MIO Method: Setting Goals That Grow With Your Business

How to Achieve Your Business Milestones with the MIO Method

When it comes to goal-setting, it can be difficult to set and measure your targets effectively.

Even if you’re using the SMART system (setting Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound goals), trying to hit those targets can be frustrating.

If your goals are metrics, it can be especially challenging, as you can’t really control the outcome of your efforts. You decide how much effort you put in, and the methods you’ll use to achieve your goals, but you have limited influence on how many people sign up to your course, or how much money you make each month.

This is why using MIO targets can be an effective way of setting and reaching your goals.

Read on (or watch the video below) to find out more about setting and reaching MIO targets.

What Exactly Are MIO Targets?

MIO stands for “Minimum”, “Ideal” and “Outrageous” goals.

• Your Minimum target is what you really need. For example, if you are setting goals for your monthly income, your minimum would be the amount that’s essential to pay your bills. You’d be extremely disappointed (and your phone might get cut off, if you don’t have savings to catch the slack!) if you didn’t hit this target.

• Your Ideal target is what you want, what you’re working towards. If you’re using this approach for your monthly income goals, achieving this would mean you could easily pay your bills and live comfortably. It might include attending a conference and paying off your mortgage, sending your children to summer camp or going away for the weekend with your partner. It would mean being satisfied with your work and efforts. Most people stop right here after reaching their ideal goal.
  But let’s just go one step further…

• Your Outrageous target is your wildest dream. If you reach this, your business is successfully growing and flourishing. If your goals are income-related, this could mean that your partner can retire, you’ll be debt-free within a year, or anything else you have worked towards. An outrageous goal is something you don’t think you’ll be able to achieve any time soon.

How MIO Targets Work

Let’s have a look at the process of setting and shifting your MIO goals. To give you an example, let’s say we’re working with monthly income.

Let’s say your minimum income is 2K. You define your ideal as 5K and your outrageous as 10K. At the very beginning, maybe you’ll hardly reach that minimum, and you’ll be happy just to be able to pay your bills.

Over time though, you’ll be able to reach your minimum, and sometimes even your ideal target more easily. At a certain point, you’ll always be hitting that 5K target. This is when you can begin to shift your goals.

To begin the shift, scrap your minimum target - you’re already easily surpassing this. Make your 5K ideal goal your minimum, and your previously outrageous 10K your new ideal. Now, you’ll need to set yourself a new outrageous target, 20K per month, for example.

This shift continues as you progress, always scrapping your minimum goal when you’re hitting your ideal target more often, shifting your ideal target down and setting yourself a new outrageous objective.

Applying The MIO Targets To Other Areas

I love using & applying MIO goals to all areas of life & business.

Let’s take a new Facebook page, for instance;

• The Minimum goal could be to reach 100 (perfect) page likes per month

• The Target goal could be to reach 300 (perfect) page likes per month

• In some niches, it might be possible to reach a million page likes in just a year (I’ve seen it happen!)… let’s be realistic though, and have the “outrageous” goal be 1k new page likes monthly.

Now as I said above, I can’t control how many people are going to like and follow this page. And probably in the first couple of months, we probably won’t grow exponentially (yet). But I’ll concentrate on posting the best content I can find or create, to reach people who will love that content - and engage with it. Once we’ve found our perfect audience, if it’s the right niche and if I’m doing things right, we should be able to grow the page a little bit more every month… and get 300 new followers in one month… that’ll be the celebration! But maybe a couple of months later, getting 300 page likes monthly wouldn’t be anything special… so we’d work towards getting 1k (by enhancing what we’re already doing). 1k would become the “ideal” target, and maybe 5k a month could be a realistic new “outrageous” goal.

Why Having An Outrageous Goal Is Important

Most people will be perfectly content setting a minimum and ideal goal and working towards those. After all, why try to achieve something that seems so ridiculously unattainable?

The truth is, your outrageous target will always seem out of reach… but keeping it in mind, seeing it mentioned in your planning, knowing exactly what that goal is - all of those things help make it more achievable.

Setting outrageous goals and aiming high is great motivation to work hard and put all your efforts into surpassing your ideal goal.

This way, even if you don’t manage hit an outrageous target  (and you shouldn’t be beating yourself up for that), you’ll know that you’ve done everything you can and you’ve given it your all.

Time For Action!

Now it’s your turn… sit down with a notebook (or with your computer), and set your own goals or targets. For this month, this year, your 5-year-plan.

Then, once a quarter or so, do the same exercise again - and see how it’s lifting up your business… effortlessly.

Let me know in the comments what you’re applying it to, and how it’s working for you!