My System for Goal Setting

How I use the 90 Day Year to Set my Business Goals

In today’s episode, I’m sharing how I use the 90 Day Year to identify which goals are worth chasing and when it’s the right time to start working towards those goals.

We know that accomplishing goals requires a plan, but what we often forget is that we also need a system or process for setting goals in the first place. How do you know which goals are worth chasing? Or which will make the best impact on your business? How can you decipher if THIS is a goal you REALLY want to achieve?

So, if you’re like me and have lots of ideas, but sometimes feel overwhelmed by possibility and want to avoid overwork and burnout, this episode is for you.

I couldn’t be recording this episode without Todd Herman and the 90 Day Year. When I began the 90 Day Year program back in 2017, I was working 50-60 hour weeks, and no matter how much I increased my sales and gross income, my profit margins and take home pay didn’t budge. I was trading time for dollars and was spending far too much time spinning my wheels. Using the 90 Day Year method, I was able to hone in on my most profitable activities and identify the areas of my business that were working. Within 6 months, I had increased my profits and decreased my hours worked.

Todd will be offering a free training series in just a couple weeks, so if you’re feeling how I felt back in 2017, I encourage you to participate. Click here to learn more about my experience in the program and to gain access to his free training.

Generating ideas isn’t a problem.

When you’re in the shower, walking the dog, or driving a car, new ideas for your life and business are constantly rolling around in your head. You plan out new products, services, projects, sales funnels, events, trips…in a matter of minutes.

But can you execute on all of these plans? Or more importantly, are all those goals WORTH executing? And if they are, is NOW the right time to do it?

To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, here are some of the goals I have for my life in business:

• Have a 5-figure launch week
• Book a 5-figure speaking gig
• Write another book
• Host a client retreat
• Host an entrepreneur retreat
• Build out a 6-month welcome sequence for Branding Outside the Box
• Build out a new system for tracking media outreach using Airtable
• Complete another Ironman
• Get back to stand-up comedy
• Go to South Africa
• Become fluent in Hebrew

Honestly, I could go on! Coming up with goals isn’t the problem. It’s even easy to create the necessary plans to achieving those goals. I know exactly which steps to take in order to complete another Ironman. I can write the newsletters and create the system for a 6-month welcome sequence.

The difficult part is determining which goals are worth pursuing at all, and from there, which goals are worth pursuing now.

As a mom of a young kiddo and the owner of a growing business, it’s not the right time to go to stand-up open mics or take 8-hour bike rides. But booking a 5-figure speaking gig could make an extremely positive impact on my life and business, especially if it replaces the 10-12 smaller speaking gigs I usually do.

Here is my process for determining which goals are worth pursuing now, which should be bumped to later, and which just simply aren’t worth pursuing at all.

As I mentioned earlier in the show, I learned this process from Todd Herman of the 90 Day Year, so if you’re interested in learning more about this program, head on over to BrandingOutsideTheBox.com/90DayYear.

Determine Your Current Stage of Business

If you haven’t yet launched your business or are just starting out, your goals are going to be very different than an established business owner looking to scale or even sell. Consider how long you’ve been in business, your gross income, your net profit, and your current growth trajectory. If you aren’t yet earning a living wage, then your goals should all center around ways to reach new clients and customers, and to increase your revenue. If you have a consistent revenue streams, but are still working 60-hour weeks, then your goals should center around building out systems, improving operations, and possibly hiring a team. By first identifying which stage of business you’re in, whether it’s the start-up phase or your ready to scale, you can better identify which goals you should focus on.

Identify Focus Areas

Different stages of business require different areas of focus. When you’re first starting out, you’re focused on building out your products and services, and creating a system for delivering those offerings to your clients and customers. When you have an established business, it’s important to create systems and identify areas that can work more efficiently. When you’re scaling your business, you may be hiring team members or expanding your distribution channels.

Looking at your current stage of business, where do you need to be focusing your time? Do you have all the clients and customers you need, but are struggling to keep up with the work? Or are you still not hitting your income goals and need new leads to increase sales? Determine what your business needs right now and focus all your energy there.

Set Goals that Address These Focus Areas

Once you’ve established these key focus areas, you can create goals that address them. If you simply need more clients and customers, then your goals should center around growing your email list, nurturing referral streams, or creating ways to up-sell your current clients. If you’re in the “middle” stage of business where you’re earning a solid income, but you feel like every time you increase your revenue you also increase your hours, then all your goals should focus around operations. What are tasks that you can automate or systematize? Are there templates you can create so you’re not starting from scratch every time? Are you doing something manually that a software can do automatically?

By setting goals that speak to your current stage of business, you will be able to accomplish more, in less time, and with less overwhelm.

This week, I challenge you to…

• Create a list of all the goals you want to accomplish. This can be stream of consciousness, no editing!
• On a separate page, journal about your current stage of business. You can refer to your bookkeeping or other metrics you use to track your progress.
• Write down the area of your business you most need to focus on. These areas can include marketing/sales, distribution channels, operations and systems, or leadership and team-building.
• Go back to your goal list and circle all the goals that speak to this area of your business. These are the goals you should focus on for the next 90 days. If none of your goals speak to this area of your business, brainstorm some that do!

As I mentioned earlier, this is a bird’s eye view of how I set my goals using the 90 Day Year. But if you want a deeper dive and want to see the workbooks and systems I use for drilling down on my goal setting, plans, and 2-week sprints, I invite you to visit this page. There, you’ll learn more about my experience in the program, gain access to Todd’s free video training, and claim some fantastic bonuses if you choose to sign up.