Setting Realistic Goals in the New Year

Happy New Year! The clock struck midnight and we still find ourselves recovering from 2020. While the pandemic has not disappeared as some would have hoped, we are adapting to navigating and operating in our new environment.

Traditionally we look to the new year as a way to renew and refresh our lives, whether it’s financially, physically, spiritually or otherwise. I’d like to focus on how businesses of all sizes can set realistic goals in a build-back year like 2021. 

The Cocoa Beach Regional Chamber of Commerce’s theme this year is “Recover, Restore, and Accelerate.” We intend on doing so in a specific fashion. Each year we sit down and define our goals in a strategic plan. This allows our board and partners to be included in establishing where we place the most value.

Below are my top five tips for goal setting for businesses in the new year.

1. Be Specific and Realistic. It’s important in a year like this to clearly define where you intend to go and how you will get there. Equally as important as being specific is to be realistic. Look at your budget and think everything through, including but not limited to the new administration. How might different policies shape how and potentially when you can do business? If your business is dependent on in-person events or clients, and that is being significantly impeded through 2021, how will that impact your bottom line and how can you pivot? All of these details need to be mapped out.
   
2. Make Goals Measurable. Define how you will know when you’ve successfully completed your goal while also simultaneously outlining who is responsible for ensuring the goal is seen through until completion.
   
3. Make Goals Time Sensitive. Envision when you would like each individual goal to be completed. Is it a year-long goal that will conclude in the fourth quarter or more immediate? Establish completion dates to keep yourself to task. 
4. Make Goals YOURS. If you’re a business owner, odds are you have plenty of people telling you HOW you should run your business. It’s important when you’re goal setting to check in with yourself and ask the question, is this MY goal or is this someone else’s desire for me and my business?
   
5. Put it in Writing. Make sure to put your thoughts down on paper and tie everything else aforementioned into your plan. Having the goals in front of you and regularly referring to them is one sure way to accomplish them!

What makes Brevard County so wonderful is our sense of community; people helping people, and businesses helping businesses. We can and will continue to recover and succeed in 2021 through our collective and realistic goal setting.

Jennifer Sugarman, President and CEO of the Cocoa Beach Regional Chamber of Commerce, is a busy working mom to son, Emmett. She formed the Cocoa Beach Chamber’s Young Professionals Group in 2016, currently serves on the board for United Way of Brevard and is an active member in Brevard County’s business community.

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