Set Goals that Will Grow Your Business Next Year

Each year people, including business owners, set resolutions (I prefer goals) to grow

People set New Year’s Resolutions. Businesses set projections, targets, objectives, or goals. Unfortunately, resolutions frequently become the but of jokes because few last until March. Stock prices rise and fall based on large corporations meeting their projections or not. The consequences for smaller companies fall short of stock fluctuations. It impacts revenues and profits. It reduces money the business owner get to take home to provide for their family.

Typical Goals Businesses Set

Each business and each industry set unique goals. However, several goals remain common to almost all businesses and industries. These common goals include:

• Increase profits to $XX
• Increase revenues by $XX
• Increase sales by XX%
• Improve productivity by XX%
• Improve your current product or service
• Research and develop a new product or service
• Improve efficiency in production by XX%
• Increase accounting accuracy and efficiency by XX%
• Reduce overhead by $XX
• Add or reduce the number of employees
• and others

I realize that many of these goals seem obvious as you read them. However, I’ve talked to thousands of business owners that failed to consider, let alone set, many of these goals. Goals inspire us to grow and to improve.

Set SMART Goals

People generally subscribe to two thoughts on setting goals:

• Set aggressive goals that you may not achieve, but will cause you to do more than you might have done
• Set goals you know you can achieve because the consequences of failure overshadows improvements short of the projections

I promote the first option if failure to achieve goals will not affect your psyche or stock price. I find I achieve more when I set a goal that will stretch my efforts. I accomplish more by trying. The old saying “Aim for the stars and hit the moon” represents the first thought.

On the other hand, publically traded companies and others must use the second option. Plummeting stock prices devalue the company when you don’t meet projected earnings.

Saturday we will announce the end of the Larry on Business blog posts