4 Tips for Setting Goals (and Pushing Yourself to Reach Them!)

Whether you’re investing in a lawn treatment franchise or pursuing another venture, here’s an expert-approved breakdown of how to set goals, and keep yourself motivated to achieve them on the toughest days.

Whether you are just getting ready to invest in a lawn treatment franchise or you have been in business for 10 years, it is always important to set goals. Remember, as a business owner you can’t wing it and hope that your business succeeds and grows. You need to have a plan of action, and setting goals is essential to that plan.

Here are four tips for setting goals and how to work hard to reach them.

Get SMART

Experts have come up with the acronym “SMART” to help business owners set goals that challenge them and help them grow. Make sure each of the following applies to your goals:

SPECIFIC — Goals that are too vague or try for too much aren’t going to get you anywhere. Try to keep your goals as specific as possible. A non-specific goal like, “Contract with enough customers to hire more employees” is difficult to accomplish because you don’t know exactly what you are striving toward.

MEASURABLE — If you can’t measure your goals how will you know whether you have accomplished them? For example, “Be more active on social media” is hard to measure. Instead, try to spend two hours a week answering Facebook questions and responding to comments.

ATTAINABLE — There is certainly nothing wrong with challenging yourself to improve, but it is important not to get carried away. If it is your first year owning a lawn treatment franchise, it is probably unattainable to shoot for $1 million in revenue. Instead, choose a realistic goal that pushes you to work hard without burning yourself out.

RELEVANT — It does not do your business any good if the goals you set are irrelevant to where you are. Your goals will be dependent on how long you have been in business, the size of your company, the economic climate, and so many more factors. Make sure that your goals are cohesive and work together to further your company as a whole.

TIME BOUND — Set both short- and long-term goals with predetermined end dates on them. That will help you measure your goals along the way and adjust your work accordingly.

Assign an Action

Imagine your goal is to add a certain number of new clients each month for a year. That is a measurable goal that you can set based on your existing revenue and client base, so tracking your progress is simple. The key to achieving this goal — and any goal — is to assign an action to it each day or each week. Essentially, that breaks up your big, year-long goal into smaller goals that you work on regularly.

In this example, you can devote an hour a day to prospecting for new business. Or you can call and schedule meetings with a certain number of potential clients each week. Regularly setting aside time to work toward your goals is the only way to accomplish something major with your lawn treatment franchise.

Don’t Be Afraid to Reevaluate

At the start of a new year everything is exciting, the world seems new and fresh. Most of us make personal and career goals at the beginning of the new year when anything seems possible. As the year goes on, however, sometimes things change. Maybe the goal you thought was realistic turned out to be unattainable. Maybe you overestimated your motivation or underestimated the amount of time a task would take. Maybe life and work just got in the way.

When that happens, it is easy to get discouraged, but keep your head up and keep working hard. There is no shame in reevaluating your goals and adjusting them to better reflect where your business is. As long as you are still challenging yourself to work toward goals that will strengthen your business, you are on the right track.

Team Up for Help

Working with a mentor can be an immeasurable help to you as a business owner. Even better than one mentor? A whole network of experts in your field who have been in your exact position before. Working with a franchise gets you a built-in network of franchise owners, home office employees, and resources that can help you set SMART goals.

U.S. Lawns is a lawn treatment franchise that is eternally focused on helping our franchisees succeed. Our Roadmap for Success is a proprietary tool that lays out the steps for your business, so you know exactly when to grow and how to do it. Read about how we train and support our franchisees to help them build successful businesses.

Interested in learning more about franchising with U.S. Lawns? Contact us today to speak with a representative and begin your franchising journey.