Fine-tuning SMART Goals

So let's go ahead and get started with today's topic. So today's topic is fine tuning those smart goals. All right,

so let's go ahead and transition to these different SMART goals. And if you do not remember what SMART stands for, so SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. Basically, specific means you know, is it, you know, very clear, measurable, you know how much you know is there achievable and you actually do it real,

you know, so here you guys go. So just Googling it specific, be clear specific so your goals are easier to achieve. This also helps you know how and where to get started. Measurable measure goals can be tracked, allowing you to see your progress. They also tell you when your goal is complete actionable, are you able to make action to achieve the goal?

Actionable goals. Ensure the steps to get there are within your control. Realistic, avoid overwhelm and unnecessary stress by and frustration by making the goal realistic. And then time bound a date helps us stay focused and motivated, inspiring us to provide something to work towards. So going through all of our comments, right? Okay, so here's Ashley. She's saying,

I wanna start my own mobile next by next year. So here's what we've gotta do, right? We've gotta make it specific. So opening up a mobile business when by next year. So instead of saying something along the lines of next year, maybe we say, you know, by March, 2020, right? Or by December, 2020. So by having a specific end date that's gonna help us.

So, so we have our for, we have our goal, right? You wanna open up your own mobile next year. So let's look at what our SS is, right? So, and again, if you don't find the acronym you need, look up, there's so many things online, guys, feel free to do that. So ss set real numbers with real deadlines.

Say, don't say I want more visitors. Okay? Be clear and specific, right? Who, what, where, when, and why, right? Perfect. So, you know, is this a specific goal? No, not yet, right? So let's start, and again, I'm gonna go outta order because that's how my brain works. If you're a more linear human being,

I apologize in advance. So I wanna start my own mobile next year. So I want to you open my own mobile grooming business by let's say December, 2022. Perfect, right? And then we're like, okay, well is this, you know, so first thing I wanna ask myself is, is this achievable, right? And so this is where I might dive into this.

So this is, if this was somebody on a coaching call, I'd be like, okay, to, you know, and this is where I would ask myself, how much money do I need in order to start my mobile grooming business, right? And so I'm gonna tell you, ideally six months worth of personal expenses, ideally six months of business expenses,

and then let's say a down payment on a grooming man, right? So that's a lot of stuff. So we're like, okay, well we've got these three things that we need to get minimally. Another thing we need to take into account here is what is the lead time for building a mobile grooming van right now for hand V. So like let's say hand V is anywhere between 12 and 26 weeks average from time of financing.

So by the time you've asked what you wanna build, you've sent them the down payment, it is 12 to 26 weeks average to get that van built. So first thing we've gotta do is look at right these. So let's do relevant and is it a relevant goal? I hope, you know, I'm assuming that owning your own business is what you want.

But you wanna make sure like can you know, do I need health insurance? Is it a situation that I'm okay with potentially not making any money for three to six months while my business is being built? Am I okay with in the very beginning, grooming probably 30 to 40 hours a week and working on the backside of my business another 20 or 30 hours?

You know, working, you know, working in a salon 40 hours a week is hard. You know, working in a mobile business for 40 hours a week is hard. But then when we are our own business, we have to do the job of a receptionist, a manager, a groomer, right? We have all that other stuff. So I wanna make sure if I set this date of December, 2022,

am I gonna have all of these things, right? So this is where there might be a goal beforehand, right? I might have to say I want to save up, let's say $60,000 and we're gonna say $25,000 down payment on a grooming van. Let's say, you know, $15,000 business expenses. Yeah, I mean that's, you know, and then let's say you don't have a spouse or anything.

So you know the $20,000 for personal expenses, you know, if you're starting from zero in this example, is it likely you're gonna be able to save up $60,000? Unless if you have something to sell or to do? This may be very difficult 'cause let's look at December, 2022. If we're looking at 12 weeks, $60,000 by let's say September, 2022. That is January,

February, March, April, may, June, July, August, September. So it's eight months. Eight months. That's how much I'm gonna do my math. $60,000 divided by eight, that's about $7,500 a month saved. So a lot of times we're gonna say, I have this audacious goal and I'm like, okay, well let's break down that goal,

make sure it's a smart goal, make sure it's a realistic goal. So I wanna say it was 60 grand. I'm gonna do 25, do thousand dollars down payment on my grooming van. I'm gonna $15,000 to save for my business expenses, which is my grooming van, payment insurance, marketing for my website, et cetera. And I'm gonna have 20 grand set aside for my emergency fund,

for my personal life and my business. That way if I have to pay this and that and I have nobody come in, or God forbid we get shut down for covid, or God forbid, instead of 12 weeks, we're at 26 weeks. Or you get fired early from your current job because your job finds out that you're gonna be opening up your own business.

Whatever it is, let's use that as an example, right? So we're gonna have 60 grand. So that's where the question becomes, is that achievable, right? In eight months am I gonna be able to save $7,500 a month? So let's say this person at this point, so let's say you're looking at the $60,000 and you're like, there's absolutely no hope of me being able to do that before December, 2022.

So then let's go. So let's say instead I want to save up, you know, I want to open my own mobile grooming vis by December, 2023. Now this is less sexy, right? This is less sexy. 'cause we always wanna do everything now I don't wanna wait two years, I don't wanna do this today, I wanna do this now. But here's the thing is that by you having money saved and by doing it the right way,

it's going to be so much smoother. When people open up businesses on a shoestring budget, they have so many problems in their business. Anytime there's a little problem, it's a giant hiccup, right? Because if you're sick with C O V I D for two weeks and there's no one to groom and you have to reschedule everybody, if you have 15,000 worth of business expenses in the bank and 20,000 for personal expenses,

you're gonna take the time to heal. You're gonna do the right thing by you, okay? This just allows you to have so many more choices. And about $25,000 down on a grooming van is about average right now because don't forget you, you may or may not be able to roll your taxes into your payment. You may or may not be able to put everything into your loan.

So we wanna have that little bit of buffer and extra, okay? So I wanna open my own mobile grooming business by December, 2023. I will save up $30,000. Well, I'll save up thir $60,000 by September, 2023 and place my order for my van in September, 2023, right? So that may be a little more realistic and I, I know it's not sexy to have realistic goals.

It's more fun to like beat the odds and be crazy and this and that. But sometimes it just takes, you know, but so like here's again an example, right? I'm gonna place their order here. So you know, she's saying she might pay for conversion. So you know, and then finance the van. Well a grooming van, a professional grooming van is anywhere between $85,000 and about $120,000.

Your van, your sprinter van is anywhere between 35 and about 65 K. You know, your conversion is generally anywhere between realistically 40 to 60 K. So that's about where we're at. You know, there are some conversions that are cheaper. So you know, if we're gonna get a sprinter, which I personally think you should only do, you know,

I have pretty strong opinions. So you take what you guys want from it. I personally do not believe in D I Y grooming vans. I think, you know, and again, I know it's not a popular thing to have an opinion on. I think there are definitely people that can do it, right? I just think that for the most part it's not wise.

You know, we don't suggest clients shave their own dogs, right? And you don't need, you really don't need a college degree to do that. Engineering is a college degree. Engineering should be respected. It's not easy. You know, if you're gonna do it, just be aware that you really should never sell it because God forbid someone kills themselves,

kills a dog, you will be liable as a manufacturer if you were having an issue with a hand V van you call handy and they have a team of engineers and customer service to help walk you through a problem. And now that they have those QR codes, it literally pulls up videos how to fix something in common reasons that things could be, you know,

not ideal. So, you know, and here's my thing, Ashley is like, if you're going to pay outright for the conversion and you're gonna finance the van, that's absolutely not a problem. But that means you need to save up realistically. I mean let's, let's even do it on the very low end, you know, 30 to $60,000. You know,

to me, you know, it makes more sense for you to have some money in your emergency fund than have it down on the van. So that's really nice. So actually like here's the thing is if you're gonna have like 60 grand to do this, then you're go, you're golden, then you can have this, right? So if you have this money down,

then you're golden, right? And so we've got our six months worth of business expenses, personal expenses, I don't know what your expenses are, I'm just gonna take a wild guess, you know, and that's where you've got to, you know, do all of that, right? So I wanna save 60,000 by September, 2020. You know, I am going to put my order into handy V by September, 2022 and start my business.

Let's say you wanna start December, let's 2022. Now with that, here's the thing with that, starting December, 2022, depending upon where you are in the country, is December, 2022 the best date to start a mobile business? So this is where I might say, you know, we've got all these things, we're like, okay, well yeah, I can definitely open it by December, 2022.

But is that really the best state to open it? I always say the best times to open a grooming business is in September or in March, that is getting your feet wet before the holidays. You know, having a month or two to kind work out the kinks, get used to being in the van, build up your clientele slowly, and then you've got the holidays rush.

And then from there, in the alternative, I like to see people open it as of March. And the reason I like March is because March, you don't have to. Like I really, if you live in a place that has snow, and again, you might not live in a place that has snow. I don't like to see people open up a grooming business during snow.

'cause it's a lot of, it's like snow is the hardest time to learn. And in the deadest summer, it's the hardest time too because you're trying to learn your van and you're trying to learn how to gauge temperature and dogs dry differently in a handy v van over in a shop because it's just basically a tiny sauna on wheels. So learning the tips and tricks and getting involved in the mobile grooming groups is really gonna help you.

So going back to this, it's like, okay, so now that I have my answer, then I go, okay, well may do I want to start my mobile grooming business before then. So that might be where actually, you know, you already have some money, right? So instead of doing this, maybe instead we're gonna actually bring it sooner,

right? So maybe instead of doing it in December, 2023, we are gonna green business by, let's say September, 2022. I'm gonna save up the 60 grand by let's say realistically, you know, 'cause we want at least three months. So let's say May, 2022, okay? And then we're going to place our order in May, 2022. That is three months. So we're gonna say,

you know, building June, July, August. So you get your van in August, but realistically you're gonna get it delivered in September. You're gonna, 'cause you're gonna probably get a wrap or you're gonna have your marketing start my mobile business in September, 2022. Right? So this is again, a more goal that has been fleshed out. We've kind of worked through the kinks here.

I wanna open my mobile grooming business by September, 2022. I will save up 60,000 by May, 2022 for the down payment, the business expenses and the personal expenses and place my order for my van May, 2020. And they're gonna be building it realistically June, July, August. Lemme start my mobile business in September, 2020, right? So this is a pretty smart goal, right?

Everything here has been thought of. We've organized it, it's relevant, you know, and you know, I might even flush this goal out a little bit here and say, you know, all backend marketing website policies, pricing, and procedures will be created and set up as of let's say July, 2022. So I can start my, you know, my mo my old business taking clients,

my first clients in September, 2022. So again, like I might go, okay, like what do I, what do I need to do in this goal? And like, as you can see, we keep flushing it out. You know, it's not as sexy, right? It's not as fun as like just having this like crazy thing. Like, you know when we write something simple like I wanna open up my mobile next year.

That sounds really fun. It sounds really easy. I don't wanna say easy 'cause that's terrible, but this sounds like this is what we wanna say. But as we're starting to flesh all of this out, it is longer, it is more pragmatic. It is a situation where we are breaking it down more and we're getting really clear on what we want,

right? So let me do this again, but let's do this with somebody maybe who say, I want to earn more money next year. So let's say that's the goal we start with, right? That's what someone is gonna say. And that's not a bad goal, right? But let's make it better. I want to earn $10,000 more next year.

So this might seem like a better goal, but I actually think it's a worse goal because in order to know you wanna earn 10 grand more next year, I wanna know how much did you earn this year and how much are you gonna earn next year? So instead, what I would say I want to earn, let's say last year you made for easy math.

'cause I'm feeling lazy. Let's say you earned $40,000 last year, so I wanna earn $50,000 in 2022. Again, it's better. But here's the thing I wanna ask you. Is that net or is that gross? So what net profit is, is after you've paid all your bills, gross profit is all the money that comes in. So let's say you wanna be nice to river,

so I want to earn $50,000 gross profit it in 2022. 'cause you're like river, it's okay. I don't need to figure out my net right now. I just wanna see 50 grand on the books by the end of the year. That's fine. You know, normally we would say a hundred grand 'cause that's more realistic, but I'm feeling lazy. So we're gonna say $50,000.

Okay? So what I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna go, okay, how much is that per month, right? So I'm gonna take my $50,000, I'm gonna divide that by 12. So that's about earn $50,000 gross profit. And then I'm gonna break it down for myself. I'm gonna say 41 67 a month. And then I'm gonna break that down again by week.

So I'm gonna say 50 weeks. So it's about a thousand dollars a week, right? I'm gonna break that down so I can get it in my head. Gross profit in 2022. And I'm gonna put, well, not adding any more rooms to my bottom line or cutting any of my current, I don't wanna say entitlements, I'm gonna say entitlements.

Entitlements. So I'm not gonna change shampoos to cut money. I'm not gonna get rid of my prima, I'm not gonna sell anything. I'm gonna enjoy the shit I have, right? So we're getting a little better here. I wanna earn $50,000 gross profit. I wrote down how much it is while not adding any more grooms to my bottom line or cutting any of my current entitlements.

So this is where, you know, I'm gonna go, okay, now remember with the cutting your, your entitlements, you don't necessarily have to add that because we put gross, but if I had put net profit, then I would. So I'm actually gonna take that out because I don't have to worry about cutting money because cutting money with my gross profit is really irrelevant.

So right now I'm gonna go, okay, so I want to groom, so I have this, and I'm gonna again just copy this 'cause I'm feeling lazy and paste this, right? And I'm gonna write 25 pets a week or a hundred pets a month, right? And I am gonna do for 1200 a year. So let's break that down, right?

So if I'm gonna do 50,000 pets a year, $50,000 gross, and I'm gonna divide that by 1200 pets a year. That is right. So 50,000 divided by 1200 grooms, we're looking at about $42 a groom, right? And if we do, again, if we do a hundred, whoop, nope, we did 40, let's say, if we look at that.

So I'm like, oh man, $42 a groom. I'm already grooming 25 pets a week, right? So let's do the 25. So that would be 42. Well let's do, so 41 67 gross divided by a hundred pets a month equals 42, right? A groom. And then again, that $1,000, oh gross, 25 pets. And that's about 40.

So I'm looking at this and I'm like, man, like I sh I charge, let's say $45 a groom, right? And I didn't make $50,000. So what's going on with that? That's where that person has the opportunity to go, wait a minute, I'm already charging 45 or $50 a groom. Why? And I'm, and I'm in theory,

I think I'm grooming this many pets. What's going on here? Right? And so let's say they find out that, you know, for this example, that maybe, and again, everybody's different. Let's say this person finds out that they're not charging no call, no shows, or you know, they're doing a lot of bath dogs and their, you know,

bath dogs are like $35 for a lab and they're like, oh my God, I've been doing this. Or maybe they find out I need be doing this many dogs and they're, you know, for Shih tzus. But if they are, let's say if I can do five dogs a day, if they're shihtzu, but if they're doodles, I'm doing two,

let's say I'm doing 10 pets a week, right? I need to do a thousand dollars gross and I'm doing only 10 doodles a week. 'cause doodles are the bane of my existence, you know? And in this example, I should be charging a hundred dollars for a doodle groom. And let's say I go, oh crap, like I'm charging $75 for a doodle groom.

And that might be where I'm gonna start noticing problems. What's going on in my current business? So let's say if I'm like, man, like I already charge 50, so I can go back and say, okay, so maybe it's not about increasing pets, right? Maybe it's about increasing the groom. Maybe it's about finding out why I need these numbers to make sense.

'cause the truth is that the numbers don't lie. There are so many times you guys will throw shit out at me and I do the math and I'm like, well, there's something wrong here because the numbers you gave me don't add up. And if the numbers don't add up, it's not my fault. There's something going on here, right? So for this person,

if they're charging 45 or 50 bucks a groom, it could be that they're doing less dogs than they think they are. And it's all this, or maybe they're comping things. Maybe there's a lot of people that you know, they're giving discounts to. Or maybe it's that they're not grooming as many pets as they think they are. You know? So they can go back through all of this stuff and start looking at it.

So this is where a lot of times, as we're starting to make these our smart goals, we're gonna start seeing cracks in things. Because again, I wanna earn more money next year once we start breaking this down. What happens really quickly is we see the cracks in the foundation. And, and this might be something where we're like, okay, like I need to groom $4,200 a month,

right? Or a thousand dollars about a week. And that person might look at this and say, you know what? I wanna do less pets. I wanna take, you know, instead of earning more money, not only do I wanna earn more money, right? They might be like, take only working four days, four days a week, right?

And so we're gonna bring that down to 20 pets a day. Yeah. 20 pets a week, 80 pets a month. We're gonna do 80 times 12. 'cause I think I know what it is, but I don't wanna say it. Yep. So we got nine 60. So again, let's go ahead and do the math again, right? So we got our 41,

I'm sorry, $50,000, and we're gonna divide that by our 960 pets, right? And we're gonna do, so this is here, a $52 groom. That's not really that high, right? So let's say if you go, you know what, actually, what is a hundred thousand dollars gross look like? Gross. And let's divide that by 960 pets,

right? A year. And this is where you can start playing with this and make it kind of a game. And as you're thinking about this goal, you're like, okay, well is this a realistic goal? Now this obviously is where you're like, oh man, that's $104 a groom. But if this is your goal right here, you might say,

okay, this year in 2022, I wanna gross a hundred thousand dollars. And then in 2023, I wanna get it so that I can take an extra day off. So let's say, right, let's take that a hundred thousand dollars and let's do it by 1200 pets a year, Right? So we're gonna take our a hundred thousand dollars and we're gonna divide that by 1200 pets.

So that's about $83 a groom. So you might focus this year from going from, you know, 45 and 55 a to $83 a groom. And that would be a great goal for 2022. And then your goal for 2023 would be to bring that up, another $20, right? So again, I know it's a little confusing, but very quickly we can break down this goal,

make it realistic, and decide what we wanna focus this year on. Like this person might say, you know what? I would rather focus on taking an entire day off, and then if I increase my prices, great. Or they would be like, you know what? I really wanna double my income, and then in 2023, I will focus on taking that extra day off.

You know, there's so many different ways of figuring out how you wanna do that, you know? And there's no wrong way, guys. There's absolutely no wrong way. It's all about what you wanna do and how you wanna do it. I really appreciate it. I hope this has helped. How you can kind of start breaking down those goals, making sure they're realistic,

and start fleshing them out to make sure it's really what you wanna accomplish in 2022.