153: 3 Reasons to Set New Goals For Your Design Business Every July

Leadership
Written By Michele Williams
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153: 3 Reasons to Set New Goals For Your Design Business Every July

Here we are, midway through the year. And the question becomes, are you on track to meet your goals? I believe that July is a great time to renew your energy and also to renew your goals with a goal setting session. Listen in as we chat about the 3 reasons to set new goals in July.

Topics Mentioned: 

  • New information 

  • Monitoring 

  • Energize your team 

  • Goal setting   

Listen to the Episode

Ok, if you have been listening for a hot minute, you know that I suggested in the May episode (142) to take your design business on vacation. We have been looking at all the best practices in setting and maintaining goals in the podcasts this year that I have brought to you in solo form. Now, here we are in July, and I am telling you to do more goal setting. I am sure if you could you would throw your listening device. But hang with me for a few minutes. Let me explain my reasoning – then feel free to act upon the info as you need to. Even if it means throwing your listening device. 

When we are creating strategic plans and doing our best to manage to them over time, what we really uncover is that the closer we get to the end point we are measuring to – the more we know. With this increasing insight, we also learn that what we may have thought might not be the case. So, with this in mind, I want to free you up to check and reset your goals if necessary. See – I am not just adding to your list of goals, I am giving you permission to change some and even delete some if they no longer serve you, your clients or your teammates. 

How do you get started? 

  1. Review the prior goal setting exercise you did. Regardless of whether you did it in November of the past year or January or March of this year. Pull it out and look at it. Now, go grab your WHY statement, your values, and your strategic plan. Don’t have a strategic plan? Check out episodes 129 and 131. Got them all in front of you?  Great. 

  2. Do a review and consider what you now know that you did not know when these were created. Hopefully, you indicated the decision points for your plan and any assumptions when you wrote it. Are these assumptions still true? Has something shifted? Do you think these are the best goals for now?  What needs to be kept, added to or deleted?  

  3. With this review completed, begin writing out new goals, removing those that no longer apply and adjusting those that you now know more about. Don’t forget to create KPIs (key performance indicators) for each goal. This will allow you and your team to know what you are measuring to. 

     

  4. With the goals reviewed and updated, make a plan to monitor to them. This can be weekly, monthly, quarterly or any rhythm that you feel is adequate to get the results you want. 

 

We have now covered how to set new goals, let’s shift our gear to why. We have already hinted to it in the opening, but we are going to go a little deeper. 

3 reasons to set new goals for the new year in July: 

Reason 1 – We now know what we did not know before.  

New information brings new decisions. Hopefully if you have been monitoring to the goals you set before, you can see the changes that are now coming about with intentionality. Looking for new information as we get closer to an end point allows us to realign the goal or the end point so that we are really getting what we want.  

Consider this example: 

Imagine that we thought we wanted to go to one city in a state to visit because we believe it has this awesome attraction that we absolutely are dying to see. And we are 3 states away at the time and traveling by car. We might not worry so much about the details while we are 3 states away, but perhaps when we are one state away, we will double check our calculations and plans to adjust our itinerary to allow us to arrive in the best time possible to the RIGHT location. And then imagine that as we go back and research, we realize that the city is wrong. There is another city with a very similar name that holds the attraction we are looking for. We have time to change our destination instead of arriving to a location that does not have what we want. 

The same holds true with our goals. We think we want something, but we are 6-12 months away. As we get closer, we begin to dial in a bit more to see what is really achievable and evaluate the necessity of reaching this goal with our overall plan. 

New information – new potential goals. 

 

Reason 2 – We might just want something totally different.  

Yes, your WHY does not change, but your mission or the way you put your why into the world might. Maybe a really great idea has come about or an opportunity that you did not see coming has now presented itself. Why would we hold to other goals when our desires have shifted?  

Give your business room to breathe. We should never let pride or prior goals be the only reason we do not shift gears in business. Hear me when I say this, I am not advocating for just throwing your plan to the wind every 6 months, but I am saying make sure it still aligns with your business. Business progress is not a straight line from point A to point B. It is a messy up and down, backtracking and sometimes double time movement forward to get from one point to the other. This is part of the journey. Take time to enjoy it and to explore all that could be. 

 

Reason 3 – It re-energizes the team. 

January to December seems so long away from each other. And when we set goals at the beginning of the year, and then never look at them until December they can almost become meaningless to the team. By doing quarterly check-ins and opening up our goal setting in July for any necessary revisions, we are indicating to our team that we are serious about creating a roadmap for our success. Not just going along by the seat of our pants. And then we are measuring and working to maintain the roadmap. We are keeping it up to date. 

This intentionality gets our teams excited. They want to move forward, ask questions, get behind the plans because they know they are being monitored. This involvement allows each team member to contribute. Those that might have joined the team since the last goal setting exercise 6 months ago, now get to ask questions and assist in creating a company pathway going forward.   

This review can be done in a normal team meeting but allow more time. It might be a good idea to consider going offsite and wrapping this around a celebration or team building lunch or dinner. Don’t forget to wrap in some fun like we covered in episode 149. Make this a time of excitement, not drudgery. 

Being intentional about the work of the firm is instrumental in continued success. Give it a try. Do some team building by re-evaluating and even creating new goals for your year. Don’t worry, you still have six months to complete them. 

Check out the 7-figure case study on my website scarletthreadconsulting.com to see what can happen when goals are set, monitored and embraced. The profits can be amazing. And we all know that this doesn’t happen by accident. 

Key Thoughts:

  • When we are creating strategic plans and doing our best to manage to them over time, what we really uncover is that the closer we get to the end point we are measuring to – the more we know. Michele (1:38) 

 

  • Review the prior goal setting exercise you did. Regardless of whether you did it in November of the past year or January or March of this year. Pull it out and look at it. Michele (2:35) 

  

  • New information brings new decisions. Hopefully if you have been monitoring to the goals you set before, you can see the changes that are now coming about with intentionality. Michele (4:29) 

 

  • When we set goals at the beginning of the year, and then never look at them until December they can almost become meaningless to the team. By doing quarterly check-ins and opening up our goal setting in July for any necessary revisions, we are indicating to our team that we are serious about creating a roadmap for our success. Michele (7:56)  

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References and Resources:

Michele Williams
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