5 Small Business Goals You Can Still Achieve in 2020

When you think of goal setting, you probably think of the New Year. It’s the quintessential time to steel our resolve, set our small business goals, and try our hardest… until March, at least. Soon enough, the whirlwind of actually running our businesses takes full presence, pushing goal setting and lofty dreams to the side. 

Instead of forcing all of that pressure onto your business, why not set small business goals today that you can still achieve in the last half of the year? You’ll likely be much more realistic with what you can accomplish (especially when you take into account sales and profits from January-May). 

Not sure where to start? We rounded up five totally attainable goals for you to knock out by December. If you finish one early, try out another! Soon, you’ll be a goal-setting machine:

Build Your Online Presence

In this modern era, just about every business has some form of online presence, but many are not well-maintained or used to their full potential. Even if you have the best website in the industry, you’re going to struggle to pull in an audience if you’re not using social media platforms. On the flip side, a strong social media presence won’t do much for a website that’s impossible to use. 

There’s still time to ramp up how many eyes are seeing you on the web. Start with a blog that details interesting parts of your work or answers questions that your customers might have about your product. Then, share it on social to drive traffic back to the site. 

Conduct a SWOT Analysis

There’s nothing quite like taking a good, refreshing look at your business! A SWOT analysis not only helps you understand what your strengths and weaknesses are, but can also create actionable goals with clear steps to get there. 

For example, if when evaluating your weaknesses, you notice that one of them is an issue of reputation in the community, there’s a built-in goal already: increase your positive market presence and take steps to ensure that your customers are satisfied. 

Whether it’s increasing training for your employees or finding new vendors with more affordable prices, a genuinely impartial SWOT analysis can make a huge difference in the success of your small business. 

Attend a Networking Event

This one is easy and fun. Once we’ve sufficiently recovered from Covid-19 and events are back in full swing, take a weekend away to reconnect with other business owners at a conference or casual meetup. Why?

The more people that you know, the more people that you know. Networking events give you the opportunity to build connections who aren’t even there, and you become part of an extended web of emerging industry leaders. Not only are they an incredibly practical resource, but there’s also an opportunity to build genuine connections with people who are experiencing the same trials and tribulations that you are. They may have already solved problems that you are trying to overcome or found innovative ways to do things that you haven’t considered. When you put your heads together, you can tackle issues much faster and with more success. 

Work with a Business Coach

Just like your employees need training to learn a new skill, business owners need to keep themselves in touch with best practices, performance goals, and asset optimization. Often when we’re too close to something, we look at it through rose-tinted glasses, which can prove problematic when it’s time to make improvements. Working with a business coach is the ideal way to truly understand the ins-and-outs of your business, as they can provide an unbiased, third-party perspective.

They can also help you increase the value of your business by breaking down your financial history and future goals to see if they coincide with one another. If they don’t, your business coach can provide strategies to either set more realistic goals or to adjust your budgets, expenditure, and profit margins to help you hit your targets. 

Give Yourself a Break

Taking a step away from your business can feel pretty impossible, especially if you’ve made your presence an absolute necessity. That being said, everyone needs to step away and breathe now and then. If you’re worried about what’s going to happen while you’re gone, take the time to collaborate with your team to come up with a manual of “what-ifs” that you leave behind and strict instructions not to call you unless it’s an emergency worth calling 911 over. Better yet, work with your team to delegate tasks, train specialty employees, and build trust, so that you know for a fact that every base is covered and you can take some time to yourself without stressing. 

Mid-year goal setting is a great way to keep you on top of your game. In January, when everything feels new and fresh, we tend to put a lot of expectations on ourselves. We tell ourselves we have a whole year, then watch as our resolutions slowly take a backseat to more urgent issues. Start with some easy, attainable goals now, and you’ll be able to build off of them come 2021.