Goals-setting
is important for business success. But working towards achieving the goals is
what brings the success. It is very interesting to find out that there are many
people doing business without goals. They don’t have a place they intend to get
to in the next 2, 3, 5 to 10 years, with their business. When you don’t have
goals, you don’t know where you are, where you are going and how to get to
where you intend to get to.
Working
towards the achievement of your business goals is working towards the success
of your business. It deserves anything you can give it. It must be your
preoccupation daily. After reading my posts on how to set goals for your
business, here are the steps to follow in working towards achieving your goals.
Step
1: Set & Discuss The Goals With Your Staff
For
any business to achieve her goals, it has to be the efforts of all the staff,
put together. This is easy when the staff have a great sense of ownership of
the business. One way to make this possible is to set and discuss your business
goals, with your staff. This system of management which is participatory is
called Management By Objectives (MBO) and it has proven to be the best
management method.
Have
goals and budgeting forums, say twice in a year. Before each forum, ask your
staff (from top management to lay
workers), to write their desires for the business for the next period of 6
months, making suggestions on how they think such desires could be achieved and
what they think will be the impact on the business, if achieved.
Step
2: Determine Your Drivers
As
you set goals, you become more aware of what is required to achieve each one.
For each goal, write all the requirements necessary to achieve it. These are
your drivers.
For
example, if want to double your sales by the end of the year 2014, you may need
to increase the size of your marketing team as well as create a research
department attached to the marketing department. Here your goal is to double
sales by the end of the year and your needs are additional marketing staff and
a research department with staff.
Step
3: Determine Your Needs
When
you determine your drivers, the next thing to do is to think of the things you
need, to make them possible. If for example your driver is the creation of a
research department, some of your needs will be, new or increased office space,
more money for salaries, more materials for daily work, increased running
costs, etc. All, if not most of your needs will trim down to one thing - MONEY.
Money
is very often, the ultimate means by which you can get your needs met and
consequently achieve your goals. You need money to hire a new staff, open a new
office, start a new department, train your old staff, etc. Try to write down
all the things you need, to meet up with your drivers and achieve your goals.
Step
4: Determine Your Actions
As
soon as you know what you want to achieve, how to achieve them and what is
needed to achieve them, the next thing to do is to plan with your team, how you
intend to use the things you have, to achieve your goals. This has to do with
actions/activities. Unless your goals are broken down to action steps, you
cannot achieve them.
Draft
an action plan that shows all the necessary steps you will take to achieve each
goal, with the time you will take each one. Make sure your goals are all broken
down into the little actions required each month, each week and each day, in
order to ensure that at the end of the year, your goals are achieved.
Step
5: Consider Changes & Obstacles
One
thing that is constant is change. There shall be PESTLES (Political, Economic,
Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental and Scientific) changes in your
business environment that will affect your business. Also, the workers, the
market, the competitors and the customers could all change. All these will
necessitate a change in the business operations and this will certainly affect
the achievements of your goals.
Now
that change is certain, what do you do? You need to anticipate and expect it.
Then plan (Plan A) and have contingency plans (Plan B) that takes into
consideration all possible changes that you could witness. Though it is not
possible to anticipate and prepare for all the possible changes that could
occur, considering them will minimize the amount of difficulties you could
face.
Remember
also that some changes could work in your favor and so when they come, analyze
each one to know if to take advantage of them of face them and adjust
accordingly.
Step
6: Write Down Your Goals In Terms Of Priority
Now
that your goals, needs and action plans are well articulated, go ahead and
write them down in order of priority. In prioritizing, you want to ensure that
you allocate your resources to the most important goals, first. Remember that
your resources are always limited compared to the goals you desire to achieve.
You cannot hope to achieve all. If you ever succeed to achieve all, you did not
have enough goals.
In
prioritizing, list the goals in order of which ones will have the greatest
impact on your overall business goal, than the other. In other words, which
ones will move the business to its destination, faster than the other? List
them in that order, right down to the least important. As you write each goal,
write the needs, action steps, etc. for it to be accomplished.
Step
7: Allocate The Resources You Have
Your
resources include men, machines, money, materials, space, etc. They are always
not enough. So you need to wisely assign these resources to the different tasks
which need to be carried out daily in order for you to be able to achieve your
goals. Assign tasks daily, weekly and monthly making sure you give the most
complex aspects, to the more skilful staff and the trivial aspects, to the
least skilled staff. However, keep all your staff busy on a daily basis and let
each one realize just how important his/her work is, to the achievement of the
goals of the business.
Motivate
your staff daily by making them see just how the success of the business will
change their lives. Encourage initiative-taking but sit back and supervise from
time to time. Adequately compensate them and appraise their work both privately
and openly.
Step
8: Carry Out Evaluations
In
the achievement of your goals, you need to sit from time to time with your
team, to evaluate how far you all are gone in the achievement of your goals. I
will recommend monthly evaluation.
In
evaluating the business and the team in general, you need to also evaluate the
work of each member of your team and help them improve on what they do. Don’t
forget that it is the one dollar that John and James each make on a daily
basis, that account for the 730 dollars that the business makes at the end of
the year. Do little evaluations, daily.
When
you set your SMARTA goals and follow the steps above, you will be very much on
the road to success. Do you have any goals for your business in 2014? How much
have you achieved so far? You can begin today and I will wait to hear you tell
me the difference, come the end of this year. I wish you the best as you work
tirelessly to succeed on your business. Don’t get tired, success is very close.
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