How to Set Quarterly Goals for Your Business

If you want to scale and grow your business, setting quarterly goals is something every entrepreneur needs to do. You will have a sense of accomplishment as you check off the things you completed each quarter. Facing goals for 90 days is easier and much less overwhelming than looking at a list of goals for a whole year. You can make yearly goals, just break them up into quarterly goals first. 

Follow the steps below to help you set goals you can follow through on. 

Identify Your Top 3 Goals

Set 3 to 5 goals for the next 90 days. But stick to only 3 goals if they’re big. Even picking one goal for the next quarter and following through with it is better than getting nothing done. 

Pick your 3 goals and then break them down into smaller goals. Make a commitment to follow through on your steps and start on one goal at a time. 

It’s good to reflect on the past 3 - 6 months and see what you’ve accomplished and where you want to see improvements. Anything you feel you missed, you can add to your next set of quarterly goals. 

Also, when you’re planning, roughly set goals for the next one, five or ten years. These can be adjusted but it’s good to see where you’re heading long term.

How to Set Good Quarterly Goals

Be Intentional

You want to achieve your quarterly goals so be intentional when you set them. You can aim at the target you set and move in that direction. 

Track your progress as you follow the steps you planned. If you plan to build a website in the next 30 days, break it down and check off every step you did. 

If you’re not intentional with the steps you’re going to take each day, nothing will ever get accomplished in your business. Get specific with each goal and strategy. 

Planning your short and long term goals will guide your path and strategies. 

Set Realistic Goals You Can Follow Through On

When you set quarterly goals, be sure to consider whether or not you can follow through on them. We all have integrity when it comes to doing something for someone else. But sometimes we lack self-integrity.

Self-integrity is setting a goal for yourself, but quite often you may find it hard to follow through with it. 

Why don’t you have the same follow-through for yourself as you do for others? It may be that you made a goal you can’t keep. For example, you may set quarterly goals to make your bed every day, or drink 8 glasses of water a day, or go to the gym every day. Some of these personal goals may have to be adjusted so you can stay in self-integrity. 

The same principle applies to setting quarterly goals in your business. If you're missing the mark on things that you're trying to accomplish for yourself or your business, start to think about whether you’re always in self-integrity. 

Treat yourself with the same level of follow-through as you would to your children, your spouse, your clients, and do what you promised yourself you were going to do. 

Try to pay attention to whether you are out of self-integrity and then only commit to the things that you know you can follow through on so that you can be a person of high self-integrity. 

Big changes happen in your life by committing to yourself. 

Stop Getting Distracted and Focus on What’s Most Important

We all say we're too busy and have too many things going on. But are we focusing on the right things? 

You may be doing a lot of things that aren’t totally focused on driving your business goals forward or driving revenue forward. 

For example, you want to create a product, launch a business, and add a service. You want to do these things at the same time. You never go all-in on one thing. 

If you did complete one strategy it has the potential to create more income for you.

You may be scared to focus on one thing because if it doesn’t work out you won’t know what to do next and you’ll feel like a failure. Instead, set quarterly goals to focus on one major thing. Focus on a major income-generating activity until it’s working. 

Where did you fall short on your goals this year? What were you doing that didn't allow you to move forward?  

The goal is there to drive you, but the actions that get you to the goal are the things you need to be in self-integrity with so you’ll be able to say, "I am going to do these things."

How to Follow Through on Your Quarterly Goals

Identify Your “Why?” 

List the reasons why you set each goal. What will motivate you to reach each goal? Focus on a strong compelling reason why.  

Set quarterly goals for yourself and for your business. For example, why does it matter to eat better or lose weight? For me, I just physically want to have energy and feel healthy and strong. I want to sleep well at night and wake up feeling energized.

For business goals, ask yourself why you want to launch a new website? 

Your "why" for a website could be that you want to reach more people and serve them. You want to make their lives better. You want to solve their problems. 

The why will drive you to see that goal to completion if and when complications arise and everything gets tough.

Create a Step-by-Step Plan

Next, look at those goals and break them down into action steps. 

Decide what you will do to achieve your goals. These are the steps you have to take. If you just put on your to-do list, "Build a new website," it will never get checked off because you're not going to build a website in a day. 

Write down the main actions that you can take to get you closer to achieving these goals.

Take these actions and schedule them in your calendar. If you need to focus on your goal two hours a day, working on content or writing a blog, then block out two hours a day where you're in content creation mode.

Also think about your day in terms of where your energy lies. If you work better when creating content in the morning than in the evening, then block out time for it in the morning. 

It’s important to set quarterly goals and follow a step by step plan. Manage your time and stick to your plan. Write it all down and schedule everything in a calendar. You will reach your goals much faster and you’ll be amazed at how fast your business will start to grow.

What will your goals be for the next 90 days?