Your Guide to Goal Setting
I‘ll admit, I’m a planner. I love dreaming about what I want to do and then mapping out the path to get there. The end of the year is one of my favorite times because it brings a close to the year’s to-do list and I get to pull my head out of the sand and dream about next year.
My husband, Luke, and I schedule a night to bring our ideas together and plan out the next year. Oh, did I mention I need a notepad, a glass of red wine, and snacks? Ya, these are essential. Okay, I suppose you can modify yours, just add something that makes it fun and loosens you up!
Now, I’m letting you in on our goal-setting process which has brought us through many iterations of what success looks like in our farm business. These steps dive into our operation, bring forth data that helps us answer questions, and bring us closer to achieving our dreams.
We focus on one enterprise at a time and run through the three following steps! Also, I’ve created Your Guide to Goal Setting workbook that you can download and use to jumpstart your goal-setting.
1. REVIEW
We begin by reviewing what worked, what didn’t work, and what we didn’t get to.
What worked?
We list out everything that worked out right and brought us closer to our goals. Our goals include enjoying the tasks, satisfying our customers’ needs/wants, and making money.
By focusing on what worked, we mindfully keep doing those practices and implement them in other areas. Keep doing more of what worked!
What didn’t work?
Next, we list out what didn’t work so well. Sometimes things just don’t bring us closer to our goals and we can cut it from the plan. Other times we see the value, but we didn’t have the right tools or system to make it profitable. In that case, we can evaluate what needs to be done next year to make it profitable and successful.
What didn’t we get a chance to get done?
Finally, we review what goals we had set for last year that didn’t get done.
What do we need to move to next year and what do we need to scrap?
The review step gives us a good idea of last year and what is working in our business. When we began farming, my list for ‘what didn’t work’ was way longer than my ‘what worked’ list. No matter how this year turned out, we are in control of our success. We have to dust off any doubt and defeat. To do that, we transition into dreaming of the future!
2. DREAM
This is where the wine comes in handy. I need a little liquid courage to let go of my preconceived notions and think outside of the box. We can always pull it back, but this is a perfect time to envision what you want your business and life to look like years down the road. We focus on the following questions.
When you think about your future, what do you envision?
What worked last year and how do you see it growing?
Since farming is more of a lifestyle than just a job, I tend to add how life looks in the future, not just my farm. Do I want to travel or quit my day job…? Write it all down and make sure you and the decision-makers in your business are all sharing their dreams. Then once these are all out, we can move to take action!
3. ACTION PLAN
Once All the Things are listed out, it’s time to organize all the information and make an actionable plan. I like to set a 1-year time frame for this plan. It’s long enough to accomplish big things but short enough to have a deadline in sight and stop my foreseen procrastination.
What are we changing next year?
Since we have a good grip on what worked well and what we’re continuing next year, we dive into what we need to change next year. I like getting into the HOW, so we begin listing the changes and what we need to be prepared for the change. Do we need new equipment, new infrastructure, employees…?
Estimated expenses and forecasted the revenue.
This part of the planning is critical. If we’re not making money, it’s just a really expensive and time-consuming hobby. We start by evaluating each piece of the business to understand what is bringing in the money and where we’re wasting money and our time.
If we’re introducing a new product, this can be tough especially if we don’t know how well it’ll sell, what the true costs are, etc. However, we commit to market research and do our due diligence to make the best projections possible. We estimate the revenue we’re expecting and then look into the tools, packaging, and labor that we’ll need to make it happen. Typically, we will start anything new on a small scale to test out the success and scale up the next year if it works well.