As with every important undertaking, setting goals (and reaching them) is a good way of measuring if you’re making any progress at all, and how much progress you’re making. It doesn’t become any less important when it comes to laying down your business goals. If your enterprise must grow and flourish, your business development goals are the rungs in the ladder that’ll get it there.

Knowing you have to set targets for your business, however, isn’t simply about envisioning lofty goals that have no bearing to your current position. It’s not about writing down huge numbers and looking at them every day just so you can say you have a goal. It’s about knowing how these targets and your quest to reach them will guide your business growth.

Tough as it all may be in the long run, here are some steps to consider that’ll make it just a little easier.

Be Reasonable

I reiterate, it does your business no good to set a goal simply so you can say that you have a goal. It must be something that you can see yourself attaining. Would that mean that you have to start small? Not necessarily. But it would help if you did. Too many entrepreneurs often feel pressured into setting high targets only to be crushed when they don’t reach them. The great thing is that they aren’t carved in stone (well most of them aren’t, anyway) and can be revised to fit the progress of your growth, the bigger your business gets. So first understand why you’re doing this. Why this job? Why this industry? Pick out your motivations for starting this business, and you’ll discover some reasonable starting goals you can enter the playing field with.

Focus on You

And if you found it hard to do, it’s totally understandable. Entrepreneurship—and business in general—can get very competitive. Once you’ve identified your business rivals, those that would be considered more seasoned in your product’s market, it can be tempting to go the ambitious route and step up to the challenge of racing them toward a particular goal, financial or otherwise. You’ve got the same potential clients you’re trying to appeal to, and you’re going neck and neck trying to emerge as the authority in your field. They may be competing for big cheques, and understandably you want a piece of that too. The thing about setting financial goals for you, however, is to focus on a pace that’s equally comfortable and yet fairly challenging to you. There’s no point overwhelming yourself. You, and your business may buckle under the pressure to meet these expectations.

Be Honest

Above all, when setting financial development goals for your business, it’s important to honestly examine your current finances. They will set the tone for all your dealings and are the foundation for the business you’re trying to build. No business is run free of any kind of cost. You put in money to make money. So be frank with yourself (and your Financial Advisor) about how much you’re making, how much is coming to you and how much is being reinvested.

When it’s all said and done, running a business in the current economic climate can be tough. Following through with working towards financial targets can be much harder, even on the days when you’re motivated. But discipline can carry the load where motivation alone fails, so remember to cultivate both; they’ve built businesses and they’ve built entrepreneurs.