Every business should have a goal. A goal is a plan written out that you work towards daily. A goal can be long-term or short-term. In my experience as a coach, I have found that having shorter goals encourage my clients to be more proactive. That is why I suggest 90-day goals instead of 12-month goals.
For every business, a goal will look different. And while there is nothing theoretically wrong with having 12 months or even a 5-year goal, the objective is to get into action. When we set these goals in the future, it is not an incentive to get to work every day or right away to get it done. There is the illusion of time.
Another way to look at it is…if you set a 12-month goal for your business, then you can break it down into four 90 day goals. Why do I like 90 days?
90 day goals: 90 days is a shorter time
Well, 90 days is just 12 weeks which is 3 months. If I asked you what can be done in 3 months, it is much easy for you to visualize that goal.
90 days is also a better incentive for you to get into action daily and removes the illusion of time. Because 90 days is not that long of a period and we know that money likes speed. The more we are intentionally working towards our goals, the faster we can achieve them.
90 day goals: Make mistakes and fix them
90 days allows you to make mistakes and fix them faster. The purpose of these 90 days is not just for the action, but also for the measurement of your progress, your offers, and your growth. In 90 days you can measure if a strategy is working or if it needs to be adjusted. This gives you enough time to fix or fine-tune whatever you are working on and make it even better.
Build Trust and Build your audience
90 days is the perfect timeline to build know, like, and trust. Your audience has to know you, like you, and trust you before they buy from you. The people who join your group or start to follow your social media or blog or who even join your email list may not buy until 90 days. During the 90 days, once you are consistent with sharing value, and they have grown to know, like and trust you, they will be more comfortable to buy from you.
90 days gives you 4 opportunities in the year to pivot your business as needs arrive. In 90 days you can make some critical decisions that will affect the future growth and sustainability of your business.
Great for measurement
In 90 days, once you bring on staff, you can tell
1. If they are the ideal fit
2. If their efforts are a great ROI.
I choose 90-day goals instead of 12-month goals because it has allowed me to reinvent my business, shift my focus, build trust and build a healthy audience.
It is no secret that our biggest critic is ourselves. Every day we wake up and we say our prayers and then we start our daily routine of self-sabotage. We talk ourselves out of a deal. We talk ourselves out of a approaching a potential business client. We even talk ourselves out of going to the gym to ensure our bodies are in tip top shape. Why do we do this? It is different for everybody.
I didn't realise alomst 5 years ago how much of what I said affected the outcome of my life. I thought I was positive thinking but it turned out I was sabotaging myself everyday because of habits I had picked up along the way.
Entrepreneurship is a journey! It is never just about starting a business and hoping for the best, but requires constant learning and understanding about your niche and business in general. Over my almost 15 years in business, the one constant thing that I never falter from is reading books.