Small Business Goal Setting: How Big is Your Ask?

What I’ve discovered in business and in life is that you pretty much get what you ask for.  What you ask for is directly tied to the goals that you have, goals that are annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily. (By the way, if you aren’t breaking it down this far, you will accomplish far less. While I confess to being a visionary and getting a wee bit bored with the details, that’s where the success and true accomplishment reside.)

For example, in business is your goal for the year to double revenue? There a number of ways to get there. You can double your prices and sell just as much, you can sell twice as much at the same price. You can add services and products and upsell existing clients, you can provide a lesser priced service or product and get more clients into your business. The simplest (not necessarily the easiest) is to either raise your prices, or create a high level offer that generates an exponential increase with a minimum of new effort.

The bottomline in all of this is what are you willing to ask for? What are you willing to ask of yourself? Your team? Your clients? The bigger the ask, the bigger the results. I was reminded of this by a holiday surprise that the creative folks at WestJet Airways pulled off.

Take a look at the video here:

Notice, that the answers, when Santa asked what each passenger wanted, ranged from socks and underwear to a train set, from a warm scarf to a big screen TV. What I love is that ALL OF THE ASKS were answered. It didn’t matter the size of the ask, it wasn’t limited. Your business isn’t limited either. The only limit is the size of your ask.

How big do you want to grow?

How many people do you want to serve?

How great a difference do you want to make?

How BIG is your ASK? Are you really setting goals that stretch you?

Is the vision you have bigger than where you are today?

As the good folks at WestJet remind us, “miracles really do happen when we all work as one.” And that is how your BIG ASK gets done as well.

First you have to ASK it! Set that BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL. Ask for it without limitation, without hesitation, and without reservation.

Then as you take the steps to make it happen, you’ll find other synchronicities lining up to bring it to fruition. (Just like the passengers on the flight, if they hadn’t shown up at the airport, participated in the ask, taken the trip, and been there to collect their dream, though it was a surprise, it wouldn’t have happened. It isn’t about stars aligning but strategic action, intention, vision and asking taking place.)

Take a minute to COMMENT BELOW and share how you set your goals and what your BIG ASK IS??