“If You Aim For Nothing, You’ll Hit It Every Time!” The Importance of Goal Setting

Kristina Stubblefield  00:00

Thank you for tuning in to wit pro business solutions. I'm your host, Kristina Stubblefield. Goals, I feel like they are really important for all business owners. I don't think people take the time to really set goals. And what I mean by that is the whole process of what do I want to achieve this year, this quarter this month, however you break it down. And I think now's a really good time to discuss this. In so many times I meet with people, and I say, what are your goals? What do you want to accomplish? And they look at me perplexed, as if they're saying, like, you think I've had a minute to even think about what I want in my business. That's a problem. We used to never set goals for ourselves, we just did what we did for the services we did. And that was that. But what are we working towards? We all love to help people, those that are in the wedding industry. And like I've said many times before, it's different than any other industry. And absolutely the services you offer, provide a solution to someone out there to many people out there. But when we really just take a minute, and think, What do you want to accomplish next year in your business? Now, when we talk about goals, I do feel like it's something that should really be written down on paper. And for anyone that's listening, that knows me, they might chuckle just a little bit. Because when I work with people in regards to business solutions, from a standpoint of growth, refining their business, maybe they want to work less, but still make the same amount of money, whatever it is, we whiteboard, a lot of things. And over the years, I've gotten to do a lot of goal setting with people and just really talking through that. And it has surprised me. And I say this, and I pause for a moment. On one hand, it has surprised me about the number of people that don't think goals are important. The other side of it that surprises me, on the other hand, is we don't take time to even think about what do we want out of our business, you work your butts off. What is it that you want to achieve? It doesn't have to be some astronomical number, whether it be $1 amount or number of events. But when you write them down, and you have them in your office, or I've even known people to have them actually taped to their monitors, or clipped up on a board next to them, where they see it every day. Here's my thoughts on goals, goals can really help provide a direction, I do think that it can help hold you more accountable, to be more focused. And also, I believe that it really can be a motivator for people in business. And for some out there, you may think well, every years, my goals, my number of events or the money I bring in, or set out to make revenue wise needs to go up. And here's what I'm going to say to that. I'm working with quite a few people that it has been a while since they've increased their prices, everything else is increased it cost them more to do business, even the same services they've been doing in the past, it cost them quite a bit more to do that. And we're gonna get into a couple different things about this. That's why I feel like this is something that you don't just necessarily set once a year. That's a great starting point. But life can happen, things change. And sometimes you have to reevaluate what those goals are. But what I want you all to really think about is you deserve to take the time, whether it's a little amount of time, or a lot of time to get out a piece of paper and really think to yourself, why why do I do this from a standpoint of what do I want to achieve? Is that a certain number of events? Is that a certain dollar amount? And I've done some poster recently, at the time of this recording about this, and I've had people reach out to me You just say, never thought of it this way. And here's what it comes down to. If you want to make a certain dollar amount, and this is normal and talk about revenue, if you want to maybe it's $50,000 $100,000 $500,000, whatever that number is, okay, that's what you want to bring in for your business. Then what do you charge per event? Okay. When you take the amount you want to bring in with revenue, and you divide it by what you charge per event, that's going to end up giving you the number of events, you need to book for said year to reach that goal. And there are several other things that go along with this. Again, I'm back to saying it doesn't have to go off of $1 amount. I've done this in reverse with people that look in the past, I've done 15 events a year, I really want to get that down to 10. So when you set these goals ahead of time, you allow yourself the time to plan to be strategic, to come up with actionable steps to help you reach those goals. And I pause your you know, because we've not always been the best, I've not always been the best that this life happens. Things happen, you get different projects going on. And you're just getting through every day, what you need to get through. We are all there we've been there. Some of us are there more than we'd like to be. But I've also found that by setting goals, you can really identify ways to help you get there. And what I mean by that is when you start putting it down on paper, that makes it ooh, Whoa, did I really just write that down, I want to do 25 events next year. I'm only normally done 15. But I'm I want to do 25. Because it can happen either way. So many times people get their mind wrapped around every year, I've got to do more, I've got to do more, more events, more money. And there comes a point in time. And with what we've been through the last couple of years, I think that point of time has come around for a lot of people that things shift in life. And we want more downtime. You know, you may have been somebody that did it, we did events every weekend. And now maybe you want to have a weekend or two off a month. Setting the time aside, to really think through what you want to achieve in your business. And I'm talking about numbers, number of events, revenue amounts, there could be other things that are on that piece of paper for goals for you to achieve to strive towards. With that being said, I will tell you a lot of times people turn to the smart method. If you're not familiar with that I'm going to share with you just a little bit about it. So the smart method, the S stands for Specific to be specific. The M stands for measurable. You want there to be ways to measure how you're getting there. obtainable. Now, we can all sit there and say I want to make a million dollars. I want to have a million dollars in revenue. I want to hit six figures, seven figures I whatever that number is. Is it obtainable? Now, you've probably heard me say things before about you know that hairy scary, like if nothing stood in your way. But when you're talking about setting business goals for yourself. You want to set goals that are obtainable. The R stands for realistic, be realistic with your expectations. Don't Don't set yourself up to fail before you're even out of the gate. And then t time sensitive make sure it has a time on it. Is that a year? A quarter a month? What is that?

Kristina Stubblefield  09:44

And I've already said this, but I'm gonna say it again. Write it down. Have it somewhere, not in a closet, not somewhere in a filing cabinet that you're not going to see it not on a digital file on your Google Drive or Google Keep or Dropbox that you're going to pull that up next year. And maybe think about it again, have, write it down on a post it note a piece of paper, you can get crafty, if you want to come, I have a whole board about your goals. It can be as simple or as detailed as you want it to be. And this is something that I want to work on for myself. Because I'm just like you multiple things going on. Things happening from day to day, you're putting some fires out, it seems like Oh, and by the way, you know, it's the holiday season, or it's coming up on the end of the year, the New Year, whichever it is more all in that same boat. I understand it can get monotonous just event after event after event. But you really owe it to yourself to take the time you hear people say a lot of times, you don't want to just work in your business, you want to work on your business well. You want something to strive towards. You want something to motivate you to help you stay focused. And that's what I feel like goals. Personally, that is helped me and my team in the past. And I believe it can help you as well. I hope that you're able to take some parts or all of this and be able to find some nuggets that you can utilize for your business. If you've not already joined my free Facebook group, I encourage you to do so you can get additional tips, strategies and information throughout the week from me as well as connect with other wedding professionals. So until next time, take time out to set your goals and work on your business. Until next time. See ya