Dream big: How to set meaningful and ambitious goals for your design business in 2020.

The left over plum pudding has been scoffed, the sand has been vacuumed from the car and the laptop has been fired up for the start of a new business year. 2020 offers up a crisp blank page enticing us to write a new chapter in the story of our design business. The key to making it an exciting page-turner? Setting some clear, meaningful and ambitious goals.

We hear a lot about goal setting at this time of year and for good reason. Goals help us take control of our lives by giving us direction and creating a benchmark for success. They help us define our priorities, track our progress and stay motivated.

We all agree that goals are great. But how do we make the goal-setting process more personal and effective?

Our whole purpose at The Design Coach is to help design professionals grow and thrive, so here’s our advice for setting goals that’ll make 2020 your best year yet.

Find your ‘why’.

You chose to work in the design industry for a reason. You were drawn to harness your creative talent and inspired to share it with others. When setting your goals, think about why you started in the first place – your values, your aspirations, and the type of design jobs that inspire and motivate you.

Once you’ve documented your ‘why’, start developing goals that are specific to you, as a person, a creative soul and a business owner. If your goal is to grow your business by attracting more commercial clients, think about what that means, both personally and logistically. What kind of business are you trying to create? Who is the ideal client you are trying to attract and how are you going to make it happen? What milestones do you need to reach each month to achieve your goal?

Fluffy, generic goals will soon be forgotten. But goals that tap into who you are and why you do what you do will keep you feeling energised, positive and fulfilled.