Six Reasons Why You Won’t Set Business Goals

You should set business goals. You know you should. You have every intention of doing so. So, why don’t you? Better yet, why won’t you?

There are several reasons why small business owners fail to set goals. It’s a common problem and can affect your businesses in negative ways.

Here are some common reasons:

• Afraid of Failure
• Afraid of Success
• The Pressure of Accountability
• Don’t Know How
• Takes Too Much Time
• We Don’t Need Goals

Fear of Failure and Success Stymies Goal Setting

When you set goals, there is a real possibility that you won’t meet them. The fear is that others may consider this as a failure on your part. The fear of thinking that others consider you a failure can be enough to keep you from setting goals.

Conversely, what happens when you are successful and achieve a big goal. Is your company poised to handle that success? Are they ready to take on more activities like hiring new employees, acquiring assets, and expanding facilities? It is a vicious circle. Achieving one goal may actually set you up for failure in another area. That’s enough to keep you from setting the goal in the first place.

The reality is that when you set goals and make them public you become accountable for them. You create high expectations in your own mind and in the minds of others. Employee, partners, the public…they will judge you.  The pressure generated will heighten your fear and the likelihood that you won’t create goals.

Setting Business Goals is Hard and Takes Time

This is one of the biggest reasons why small business owners avoid setting goals; they don’t know how. It’s one thing to list a bunch of desires and another to create a plan that may actually move your company forward.

It takes time to brainstorm ideas and create the tasks necessary to achieve them. Setting goals and managing them distracts us from core business functions. For solo-preneurs, the lack of qualified help compounds the problem. The flawed reasoning is that setting and managing goals burns valuable time.

Business Goals Aren’t Necessary for Success

You may think you know what needs to get done, so you don’t need to set goals and manage them. “The goals are in my head, that’s good enough.” Worse, you may have a false impression that you can wing it. After all, “whatever is going to happen will happen,  Que Sera, Sera.” People who feel this way think of goals as a waste of time, and they won’t do it.

The fact is businesses that don’t set goals, struggle the most at being successful. with. This is a major reason why a majority of small businesses fail within a couple of years.

By having goals and measuring them, you will be in a much better position to see what is working and what needs help. You will know how to adjust your behavior to achieve your goals. You will even recognize when you are working on the wrong things and need to stop.

Effective business goals are the key to successful business growth. Start working on yours today!