When it comes to hitting your goals, sometimes you need to think small to hit it big.

Are you working hard or hardly working? It’s an age-old question that can be surprisingly tough to answer, especially for entrepreneurs and small business owners. You might have days when you feel like you’ve been working from sunup to sundown with little to show for it.

You’re doing yourself no favors by setting lofty goals without understanding the daily actions you need to take to make them happen. That’s where reverse engineering your goals comes in: crunching the numbers that will ultimately drive your success.

Small actions = big results.

At its core, reverse engineering is all about the tiniest actions you do every day to achieve your goal. Maybe you want to do $1 million in sales this year, hire thirty-five new employees, or launch a new product. Whatever it is, write it down, and commit to it.

Once you have your goal, determine the conversion points you need to track to achieve it. You’ll need to ask yourself the following:

Do the math.

You don’t have to be a master of calculous to understand reverse engineering. There is a simple equation you can follow to make the conversion points above a lot more measurable.

(Revenue/sale ÷ Revenue Goal)

—————————————–    = # of Leads Needed

Win percentage  

*Average revenue per sale ÷ revenue goal = Sales goal

*Sales goal ÷ win percentage (conversion rate from lead to sale) = Leads goal

Take action on this:

Establish a revenue goal for your business. Plug your numbers into this equation, and set three trackable KPIs you can use to help you achieve your goal.