One of the best ways to move forward and grow as a business is to set positive, influential, and specific goals for you, your employees or co-workers, finances, and growth. Without goals, there is no specific direction for your company to grow. As simple as setting goals sounds, there are ways to go about it that will make the process even more successful.
First, it’s important to be very specific in the goals you set. Layout a specific timeline or due date and a method for accomplishing it. For instance, “Gain five more clients by the end of 2011 by emailing current clients with information regarding our higher rate referral program.” In this example, there is the ultimate goal (gain five more clients), a specific timeline (by the end of 2011), and a method of accomplishing the goal (informing current clients of the higher rate referral program). This is much more specific then a goal of “gain more clients.”
Also, make sure your goals are achievable in a short time. Having a goal that you won’t be able to achieve in the next 1-2 years is going to bring you down and discourage you the longer it sits on your list. There is a difference between long-term and short-term goals and both are important. It helps to break your long-term goals down into simpler, achievable steps. For instance, if your long-term goal is to attain a 95% satisfactory rate among customers, a short-term goal to support that could be to send out surveys or questionnaires to past and current customers in order to gain insight into your customer service. Achieving these short-term goals will boost your confidence and get you to your long-term goal even faster.
Committing to your goals is truly the only way they are going to happen. Writing them down in a place that you often look (bathroom mirror, refrigerator, white board in your office, etc.) makes them into concrete goals and is a great way to track your progress as you cross them off the list. You can also announce them publicly (to friends, family, business partners, on your social media accounts, etc.). This method holds you accountable and adds a little bit of pressure to accomplish what you’ve set out to do. Deadlines are another great way of holding onto your commitment. Make sure you go over your list every couple months or so and evaluate where you are and what you have left to complete.
Until Next Time!
Bonnie Olswanger – Thrive Web Designs, a Boise Web Design company
