What are SMART Goals? (How to Write Them + Examples)

Every business owner has goals. But are they SMART?

No, not "smart" as in, "wise." SMART is an acronym that's used to see if your goals are specific and your success can be measured.

SMART is a framework you can follow to create effective and meaningful goals that hold you accountable and measure your long-term success.

In this post, we'll break down everything you need to know about SMART goals, including what they are and how to write them. We'll also include a list of common SMART goals that small business owners can use to improve their brands over time.

SMART goals provide a roadmap for achieving business goals. They outline what you'll do, how you'll do it, and when you'll get it done. They typically hold you more accountable because they're specific and have a clear benchmark for success.

Let's review how to write a SMART goal in the section below.

How to Write SMART Goals

SMART goals are usually 1-2 sentences long and shouldn't be overly complicated. In fact, it's better to make them straightforward and to the point because it will make them clearer and easier to share with your team.

Let's take it step by step and break down what each word means in this acronym.

Specific

Your goal should be as specific as possible. For example, don't just say you want to increase sales. Pick a specific product or service you want to sell more of and determine how much you want to sell. That will make what you're trying to accomplish clear and make it easier to measure your success.

Measurable

Measurable means you can track your goals with metrics. Metrics are numbers that monitor your business's performance - like the number of appointments you book each month and the amount of money you make from each customer.

Metrics help you define a benchmark for success. For example, we don't just want to book more appointments. We want to book twice as many appointments this month as last. At the end of the month, we can easily compare the number of appointments booked to see if we met our goal.

Achievable

It's important to set goals that you can realistically meet. Why? For starters, hitting your goals is more fun than missing them. It also helps you measure growth as you reach new benchmarks. If you're constantly missing goals, it's hard to tell what you're doing right and where you can improve.

Your goal shouldn't be a walk in the park, either. Look at your existing performance and pick a number you're close to reaching but haven't yet. Or, go for an "all-time high" and try to maximize the performance of an individual metric. For example, you could try to break your record for the total number of marketing emails opened by your customers in a month.

Relevant

Relevant is the "why" behind your goal. Why does this goal matter to your business? By completing it, what will you accomplish? What's the big picture?

Relevant goals tie your work back to your business. If you're going to call a thousand customers this month, what's the purpose behind that? Are you going to sell them a new product? Or, are you offering them a free quote?

Having a clear purpose behind your goals will produce more tangible results for your business.

Time-Bound

Nobody likes deadlines, but they play an important role in goal-setting. They hold us accountable, so we achieve goals on time while they're still relevant.

Some people shy away from time-bound goals because it creates pressure to succeed. If you don't achieve your goal on time, that means you failed, right? Not necessarily.

Just because a goal is time-bound doesn't mean it's the end of the world if it's not completed on time. If your goal is to email 500 customers and you only message 499, you didn't fail or waste your time. You messaged over 400 people and learned that you need to improve your automation or add more resources to your business if you want to send more emails. While you might not have hit your original goal, you did learn a lot by making it time-bound.

Let's look at some standard SMART goals you can set for your small business. Your company's resources and ambitions will vary, so modify these as needed.

What are SMART Goals: Examples

Here are eight SMART goals that you can set for your small business. We'll provide an example for each goal and explain how it follows the SMART framework.

1. Increasing Sales

Example Goal: Increase sales by 15% over the next six months by starting a customer referral program that generates 20 new customers per month.

• Specific: This goal specifies that we want to increase sales by starting a customer referral program for our business. That will attract new customers through word-of-mouth marketing.

• Measurable: We want to increase our total sales by 15% over six months. This goal also clarifies that we want to average 20 new customers per month through our referral program.

• Achievable: Six months should be a realistic amount of time to increase sales by 15%. For comparison, let's say we've increased sales by 12% in the last six months without this referral program. So, we're looking to gain 3%.

• Relevant: Our referral plan attracts new customers, keeping existing ones happy while engaging new potential buyers.

• Time-Bound: We want to achieve this goal within six months. We can also track our performance by measuring the number of new clients generated from our referral program each month.

2. Attracting New Customers

Example Goal: Gain 50 new customers over the next three months by launching a Facebook marketing campaign that promotes our seasonal discounts and services.

• Specific: To achieve this goal, we want to attract 50 new customers by promoting seasonal discounts on social media.

• Measurable: Since this is an organic (one you're not paying for) social media campaign, we only have to measure the total number of customers. If this were a paid social campaign, we would also mention our budget and what we expect to make from our advertisements.

• Achievable: To see how attainable this goal is, we could look at previous social media campaigns to see if we've attracted new customers (and how many) from them.

• Relevant: This goal is relevant in two ways. New customers are always good for the business, and engaging social media content can help increase brand awareness.

• Time-Bound: We want to achieve this goal in three months. Social media management tools will show how many people engage with our content and click on any links we provide each month.

3. Improving Customer Satisfaction

Goal: Increase customer satisfaction scores by 20% over the next year by using our CRM to automatically follow up with customers one week after their purchase.

• Specific: This goal says we want to increase customer satisfaction by leveraging our CRM to follow up with customers. That will allow us to provide additional support if they aren't happy with our product.

• Measurable: We can quantify customer satisfaction using surveys and customer feedback tools. We can measure how happy customers are at the start and compare it at the end.

• Achievable: We can determine how attainable this goal is by examining our current customer satisfaction scores and calculating the number of positive scores needed to meet our goal.

• Relevant: Happy customers come back and shop at your business. Your CRM is an excellent tool for managing client relationships and customer communication.

• Time-Bound: We want to achieve this goal in one year. We would compare our survey scores at the beginning of the period against the end to see if we reached our goal.

4. Improving Response Times

Goal: Reduce email response times to under two hours (during business hours) within the next four months by using a shared inbox to communicate with customers.

• Specific: This goal specifies that we want to reduce our email response times to under two hours by using shared inbox software. Shared inboxes funnel messages to one place so multiple employees can respond from the same email address.

• Measurable: If we have an email automation tool, we can measure how quickly we respond to messages once they reach our inbox.

• Achievable: Communication tools, paired with AI and automation, should reduce email response times for your business.

• Relevant: The faster we respond to emails, the happier customers will be. That will lead to greater customer satisfaction and more sales for your business.

• Time-Bound: Our goal is to reduce response times within four months. We can track this over time using our shared inbox software.

5. Boosting Productivity

Goal: Improve an employee's productivity by 25% in the next month by conducting weekly performance check-ins and a daily 30-minute training.

• Specific: This goal is intended to improve employee performance by checking in with the employee weekly and completing daily training sessions.

• Measurable: There are plenty of metrics you can use to measure employee productivity. Just be sure your team knows which are most important to your business.

• Achievable: If this is your team's average level of productivity, then it should be attainable for other employees, too (barring any reasonable accommodation). If multiple employees fall short, you should reassess this benchmark.

• Relevant: Productivity is important for small business owners. With limited resources, every person at your business counts. If someone is underperforming, a goal like this can help them get back on track.

• Time-Bound: We want to complete this goal within one month. It would also be good to have a contingency plan in case the employee doesn't meet this goal.

6. Collecting Customer Feedback

Goal: Gather feedback from at least 75 customers within the next three months by sending them an SMS survey when we complete a service.

• Specific: This goal specifies how many customers we want to obtain feedback from and the type of survey that we will use. It also mentions that we will send the survey when a service is completed for a new or existing customer.

• Measurable: For this goal, we can count the number of survey responses we receive from customers.

• Achievable: This factor might depend on our customer base. We should consider the number of customers we have and how often they buy from our company.

• Relevant: This goal would be relevant for a business starting a customer feedback program. Over time, you might add conditions like specific customer satisfaction scores or the type of feedback you want to receive.

• Time-Bound: We have three months to collect feedback from 75 customers. We might check in every month to see how progress is going.

7. Upselling Existing Customers

Goal: Upsell our premium service to at least 25% of customers over the next ten months by offering free quotes and a discount for cash purchases.

• Specific: This goal helps you upsell premium products by offering incentives to potential customers.

• Measurable: You can see the percentage of customers who purchased premium services over the last 10 months using digital payment software.

• Achievable: The added incentives should make this goal more attainable than if you were just promoting your premium services without them.

• Relevant: Premium products and services can generate more revenue for your business than standard offers.

• Time-Bound: This goal gives us 10 months to upsell as many customers as possible on our premium service.

8. Reduce Customer Sevice Calls

Goal: Reduce customer service phone calls by 30% over the next three months by adding an FAQ page and knowledge base to our website.

• Specific: This goal will reduce the number of service-related calls to your business by adding an FAQ page and knowledge base to your website. A knowledge base is like an encyclopedia for your business, where customers can find solutions to common problems.

• Measurable: If we have a CRM, we can record if a call is service-related or not. That way, we can measure the calls received before and after adding new pages to our website.

• Achievable: Creating a user-friendly and easy-to-access knowledge base should reduce customer service phone calls.

• Relevant: These web pages will assist our customers and give us more time to focus on the real work that needs to be done.

• Time-Bound: This goal gives us three months to measure the performance of our new FAQ pages. Most websites will include built-in tools that monitor traffic to these pages.

Being Smart With SMART Goals

SMART goals are an excellent way to set attainable and realistic goals for your business. They keep your team accountable because they're specific and time-bound, and they provide an outline for short- and long-term success. Use this framework to manage your performance and identify new opportunities to improve your business.

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