It's easy to lose sight of your business goals when prioritizing clients! In a recent Upwork LIVE event, I had the pleasure of chatting with Jodi Daniels, the Founder and CEO of Red Clover Advisors, about how to set and achieve business goals.
Here’s what I learned:
1. Know what you want
As Jodi grows Red Clover Advisors, she continually evaluates what is taking the most time and effort. Similar to how she started her business to help companies understand privacy laws, someone else could help her do the things she doesn’t want to do. This is why Jodi hired a graphic designer and has brought on other consultants (whether full-time or in freelance/contract positions). Even before hiring additional people, Jodi knew what she wanted her business to be and continues to keep those ideas front and center when developing her goals.
2. Define your goals
For Jodi, her goals were very financially driven at first. Then it was the number of clients she had. Now, it’s the quality of clients. Figuring out what a ‘quality client’ means to you is also important. This could be a repeat client, the length of time you work with the client or other variables. While having a big, long-term, goal is important, being able to break that down into yearly, quarterly, and monthly goals are incredibly important.
3. Aim high!
Many people underestimate themselves and will create small goals. Jodi recommends aiming higher and pushing yourself to set lofty goals- they should still be realistically achievable but try to expand on your goals. In 2021, Jodi had a lofty financial goal that she didn’t meet. While upsetting, she realized that 2021 wasn’t a bust, it actually set her up to be even more successful in 2022.
4. Have a 90-day plan
Lastly, Jodi recommended having a 90-day plan. Every two weeks, you should have your goals, and every two weeks, you should re-evaluate your goals. Your two-week goal sprints should help you achieve your larger yearly (or maybe multi-year) goal. One of my favorite quotes was “Our big goals should be guiding lights instead of ‘I achieved’ and ‘I didn’t achieve’”.
It was a pleasure speaking with Jodi during this Upwork Live Talk. If you’d like to see the whole discussion, check out the recording here. After this conversation, I set a 90-day goal for myself to build out my own goals for the rest of the year. What are you trying to achieve this year?
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