Have you ever wanted to accomplish something and tried to do just that without setting any actual goals? Although it’s possible that you were lucky enough to get to where you wanted to go, chances are, you felt like you were kind of winging it.
The most important thing you need to do when starting your bookkeeping business is set goals. It’s very important to how those milestones are set up beforehand to give yourself something to shoot for as you get going.
Whenever you do anything in life, whether it is starting up your own bookkeeping business, getting into shape, or saving up for retirement, what is the one thing that you need to have in place to achieve any of these? You need to have firm goals in place.
Setting Goals For Your Bookkeeping Business
I think we all know how important goals are to have in whatever we do in life but how far do you take them?
Are your goals just something that you have in your head? Do you have goals to help you reach the ultimate goal? How specific are the goals that you have?
These are all important questions that you need to ask yourself if you really want to meet your ultimate goal, whatever that may be. For the purpose of this post, I’m going to focus on more bookkeeping business goals but these steps can and will apply to anything that you want to do in life.
What Will Your Bookkeeping Business Give You?
What I mean by this is, by starting up your own bookkeeping business what will this allow you to do? Now I’m not talking money specifically at this point but stay with me here.
Do you look to quit your job? Do you want to be home with your family more? Are you looking to work for yourself instead of for someone else?
It could even be as simple as not wanting to wake up to an alarm clock anymore or not wanting to sit in rush hour traffic every day for 2 hours. You need to give this some serious thought and get specific as possible so that not only do you know what you are pushing for but this also makes your goals very real.
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Of course, you are going to want to have financial goals as well. You are going to want to set a goal stating how much NET profit you look to earn in a year. This is going to be your end goal, right?
So you are also going to need financial goals along the way to help get you to the ultimate end goal for your bookkeeping business. Is this something you are looking to do full-time or part-time?
Based on what your goal is, are you going to need to hire others to help get you to your goal? These are important questions that you need to think about for you to achieve whatever goals you have.
Life/Work Balance
Another step when coming up with your goals is going to focus on your life/ work balance. How much time do you want to invest in building your business? How many hours a week do you want to set aside on bookkeeping?
Don’t get me wrong here, it is important to work hard but it is equally important to play hard as well. It is going to do you no good to spend 80 hours a week working on your business if it is going to put a strain on your marriage and time with your children.
On the other end of that, spending an hour every other day on your bookkeeping business is going to be equally frustrating. What I suggest doing is talking with your spouse (if there is one) so that you are able to come up with an amount of time to dedicate to your new business.
Be sure to consider any extra-curricular activities that your kids have as well. After all, in many cases, more family time is going to be a goal for most people.
By doing this, you have your family on the same page as you from the get-go. This also adds a degree of accountability as well since others know what you are striving towards and how you plan to get there.
Write Your Goals Down
None of the goals that you come up with become real until you write them down. There is something about jotting them on a piece of paper that seems to make your goals official.
If you don’t write them down what do you think ends up happening? They fade off into the sunset to never be seen again.
You forget about them and in return, you lose your focus, your “why” and your drive. If coming up with a plan with your family holds you accountable in your family’s eyes, then writing your goals down will hold yourself accountable.
Goals Can Change Along The Way
Starting a new home business for yourself can be a scary thing. On top of that, it is a completely new concept for most people. When it comes to goal setting, you need to realize that some goals will change along the way and other goals will not be met and that is fine.
As you go on this journey you are going to figure out what works for you and what doesn’t. When this happens, chances are, your goals are going to change as well. So can you guess what needs to be done when your goals change? That’s right… write them down!
The important thing to realize is that we have those goals in place to begin with. You need those points when building your business where you say “I did it, now on to the next goal.” Or, “this isn’t going to work this way, I need to change things up a bit.”
Goal Setting Is A Must!
Setting goals is a pretty simple thing to do, it just requires a little thought on your part. Because it is an easy step to take, people tend to overlook the process and at the end of the day, they fail simply because they had nothing in place to push them to succeed.
Having goals in place goes a long way in creating the mindset that you need as a small business owner. I have said before throughout this site, but being a small business owner can be a lonely thing.
This is because you are your own boss. Nobody is going to tell you what needs to be done… just you!
I hope I was able to drive home how important setting goals are. We all know we should have them but how many of us have actually taken the right steps to make those goals real?
Now you know just how important goals are, so grab yourself a pen and paper, find a quiet spot in your house for an hour and figure out those things that you want to get out of your business and how you are going to get there!
If you have landed on this site curious about starting your own bookkeeping business then you will want to check out the best bookkeeper training program online.
If you have anything to add or any questions at all, please feel free to drop a comment below and I will be sure to get back to you.