In 2018, a significant amount of all businesses in the United States were considered small businesses. However, approximately half of all startups fail, often due to financial issues. According to Patricia Sigmon, the founder, and president of David Advisory Group, small businesses owners must implement practices that focus more on profit to ensure the success and growth of their business.
Setting and achieving goals is paramount to the success of any startup and can help your business devote more attention to increasing revenue. With that in mind, here’s how to grow and expand your startup by creating strategic goals.
IMAGE: PEXELS
Make Goals Quantifiable
Setting vague goals can make measuring success difficult and subjective. Instead, start setting goals that are both specific and quantifiable. Measurable goals will motivate you to work harder, since you’ll be able to determine exactly what you’re trying to accomplish.
In addition, you’ll have the ability to devise realistic step-by-step strategies to accomplish each quantifiable goal. For instance, if you’re aiming to increase sales by 10 percent from last month, you can form a plan to most more content across social media advertising your goods and services.
If you’re not sure where to start in terms of setting quantifiable goals, consider researching competitors. Obtaining an idea of the sales of a competing small business can help you set goals for your own startup.
If you want to set goals unrelated to your competition, consider utilizing the services of Profit.co. Profit.co, an enterprise software company, features tools to assess and manage team performance on the basis of objectives and key results. Their software has applications for nearly all organizational operations and business processes. Integrating tools like this into your business’s playbook can help your startup define internal goals and track quantifiable outcomes.
Stay Committed
Although it may seem obvious, making a conscious effort to commit to your goals can go a long way. After your plan is set in motion, commit to sticking to it until your goals have been achieved.
Since it can be difficult to stay motivated when working toward long-term goals, create rewards along the way. Rewards are a great way to stay motivated as well as break bigger goals up into smaller, more easily achievable goals. For example, if you’re trying to gain more clients, offer an incentive (like a gift card) for the first employee to obtain five new clients. On the other hand, if you’re trying to meet sales goals, consider throwing an office party when a collective goal is reached.
Set Deadlines
It’s easy to ignore goals when they lack a clear deadline. Setting strict deadlines will force you to keep goals in the front of your mind and act intentionally to achieve them. Deadlines will also help keep you committed and ambitious while keeping your goals in context.
When setting deadlines, be mindful of other events on your calendar to avoid creating too much stress. Deadlines should be set at reasonable dates that are not overly aggressive.
Make Goals Public
Businesses are often hesitant to publicize their goals. However, making goals public is an extremely effective technique. Inviting a team onto your plan will help keep you and your team members accountable for each other’s progress.
After sharing your goals, you and your team can determine each member’s role in working toward the goal. Sharing your goals also creates a conversation that can highlight potential flaws or weaknesses in your plan.
Creating and achieving goals is crucial to the success of any business. Following steps to stay committed to achieving strategic business goals will help promote the growth of your startup and give you a significant edge over competitors.
If you are interested in even more business-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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