Small Bytes: How to Set Ambitious Brand Goals

Just like you might set New Year's resolutions, the start of the year is the perfect time to set and track ambitious, achievable business goals. 

We talk about:

• Accountability
• My brand goals for the year
• Why brand goals need to be broken down into tasks
• Setting stretch goals and deadlines to help you achieve them.

Transcript

[00:00:00] New Year Kickoff

Martin: 2024, hey! Happy New Year! There's, I don't, uh, I don't do New Year's resolutions because they're really, oh, they're just hard to stick to, hey? Um, and I love chocolate, if I'm honest. I'm not gonna be giving that up.

[00:00:31] Podcast Mission Intro

Martin: This is the Level Up Podcast. I'm your host, Martin Sully, a brand strategist, designer, and founder of Snapper Studio. A mission to help you gain clarity and confidence in your brand. I'll arm you with bite sized tips. And introduce you to friends of the show who are taking their brand to the next level.[00:01:00]

[00:01:03] Why Set Goals

Martin: There are big New Year's resolutions here, but there are a few goals. And today we are going to be talking about setting goals, why you want to do them, you know. So, to give you some background, I set goals. And this is one thing that my business coach told me, uh, set goals with targets, make them, make them semi unachievable just to stretch yourself and put dates on it.

Make them like, get yourself a big wall planner, put dates on them, mark them in highlight them in. bright pink and hit them. Yeah. 

[00:01:53] Accountability And Community

Martin: So yeah, why do we want to do this? And we want to do this for two reasons. One, for accountability, [00:02:00] because it's, when you're in small business, it's really hard to show accountability, um, you can easily let things run.

It's also good to talk to people about them, and that's why the networking group, Chatterbox, works so beautifully well, because you can talk to people about your crazy ideas, and people will feedback and say, Look, they are crazy ideas, but here's how you could potentially do them, do them better, and have you thought about this?

That's number one. And Number two is to, you know, you set them with targets and dates to actually help you achieve them. So like we said, the, they're a little bit stretchy, um, like a good pair of pants. They're a little bit far fetched. Um, and Mine in particular, like, let's go into them. 

[00:02:54] Goal One Podcast Consistency

Martin: So I'm gonna like, with all my best intentions, I'm going to [00:03:00] keep this podcast flowing.

There's going to be a maximum of a two week break. And for reasons kind of already addressed, I am my wife. And I are about to have another baby imminently, probably within the next two, three to four weeks. Um, so very excited. Obviously, hopefully with everything goes smoothly and I can have a backup of a couple of podcasts to kind of spread over the break then.

Yeah, I want to do that because something like this. Consistency with keeping the podcast flowing has been something I've really struggled with in the past. 

[00:03:43] Goal Two Build New Brands

Martin: Then there's also, this is something I really, really want to hit, and I actually think I might have gone under with what I want to achieve. So I basically want to start five new brands from scratch, [00:04:00] completely Blank canvases and ideally in a, uh, sustainable purpose driven field.

That is something that I actually think could be achievable, but it also at the same time, that's a huge amount of work, especially for a one person business currently, and obviously in that point, if it gets to be, if it gets to be that I've done five. Before, say, uh, you know, May, I'll be like, okay, well, I've done that, uh, that's reevaluate and look at it again.

How many, what's next? What point do we get to next? If we're doing them that quickly, have we done them to a point where they look, um, where they are a up to scratch, they're not being rushed. They are fit for purpose. The clients are super happy. [00:05:00] How do we, where do we go from that point? Do, do we need to re evaluate and say, look, we need to do it, but it do it to a different sort of, uh, a different finish.

Do we need to Add additional services. And do we need to look at bringing on another designer to help with the capacity? Cool. Let's evaluate and the next one and this one may be where we then top it up with that work. But again, obviously, if we get to a point where we've done it by May, fantastic. 

[00:05:39] Goal Three Brand Refreshes

Martin: We evaluate, but we're also looking to do five brand refreshes with websites as well.

Um, and obviously not everybody needs a website. Some of the things when we do a brand refresh, you will audit and say, okay, um, your logo is a bit off, but your color palette and [00:06:00]everything else and your typography is perfect. We just need a new refresh, a refresher for a few graphic assets, logo, and basically roll out across.

A few bits and pieces might be that we don't need to do a full read for full refresh might just be a few documents to just kind of tie everything together and then, okay, so the last target is going to be one of those ones that it's a crazy, a slightly crazy idea, but it's something I actually think would be so good and fantastic to engage the community debating whether we do it.

[00:06:44] Big Idea Small Biz Conference

Martin: An offline and online version, but this one is like a small business conference covering a few, like a few of the critical aspects of [00:07:00] business and building business. So obviously first up. 

[00:07:05] Conference Topics Breakdown

Martin: Obviously we're going to have strategy and branding, but we also need to integrate the legal side of it, the HR side of it, the SEO side of it, copywriting, business management, photography, videography and accounting.

Like off the top of my head, that's probably 10 things that It's like the starting point to putting together a business and that you might look at that and say, Oh, that's a, that's a huge amount of stuff that I have to get ready. Um, but let's face it, you do not need to do all of that straight away. It might be an absolute necessity for you to do the legals first and look at your HR really depends on what sort of field you're in.

I'm sure some legal people will absolutely disagree with me and say it's the first stop. [00:08:00]Obviously a lot of the stuff is having an idea and Something to go with to begin with fantastic. That might be something you speak to a business management consultant or a brand strategist when say, look, is this option viable?

Yes. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe you need to rethink this. Photography and videography. You might, you might want to have a quick, you know, 20 minute, 30 minute photo shoot with, uh, with somebody and just say, look, yeah, this is, this is absolutely, you've got some content to go get going with something to launch your business with.

Um, likewise, you might not have everything you need for your branding or your social media stuff sorted, but you've kind of got the nuts and bolts in place. You may also be like, okay, we can, you know, when's the right time to bring in an account to [00:09:00] start work on the business? When's the best time to start doing some photography?

Should I get some copywriting done or, you know, my SEO, should I get that sorted? Who, who can help me with that stuff? And basically it's the opportunity for us to come together as a collective, troubleshoot problems, um, and deliver. key information that will help people grow. 

[00:09:28] Make Goals Actionable

Martin: So with that in mind, I want you to pick out like sort of two to three goals, things that you can feel like you're completely achievable.

Also stretch you a little bit, then you can break them down into little itty bitty pieces. And you go, yeah, okay, these feel less scary. And then you can break it down into week to week by week, little [00:10:00] tasks. 

[00:10:01] Weekly Routines To Execute

Martin: You might spend half an hour on it on a Friday afternoon where you're just like, do you know what?

I'm not doing any more work this week. Let's get over and see if we can crack in, do a bit of that task. Or you might be like Monday morning is my time to shine. Let's hit the ground running.