BSK: Goals
Today, we're talking about GOALS.
There are many types of Goals and many different timeframes that they can be applied to, for example:
Short-term - what do you want to do soon, like today or this week?
Medium-term - what do you want to do in a few months?
Long-term - where do you want to get to a year, two years, five years from now?
Infinite Goals - what do you ultimately want to achieve if you take time limits off? What's the idea that's so big that you will aim for it, but you might not actually achieve it because there will always be something new to try and a new way to help people in your particular niche? (To learn more about this type of Goal, look into Simon Sinek and his book about the Infinite Game).
Goals are essential because each decision you make as a business owner or manager can and, in many ways, should be calibrated against your Goals to ensure alignment.
In non-business speak, Goals help because when faced with two options, Goals help you decide which way to go.
For example, you run a consultancy and need to update your marketing strategy for the following year. Your Goal is to create informative long-form content that helps your clients understand the nuances of your industry's services.
When your marketing manager asks if you want to focus on Instagram or LinkedIn, looking at your Goal of informing your clients in detailed long-form posts makes LinkedIn the better choice.
This is a straightforward example, but you get the point.
An important note is that Goals are not perfect methods for navigating decisions. Constant change and new circumstances make it hard to keep track of all the moving pieces the modern business world throws at you. But having Goals, in the most basic setting, helps you see if you're progressing as you put effort into developing your idea.
Additional reasons that Goals are essential.
As mentioned, they help justify and inform the many decisions you'll need to make in the course of doing business.
They allow us to set expectations, be it for a campaign or the next 12 months of your whole business.
They provide a measure of success, aiming for a Goal and reviewing how far you have come. It is a way to measure performance.
What's the difference between Brand Goals and Business Goals?
Your Brand Goals should align with your Business Goals because you don't want one to be too far away or entirely adrift from the other.
My favourite analogy is to think about two tandem runners attached at the hip by a bungee cord. One runner is called Sales (in this instance, "Brand"), and the other is Operations (in this instance "Business"). In a healthy setting, the two run around the track with constructive tension between them.
Suppose one of the runners gets too far ahead; for instance, Brand goes way off into the distance without telling Business. In trying to keep up, Business gets yanked by the bungee cord and takes both runners out. Everyone's upset, and all of the people relying on these two runners suffer as well.
Business and Brand Goals need to inform each other to maintain that healthy tension and keep everyone on track.
That's Goals: set some, write them down, and try to review them regularly.
See you on the next one (Spend).
Last Updated: 29/Dec/2023