11 SMART goals examples for business examples, you just need to pick and choose which business goals make the most sense for you and your employees and how you plan to track progress to see what you’re achieving.
Determine the templates that make sense for your business model and edit them to fit the needs of your company.
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Trust me, while it might feel time-consuming, the goal-setting process will get easier and more natural the more you do it. As you start smashing through your goals and watching your business skyrocket, you’ll be thankful you went for it!
After a few rounds with our templates, you’ll be ready to craft your own business goals. Just be sure you’re making them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based.
It’s so important to set business goals and objectives, no matter where you are in your business.
The SMART business goals you set for yourself should challenge you in a healthy way that ensures progress for you, your employees, and your company towards the right direction.
How do you create a SMART business goal? Click here to achieve your business goals and objectives, by first setting these smart goals examples for business. #AchieveYourGoals #Business #Entrepreneur #GoalSetting #SMARTGoal
What SMART goals examples for business will you set?
Last Updated on November 18, 2024
