Small Business Talk
The Podcast to Grow your Business Faster
Business Goals How to Get Your Business Moving Forward
Wow, can you believe it’s almost the end of the 2nd quarter, June is disappearing fast. How are your business goals tracking?
Did you make any business goals?
Zig Ziglar said “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time”.
If you haven’t made business goals for this year, you are not too late and listen to Episode #007 with Charlotte Brown
and go to Pauline Bright – the 90 Day Plan to Achieve your Business Goals
and you might surprise yourself to what you can achieve in the next quarter and 2nd half of the year.
Show Notes
Why Are Goals Important?
Business Goals are important because they give you something to focus on, a direction to head in.
By taking smart goals, you can motivate your staff or yourself to head in the right direction.
Plus, if you are checking your goals on a regular basis, you will know whether you need to adjust your course slightly or even sometimes realize you are heading in the wrong direction. If you don’t have any business goals or directions to follow, you will never know.
Setting Business Goals
By setting business goals, especially goals linked to monetary outcomes, you will be able to see when profits start to slide and demand wanes. By checking your goals and your process often and you have the date to make small decisions, adjustments and avoid the nasty surprises of not knowing what is going on.
Big businesses have KPI’s Key Performance Indicators to keep them on track and there is no reason you can’t too. Break your goals into manageable pieces. Start with yearly goals, then 6 monthly goals – quarterly goals – monthly then weekly.
The yearly goals should be the big picture, where you want to head in the next year.
The 6 monthly goals should be what needs to be done to achieve the yearly goal.
The 3 monthly or quarterly goal should be what you need to achieve to get to your 6 monthly goal. Then monthly to get to your 3 monthly goal, the weekly to get your monthly goal.
All goals should relate to the goal above not be separate goals.
Common Mistakes Small Business Make When Goal Setting
Common mistakes many business owners make when thinking about business goals setting is that they wait too long. They wait for the perfect time.
The Perfect time to start is at the beginning so NOW!
Another common mistake is owners set too big goals and don’t break them down into small goals or tasks. Your yearly, then 6 month and 3 month etc. They set these big goals and then never revisit them or set a plan in place again until 12months time when they look at them again. “Oh, goal setting is not for our business, see it doesn’t work” they say.
Like anything, it doesn’t work if you don’t work at it. Remember, you need SMART Goals.
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time based
No point setting yourself or staff up to fail before you even begin. Choose goals that are smart. You can always make them bigger as you go along. In fact, smaller, obtainable goals often give people the confidence to strive for longer goals. “I can do this, look what I have already achieved!”
Be Flexible
Be flexible with your goals. Now, I don’t mean change your mind every 2 seconds because that will not help anyone. However, if you see your goal is not working for the business, then you might need to tweak it to move in a slightly different direction or change it altogether.
Remember to celebrate your small wins along the way. By regularly checking on your goals, you will know what you are achieving them bit by bit, celebrate your success. This will also help to build a good culture in your organization and for people along the right path.
Set some business goals or revisit your current ones and have a fabulous 2nd half of the year.
Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better. – Jim Rohn
It is said that 92% of people don’t achieve their goals? Why?
Because they don’t set them. They don’t look at them. They don’t break them down into smaller pieces.
And really, if you set a goal and achieve only half of it, isn’t that still better than not setting a goal and don’t achieve any of it?
