6 Things to Do When Your Business Misses Its Goals

Setting goals for your small business can be exciting, the thought of achieving your business aspirations and doing well is something each small business owner hopes for. Although the desire is to achieve all business goals, sometimes things are outside of our control (looking at you, Coronavirus), and goals may not be met like intended. Here are six things to do when you miss your business goals to be better equipped when planning your business future.

1. Re-evaluate Your Previous Goals

One way of mapping out your goals starts with reviewing previous accomplishments and misses to assess what worked, and what didn’t. Take the time to evaluate how large your goals were and see if there are any trends. Use your past as a reference for how you should map out the future to better prepare your business to succeed. 

2. Identify Where Things Went Wrong

Hindsight is 20/20. It’s easy to see later where you may have veered off course. Look at goals you may not have reached and assess why that is. Are you close to a goal but came under time constraints? Were you missing a helpful resource? Did you create a step-by-step plan? These are just a few of the places where a project may not have been able to stay afloat. A helpful tip could be conducting an internal audit on your business strategy. This will have you asking the deeper questions that can help you find where you may have an opportunity for growth. 

3. Focus on Your Accomplishments

The past is in the past. There’s no need to dwell on what could have been. What’s most important is to pick yourself back up and start again. It’s also okay to acknowledge that you may not have met certain goals but give yourself time to appreciate what you have accomplished.

4. Set New, Realistic Goals

When setting goals, it’s important that they’re realistic and measurable. You can start off by listing your large goals, but it’s important to break them down into steps. Ask yourself questions like, what steps do I need to take to get there? How long will this take? What other things do I need to do for the larger goal to be met?

5. Stay Flexible

Things change, and that’s okay! What’s important is adjusting to these changes to work towards your goal. Resisting change can create further challenges for yourself, but if you adapt you may create more opportunities. For example, many businesses pivoted to online selling during the 2020 pandemic to maintain sales, which in many cases led to an increase in business and thus generated larger business goals. 

6. Consider Seeking Support

One person can only do so much. Consider reaching out to a freelancer or hiring on a second pair of hands to help you improve productivity in growing your business.

We’re Here to Help

Running a business can be a lot for one person to handle. A local Farm Bureau agent can help you get the coverage you need for your business, whether you operate out of a commercial space or from your home office.