What is a Moonshot?

What is a Moonshot?

You started your business with an idea of where it could go. Then the day-to-day took over.

There are customers to look after, proposals to send and a list of jobs that never gets smaller. You’re busy. But when someone asks what you’re working towards, the answer can feel less clear than it used to.

A Moonshot gives that ambition a shape.

At 53°, it’s one big goal for your business, expressed as a number and a date. Something you can plan towards, measure and use to decide what deserves your time. Explore Moonshot.

What makes a good Moonshot?

“Grow the business” is an ambition. It leaves a lot unanswered.

How much growth? By when? And what would achieving it mean for you?

A useful goal makes those choices explicit. For example:

Reach £500,000 in annual revenue by 31 December 2028.

That’s an illustrative target, rather than a number every business should aim for. Your goal should reflect the business you want to build.

Choose something that matters enough to influence your decisions. You should be able to explain why reaching it would make a difference, as well as how you’ll know you’ve arrived.

Work backwards to find the way forward

A big goal can feel a long way from Monday morning.

Working backwards helps close that gap. Ask what would need to be true for you to reach it.

For a business aiming to grow its annual revenue, that might mean developing a repeatable service, building a reliable source of enquiries or giving existing customers a reason to return.

Then look at the order. Before promoting a new service, you might need to test the offer. Before taking on more customers, you might need to improve how you deliver the work.

In 53°, that roadmap is made up of Missions: the work that moves you towards your Moonshot. See how it works.

Give this quarter a clear focus

Once you start planning, it’s easy to find twenty things worth doing. Finding the capacity to finish them is harder.

53° keeps a maximum of three Missions live at once. Each quarter, you review what has landed and decide what goes live next. Mission Control brings the goal, roadmap and live Missions together on one page. Explore Mission Control.

For your business, the useful question becomes: which pieces of work would make the biggest difference now?

That gives you a way to weigh up new ideas and requests. A good opportunity might deserve a place later in the plan. You don’t have to start it this week.

Start with the ambition you keep putting off

You don’t need every step worked out before you begin.

Start by writing down where you want the business to be in two years. Give the goal a number and a date. Then ask what needs to happen first.

Your Moonshot gives you a destination. The next Mission gives you somewhere to start.

Give your big goal somewhere to live with 53°.