{"id":1066,"date":"2016-10-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/how-to-set-smarter-goals-and-spend-more-time-doing-what-you-love\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T11:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T11:00:08","slug":"how-to-set-smarter-goals-and-spend-more-time-doing-what-you-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/how-to-set-smarter-goals-and-spend-more-time-doing-what-you-love\/","title":{"rendered":"How to set SMARTER goals and spend more time doing what you love"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/category\/growth-customers\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Growth &amp; Customers<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHow to set SMARTER goals and spend more time doing what you love\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"entry-header__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"posted-on \"><time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2016-10-05T00:00:00+01:00\">5 October, 2016<\/time><\/span><span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"How to set SMARTER goals and spend more time doing what you love\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/how-to-set-smarter-goals-and-spend-more-time-doing-what-you-love\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-author has-dark-background-color alignfull\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"co-authors\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-author-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"entry-author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/author\/bryancollins\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/07\/Bryan-Collins.jpg\" class=\"entry-author__image\" height=\"40\" width=\"40\" fetchpriority=\"high\" \/>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"entry-author__name\">Bryan Collins<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>When you&#8217;re first starting off you may be able to manage every area of your business, but as your company grows, it&#8217;s difficult (and inadvisable) to work on everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-why\">Why?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, consider the common key areas of a growing business:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Marketing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Product<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sales<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Operations<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Technology<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Financial<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Leadership<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>People<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a lot to handle for any business owner or manager. What&#8217;s more, members of your team may be experts in a particular area. You&#8217;ve hired them to do a job so you can focus your time and attention on what you&#8217;re best at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;You need to be passionate about what you do. When you are your own boss you need to be excited about getting up in the morning and working,&#8221; says award-winning British designer Lorna Syson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although you may be passionate about your business, your team will still look to you for direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Setting SMARTER business goals for each key area will help you put your business on the path to financial mastery without getting caught up in the specifics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this post, you&#8217;ll discover how to do just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-s-pecific\">(S)pecific<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Rather than setting a general goal like &#8220;I want to grow my business,&#8221; decide what exactly you want to achieve. For example, are you going to grow your business by increasing sales or by cutting costs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or perhaps you want to focus on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/the-marketers-guide-to-exporting\/\">increasing exports<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember, attempting multiple things at once could prove problematic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-m-easurable\">(M)easurable<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to increase sales or cut costs, set a financial target for your goal that you can easily track using relevant financial information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You should be able to track your progress, week-on-week, month-on-month, quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, you may say, &#8220;We will cut costs by 10%&#8221; or &#8220;We will increase sales by 10%&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-a-ttainable\">(A)ttainable<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You must have a means of achieving your goal. If you want to increase sales, consider if you can cross-sell or up-sell your products or services. Then, include this means in your goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, &#8220;We will increase sales by 10% by up-selling X product to Y segment.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-r-ealistic\">(R)ealistic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Increasing sales by 10% may be ambitious but can your business achieve it? And do you have the resources to turn this goal into a reality?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember, a stretch goal pushes your team beyond what&#8217;s been done before while a realistic goal is based on past performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-t-ime-framed\">(T)ime-framed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Set a deadline for your goals and work them into your business plan. Typically, quarterly business goals work as they&#8217;re not so long away that they feel unachievable, and you can track them alongside your financial reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, &#8220;We will increase sales by 5% during the first quarter through up-selling X product to Y segment.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-e-valuate\">(E)valuate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>At the end of each quarter, review your SMARTER goals and consider how you&#8217;re progressing against a financial target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can do this using up-to-date financial information paired with business insights from your team. Then, decide what to keep doing, what to stop doing and what to improve on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After all, it was Peter Drucker who said, &#8220;If you want to improve how you manage time &#8211; stop doing what doesn&#8217;t need to be done!&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-r-e-do\">(R)e-do<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you&#8217;ve evaluated your progress, adjust your goal for the coming quarter by doubling down on what works and abandoning what doesn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You should also inform members of your team about any changes to a SMARTER goal so they work on what matters most to your bottom-line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-your-next-step\">Your next step<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Along with key people in your business, set SMARTER goals for each area (marketing, product, sales, distribution, operations, technology, financial, leadership and people).<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/human-resources\/performance-management\/\"> Performance management software<\/a> is a great way to help you align these goals across your business and track their completion over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, share your goals with any other relevant team members. You&#8217;ll know you&#8217;ve mastered this stage when teams are working towards agreed goals, and you don&#8217;t have to work directly in every area of your business because your leadership guides the work of each team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will also be able to regularly review your company&#8217;s progress towards each goal and adjust your business strategy as necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"single-cta\">\n\t<div class=\"single-cta__positioner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__wrapper has-dark-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"single-cta__title h3\">Subscribe to the Sage Advice newsletter<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Join more than 500,000 UK readers and get the best business admin strategies and tactics, as well as actionable advice to help your company thrive, in your inbox every month.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"#gate-b1a63862-3fa0-4a5e-bb67-c76b88bbc6b8\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"single-cta__button button button--primary\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Subscribe now<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1-1440x810.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1-1440x810.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you&#8217;re first starting off you may be able to manage every area of your business, but as your company grows, it&#8217;s difficult (and inadvisable) to work on everything. Why? Well, consider the common key areas of a growing business: It&#8217;s a lot to handle for any business owner or manager. What&#8217;s more, members of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":282,"featured_media":1867,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6,10],"tags":[23,43,15],"business_type":[4,3],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[],"imagine_tag":[77,91,109],"coauthors":[398],"class_list":["post-1066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-growth-customers","category-money-matters","category-people-leadership","tag-bookkeeping","tag-career-development","tag-grow-business","business_type-small-business","business_type-medium-sized-business"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-gb","author_name":"Bryan Collins","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2017\/08\/SageZA_Bryanston_GU_26.10.13-28883_amend.jpg","imagine_tags":{"77":"Accounting software","91":"Growing business","109":"Small business"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice UK","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/282"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/1867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1066"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=1066"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=1066"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=1066"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=1066"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=1066"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=1066"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}