How to set goals for your freelance business

How often do you set goals for your freelance business? When you start working for yourself, it’s easy to get drawn into your everyday routine and forget to look at the bigger picture. As we move into the next quarter of the year, now’s the perfect time to consider how you’d like to evolve your career over the next few months. We’ve rounded up our top tips to make sure you’re setting yourself up for success.

Identify your priorities

Start by thinking about all aspects of your life, including your home, career, health and family. How would you like to see those areas progress over the next 3 months? Next, think about what matters most to you in your business. Would you like to increase your profits? Have a more flexible schedule? Enjoy a better work-life balance? Perhaps you’d like to create space to work on new personal projects? Once you’ve identified the areas of change that are going to bring you the most career satisfaction, you’re ready to set goals for your business.

Set 90-day goals

Instead of looking at long-term goals, we recommend setting yourself 90-day goals. This means you can break the year up into manageable chunks, chart your progress and regularly feel the boost of hitting your targets.

Make sure your business goals are SMART, specific and realistic. Do you want to start offering new services? You could aim to launch 1 new package in the next 3 months. Want to increase your income? Set yourself a figure to work towards. Want to reduce the number of hours you work? Aim to gain a new higher paying client in the next 90 days.

Work backwards

You’ve set the end target: it’s achievable and will help your business move forward. Now it’s time to break the journey up into smaller chunks, outlining the path you need to take to reach those goals. What are the little milestones that you can put in your calendar?

For example, if you’re looking to secure a higher paying client, you’ll need to send out 5 pitches to new potential clients each week. These daily and weekly goals may seem insignificant at the time. But if you don’t take those little steps forward each week, you’re less likely to be able to hit those long-term goals on time.

Track your progress

You’ve spent time honing and crafting a timeline, so now it’s time to put it into action! Make sure those milestones stay top of mind. Perhaps you could track them in Notion or Asana, or you could even set calendar reminders for yourself. Milestones are there to motivate you, but also an opportunity to celebrate your achievements and recognise how far you’ve come.

We all have times where we don’t quite hit our personal deadlines too. It’s completely normal to get caught up in your everyday work! If things aren’t working, don’t be afraid to reassess and mix things up. At the end of the day, this process is all about helping you to focus on your business – whatever form that takes.

If you’ve set yourself an ambitious goal, or find yourself procrastinating on your timeline, peer mentorship might help. Why not find an accountability partner in our Slack community? We’re building a growing community of consultants that are on the same journey, ready to connect and help each other reach their career goals over time.