KEEP YOUR BUSINESS GOALS ON TRACK! 🎯 Stephanie Love on SMART Resolutions & Anti-Resolutions 🚀

Summary

Podcast Summary: "KEEP YOUR BUSINESS GOALS ON TRACK! 🎯 Stephanie Love on SMART Resolutions & Anti-Resolutions 🚀"

Episode Overview In this insightful episode of Small Business Quick Wins, host Jay Schwedelson engages in a compelling discussion with Stephanie Love, a content lead at Thrive. The conversation focuses on setting realistic business goals, maintaining momentum with SMART resolutions, and introducing the innovative concept of anti-resolutions. Designed to help small business owners navigate the often turbulent waters of goal-setting, this episode offers actionable strategies to ensure sustained growth and success.

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1. Setting the Stage for Attainable Goals

Jay Schwedelson opens the discussion by addressing a common challenge faced by small business owners: the difficulty of sticking to New Year’s resolutions. He remarks:

"[...] heading into the new year, I got to grow my business. I'm going to grow my business by 75% next year. And now I'm a few weeks in, I'm like, well, how am I going to do that?"
[02:57]

This relatable scenario sets the tone for exploring how to set more manageable and achievable goals.

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2. The SMART Framework for Goal-Setting

Stephanie Love introduces the SMART criteria as a foundational tool for crafting effective business goals. She emphasizes the importance of ensuring that goals are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

She clarifies the acronym, stating:

"Are your goals specific? Are they measurable? Are they attainable? Are they relevant? Relevant, and are they time bound?"
[01:48]

Stephanie explains that leveraging the SMART framework helps businesses create clear and actionable objectives, enhancing the likelihood of success.

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3. Crafting Achievable Goals

Delving deeper, Stephanie critiques overly ambitious goals, such as a 75% business growth target, which may not be feasible for most small businesses. She suggests refining such goals to more attainable benchmarks. For example, adjusting a 75% growth target to a 10% sales increase:

"Rather than 75%, let's increase sales by 10%. So to do that, you want to say, I want to increase sales by 10% within the next 6, 8, 12 months by building a new landing page, by setting up a new welcome email sequence, by following up with customers who haven't booked in so many days."
[02:57] - [04:14]

This approach not only makes the goal more realistic but also outlines specific actions to achieve it.

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4. Maintaining Focus Through Daily Commitment

Jay Schwedelson shares his personal strategy for staying committed to business goals by dedicating focused time each day:

"I carve out 15 minutes at the start of every day of mine I put on my calendar. I block out to focus only on that specific thing until it's accomplished."
[04:14]

He emphasizes the necessity of intentionality in goal achievement, warning against setting goals that remain vague and untracked.

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5. Accountability and Regular Check-Ins

Stephanie highlights the critical role of accountability in maintaining progress toward goals. She advises:

"Setting that time at the beginning of every day or every week or every month, depending on what the goal is, to actually review it, see if you're on track, completing those necessary steps to make sure that you are getting... the results that you're looking for."
[05:12] - [06:40]

Furthermore, Jay underscores the importance of holding team members accountable through regular check-ins:

"The most important thing when you are trying to have goals set for others is... you need to hold them accountable. You need to check in with them weekly, monthly, all the time about that goal."
[06:40] - [07:43]

This ensures that both individual and organizational objectives are consistently monitored and met.

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6. Personal Resolutions and Shared Experiences

The conversation takes a personal turn as both Jay and Stephanie share their own resolutions. Stephanie proudly mentions:

"I made a goal this year to run a marathon and I did that."
[07:43]

In contrast, Jay humorously admits his struggle with dietary resolutions, highlighting that setbacks are common and part of the journey:

"My goal was to stop eating everything that was within arm's reach and that's not going well."
[08:05]

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7. Introducing Anti-Resolutions

Stephanie presents an innovative concept known as "anti-resolutions," which focuses on eliminating unproductive or detrimental behaviors rather than solely adding new habits. She explains:

"Instead of saying all the things you will do, say all the things that you won't be doing. Like I won't be bending over backwards to help annoying customers or mean customers or bad customers."
[08:34] - [09:05]

This approach encourages business owners to proactively remove negative elements that hinder productivity and well-being.

Jay responds positively to the idea, appreciating the shift in focus:

"I like that. I won't not eat a cheeseburger. Perfect."
[09:05]

Though he humorously struggles with the double negative, the sentiment underscores the value of setting boundaries.

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8. Closing Thoughts and Future Insights

As the episode wraps up, both hosts express enthusiasm for future discussions, emphasizing the importance of realistic goal-setting and continuous improvement. Jay concludes with encouragement:

"Can't wait for you to be back on the show."
[09:23]

Stephanie adds a light-hearted note, reinforcing the supportive community for small business owners striving for success.

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Key Takeaways:

1. Adopt the SMART Framework: Ensure that your business goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound to enhance clarity and achievability.

2. Set Realistic Targets: Avoid overly ambitious objectives that may lead to disappointment. Instead, establish incremental goals that allow for steady growth.

3. Daily Commitment: Allocate dedicated time each day to focus on specific tasks that contribute to your goals, fostering consistency and progress.

4. Accountability is Crucial: Regularly monitor and review progress towards goals, holding both yourself and your team accountable to maintain momentum.

5. Embrace Anti-Resolutions: Identify and eliminate negative behaviors or practices that impede business growth, creating a healthier and more productive work environment.

6. Celebrate Personal Successes: Sharing personal achievements and setbacks fosters a relatable and supportive atmosphere, encouraging resilience and perseverance.

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Conclusion

This episode of Small Business Quick Wins serves as a valuable resource for small business owners seeking practical strategies to set and achieve their goals. By implementing the SMART criteria, setting attainable targets, maintaining accountability, and exploring innovative approaches like anti-resolutions, entrepreneurs can navigate the complexities of business growth with confidence and clarity. Jay Schwedelson and Stephanie Love provide relatable insights and actionable advice, empowering listeners to keep their business goals on track and drive remarkable results.

Transcript

[Jay Schwedelson]

Foreign.

[Podcast Host]

Welcome to Small Business Quick Wins, presented by Thrive. This podcast is exclusively designed for small business leaders like you. Prepare to get invaluable insights from every episode, equipped with actionable tips made for immediate implementation in your business. Tune in as we feature firsthand lessons from fellow small business owners and thought leaders. I'm your host, Jay Schwedelson. Over the last 25 years, I've grown multiple small businesses that have generated over $300 million in revenue. Along the way, I've learned pitfalls to avoid and quick wins that can transform your business immediately. I'm excited to share it all, so if you're ready to win on Main street, let's dig into this episode.

[Jay Schwedelson]

We are back for Small Business Quick Wins, presented by Thrive, and I'm excited because we have a fan favorite here today. We have Stephanie Love. Stephanie is one of the content leads over at Thrive, and she always comes on and brings it. And today we're talking about those resolutions that we had for our business. Those New Year's, those big ideas. We were going to do all those things, and here we are, we're just barely into the year and things are already falling apart. So we want to talk about attainable goals that we're going to keep on trucking with. Stephanie, welcome back to Small Business Quick Wins.

[Stephanie Love]

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to kind of kick off the new year with you.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Absolutely. All right, so let's jump right into it. Small business owners out there, they're heading into the new year. They're like, I'm going to do this, that, or whatever, and things are going off the rails. So let's talk about setting up these goals, keeping them attainable. What do you got?

[Stephanie Love]

So we're only a few weeks into the new year, and it's probably a little disconcerting if you're already looking at your goals and you feel like you might be off the rails or you don't know how you're actually going to achieve them. So what we want to make sure business owners who are listening to this podcast are doing is taking a look at those goals that you probably set a couple weeks ago and determining are these actually smart goals? And I'm not just saying smart as in, like, is this a cool thing to do? I'm saying it as the acronym smart. So are your goals specific? Are they measurable? Are they attainable? Are they relevant? Relevant, and are they time bound? You know, can they actually hold you accountable and give you a reliable way to track if you actually are going to succeed at them.

[Jay Schwedelson]

So, okay, I love that. By the way, the smart thing, that's cool. But here I am, I'm a small business owner and I said, heading into the new year, I got to grow my business. I'm going to grow my business by 75% next year. And now I'm a few weeks in, I'm like, well, how am I going to do that? I mean, what should we be doing if we're small business owners with these goals that we kind of threw out there?

[Stephanie Love]

Okay, number one, is it really possible to grow your business by 75%? Is that attainable in most cases? Probably not. Unless you are a brand new business starting out and have had zero customers and any business would be growing your business by 100%. You want to make sure your goals are attainable. And the way to do this is we actually have a template that I like to use when it comes to creating smart goals. So that template is that I want to do X over Y amount of time by taking these specific actions to achieve my desired results. So let's take your I want to grow my business by 75% and let's kind of bring it back. So rather than 75%, let's increase sales by 10%. So to do that, you want to say, I want to increase sales by 10% within the next 6, 8, 12 months by building a new landing page, by setting up a new welcome email sequence, by following up with customers who haven't booked in so many days. These are the actual app, the actual items that will allow you to reach that reasonable 10% goal within your specific amount of time that you have set for yourself.

[Jay Schwedelson]

See, I think that's so valuable because what's sad is when a business owner says, I want to grow by 75% and then they turn around, they've grown by 20% and they're like, I failed, I failed. You didn't fail. You screw your business by 20%. And so having these attainable goals allows you to then, okay, I reached the goal, now what? And I'll tell you what I do in my business. When I. Whenever we put anything out there, okay, we're going to try to do this. It could be a new product launch, it could be a growth, it could be whatever. I carve out 15 minutes at the start of every day of mine I put on my calendar. I block out to focus only on that specific thing until it's accomplished. Because I think you need to be intentional about achieving your goals and not just putting them out there. On. On, you know, into the ether. If not, they're just not going to happen. So what are other ways that we should be thinking about keeping our New Year's resolutions on track that are kind of going off the rails?

[Stephanie Love]

Well, I absolutely love what you just said there is dedicating that amount of time every day to your specific goals, because I think that's one of the ways that goals end up off the rails, is that you set them and then you ignore them. If you're like me on some of my personal goals, you realize December 1st, that that goal I made back in January, I haven't even made any sort of progress on. So by setting that time at the beginning of every day or every week or every month, depending on what the goal is, to actually review it, see if you're on track, completing those necessary steps to make sure that you are getting, you know, the results that you're looking for. So I think that's a really great place to start when it comes to figuring out these goals. Now, I keep wanting to go Back to your, like 75, grow your business by 75% example. When it comes to goals, you can also always create a, you know, that attainable goal and then that reach goal, you know, always pushing yourself a little bit further. So if your goal is to increase sales by 10%, you know, in the first six months of your new process, that's great. But then maybe you have a reach goal of increase sales by 10% and, you know, improving customer retention by 30% building on them. You know, you have the base goal that you're trying to achieve, but then there's extra things that would be a bonus if you also achieved it.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Yeah, I, I totally, I love that. And just don't set yourself up for failure. And then the other thing is, you probably have given goals to maybe employees of yours or people in your company or people in your departments. And the most important thing when you are trying to have goals set for others is, and it's the reason homework exists in school, you need to hold them accountable. You need to check in with them weekly, monthly, all the time about that goal, how are they doing in pursuit of that goal that you've given them, that charge that they're supposed to achieve, that goal that you set. If you just try checking with them in six months, then that's not going to do it. That is setting them up for failure and ultimately your business up for failure for. So holding everybody in your organization accountable for not just the overall goals of the organization and your Business. But, but for each person individually is super, super important. All right, Stephanie, let me ask you a question about personal goals. How are you doing on your resolutions?

[Stephanie Love]

I am actually doing okay. Now granted, I failed at my resolution that I made late last year to watch Rocky 4 or any of the Rocky movies. So I am sorry. I apologize for that. But in terms of my other personal goals, I'm doing okay. I made a goal this year to run a marathon and I did that. So pretty exciting.

[Jay Schwedelson]

What about yourself, first of all, that's wild that you did a marathon. I, I don't even like driving 26 miles. So that is incredible. My, I fail. I'm failing horribly. My goal was to stop eating everything that was in within arms reach and that's not going well. So I got to recalibrate and either move things further away from my arms or just buy a lot of tape and tape my mouth. So those are the two plans I have faith in.

[Stephanie Love]

Now it's interesting that you said that because I will say the other thing that I have started doing and then I think business owners could also do when it comes to resolutions is creating an anti resolution. Instead of saying all the things you will do, say all the things that you won't be doing. Like I won't be bending over backwards to help annoying customers or mean customers or bad customers. You know, finding those things that are, you know, sucking all of the joy out of your life or all of the productivity out of your life and actually saying, I'm not gonna do those.

[Jay Schwedelson]

I like that. I won't not eat a cheeseburger. Perfect. I could do that. I'm all in on that.

[Stephanie Love]

I have faith in you. I don't think that's what you meant though.

[Jay Schwedelson]

So double negatives. That's what we're about right now. Exactly. Well, this is amazing. Stephanie. Can't wait for you to be back on the show. Thanks everyone for being here and checking.

[Podcast Host]

Out small business quick wins presented by Thrive.

[Jay Schwedelson]

See you soon.

[Podcast Host]

Well, that was fun and great news. You got way more where that came from. Subscribe. Make sure you get the latest episode each week for more actionable tips from today's top small business leaders. And hook us up with a five star review if you've got at least one new idea you may consider using. Lastly, if you want to ensure you never miss a message from your customers Again, check out Thrive.comWin to get your free account with Command center today.