Making a New Year’s resolution, whether it be learning a new skill, kicking a habit or even breaking the world record for eating the most tic-tacs with chop sticks, is all about setting GOALS. This is even more relevant in business, where setting goals is an absolute necessity! Ask yourself, without goals, would you and your team know where your business is heading?
It is amazing how many business owners I talk to that don’t have goals, both in business and in their personal life. Here are the 9 top tips that I offer them to help them start setting those goals:
1. BREAK THEM DOWN – Setting yearly goals is a great start, but it’s human nature for us to lose focus before the year is up! Break a bigger goal down further to at least 90 day goals – it will increase you and your teams focus by renewing your goals on a regular basis and keeping them fresh.
2. KEEP IT SIMPLE – Shortlist about ten possible goals, then narrow it down to five. Of the five that remain, ensure that at least half of them focus on making money. Other goals like staff training or developing systems are also necessary, however do make sure every quarter you keep some focus on increasing profit!
3. BIG HAIRY GOALS – Don’t make them too easy, put some ambition into your goals and set them high. Dream a little and reach for the stars – nothing worth having ever came easy!
4. SMART – Make sure your 5 goals are SMART; specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and with definite time scales. SMART goals lead to results.
5. INVOLVE EVERYONE – The goals and plan should be for everyone in your organisation to work towards, so roll them out to all levels of management and staff. Cascade the goals and their outcomes down the organisation; even if that organisation is one or two people this process still works, and the cascading process is much simpler.
6. VISIBILITY – The physical act of writing down a goal makes it real and tangible. Post your goals in visible places to remind yourself every day of what it is you intend to do. Put them on your walls, desk or the inside of your eyelids as a constant reminder.
7. PLANNING – Whilst it is important to have your destination in mind, you need a plan of how to get there. A detailed 12 month plan can be a waste of time, keep the planning simple and don’t plan for longer than 90 days. This can be done by taking each goal and breaking it down into a series of steps that will be needed to implement them; assign one person to each goal and set a completion date. A goal without a plan is just a wish!
8. TAKE ACTION – Setting goals and planning are essential activities in any business, but without applying action to make them happen, they’re a pointless exercise and a waste of your valuable time!
9. CELEBRATE – Most importantly, when you hit your goals don’t forget to celebrate the achievement in style! After all, is it really a success if you don’t celebrate it!
Now you’re geared up for the new year with clear goals and one step closer to success!
