Growing Your Company With Goals

We’ve all heard the benefits of goal-setting in our personal lives. Having a few well-planned goals helps us achieve all those things on our never-ending to-do list. It’s how we formulate a strategy to pay off debt, buy a new house or lose those last stubborn twenty pounds that just won’t go away.

In short, setting goals helps us become better people.

So, given all the benefits, why wouldn’t we use this same strategy in our business as well? Yet, according to the Staples National Small Business Survey in 2010, we don’t. In fact, more than 80 percent of small business do not properly monitor their company’s goals on a regular basis.

This lack of planning prevents companies from evaluating performance and determining if they’re moving in the right direction. And if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re probably never going to get there.

To remedy this issue, you need to start thinking about how you’d like your company to grow and what it will look like once you get there. One of the best ways to implement goal-setting in your company is to use the SMART system:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realstic
Timely

And here’s some tips to make it work:

• First, make sure your goals are specific. Instead of saying you want to “grow your business” or “make more money,” decide exactly what would constitute success. “I want to increase my revenues by X amount” would be a much better goal for example, and give you the specifics you need to monitor your progress.
• Next, your goal should be measurable, meaning that you can chart your progress. If increased revenues are a goal you’ve set for your company, then your financial statements can be used to measure your growth.
• Achievable suggests that your goals should be attainable within a year’s time. Anything over a year should be reclassified as a long-term goal, perhaps something you incorporate into your company’s mission statement.
• Your goals should also be realistic, because the quickest way to ensure failure is to set goals that you can’t possibly achieve, whether due to time constraints or lack of skill, product or some other outside factor.
• Having timely goals means that you’ve set a specific time-frame in which you want to achieve the goal. This time-frame can include both short-term “mini-goals” as well as the larger “big picture” goal and in fact, breaking a goal down into smaller chunks is a great way to mark your achievements along the way.
• Write your goals down and share them with your staff. Having everyone on board ensures that you’re all working in the same direction.