For wedding professionals, January and February is a good time to set business goal because for most it is the ‘off season’. Goals allow you to create a clear plan for your business and what you want to achieve and below I am going to go through some helpful hints on how to set them:

1. Think About Where You Want Your Business To Be at the End of the Year

This might seem like it is very simple but you need to put your goals in concrete terms. Otherwise, you won’t know if you have achieved them. Saying, “I want my business to be doing better.” is well and good but how do you measure ‘better’? Is it working on a certain number of weddings? Is it a set amount of income? The more specific you are about your goals the easier it will be to come up with a plan to reach them.

2. Set Some Goals You Know You Can Achieve Easily and Some You Know Will Be Very Difficult

If all of your goals are too far out of reach that you can’t achieve any of them, it will be very easy to feel like you are being defeated by your own goals. On the other hand, if all of your goals are too easy to reach you won’t really be motivated to reach your maximum potential. Having a mix of difficulty in your goals ensures that you will feel you are accomplishing something and at the same time pushing yourself to achieve.

3. Set Up a Plan For How to Achieve Each of Your Goals

Having a goal is great, but if you have no idea how to get there that can make things a lot more difficult. Create a plan of action for achieving each of your goals. If your goal is to get more referrals for your business, a good plan of action would be to meet with a new person in your industry each month.

4. Revisit Your Goals Regularly

I usually go back to my list of goals at the beginning of each month and see how I have done and think about what I can do in the new month to make more progress.. That way I can see if my plan of action is working or not. If I go three months with no progress using a particular tactic, I know it is time to switch things up.

5. Keep a Log

It is important that you write down what you want and how you tried to get it. That way you can go back to it, see what is working and what is not, change tactics if necessary, and track your progress.

I hope you found this article helpful. Let me know if there are any business, marketing or topics on wedding photography you would like me to cover in the future.