Setting goals for your business is an integral part of growth. Without goals, you have no way to chart yourself, and potential growth becomes random and ambiguous.
However, there is a strategy to setting business goals. So, if you’re getting ready to set some new goals for your business, follow these five steps for success!
1. Determine Areas of Growth
Before you can set reasonable goals, you need to establish what areas need growth. Then, you can run an analysis of your business using methods such as SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunity, Threat) or analyze the market to see where your competition is riding.
While you should certainly take a big picture approach, some areas are always good to take a close look at:
- Brand awareness
- Customer satisfaction
- Opportunity for new markets and products
- Additional sources of revenue
- Optimized workflow
- Employee retention
- Inter-company communication
- Reducing operational costs
- Trade partner and vendor relations
- Changes in supply and demand
Consider each of these areas. Then, ask yourself where you want to be and what you need to do to get there.
2. Be Specific
Once you know your desired areas for growth, as well as your aspired benchmarks, it’s time to get started! Set some long-term goals for your company, as well as some short-term objectives and steppingstones. (These short-term objectives are little “mini-goals” and are often more action-oriented. They help you get where you want to be.) Create goals and objectives, which are
- Measurable
- Realistic
- Very specific
Have an implementation plan, and don’t be afraid to dream big!
3. Set Deadlines
A goal without a timeline is a goal that won’t happen. It’s the cold, hard truth. No deadline promotes a lack of motivation to accomplish your goal. Instead, deadlines give context to your plan, keep you accountable, and give you the “boost” to get ‘er done.
Don’t fall into the temptation to set ambiguous deadlines, either. Instead, make sure they’re as specific as the goals themselves.
4. Make the Commitment
Being committed to goals and the growth you desire takes self-discipline and focus. Unfortunately, internal self-discipline can be hard to come by sometimes. But there’s a couple of things you can do to help you help yourself stay committed to your goals.
- Involve your team — You bring more people than just yourself onto the bandwagon by involving your whole team. In addition, it provides accountability and encouragement when things look rough.
- Make them public — Making the company’s goals public and visible to yourself, your team, and even your consumer base provides accountability and inspiration. So, do what you need to do to keep your goals at the forefront of your mind.
- Follow up — Especially if you involve your team, check-in with everyone to track your progress. For example, holding regular meetings, utilize tracking tools (spreadsheets are great!), and be flexible if you need to change your implantation plans.
5. Reward Yourself
Celebrate the milestones! Reward yourself each time you cross a benchmark –all the way until you reach your final goal. Celebrating the small (and the big) things motivates everyone to keep going!
At Hamilton Connections, we think goals and objectives are fabulous. So if you have a goal of growing your team, well then, we’re here to help! So contact us today, and let’s get started on crossing that one off your list!