Setting Basic Business Goals

Are you a goal-setter or do you fly by the seat of your pants and hope for the best? I think many people avoid setting business goals because they over-think the whole goal-setting process and make it far more difficult than it needs to be.

For example, how much money do you want your business to turn over in the next financial year? If you’re not sure, look at what your turnover was this financial year and decide if you want to turn over more or if you want to turn over less.

Your First Goal

I think most businesspeople do not want to turn over less than they did last financial year, so your first goal would, therefore, be to turn over more. So, if you’re going to turn over more, how much more do you want that to be?

You can choose a number or a percentage, whatever works best for you.

If you choose to use the percentage method, pick a value. Is it going to be a 1% increase over last year or a 20% increase? It’s really up to you, but once you select the percentage value for increased turnover, you’ve taken the first step into making your goal a reality.

It is that simple.

Planning

Now comes the planning stage and breaking your business goals down into smaller, manageable chunks. Planning is far more complicated, without first setting the goal because you’ve got nowhere to start.

Using sport as an analogy is a great way to explain goals and why we need them.

Could you imagine a football pitch with no goals at either end, and all you had were ten men or ten women running up and down the field for 90 minutes, passing the ball to each other. I say ten because there’s now no need for a goalkeeper.

How boring would this game become for the spectators if there was no score? And yes, sometimes there is no score in football, however, because there’s always the potential for scoring, this is what makes the game exciting.

You Need Direction

If football, hockey and rugby and many other sports need goals to make the game worthwhile, then what makes you think goals are not necessary for your own life and business?

  • Goals give you direction
  • Goals give you something to aim at
  • Goals help motivate you to do more than you usually would without goals
  • And goals motivate your team

Goals need to be broken down into smaller chunks and planned into your busy schedule, but unfortunately, it’s right at this point where most people give up, but you shouldn’t because you’re so close.

If you’ve found you’ve got to this stage in the past and stopped, get yourself a business mentor or a business friend who can help walk you through this stage. It will be very worthwhile.

Review

You need to allocate time regularly to review your goals, and research has proven that looking at your goals daily is the best strategy.

It is also helpful to share your goals with someone else to keep you accountable. This is why people who have a business mentor achieve more on average than someone who does not have a business mentor.

If you have any questions or want to learn more about how I can help grow your business, please call me on 07773 406343, send me an email at justincharlton-jones@actioncoach.co.uk otherwise, you can go directly to my online calendar and schedule a meeting with me: https://meetings.hubspot.com/justincharlton-jones