How to Create SMART Goals for Your Graphic Design Business

Setting goals and working toward them is a fundamental aspect of success in any business. And graphic design is no exception.

As a designer, establishing clear and actionable goals with the SMART criteria can allow you to take control of your projects, business goals, finances, and more.

However, knowing how to set SMART goals can be a bit tricky. Sure, there are clear criteria, but how do you put them into practice?

In this guide, I'll walk you through the process of creating SMART goals tailored specifically to your freelance graphic design business!

Understanding SMART Goals

It’s generally accepted that the idea for SMART goals first appeared in November 1981, in a paper authored by George T. Doran. The paper, entitled There's a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management's Goals and Objectives, put forward the framework as we know it now.

In it, Doran writes “… when it comes to writing effective objectives, [you] just have to think of the acronym SMART.” Since its publication, the SMART framework has gone on to become one of the most used tools for defining goals and milestones for businesses of all types.

Before we explore the specifics of crafting SMART goals for your graphic design business, let's break down what each letter in the SMART acronym represents:

• Specific: Your goals should be clear, concise, and well-defined, leaving no room for ambiguity or misinterpretation.

• Measurable: Define concrete criteria for measuring progress and success, allowing you to track your performance and evaluate outcomes objectively.

• Achievable: Set goals that are realistic and attainable within the constraints of your resources, capabilities, and timeframe.

• Relevant: Ensure that your goals are aligned with your overall business vision, mission, and strategic objectives, contributing to meaningful progress and advancement.

• Time-Bound: Establish deadlines or timelines for accomplishing your goals, instilling a sense of urgency and accountability to drive action and momentum.

It should be noted that those aren’t the original definitions put forward in Doran’s paper. The criteria have been revised and updated in the years that followed the paper’s publication to make them more all-purpose.

Now that we have a clear understanding of the SMART framework, let's explore how you can apply it to create impactful goals for your graphic design business.

SMART Goals: Specific – Define Your Objectives

SMART goals have the power to take you and your freelance design business to new levels. The framework allows you to set clear, very specific goals, and then measure them over time to make sure you’re on the right track.

The first step to setting your own SMART goals is to identify the specific areas of your graphic design business that you want to focus on and improve.

Working in graphic design, there can be any number of goals or targets you may want to focus on. You could have the goal of increasing revenue, enhancing brand visibility, or something more personal, like improving your graphic design skills.

For our example, and one we’ll continue throughout this guide, we’ll set ourselves the goal of getting more clients into our freelance business. Not specifically increasing revenue, but instead working with more clients explicitly.

The first step in the SMART framework is making it Specific, so the first part of our smart goal is to increase client base by securing at least five new clients within the next six months.

SMART Goals: Measurable – Record the Data

Cool! Now we know exactly what it is we want to achieve, we need to move on to the M part of SMART. This stands for Measurable, and helps us to establish measurable criteria for tracking progress and success.

This could involve quantifiable metrics such as revenue targets, client acquisition numbers, project completion rates, or social media engagement metrics. Depending on your goal, this will change, but the benefits remain the same.

By quantifying your goals and measuring the data, you'll be able to monitor your performance objectively and make informed decisions based on real analytics.

In our example, we know we want to get more clients. So this, we’ll add the measurement: Track progress by maintaining a record of leads, client inquiries, and new contracts signed each month.

SMART Goals: Achievable – Ensure It’s Realistic

Of course, when setting goals, you should aim high. You want to push yourself, and you want to make sure the goals you’re setting are a challenge. After all, if you can do it instantly, it’s not a goal.

But while it's important to aim high with your goals, it's equally important to make sure they’re realistic and attainable.

As you figure out your goals and what you want to achieve, you also need to consider factors such as your current resources, skillset, industry trends, market conditions, and anything else that’s going to be relevant to the particular thing it is you want to achieve.

As a side note, if you’re finding your goals too difficult, or not making progress fast enough, you can help yourself by breaking down larger goals into smaller, manageable tasks and milestones. This incremental approach not only makes your goals more achievable but also builds momentum and confidence as you achieve each one.

For the Achievable section of the SMART goal, you should write how you’ll achieve the goal. So, for ours, this would be: Utilise networking opportunities, online platforms, and social media marketing to reach out to potential clients and showcase our design portfolio effectively.

SMART Goals: Relevant – Align with Relevance

Hopefully, you have an overarching vision for your graphic design business. Every goal you set, every milestone you want to work toward, should be aligned with that mission.

So it’s in this Relevant section of the SMART framework that you ensure your goal is aligned with your overarching business vision, mission, and values.

Here, you should ask yourself:

• Does this goal support my long-term objectives?

• Is it strategically aligned with my core business priorities?

• Will it help to advance me toward my business vision?

By keeping your goals relevant to your overall business vision, you can be sure that everything you’re working on will contribute to pushing toward the completion of that vision.

So, with this in mind, what should the Relevant section be for our goal of getting more clients? We’d have to know an overall vision, but for our purposes, we’ll use this: Growing the client base aligns with our aspiration to attain opportunities for creative expression and financial stability.

SMART Goals: Time-Bound – Setting Deadlines

Without a deadline, you run the risk of working and working without achieving anything specific. A goal gives you something to work toward, and a deadline adds some urgency to it. It gives you a push to get it done.

So in the Time-Bound part of the SMART framework, look to establish clear deadlines or timelines for your goals. This time-bound aspect adds a sense of urgency and accountability, preventing procrastination and ensuring timely action.

Again, if you’re having trouble tackling the whole goal, break it down into smaller, time-bound milestones or checkpoints. These keep you on track, whilst not feeling potentially overwhelming.

For the Time-Bound section of our goal of attaining five new clients, we’ll add a six-month deadline: Within six months, secure at least five new clients by consistently implementing marketing strategies and actively seeking new business opportunities.

The Complete SMART Goal

And there we have it! Over the course of this guide, we’ve looked at each section of the SMART goal framework in detail, and we’ve also constructed our own SMART goal to help us get more clients for our graphic design business.

The complete goal we created looks like this when all combined together:

• Specific: Increase client base by securing at least five new clients within the next six months.

• Measurable: Track progress by maintaining a record of leads, client inquiries, and new contracts signed each month.

• Achievable: Utilise networking opportunities, online platforms, and social media marketing to reach out to potential clients and showcase design portfolio effectively.

• Relevant: Growing the client base aligns with our aspiration to attain opportunities for creative expression and financial stability.

• Time-Bound: Within six months, secure at least 5 new clients by consistently implementing marketing strategies and actively seeking new business opportunities.

Conclusion

Creating SMART goals for your graphic design business is a systematic process that involves defining clear objectives, making them measurable, ensuring achievability, aligning with relevance, and setting time-bound deadlines.

This framework allows you to ensure your goals not only work towards your business objectives, but also fit seamlessly into overarching graphic design business vision.

By following this approach, you'll not only clarify your business priorities but also increase your likelihood of success by turning your aspirations into actionable realities.

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