One of the best ways to grow your small or medium-size company is to set and achieve business goals. Having a vision for the direction of your business is necessary for consistent and long-term growth. With business objectives firmly in place, a company can move forward.
The Importance of Business Goals
Without business goals, you may flounder and waste time, money, and resources as you try different things hoping some will prove profitable. The best approach is to carefully determine what your business is all about. Who are your ideal customers? What are your main services or products? Only after answering such questions can you accurately choose a plan of action that works for your business model.
The first step in goal setting is choosing long-term goals, usually three to five years into the future. Once you establish long-term goals, you break down all steps to create relevant short-term goals. These are small, manageable steps needed for accomplishing the long-term goals.
According to the Inc.com article, How to Set Business Goals, there are four main categories of business goals: service, social, growth, and profit. Service goals involve raising customer satisfaction levels with such ideas as using new technologies to become more efficient and productive. Social goals help the community with volunteer work or charitable giving. Growth goals are expanding the company in ways such as opening more stores or increasing service or product offerings. With profit goals the business owner wants to improve the bottom line. For example, you may want to increase sales five percent every quarter.
Tips for Achieving Goals
Here are a few tips to help your goal setting efforts.
Specificity
Be specific when goal setting by cleanly defining what you want. If you want to increase profits, how exactly will you achieve this? Will you reduce expenses and/or raise prices?
Brainstorming
Identify all the steps required for achieving a goal and then brainstorm ideas and activities. Get your employees to participate to keep ideas flowing.
Deadlines
It’s important to set deadlines for each short-term (and long-term) goal. Reaching milestones keeps you moving in the right direction.
Focus
Once you have set goals and established a plan of action, you have to remain focused on each short-term goal.
Commitment
To achieve any goal, you have to stay committed. This means working on goals every day.
Celebration
When you reach a milestone, celebrate that small success. It will help keep you motivated.
Goal setting is an important component of every successful business. By choosing long-term objectives and working towards them, you can keep your company on track, leading it to the results you envision.
Remember, running a business successfully does not need to be complicated. Keep it simple!
For more valuable articles to help you successfully manage the challenges of growing your business profitably, please search our blog at our website www.portalcfo.com.
Manny Skevofilax is a consultant and speaker that helps his clients successfully navigate the challenges of growing their businesses profitably. Since 2003, Manny helps businesses enhance their results by using his experience in strategic planning, financial statement analysis, operations, organizational development, and team-building. His consulting firm, PORTAL CFO Consulting, Inc., has attracted clients from diverse industries in the United States and abroad.
Manny can be reached at 410-808-3441 or via email at manny@portalcfo.com.