Setting Business Goals

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By Jason Blacker

As an entrepreneur, you have many demands on your time. Your business’ success relies on you and your ability to see the big picture, to organize tasks, and to motivate those you have working for you. To achieve any important goals in life, you need to have a detailed plan.

The first step of a business plan is to set clear goals for what it is you're trying to accomplish.

Importance of Setting Business Goals

Reason #1 As an entrepreneur, you need to have a vision of what it is you want to accomplish. This is facilitated through having your goals clearly stated, along with the time periods, which they need to be achieved in.

Your business has many aspects to it that need to be managed effectively for your success.

Having clear, measurable, achievable goals gives you a focal point for your efforts.

No ship was ever steered to safe harbor on a timely basis without first having an accurate navigation plan.

Reason #2 It is easy to get buried under huge to-do lists and a ton of small tasks that vie for your time and attention. Busy entrepreneurs can find exhaustion and mental fatigue setting in before they know it.

Therefore, keeping a clear picture in your mind of what it is you are really trying to do with your business will help motivate you and keep you working through all of the difficult challenges that will come your way.

Reason #3 Setting business goals help your team and you maintain a steadfast commitment to the business’ main objectives

Goal setting is a very valuable tool for measuring employee performance. Without having clear goals to work towards, and motivations to keep them working hard, employees can easily get caught up in time wasting activities.

Therefore, it is helpful to tie their own rewards into the achievement of the enterprise's goals. Knowing what they are trying to achieve, can also help them, and you, find new ideas and innovative ways of doing your business.

Reason #4 Having clear, concise goals gives you something to measure your progress against.

You will be able to determine your success, and improve your bottom line, if you can measure your results against the projections you outlined in your goals.

It's also a great way to reward success, and see where problems are creeping in.

By getting this feedback on a regular basis, you will ensure that your business stays on track, and doesn't end up sidelined.

Business goal setting helps you steer your business in exactly the direction you want it to go, it helps you measure your progress, make adjustments as necessary, and keeps you from getting distracted.

Setting business goals will ensure that all of your efforts are spent on achieving the right things to enhance your bottom line and give your business the tools it needs to succeed.

Setting Business Goals Effectively

Many of the world’s greatest leaders, athletes, business people and entrepreneurs have all suggested that putting goals to paper has been one of, if not the most important criteria for success.

So stay with us as we discuss proven strategies for succeeding through goal setting.

This goal setting process will help you succeed even if you’ve never set goals before. And they are equally applicable in business and personal life, for long and short term goals.

Perhaps many of you have heard of the SMART system with regards to goal setting. It’s a handy and useful way to ensure the goals you define are attainable. So let’s get right to it.

S is for Specific

A goal however, would be something specific: “I want to increase sales 10% this year over last year.” You’ve done the first step, but this is a five step process.

M is for Measurable

Will the 10% increase be measured in gross sales, net sales, booked work etc. These are important variables to consider.

A is for Attainable

They try to achieve the impossible and then say that goal setting doesn’t work. If your business and the industry as a whole have never experienced more than 10% growth during its best year, there is no point in setting your goal seeking a 100% growth rate.

You’ll set yourself up for disappointment and this is not what this is about.

R is for Relevant

So for example if your goal is to increase sales by 10%, then putting this objective onto the administrative assistant is not only unfair but irrelevant.

Putting the 10% sales increase objective on your sales force is relevant. And that is the key.

T is for Timely

So start with the end in sight. By doing so you’ll have a specific goal. And if you have a really well thought out specific goal, you’ll likely have made it measurable, attainable, relevant and timely.

And then all you need is to use your SMARTs as a reference tool.

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