How to simplify your business goals & reduce overwhelm in 2021
You might find yourself in a place where you feel as though you need to pivot your business or simplify your business goals. With all of the changes that our world and economy have faced in 2020, this is truly the perfect time to simplify the goals that you have for your business.
A few reasons why it can be beneficial to simplify your business goals is to first and foremost focus on the profitability of your business. If anything, I think 2020 has demonstrated how important it is to ensure that your business is truly profitable so that you are able to save and prepare for a potential economic downturn. Outside of this, simplifying your business goals can actually free up some of your time - let’s face it, whether you are a full-time entrepreneur or side hustling, we could ALL use a little more time back in our day, am I right? You could then spend that extra time relaxing, enjoying life, and even spending time with family.
Based on this, I truly believe that simplifying your business goals can help you to focus on what is truly important, ultimately reducing overwhelm. Now, let’s explore how you can simplify those business goals!
Identifying Profitable Business Tasks
The first method that I suggest for those who want to simplify their business goals is to identify which business maneuvers lead to profitability. Oftentimes as business owners, we fill our schedules with lists of things to do, hoping that at one point these actions will lead to increased revenue. We end up spending so much extra time on tasks that don’t really move the needle for us when it comes to profitability!
For this reason, I strongly recommend that you audit how you are spending your time each and every hour for an entire week. Be honest with yourself. Once you’ve done this, go through and identify which tasks are absolutely critical for keeping your business running from a profitability standpoint. Also, be critical with how you spend your time and identify the tasks that do not directly lead to an increase in revenue.
Once you’ve done this, eliminate some of these less critical tasks. This could free up some of your time to focus on activities that will help to make your business more profitable.
Break your goals down into smaller tasks
Once you’ve identified the actions that make more money for your business, it is time to break down some of your larger goals into smaller actions and mini-goals. I like to do this exercise because it almost always helps me to feel less overwhelmed!
What you would do is take a look at your larger goal and then write down everything that must take place to make that goal happen. For example, if my goal is to increase revenue by 10% at the end of two months, I would write down everything that I need to do to make that happen. This could include reaching out to more people or holding an extra promotion or sale.
Once you have these tasks broken down, begin scheduling deadlines/due dates for yourself so that you can complete these on time and are able to meet your goal.
Don’t focus on too many goals at once
This next piece of advice is something that I’ve had to learn the hard way over the years. I usually have a lot of ideas and am always starting new projects. What I realized, however, is that I am overloading my schedule with too many things at once. If I have five different goals that I’m focusing on, I can only give a small slice of my time to each of those things. This will make it more difficult to meet my goals in each of those areas. A better idea would be to focus on two different things because I can dedicate much more time to those two areas than if I’m spreading myself too thin with five different goals.
As you can see, spreading yourself too thin can absolutely create more stress and overwhelm. Remember, every goal has a time and a place. Just because you aren’t focusing on a particular goal right now doesn’t mean you can’t tackle that goal six months from now. Give yourself the space to be successful with one or two goals before tackling the other three.
Are your goals realistic?
Next, I think it is important to understand whether your goals are realistic. I’m all about stretch goals and think that we should shoot for the stars. I also think that good things take time, so be realistic with how you are spacing out your goals. For example, increasing revenue for your business by 50% within two months might not be realistic. Try a year and be methodical in your process. This way you are being realistic and will not burn yourself out.
What type of mindset would help you to reach these goals?
Outside of the specific actions that come with simplifying your goals, I think it is really important to focus on your mindset. Being an entrepreneur is exciting, but it can also be really stressful and come with all sorts of pressure. It is important that you are taking care of yourself and your mindset. Consider meditation, adopt a growth mindset, and surround yourself with a support system so that you have people to talk to (especially when things get hard). You deserve it.
How will you simplify your goals for 2021?
After reading this article, I hope that you can agree that simplifying your goals can be a way to increase productivity and reduce overwhelm. There are so many ways as to why simplifying your goals can be helpful, and after all of the changes brought by 2020, I think that this can be a very helpful exercise to help entrepreneurs figure out what is essential to run their businesses. I hope that this article was helpful - please feel free to comment below with your favorite strategy and how you will be simplifying your business goals this year!
Guest post by Morgan
Morgan is a video production business owner and content creator within the digital marketing niche! When she is not producing videos for clients, she focuses on her blog, morgankg.com, and social media outlets to teach the most effective methods in digital marketing.
