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Goal setting in a startup: Once a startup gets through its early business planning and funding stages, your immediate priority will be on goal setting. If you’re a product company, everyone will naturally be interested in the release date of your software. The same applies to prototypes or MVPs whichever route you follow. 

This is a key step to ensure that you don’t over-promise and under-deliver. The relationship with investors is based on trust. Deadlines sometimes have the effect of breaking this trust. hence it is important to be careful about setting expectations right from the start. 

In this article, we talk about setting up and making sure that these goals are outcome-oriented.  This ensures that you don’t miss the strategic vision while chasing their deadlines. Also, it will help you balance short-term goals with the strategic visionary outcomes that you’re after.

Setting up your vision

This vision is where everything starts from. As a founder, this is how you will inspire your team, investors, and everyone to paint the north star picture of where you want to be. If you paint a great picture, then there is enough motivation within the team to strive and go beyond limitations. This vision must be inspiring and aspirational to speak to the emotional side of people involved in creating the outcome. 

Your start-up vision is a great way of bringing your business plan to life. Lead with this vision. Keep coming back to it to let people know why you’re doing what you’re doing. 

Goal setting in a startup

Once you have the vision your next step is to break it down into achievable goals these goals are specific time-bound and realistic. SMART goals are a good way of approaching this. My preference however would be to create OKRs – objectives and key results. It helps the investors and the rest of the company understand the purpose behind specific results that you’re after.

Also, being able to make this outcome-oriented helps you pivot or change your approach as needed. Make sure to make room for an aspirational element in goal setting.

Tips to set targets in startup:

• The targets must be specific and easy to measure
• You must be 80-90% sure of being able to achieve it
• Underpromise and over-deliver