Not all business goals are created equal, so getting this aspect of your business right will help you fast-track success, bringing balance to your work and personal life.
If you’re the owner of a new business, you know that getting effective information and expertise is vital. Relying simply on your own natural entrepreneurial talent, energy and luck isn’t going to be enough to reach your goals.
You need the right support to avoid making costly mistakes and start working towards your vision.
Choosing the right goals for your business and understanding your own goal-setting type are key to this.
All business owners have natural strengths and weaknesses and are therefore naturally inclined to favour some types of goal setting over others.
A process-focused business owner will favour setting operational goals, while a ‘big-picture’ owner is more likely to set ambitious, long term goals.
None are “better” than the others, but it’s important to identify what type of goal setter you are so you can determine which objectives will work best for you and your business.
In this blog we define the most commonly recommended types of business goals and show you how to better understand your own style when setting objectives. You’ll then be able to easily select the best goals for your business, driving you towards success.
Here are five key things to consider when setting business goals:
Set professional and personal goals
Work out what your most important priorities are in life and then set your business goals around these.
For example, do you want to be more creative, have more flexible work hours, gain a new qualification or spend more time with your family? Cast your mind back to when you started your business and what motivated you to do so.
Naturally you’ll also have a number of business-specific goals such as sales targets, turnover and customer base but these are only part of the picture.
Make a deadline
When defining your personal and professional goals, categorise each into short or long-term goals. This will motivate you to start making them happen.
Go one step further by breaking each of these down into specific time-frames and then smaller, more achievable steps.
For short-term goals, add a deadline and monthly or even weekly goals. Long-term goals such as reaching a specific turnover or retiring, can be broken down into deadlines likely to be between one and 10 years.
Focus on what you can control
Your goals will be made up of outcome and process objectives.
The first are directly related to results that reflect your long-term visions, while the latter are related to things you can control that will help you get there.
For example, your outcome goal is to grow your customer base by 100% in three years and the process goals for this include sending out a specific number of proposals every week, following up with potential customers daily and growing your social media channels.
Be specific
Simply saying “I want to increase profit” is too vague. To achieve your goals, you first need to make them specific enough to track and measure.
These will include quantitative goals, such as get five new customers each month and qualitative goals, such as improve my work-life balance.
One way of measuring qualitative goals is to use a scale. Rate your current work-life balance and then reassess this a month later after making relevant changes.
Dream big, and be realistic
Dreaming big can be hugely motivating and defines what you ultimately want to achieve.
However, these should be balanced with more realistic milestones you can tick off along the way. Approaching goal setting in this way will build your confidence and give you plenty to celebrate during the journey.
Setting business goals is about creating a plan that will put you on the path towards success - whatever that means to you. Of course, this is what we’re all about at RightWay - providing support to NZ business owners is our own long-term goal, and mission.
Understanding your natural approach and what you need to consider during the process will ensure you set the right goals for this outcome.
