Ever managed to reach your new year’s resolutions?
Every year millions of people plan their new year resolutions – what they are going to achieve, but how many of us actually achieve them?
What about business goals?
How often as a business owner or leader do you review, consider and update your goals?
Where are you within your plan, your journey and how far do you plan in advance? 3 years, 5 years or more?
Business goals should be an integral part of the business, however, they are normally left to the side as day-to-day activities take priority. If this is the case, how do we know what we are doing each day is enabling us to get closer to our goal? Does that then mean that our business goals become similar to New Year’s resolutions – over time do we just forget what the importance of them was? Quite possibly.
Does this resonate with you and your business? Or even your New Year resolutions? What action can you take to ensure the business goals remain a daily focus?
Good advice would be to:
1 Review your current plans – are these accurate or do they need updating?
To consider this, we would suggest planning out over the space of up to a week, where you want your business to be in 3 or 5 years. The reason it is recommended to do this work over a period of a week is so that you give yourself time to really consider the plan so that it has depth as well as stretch.
This could include:
• Profit
• Staffing levels
• Service Area
• Customer profiles
Have you thought about the end goal of your business? Considering whether this is a business you wish to own until you retire or would you look to sell it before then? What about when you retire – would the business be closed down or sold on ? All of these considerations form part of your business goals. For example, if you are looking to close the business down in 10 years, would you want to plan an expansion within the next 3-5 years?
If you feel your business plan isn’t where it should be, you could research websites such The Federation of Small Businesses or work with a business coach as that can be a great way to identify changes that you will want to make.
2 Once your business goals are current you should consider how you can entwine these into your daily, weekly, monthly decision-making processes. Each business decision you make should be linked to what the business will achieve.
3 Review your business plans on at least a 6 monthly basis, this will enable you to take into account changes in circumstances; personal, economical and business- ensuring that your plan remains relevant and keeps you heading in the right direction.
This will also assist you when it comes to applying for funding as your plan will be up to date, rather than that last minute panic to review the documentation and update it from the last funding application you may have done.
4 If you have staff within your business, do their goals and objectives form part of the business plan? If not, why not? Their goals and objectives should be reflective of the business goal.
As Greg Reid said “A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true.”
Written by Julie Marsh MCIPD of Be You Coaching & Consultancy
