Most creatives have a complicated relationship with goal-setting. On one hand, you know you need goals if you want your practice to become a sustainable business. On the other hand, the whole process can feel restrictive, corporate, like you’re forcing your work into spreadsheets and suffocating the intuitive flow that makes your creative process work in the first place.
But here’s the thing: good goal-setting doesn’t kill creativity. Bad goal-setting does. The difference between goals that propel your business forward and goals that sit in a notebook gathering dust comes down to how you construct them. When done well, goals give you clarity and momentum without turning your practice into something joyless and mechanical. They become tools for freedom, not constraints that box you in.
If you’ve tried setting business goals before and found yourself either ignoring them completely or feeling constantly defeated by them, you’re not alone. Most creatives aren’t taught how to set goals in ways that actually work with their brains and working styles. Let’s change that.
Start with the vision, then zoom in
You’re probably good at big-picture thinking. Most creatives are. You can imagine the life and business you want in vivid detail: the kind of clients you’d love to work with, the projects that would make you feel alive, the financial freedom that would let you turn down work that drains you. That vision matters enormously, and it’s where good goal-setting begins.
The mistake people make is stopping there. A vision without concrete steps to reach it remains fantasy. But concrete steps without a compelling vision feel arbitrary and unmotivating. You need both, and you need them connected to each other in ways you can actually see and feel.
Start by exploring what success genuinely looks like for you, not what it’s supposed to look like according to someone else’s definition. What would make you feel like your business is thriving? Be specific and honest here. Maybe it’s earning enough to work four days a week instead of seven. Maybe it’s landing one dream client per quarter. Maybe it’s building a body of work you’re genuinely proud of, regardless of how much money it makes. There’s no wrong answer, but there are dishonest answers, goals you think you should want rather than goals you actually want.
Once you’ve got that vision clear, work backwards. If that’s where you want to be in two years, where do you need to be in one year to stay on track? Six months? Three months? This reverse engineering helps you see the pathway between here and there. It transforms “I want a thriving creative business” into something you can actually act on this month, this week, today.
The vision gives you direction and motivation. The zoomed-in goals give you traction. You need both, and they need to be in constant conversation with each other.
Make goals specific and measurable
“I want to grow my business” isn’t a goal. It’s a wish with no edges, nothing you can grab hold of or evaluate progress against. Six months from now, how will you know if you’ve grown your business or not? You won’t, because the goal is too vague to be useful.
Compare that to: “I will generate £5,000 in monthly revenue by June through three new retained clients paying £1,500 each, plus one-off projects totalling £500.” Now you’ve got something concrete. You know exactly what you’re aiming for, you can track your progress, and you’ll know definitively whether you’ve achieved it or not.
This level of specificity might feel uncomfortable at first, especially if you’re used to keeping things loose and intuitive. Many creatives resist quantifying their goals because it feels reductive, like you’re turning your practice into nothing but numbers. But specificity isn’t about reducing your work to metrics. It’s about giving yourself clarity on what you’re actually trying to achieve.
The measurable part is equally important. You need to be able to evaluate your progress, not in vague feelings of “I think I’m doing okay,” but in concrete evidence. Numbers are the obvious choice: revenue, number of clients, hours billed, projects completed, followers gained, email subscribers added. But measurements don’t have to be purely numerical. You might measure progress by tangible outputs: portfolio pieces created, proposals sent, networking events attended, skills learned.
For creatives who genuinely resist quantification, try framing metrics as clarity tools rather than judgement tools. They’re not there to make you feel bad when you fall short. They’re there to help you see what’s working and what isn’t, so you can adjust accordingly. That’s useful information, not a report card on your worth as a human.
The key is making your goals specific enough that you’ll know when you’ve achieved them, but not so rigid that you can’t adapt when circumstances change. You’re looking for clarity, not prison bars.
Balance stretch with achievability
Goals need to exist in a sweet spot between too easy and too hard. Set them too low, and you won’t grow. You’ll coast, hitting targets that don’t actually challenge you to develop new skills or push beyond your current capacity. Set them too high, and you’ll discourage yourself before you even begin. You’ll look at what you’re supposed to achieve and decide it’s impossible, so why bother trying?
This balance is tricky because it’s personal. What feels achievably challenging for someone five years into their creative business might feel impossibly daunting for someone in year one. What feels easy for an illustrator might feel challenging for a photographer, even at similar experience levels. You have to calibrate your goals to where you actually are, not where you think you should be.
A good stretch goal should make you slightly uncomfortable. When you write it down, you should feel a flutter of “Can I really do this?” followed immediately by “But maybe I could.” That combination of doubt and possibility is the sweet spot. It means you’re reaching beyond your comfort zone without reaching so far that you’ve lost all connection to reality.
For creatives who are new to business, this often means breaking big goals into smaller milestones. Instead of “Make £50,000 in my first year,” which might feel overwhelming and abstract, try “Make £4,000 this month” or “Land two new clients by the end of the quarter.” These smaller goals build the confidence and competence you’ll need to achieve bigger things later. They give you proof that you can do this, which is often what’s missing when you’re starting out.
Pay attention to your emotional response to your goals. If you feel energised and motivated, you’re probably in the right zone. If you feel resigned or defeated, the goal might be too ambitious given your current circumstances. If you feel bored or uninspired, you’re probably not challenging yourself enough. Your emotional response is data. Use it.
Create accountability structures
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: goals without accountability are just wishes you wrote down once and then forgot about. You need structures that keep your goals visible and keep you honest about whether you’re actually working towards them or just hoping they’ll magically happen.
Accountability can take many forms, and the right form for you depends on how you’re wired. Some people thrive with public accountability, announcing their goals to friends or on social media so that other people will ask how it’s going. The social pressure motivates them to follow through. Other people find that kind of public declaration paralyzing, and they work better with private accountability, like a journal or regular check-ins with a trusted mentor or coach.
Many creatives benefit from having an accountability partner, someone else working on their own business goals who you check in with regularly. You share what you said you’d do, what you actually did, what got in the way, and what you’re committing to next. The key is that this person isn’t there to judge you, they’re there to help you stay honest with yourself about your patterns and progress.
Structure matters here. Vague intentions to “check in sometimes” usually fail. Specific commitments work better: “We’ll have a 30-minute call every other Monday morning” or “We’ll email each other every Friday with our weekly wins and challenges.” The regularity creates rhythm, and rhythm creates momentum.
Build in milestones and interim checkpoints as well. Don’t wait until the end of the quarter to evaluate whether you’re on track. Break your goals down into monthly or even weekly targets, and check your progress regularly. This lets you spot problems early when you can still course-correct, rather than realising too late that you’re nowhere near where you needed to be.
For many creatives, tangible deliverables work better than abstract commitments. Instead of “Work on my portfolio,” try “Complete three new portfolio pieces by month-end.” Instead of “Network more,” try “Attend two industry events and follow up with five new contacts.” Concrete deliverables are easier to hold yourself accountable to because there’s no ambiguity about whether you did them or not.
Review and adjust regularly
Business rarely goes exactly to plan, especially creative business. A client you were counting on falls through. An opportunity you never expected lands in your lap. Your circumstances change, your priorities shift, or you discover that a goal you thought you wanted actually doesn’t serve you anymore. This is normal, not failure.
Regular reviews are essential because they let you spot these changes early and adapt accordingly. Set aside time monthly or quarterly to sit down with your goals and ask honest questions: What’s working? What isn’t? What’s changed since I set these goals? Do these still make sense given where I am now?
This isn’t about beating yourself up for what you didn’t achieve. It’s about gathering information so you can make better decisions going forward. If you’re consistently missing a particular goal, that’s valuable data. Maybe the goal was too ambitious. Maybe you didn’t actually want it as much as you thought you did. Maybe circumstances beyond your control got in the way. All of those possibilities point to different solutions.
Sometimes you’ll need to adjust the goal itself. You aimed for three new clients but you’re only on track for two, so you revise the target to match reality. Sometimes you’ll need to adjust your strategy. The goal is still valid, but your approach isn’t working, so you try something different. Sometimes you’ll need to abandon a goal entirely because it no longer serves your actual vision for your business.
This flexibility isn’t weakness or lack of commitment. It’s intelligence. It’s understanding that goals are tools to help you build the business you want, not rigid rules you have to follow regardless of whether they still make sense. The creatives who succeed long-term are the ones who can tell the difference between giving up too easily and adapting wisely to new information.
Make your review process concrete. Don’t leave it to “I’ll think about this sometime.” Schedule it. Put it in your calendar. Create a simple template or set of questions you ask yourself every time. The more routine and structured your review process is, the more likely you’ll actually do it consistently.
During reviews, celebrate what’s working as thoroughly as you analyse what isn’t. Many creatives are much better at noticing their failures than their successes, and that skewed perspective is demotivating. Make yourself articulate what you’ve achieved, even if it feels awkward or boastful. Progress deserves recognition, especially from yourself.
Making goals work for you, not against you
The difference between goals that energise your creative business and goals that drain it comes down to whether you’re working with your natural tendencies or fighting against them. There’s no single right way to set goals, despite what productivity gurus might tell you. There’s only what works for your brain, your circumstances, and your particular creative practice.
Some creatives thrive with detailed quarterly plans and weekly tracking spreadsheets. Others need looser frameworks with more room for intuition and spontaneity. Some people are motivated by big ambitious targets that feel slightly terrifying. Others do better with smaller, incremental goals that build confidence through consistent wins. The key is honest self-awareness about what actually motivates you, not what you think should motivate you.
Goal-setting is a skill you develop over time, not something you’re supposed to be naturally good at from the start. Each goal you set, work towards, achieve, or miss teaches you something about how you operate. You learn what timeframes feel right for you, what kind of accountability helps versus hinders, what metrics actually matter versus which ones are just noise. This knowledge compounds, making you better at setting effective goals with each attempt.
The ultimate purpose of business goals isn’t to turn you into a productivity machine. It’s to help you build a creative practice that’s sustainable, fulfilling, and aligned with how you actually want to live. Goals are meant to serve that vision, not replace it. When they stop serving it, change them. You’re allowed to do that. You’re encouraged to do that.
Your creative business is yours to build however makes sense for you. Goals are one tool among many for building it well. Use them skillfully, and they’ll give you clarity, momentum, and progress towards the professional life you’re trying to create. That’s what goal-setting is for.
