Many small businesses reach the end of the year and reflect on their accomplishments or their lack of success towards reaching their goals.

If you have been in this position and have come to December realizing that you may not have hit some major milestones in your business because you simply forgot about them, life got in the way, or you never had a thorough plan to start with, then this will help you. 

In this blog post, I’ll be explaining to you what goal setting is, the importance of having a goal-setting plan for your business, the most important things to consider when planning your goals, and how your business goals can help you with your Pinterest marketing strategy.

What is Goal Setting?

Goal setting is the act of having a few defined goals & setting out an actionable plan to achieve them.

If you have ever dreamed of becoming a doctor, a baker, or an entrepreneur, you know there are certain steps and actions you have to take in order to achieve your goal of becoming who you set out to become.

There are three types of goals we should know about - process, performance, and outcome goals.

• Process goals are specific actions of processes that are completely controlled by you. You are the one who sets out how long you will study, how many people you will network with, how many Facebook community members you willingly provide your expertise to when they ask questions in a group. You set out your action plan & you implement how you are going to achieve it.

• Performance goals are also controllable by you but mainly focused on what quantitative measure you want to achieve. For example, you will go that particular networking event & make connections with 5 people you know you can collaborate with.

• Outcome goals are based on actually achieving that said goal. For example, you are at that networking event and you find that ideal client you would love to collaborate with. Through conversation, you land that dream client and provide them with the best service that will lead to future referrals for your business.

The Significance of Planning Your Business Goals

Many people are in the goal planning stages of their business goals for the new year, as a lot of us are wanting to scale up and make a bigger impact with our message. Planning out your business & marketing strategies really helps you to understand your goals & research on how you can achieve them in a timely manner.

I’ve received a lot of questions this past year about Pinterest marketing strategies and how this can help a business grow. When I receive these questions, I always refer back to the person’s business goals and what they hope to achieve as their outcome.

Many creative entrepreneurs are looking to gear up their marketing efforts and grow their business & reach starting in the new year.

As a Pinterest strategist, I help creative entrepreneurs & small business owners with their goals of reaching a new audience through the power of Pinterest with my Pinterest SOS sessions. 

I’ve come to realize that some creative entrepreneurs are planning the next stage of their business, but feel like their previous year’s attempts at growing has become stagnant. 

I know you’re ready to book out your services, grow your email list, gain more followers on your social media & grow your Pinterest account and website traffic on autopilot. This where I come in to move your business into the next stage!

Although to some, planning your business goals may not seem like a challenge, but to the creatives who are not sure how to create a marketing plan that suits your life due to family demands, social media exhaust or other things, some may feel like they need more structure towards building a solid business goal plan.

I truly believe that setting goals and marketing our business should never be hard. We started our business out of a passion and a desire to live a more purposeful life doing the things that light us up.

I started my business in March 2020 and I have got to be honest with you, I really didn’t know what I was doing, although I had amazing resources & tools to get me started on the right foot.

I realized that although you may have the right tools, resources, & guides to start your business if you don’t have a strategic goal setting plan, you are going to be lost and confused along the way.

Because of this, I put together a Goal Planning Workbook that you can use (I use it myself too!) to steer you in the right direction. This planner goes through all the things I wish I had taken the time to learn & understand when I started my business. 

I often get questions like:

• How do I plan my business goals?

• Do I actually need a business plan to get started?

• How can Pinterest help me with planning my marketing strategy?

• Will Pinterest help me reach my goals, make sales & drive traffic to my website?

• Will a Pinterest marketing plan work for my unique creative business?

This past year, Pinterest has made some major changes to its Pinterest algorithm. I encourage you to read this blog post to find out what changes have been made and learn about what you can do to improve upon your Pinterest marketing.

One problem I see with many creatives is that they sometimes don’t take the time to sit down and thoroughly research & plan out their yearly goals for their content, business, & life. 

Many small business owners and solopreneurs are quite overwhelmed with the daily management & operations of running a business all by themselves that it sometimes feels like if they sit down to plan out their business goals, they may feel as if they are moving backward rather than moving forwards and give yourself a total facepalm along the way.

I get it, trust me I really do. Your business is so personal to you. If you or an expert were to peel back the layers and uncover where you may be lacking, it would feel like a personal attack on you (although, we all know this is not true).

What I have discovered is that taking a “start now & figuring it out later” approach may not always serve you well. Some of the greatest entrepreneurs I know were successful because they had a purposeful plan set out to achieve their goals.

You never want to be running on the hamster wheel questioning your next actions or moves for the next stage of your business life. That’s why I’ve created my Goal PlanningWorkbook that you can revisit at any time of the year & not just annually. I know what it can do for you this new year and I encourage you to grab hold of it & plan for your next stages of business growth & Pinterest community connection and reach.

How To Plan For The Year Ahead

1 | Get Specific

I know what it feels like to not feel like you know who your target audience is, or worse, not feel truly connected to them.

When you are starting a business, have been in business for a while or are looking to change services or rebrand, you need to know who it is that you want to serve for the greater good. 

When you look at your business from an overall perspective, you need to take into account what you want your audience to learn from you, what you want them to buy from you, and how your content or service will transform their life. 

Not only is this one small aspect of your business planning & goal setting, but I should also take into consideration what you want your life to look like, how you want to feel doing what you do & what you can’t wait to see, hear or even taste.

For example, if I am working on a new service, I know that studying an online course would help me to become certified in a particular field, which would then help me to be able to serve (and price accordingly) my service to a prospective customer. We have to take our conscious mind out of the picture and allow ourselves to dream of what goals we truly want to accomplish without regard.

2 | Reverse Research

Going back to my previous example of studying a course, I want you to think of ways you can act on your desire right now even if you’re unsure where the money will come from to pay for this said course.

One of the greatest things we have right now available to us is the internet. We easily have thousands of tips and tricks, resources, articles, videos & webinars at our disposal to learn from that can bring us that much closer to our business goal. It may not be the exact plan we want at present but something is better than nothing when it comes to personal growth.

3 | Put A Date On It

Once you have your goals set out, make sure you put a date on your calendar or scheduler of choice and stick to it!

I personally love Asana and I use it every day in my business & personal life. There are many other organizational management tools out there like Google Calendar, AirTable or Trello that can help you plan & stay organized.

Find one that works for you & really truly uses it in a way that makes your life easier and enables you to commit to your goals in an efficient and measurable manner.

4 | Make The Time & Make It Special

Set aside a few hours a week and hammer out your goals. When you do this, I also want you to make the time you spend with yourself special - bust out the candles, wine, pizza, gummy bears, whatever you like!

I love doing this for myself & it has been a game-changer for me this year. I make sure to take one Sunday a month and map out my business + personal goals that I have for myself. I also make sure that I limit my distractions as much as possible so I can stay in the flow with my thought process. Do what you can; put in sound cancelling earphones and make it happen!

5 | Share Your Story 

Many times we feel like we shouldn’t share our story because we want to be seen as credible and strong.

But I have found that when you share your successes, failures, goals, and challenges, you open up yourself to building an amazing community of support.

Showing vulnerability is not a bad thing. When we share our desires for seeking a better business, life, and impact, we share our quest for personal development & growth which then can inspire others to take action and do the same in their business & life.

6 | Know Your Why

Looking deep into your ‘why’ is something I am very passionate about. Why are you doing what you’re doing? Who will you impact? How will your product, service, or article impact your audience’s life? Will your business goals bring you more happiness or will it bring you more stress?

Focusing on a goal that is more variable in nature rather than one that is deeply fixed and rooted in your mission may leave you feeling frustrated & confused. We all have a reason why we are in business for ourselves & checking in from time to time with goal setting helps to reaffirm our plans for action are in alignment with ourselves.

How This Fits in with Pinterest Marketing

Pinterest is all about discovery & inspiration. If you thoroughly plan out your marketing goals, this will help you to really connect with your audience through your message with more clarity and connection, which ultimately assists with your conversion into more email signups or even better - paying customers.

We all need to have goals set for our business growth and impact and that is what I focus on with my Pinterest SOS sessions for my clients.

I have discovered that not only do we need to challenge ourselves as business owners, but we need to remind ourselves that we can be inspired again through new marketing strategies.

Remember: Everyone in life is in a planning stage.

When you plan out your marketing strategies & goals, it enables you to think creatively about how you want to inspire your clients to take action & discover what products, services, or blog articles you have that can help them.

Set your vision, define your goals & take inspired action to achieve them. Once you reflect back on your annual goals, you’ll be surprised at what you accomplished & how much impact you made to your business by strategically planning your goals and using Pinterest marketing on autopilot to gain amazing online visibility, reach & community.

I hope I shared with you the importance of having a business goal plan and how it can help you with your Pinterest marketing strategy. I encourage you to get started with my Goal Planner Workbook so you can plan for your business.