Reach Your Business Targets with Smart Goals

Why is it that some wellness coaches seem to grow faster and reach greater levels of success while other coaches struggle to meet their goals?

There are typically two factors that influence success: having the right mindset and taking the right actions.

If you already have a can-do attitude and you’re passionate about your practice, you have the right mindset. But if you find your hare having trouble meeting your goals, you might need to look more closely at how you set your goals and the actions you take.

Finding the SMART way to achieve more in your business

You have a big vision for your practice. You know which clients you want to serve, and you know how you want your work to balance with your life. The path to your big vision is reached by setting targets and systematically reaching each milestone.

So are you setting goals that lead you in the right direction? And how do you measure your success?

You can set and accomplish more for your practice when you use the S.M.A.R.T. acronym to measure and manage your goals:

Is it Specific?

Have you picked a specific goal that is narrow enough for you to achieve? If your smart goal is specific enough, you should be able to answer the following questions:

• What are you trying to accomplish?
• Who needs to be involved in the process?
• Why are you going for this goal?
• Which steps do you need to take?
• Where do you need to go or target?

For instance, you want to add more coaching clients to a weight loss group program or as individual clients. Instead of targeting “anyone” who wants to lose weight, you could get more specific with the niche of clients you serve — for example, busy tech workers who want to manage their weight and stress levels.

The more you can narrow down your objective, the easier it will be to know which steps to take and whether you are able to accomplish it.

When you know specifically which clients you want in your practice, it’s then easier to know where to find your ideal clients.

Is it Measurable?

How will you measure your success? If you can set your smart goal to a specific number, it will be easier to measure it.

Using the example above, there are several different ways you could track to help you measure your progress. Of course, you can set a goal for the number of clients you want to add to your practice – let’s say 10 new clients.

You can measure your progress by keeping track of the number of discovery sessions you have with potential clients as well. If you know that one out of five people that have a discovery session with you will sign up for your program, you know that you will have to speak to about 50 people to reach your client goal.

To get those appointments, you may need to send 250 emails to subscribers to your email list or get 20 referrals to tech companies where you might find your new clients. These numbers help you break your goal down to measurable amounts of work.

You can also more easily adjust your plans and actions when your goal is measurable. For example, if you find that you have already signed up 10 clients after speaking to only 30 people, you can either build a waiting list for the overflow of individual coaching clients, or offer a new group coaching program. Being able to measure helps you take better advantage of your opportunities.

Is it Achievable?

Is it possible to achieve your goal from where you are right now? Or are there other steps you need to take in order to reach it?

Your goal may be a stretch, but it should be something you can realistically accomplish, not a fantasy. If it is achievable, you should be able have a clear idea how you can achieve it. Essentially, this step is your opportunity to give yourself a reality check and adjust your goals based on your real circumstances and constraints.

If your coaching practice is a part-time venture, you won’t be able to take on as many individual clients as someone who is working full time in their business. You will need to assess how much time and effort you can put into your goal in order to successfully achieve it.

Is it Relevant?

Is this smart goal relevant to your practice, your expertise and your overall vision? And is now the right time to accomplish it?

To make sure your goal is relevant, you can think big and small:

How will this goal fit in with my overall big picture for my practice?

If you want to grow an empire and eventually hire other coaches into your practice, you may need to think about how you can serve more clients in less time. That’s where you can use MBODY360 to have the app offer daily accountability to your clients.

What small steps do I need to take right now to keep moving in the right direction?

As you build out your practice, you may need to also document the steps you take in your practice to onboard new clients with MBODY360. When it comes time to hire additional coaches, you can pass on your system to your new hire.

Is it Time Bound?

Do you have a set time frame to achieve your goal?

According to Parkinson’s Law, the work you have to do will expand to take as long as the time that you have to do it. The lesson: once you know your goal is achievable, give your self a deadline to achieve, preferably one that adds a certain level of urgency for you to get it done.

So for example, you could give yourself five days to write your newsletter to your email list, or you could set aside eight hours to complete it —- either way, the work will take as long as you give it

That’s why it is critical to set specific deadlines to achieve your goals. You can set your goals by each month or each quarter. Break down the steps to achieve your goals by the week to help you stay on track.

Setting SMART goals enables you to set targets that you are more likely to accomplish. By ensuring they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound, you can train your focus on the goals that will have a greater impact to grow your practice.