Are you ready to reach your goals this year?

You’re busy planning your year and setting goals for your business. Your eyes are set firmly on the prize.

You can see it now — you’re making consistent income every month, you’re able to quit your day job, you have so many client inquiries you have to turn some away, you’re enjoying more time with your family and going on amazing trips of course. That’s the dream, isn’t it? But how do you actually reach your goals?

First, let me ask, do you have a plan for achieving your goals?

Maybe you’ve set specific and focused goals like landing more clients each month, increasing traffic to your website, being confident enough to your rates or even launching a new product or course.

Haven’t set any goals as yet? No problem, stop here for a bit.

How to Reach Your Goals as a Solopreneur

Here are a few quick tried and true goal setting tips:

• Set an intention for your year, a driving force that acts as your “true north.”
• Choose a main goal that acts as your finish line (it can be monetary value, an accomplishment, you decide).
• Take your goal to the next level by making sure it’s S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely).
• Deconstruct your S.M.A.R.T. goal, into 3-4 “mini” goals that you reach on your way to your #1 goal. Set one per yearly quarter or for every 3 months.
• Be strategic and figure out exactly HOW you’re going to reach your goals, by outlining actionable with tasks and to-dos for each “mini” goal.
• Then get back to business of reaching your goals. Continue reading below.

So, how do you reach your goals as a solopreneur? (or any kind of -preneur for that matter)

Or more specifically how do you reach your goals when you’re more or less going at this on your own, with limited resources, time, money and energy. And on top of that, you have family and relationship commitments and a day job or multiple hustles. The struggle is real, but the success can be too.

We’re usually really good at setting goals, but reaching them is an entirely different story.

As a solopreneur with a blog and a few side hustles (and former 9-5er with a hustle or three) I’m familiar with these challenges all too well. Although I would say that I am proud of the success I’ve had, there were definitely wasn’t a shortage of teaching moments last year. This post is a collection of the very best lessons both succeeding at reaching my goals, and falling short.

Each of these tips are written with helping you MAXIMIZE your time, money and energy so you can reach your goals this year.

10 Ways to Reach Your Goals

Set Clear Priorities For Every Day

What can you do today that is most impactful to reaching your goals? What’s important and urgent?

You need to know the difference between a “would be nice” to do, and a “need to do.” You have to learn how to prioritize your time and energy.

When you’re really not sure what to do, ask yourself, “will anyone even notice if I don’t do this?” And if the answer is no, then you know it’s not a priority.

Start Time Blocking and Batching Tasks

I know the temptation to reach your goals by multi-tasking is real, but by doing ONE THING for an extended period of time we’re able to actually get more done in less time.

Our brains actually thrive when focusing on single-tasks. Use time blocking and task batching to help you prioritize specific tasks for certain times of your day, week or month. Instead of jumping from task to task, few minutes here and there, you’re able to focus using less time overall.

Add Automation to Your Emails and Social Media

One of the most powerful tools to help your reach your goals is automation. The benefits and ways to implement are almost endless. It not only helps you save time, communicate better with your audience and clients, improve client on boarding, manage client expectations and adds a level of professionalism.

As much as you’d love to, practically speaking you cannot personally email every single person who joins your email list. But setting up an automation sequence can make them feel welcomed and connected to you. Add these to your Facebook and Instagram too for new likes and follows.

Secondly, with an automatic response to emails and social media messages, you can also reassure them that you’ve received their message, that they’re important to you and let them know when to expect a response from you.

You can also automate your social media posts using a social media management tools like SmarterQueue that queues your content. This way, you never go silent on your social channels, and have a never ending flow of posts.

Related Post: 5 Easy Zapier Zaps to Save More Time for Your Biz

Pay Attention to the Right Metrics & Analytics

We’re all about tracking and measuring our metrics and analytics — from our blog, social media accounts, email subscribers, and income. But not all numbers are equal. You need to pay attention to the right ones.

This might sting a little, but objectively speaking, the amount of followers, reshares or repins, or even likes you have don’t entirely matter. Okay they matter a bit, but not nearly as much as things like click throughs and conversions.

Get to know your analytics, and start tracking impactful metrics. Choose tactics based on this useful data to reach your goals.

Do More of What Works to Avoid Shiny Objects

Everyone claims to have the magic formula that will make you successful or help you reach your goals. The secret to skyrocketing your website traffic, landing more clients, making more money that you’ve ever hoped in no time.

Here’s the thing — these quick fixes are shiny objects that distract you from your primary mission…to reach your goals!

Remember those goals you set and need to stick to.

The truth about success if often less-glamorous and not of the “instant oats, wait one night to enjoy,” variety. It’s repetition, commitment, and the power of tiny actions building over time that lead to a successful business. It’s not sexy, but it works.

Delegate Every Task and Project That You Can

You cannot do this on your own. I repeat, you cannot reach your goals on your own. You can try, but it’s a highway to burnout.

Find affordable ways to delegate any tasks that you don’t need to do yourself to a virtual assistant, intern, or freelancer (or a digital marketing team like Miranda Nahmias & Co.!).

Be clear about required skills and be sure to vet your possible helper by asking for references and samples of work.

I know you’re hesitant to spend money if you’re just starting out, but think about the VALUE of your time vs. the cost of hiring someone. Each of your billable hours is much higher than your assistants’. You can’t reach your goals if you’re too busy being your own VA.

Don’t Just Do It Once, Duplicate It

Once is often not nearly enough. Share that blog post again, repost that tweet, make that offer again.

This might come as a shocker, but no one is listening to you 100% of the time. People are busy and they often miss your emails, social media shares and a lot of what you put out there. Don’t be shy with reposting the same content more than once, or sending reminder emails.

Do less to reach your goals by hitting repeat.

Stop Hesitating and Start Making Money Already

No matter what your business is, you want to reach your goal of earning a full-time income.

Odds are you’ve got all these ideas for how you can make money, get more clients and/or sell more products. But, for some reason we can get so caught up in the details, over complicating things, adding unnecessary steps and just zig zagging all over the place. Not to mention fear of failure, fear that no one will care, imposter syndrome and all that not so fun stuff.

Deep breath, it’s time to stop hesitating and make a straight line between you and the money.

Don’t be shy, just make an offer. Whether that’s to potential clients, on social media, emailing your list, at networking events, however it is you find clients, be bold and just make an offer. The worst that can happen is someone ignores you or says no. But the best that can happen is new client or even a referral.

Related Post: How to Get Clients for Your First Business

Find an Accountability Buddy

You’re a solopreneur, so sadly (or gladly, depending on your personality) most of what you’ll be doing will be on your own.

No matter how much of a loner you are my nature, there will be times that you need another human being to help you reach your goals. Even if it’s just to call you out on your own crap, share best tips and encourage you when you want to give up.

Review your Progress & Adjust Regularly

Did you accomplish what you’d set out to? Maybe you attempted too much?

Don’t feel bad about setbacks or false starts, just make adjustments for the next month. Your quarterly reviews are to see how well you’re meeting your overall intention. Don’t be afraid to make the changes you need to slay your goals.

Also, if you’re struggling week to week, review and adjust your goals and to-dos. You could be overambitious or your path could just be too complicated. A smaller win beats no progress any day!

How to Actually Reach Your Goals

Is that really all there is to achieving your goals as a solopreneur?

I’d love to say yes! But there’s one MAJOR ingredient that ties it all of these tips together. Your ferocious, unwavering, unrelenting commitment to keep going no matter what! Are you in? Like really in it to make it happen.

You can know all the tips and tricks for how to achieve your goals in the world, but if you’re not actually IN THIS 150% and commited to make it happen, you will never reach your goals. Sorry boo, this calls for all you got.

We all read the stories of success that make it seem like it was “bang, just like that success.” I know you want to live that life and make your entrepreneurial dreams come true, but reality is often not nearly as glamorous as Instagram makes it out to be.

It’s you working your butt off well past your limits, even when you’re tired, possibly broke and think you can’t do it. But still you keep going.

My final words of advice are to stay faithful to the little things. Don’t give up on those important, priority to-dos and tasks you’ve set for yourself. They are literal building blocks to reaching your goals. And the fun part is that you never know WHICH action will cause you to reach your tipping point. It’s kind of exciting that way!

For today, think about how you can implement one or two of these tips to help you reach your goals as a solopreneur. Once you’ve managed those, come back and implement another.

Let me know in the comments, how do you plan to reach your goals this year?