Article How to set up your next year’s goals (and actually stick to them)

Here we are again, gang. It’s month number 12 out of 12 and it’s time to start thinking about your goals for the year ahead.

It’s time to consider where you want to be professionally 12 months from now and set the goals that will help make that a reality.

But do I really need to set business goals?

The short answer is yes.

But don’t worry, we’ve got a long answer for you too:

If you’re a freelance translator, then this is probably a question you’ve asked yourself.

Maybe you’ve never set them before, and you’re not really sure what all the fuss is about. After all, you’re just moseying along doing your thing as a one-linguist band.

Well, while your business isn’t going to crumble around your ears just because you don’t have goals in place, over our years of freelancing experience we’ve come to realise just how important it is to have concrete objectives to set your sights on.

Because having goals means:

• You have a plan and can make decisions about your clients, marketing, CPD or business expenses accordingly.
• You aren’t just making it all up as you go along or feeling around in the dark without a map.
• It’s easier to be consistent, which will reassure potential clients they can rely on you.
• You’re taking yourself seriously as a business owner. In these turbulent times for freelancers, that can make all the difference.

Setting goals can mean you thrive rather than just survive.

Have we got you convinced yet?

Great. Then here are our tips on setting realistic goals you’ll actually stick to.

1. Get in early

One of the main tricks to actually taking end-of-year goal setting seriously is picking the right time to do it. Don’t tell yourself you’ll do it on your last day before you wrap up for your festive break (if you take one).

Trust us, you won’t!

You’ll (quite rightly) be distracted by festive fun and faff. And, let’s face it, even if you’re not celebrating at this time of year, you’ll be tired at the end of a long slog and it’ll get to a point when your brain really won’t want to engage with this kind of thing.

We always think the best time to set goals is either right now, whilst December is still young (if you’re reading this whilst it’s fresh off the press), or once you’re back at your desk in January.

We prefer getting it out of the way before the end of the year, so we’ve got clarity about where we’re taking things from the very first minute we turn on our computers after our break.

But whenever you decide is the right time for you, put it in your calendar and stick to it. Block out a morning or afternoon, light some candles and put some Christmas music on. Do anything you need to do to get into the right mindset and see it as a positive exercise, not a trial!

And give yourself a special treat once you’re done. You deserve a reward.

2. Take a look back

The best starting point is to reflect on the year just gone.

• What are you proud of yourself for?
• What did you achieve?
• What didn’t go so well?

Be kind to yourself and make sure you give yourself credit for all the things you’ve done well, rather than falling into the trap of focusing on the negatives.

We won’t take a close look at the financial side of reflecting on your year here, as that’d be a whole other article. But it’s definitely a good idea to analyse the numbers, what you’ve earned and spent overall, which of your clients paid you the highest and lowest hourly rates, and how many hours you put in from month to month.

Time tracking data is gold dust for this and, if you’re a user, your LSP.expert reports will make all this a breeze, so you can spend less time doing sums and more time reflecting.

3. Think ahead

Right, now it’s time to look forward and figure out where you want to take things over the next 12 months.

Ask yourself some questions about what you want the future to look like. Here’s some inspiration to get you going:

• Would you be the ideal scenario for your business in 12 months?
• What would you like to have changed?
• What would you like to stay the same, or what would you like more of?
• What kind of new clients would you like to be working with?
• What would your typical working day look like?
• How many hours would you be working?
• How much would you be earning?

Close your eyes and picture the very best version of your business at the end of next year. Don’t be afraid to think big or outside the box.

There are no wrong answers, and you get to decide what your priorities are, whether that’s scaling your business and doing things like speaking at conferences, or keeping things small-scale and stress-free, working as few hours as possible and prioritising other parts of your life, or somewhere in between.

4. Break it down and work backwards

Now you’ve got that picture in your mind and you’re clear on what you want out of the next year, it’s time to figure out how to make that a reality.

This is where being SMART comes in.

SMART goals are:

• Specific - What do you want to achieve?
• M easured - How will you measure this goal?
• Actionable - How will you make it a reality?
• Relevant - Why will achieving this goal be good for you and your business in the long term?
• Time-bound - When will this goal be achieved by?

Coming up with goals that tick all these boxes will give you far more chance of actually hitting them. Because goals that are vague, woolly or unrealistic will probably never be achieved.

Aim to set between three and five SMART goals. The first ones that come to mind will probably be a bit vague, along the lines of “Earn X/month consistently throughout 2025”.

Now, whilst an income goal is a great thing to set, it’s all well and good to say you want to earn a certain amount, but HOW are you going to make that a reality?

As the quote goes:

A goal without a plan is just a wish.

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Maybe the goal you actually need to set to earn a more stable income might be “Onboard two new retainer clients before the end of Q1”. A concrete goal like that means you can then go on to make a plan for finding those clients, like cold pitching ten companies per week throughout Q1 or using LinkedIn in an intentional, strategic way.

Try and make sure your goals cover different areas, like personal development and CPD, work/life balance, income and clients.

Don’t forget, it’s not all about improving the numbers in your business. The best thing about freelancing is the freedom to build your business on your own terms and decide what success looks like to you.

5. Plan your first steps

The best goals are goals you can take your first step towards in a matter of minutes. So now it’s time to plan out what that first step will be and when you’re going to take it.

Then go a little further and carefully plan out all the progress you’re going to make in January, setting yourself mini-targets and mini-deadlines. Lastly, sketch out a rough plan for the following months (depending on the time frame you’ve set for your goal) until you have a clear roadmap that makes you feel confident your goal can be achieved.

It’s so important to make this short-term plan, because if a goal feels overwhelming and you don’t know where to start, you’ll be tempted to put off taking any action at all. You’ll end up getting busy and forgetting all about your good intentions.

So get your plan locked in and tasks scheduled whilst you’re fired up.

6. Plan regular check-ins

As we’ve mentioned, it’s so easy to set goals at this time of year and then promptly forget all about them until next year. Because life happens, and client work comes in, and if you haven’t got any reminders in place, your goals will slip your mind, as well as slipping to the bottom of your priority list.

So do yourself a favour and do everything you can to stop that from happening. Schedule a quarterly, monthly or even weekly (for best results!) check-in to review the progress you’ve made, and decide on where to go next.

7. Make tracking your progress easy

With LSP.expert on your side, you’ll have huge amounts of information about your performance, profitability, clients, services and more, all of which will make it so much easier to monitor the progress you’re making with your goals.

Investing in LSP.expert is a way of proving to yourself that you’re taking your business seriously, and that this is the year you’re going to make solid goals and stick to them.

Keen to give it a go? Take advantage of our 30-day free trial.