As a small business owner, you probably have a lot of things you need to do.
While many of these you can probably outsource, you still need to take care of one big thing: your goals.
More specifically, you need overarching, larger goals that are more similar to the core of your business than a changeable goal.
Your goals should not only be clear, concise and represent your core business. Your goals should also be able to inspire yourself (and your team) and put your business on the right path for considerable growth.
That’s why today we’ll look at the most important small business goals you need to set in order to inspire yourself and your team.
Profit Goals
Many businesses set goals that are based on increasing their profit. This is normally done by setting a percentage increase goal for a certain period.
For example, it could be to increase profits by 35% for the next year.
You can calculate this percentage and time period strategically, rather than just choosing a random, nice-looking number.
You need to take into account:
- your costs (both variable and fixed)
- your annual income
- your company’s operating expenses (both variable and fixed)
- the returns on your risk
- the returns on your future growth
- your growth goals
Service Goals
Your goals don’t just have to be about money (although money should definitely be one of your goals).
You can also aim to improve the overall customer service and satisfaction, as well as increase customer retention.
You can set your goals by attempting to increase the rate of customer acquisition, improving their satisfaction and feedback, and solving their problems faster and more efficiently.
Social Goals
In a more philanthropic view of capitalism, you can set your small business goals to include helping your local, national or international community.
Many small businesses do this by volunteering their time or money.
Growth Goals
When your goal is connected to your business growth, you are focusing on the expansion of your company. This is normally measured by the new employees that you’ll get or the new branches in different locations (or both).
In order to set these goals realistically and strategically to scale your business, you need to be aware of your financial strengths and weaknesses.
BHAGs
No, that isn’t a typo, and yes, it is quite general. A BHAG is in fact a “big, hairy, audacious goal,” meaning it is more a way of looking or setting goals than a category of goals.
BHAGs (first introduced by Collins and Porras in their book Built to Last), you are putting all your efforts and resources into achieving a really big goal. It is such a big goal that if you fail, you might need to pack up your business.
BHAGs are important because they provide a passion, a heart, an inspiration and motivation for your business. Instead of stating, “I want to improve sales by 35% this year,” you go further.
You state: “I want to be the #1 seller of car tires in my city within the next 3 years!”
The second one is more impassioned and much more daring. And therefore, much more memorable, inspiring and visionary.
These are the 5 types of goals you should be setting, in one way or another, to truly see growth in your business.
