Small business owner reviewing his business goals on his laptop.

Ground business goals in reality

In order to make your business goals a reality, get your hands dirty with the details. Plan your work and work your plan.

How many times have you gone through a tough experience and thought, "had I known…" Well, you won't be a fortune teller, but you'll be the next best thing: Prepared. Planning the small details now will help make the path to your goals much smoother. It's tempting to want to rush to your end goal. We get it, it's totally exciting. But staying grounded in the reality of your goal is key.

Do what works for you, whether it's a daily achievement list or a team calendar to increase productivity. Layout the milestones you need to reach, create a vision board and anticipate any bumps there may be along the way. Figure out how to prepare for the unexpected.

Need some inspiration? We have ideas below.

Types of goals

Here are some examples of goals and how to achieve them:

Goal: Hire three new employees

Create a job description - You can either start from scratch, or perhaps browsing websites in a similar industry will provide ideas for the postings.

Find candidates - This could be as easy as posting an entry on a job board or asking your friends for referrals.

Conduct interviews - Meet at a co-working space or you can talk to the candidate over a business app such as Zoom or Skype.

Success! You've hired the employees!

Goal: Build a social media presence

Create business accounts - There are two ways to approach this: focus on one platform to start or try out many platforms before narrowing in on a couple.

Create a campaign - Use only native content or try buying ads to boost your reach.

Analyze performance to boost engagement - Create reports manually to save cost or use a platform like Hubspot to streamline analytics.

Success! Your social media presence is built.

Educate yourself on every possible hurdle you could encounter in your field. Look at your entrepreneur map every day and think "am I trying to cut corners or am I laying out every detail I need to succeed"?

Remember this: Plan your work, work your plan and especially remember this, there's no shame in reaching out for insights from those who've been where you are.

The information in this article was obtained from various sources not associated with State Farm® (including State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company and its subsidiaries and affiliates). While we believe it to be reliable and accurate, we do not warrant the accuracy or reliability of the information. State Farm is not responsible for, and does not endorse or approve, either implicitly or explicitly, the content of any third party sites that might be hyperlinked from this page. The information is not intended to replace manuals, instructions or information provided by a manufacturer or the advice of a qualified professional, or to affect coverage under any applicable insurance policy. These suggestions are not a complete list of every loss control measure. State Farm makes no guarantees of results from use of this information.

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