BS in Business Administration Insight: How SMART Are Your Goals?

It’s one thing to have goals; it’s a whole other thing to know how to reach them. Whether you’re trying to earn a business degree, trying to launch a new product, or looking to earn a promotion, knowing the best way to set and meet your goals can significantly increase your ability to succeed.

One of the best strategies for setting and reaching goals is called SMART. SMART is an acronym for a goal-reaching method that’s designed to help people in all walks of life. At Walden University, BS in Business Administration (BSBA) students study the SMART method as part of the course Graduate Writing: Basic Composition Skills. As excerpted from Walden’s materials, SMART stands for:

Specific
The more specificity you bring to your goal, the clearer it is. Vague goal: “I want to advance in my company.” How exactly would you like to advance—in terms of money or title? What position would you like to hold? More specific goal: “I want to advance to the position of senior sales manager.”

Measurable
You must be able to track your progress toward the goal and understand when you have attained it. Measurability allows for that. Not measurable: “Get better at public speaking.” Measurable and specific: “Give one class lecture without stuttering.” If you do not stutter during the class, you know you have achieved the goal.

Achievable or Attainable
One tendency with goal setting is to aim too high, and that approach can set goals beyond our reach. Likely not achievable: “Earn my Doctor of Nursing Practice degree within 1 year of starting.” This goal is not feasible due to workload and the established timeline of the program. Likewise, “Become an executive chef in a three-star restaurant within 2 years” is not likely to happen if you are currently a dishwasher with no culinary training. So … be conservative when determining what is actually achievable.

Relevant
This criterion ensures that the goal is important to you right now, at this point in your life. For instance, if your goal is “Start my own home healthcare business by the end of the year,” consider what else is going on in your life. What other goals are you working toward? How does this goal help or hinder those? Perhaps you have just bought a house, which has reduced your finances; it might not make sense to invest in a business at this point as well.

Time-Bound
Every goal must include a deadline or timeframe. Otherwise, why would you ever start it? The procrastinator in you might just keep waiting and waiting and never take action. When determining an appropriate goal timeframe, ask yourself how long you need to realistically complete the goal. This date gives you the end point, but it should also spark a desire to achieve mini-goals along the way to attaining the larger goal.

How Else Can You Increase Your Chances of Success?

The SMART method is just one of many ideas, lessons, and keys to success you could study if you enroll in Walden’s BS in Business Administration degree program. Designed for working professionals, Walden’s BSBA degree program can help you develop leadership skills, gain relevant knowledge in key business functions, and learn how to analyze issues that impact business decisions from economic, political, legal, ethical, and social-change perspectives. And thanks to Walden’s online learning platform, you can gain all of this while continuing to work full time.

Unlike in a campus-based bachelor of business administration degree program, Walden’s online business degree program doesn’t require you to be close to a campus or even drive to night classes. Instead, online education allows you to earn your business administration degree from home. Plus, when you earn your bachelor’s in business administration online, you can choose when in the day you attend class, giving you the flexibility to meet your work and home responsibilities while earning your degree.

Success takes work. But with a BSBA from Walden, you can gain the skills you need to improve your ability to succeed.

Walden University is an accredited institution offering a BS in Business Administration degree program online. Expand your career options and earn your degree in a convenient, flexible format that fits your busy life.

Walden University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission, www.hlcommission.org.