Small Business Talk
The Podcast to Grow your Business Faster
How to Make 2019 The Most Successful Year Yet For Your Business with Charlotte Brown
Welcome to today’s episode of the Small Business Talk Podcast where I chat with Charlotte Brown on how to plan and set goals that you will actually do. These goals and the action steps that you take will move your business forward in 2019 and make it your best year yet.
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Show Notes
Background
Charlotte Brown is an advanced skills lecturer at the South Regional TAFE specialising in Business and Small Business management where she has been helping local businesses for the past 14 years.
Charlotte has also been a small businesses owner herself, having owned businesses in the local tourism industry over the last 16 years. Charlotte is passionate about small businesses owners developing their knowledge and skills to be successful in the local business community.
How to Make 2019 The Most Successful Year Yet For Your Business
Business goals and planning are essential for small businesses because you can learn and develop skills in marketing, finance, operations etc however if you don’t have very strong goals and a plan you won’t be able to move your business forward. You can use different tools once you have your goals and plans in place but if you do it before that you won’t get anywhere.
Business owners often struggle because they don’t set aside time to plan, often they are so busy working in the business to plan the direction of the business. Lack of planning causes them issues because they don’t know where they want to go or how they are going to get there.
Charlotte uses the analogy of a car journey to explain the importance of planning and goal setting.
Starting a journey you need:
- know where we are
- to know where we want to go
- to plan how we are going to get there
- to add in our stops and supplies
“Business owners need to spend a little bit of time to know where they want to go and what is my goal”
Business owners are often so busy working hard in their business that they don’t set goals and will never be able to achieve their objectives in the business.
Businesses Needs to Define Their SMART Goals
Business goals need to be set and be very clear. You need to have SMART goals for your business.
“It’s not too late to set your business goals. Take a cuppa go in a nice place, take a couple of hours to decide what you want to achieve in your business in 2019”
SMART Goals are:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Timeframed.
“Make more money” is not a SMART goal.
A SMART goal would be “By the end of 2019, I want to increase my sales by 5%”
Once you decide on a SMART goal, then you are able to put a plan together so that your business can achieve this goal. You must have goals that you believe in and that are precise so you can make steps to realize your goals within the time frame you have set. Wishy washy goals will cause you to waste resources, your own time, staff time and money; your business could end up heading in the wrong direction.
Business Needs 2 - 3 Goals
Often, we underestimate how important it is to have clear set goals that can act as our road map in the business.
Clear goals will drive all your business decisions and keep you on track so that you can reach your objective for the year.
Set 2 – 3 goals so you don’t get too overwhelmed and then head off in all different directions. You should bounce your goals off over business partners, life partners of in some cases staff to get input and feedback, remember to use the SMART goal framework to keep you on track.
Review Your Business Goals Every Quarter
Clear goals will drive all your business decisions and keep you on track so that you can reach your objective for the year.
Break down your goals into monthly plans – how many kilometres to you need to achieve each month?
Then at the end of each month review your plan and see where you are at. Does it need a slight change in course, are you on track, where you too optimistic and therefore your plan may need a small review.
“It’s not too late to set your business goals. Take a cuppa go in a nice place, take a couple of hours to decide what you want to achieve in your business in 2019”
Make Decisions Against Your Goals
When you make decisions based on your goals you will be able to avoid shiny object syndrome and know when the new tool, training or software will move your business forward. If the new shiny object is not adding to your goals, then you will be able to say no and move on.
To move your business forward you really do need to have SMART goals to help you achieve your objectives. Just like a car journey your need a map to follow to get you to where you want to go.
Bench Marks can Help You Work Out Your Business Goals
The ATO have a bench marking tool compares financial information drawn from data provided by small businesses through their activity statements and tax returns. These real Australian Business benchmarks compare business performance against other small businesses. This is an excellent tool to help you track your business performance.
Listen to Small Business Podcast Episode No 7 to get some easy to action steps from Charlotte Brown that will make 2019 your best year ever.
Links
Contact
Charlotte Brown
charlotte.brown@srtafe.wa.edu.au
https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-brown-27a73670/
