As I write this article, we are officially half-way through the year. Now is a perfect time to check in on your business and see where you are now compared to where you plan to be at the end of the year.
How big or small is the gap?
When I work with small business owners, one of the best practices I find consistently is that the owner sets very clear and specific goals at the beginning of each year and they track progress on a weekly or monthly basis.
As you can probably guess – what gets measured gets done!
Those who measure progress are much more likely to reach their goals than those who wander from project to project throughout the year without a clear picture of what the business will look like at the end of the year.
Why do you need a plan for your business?
You should always know how much money you have now and how much will be in the bank at the end of the year.
How many new customers will you have? Will you have attended 2 industry trade shows or other large events as part of your marketing strategy? How many speaking engagements will you have completed? How many sales will be generated from each speaking opportunity?
Once the social media campaign has been launched, what do you plan to have achieved to make the return on investment (ROI) worth what you spent, i.e., more Facebook Likes or traffic conversions to your mail list, etc.?
If you didn’t set goals at the beginning of the year – the good news is that it’s not too late. Now is better than never!
Once you determine your goals for the year, the smartest business owners communicate the goals to their team and get everyone involved in determining the right steps to accomplish each goal.
I’ve done enough employee engagement surveys to know that almost every single employee wants to know how they fit into the big picture and they want to do their part to help the company succeed. You hired a team to help you – so let them help!
How do you make a plan to grow your business?
Let’s get started. If you’ve set goals already, look at where you thought you’d be at this point in the year and make course corrections if needed.
Review each goal in detail and take a “No Excuses” approach. If you aren’t on track, figure out what you need to do to ramp up the pace so that you do achieve your goal.
Have an all-employee meeting and ask for their ideas on the best way to get and stay on track. Appoint someone to lead each project and meet with them weekly to see how they are doing and what barriers you might need to help them overcome.
Get SMART about your business plan
If you haven’t set goals yet – then let’s do it now.
A goal has to be measurable throughout the year, so you already have a very clear picture in your head of what success looks like when the goal is completed. I rely on setting SMART goals the same way I did when working in my corporate life – because it works. If you aren’t familiar with the acronym SMART, it stands for Specific, Measurable, Agreed-Upon, Realistic and Time-Bound. See the chart below for details.
Your team generally shows up every day wanting to do a great job.
They just need to know what the target is and how fast you want them to get it done. Otherwise, they will do their best to figure it out along the way and much of their time will be spent on things that may seem important to them – but are not mission-critical to your overall success.
I recommend keeping it simple by setting SMART goals in four categories; Providing Exceptional Customer Service, Achieving the Financial Plan, Delivering Operational Excellence and Talent Development.
- Providing Exceptional Customer Service is aboutgiving such great service to your customers that you build brand loyalty. It’s writing goals to add services and products your customers are searching for, or reducing errors so that your customer gets what they want, when they want it each and every time, etc. And of course, you need to be able to track it.
Example: Ship all customer orders on time 99% of the time for the balance of the year.
- Financial Results is about writing goals that will assure the money is flowing in and you have what you need when you need it this year.
Some ways to do this is by:
- Having a process to collect money from customers quickly to keep your cash-flow manageable,
- making better decisions such as buying in bulk to get the best prices,
- negotiating with shippers to get the best pricing when shipping your products,
- outsourcing some of the work you’ve been doing so you can focus on growing your business,
- managing your employees’ time better to avoid extra wages, overtime or burnout, and
- getting service agreements for computers, phones and printers so if something goes wrong you don’t have to pay for the repairs or upgrading your software systems to save time and money.
Example: Reduce the dollars associated with 30+ days of outstanding accounts receivables by 75% by December 31st.
- Operational Excellence is looking at what you do today and finding ways to do more, better, faster.
An example of this is changing your accounts payable process to take advantage of discounts when you pay your vendors within a certain timeframe. You will see this opportunity on the invoice if it states “30 days net 5%” or something similar.
Example: Pay invoices on time to receive all available discounts 100% of the time for balance of year.
- Personal Development is there to inspire and help each person reach their full potential by learning new skills and gaining experience in areas they might be interested in pursuing in the company.
You benefit from their enhanced skills while building a strong bench for future promotional growth opportunities. For instance, someone might want to take an Excel course or a program to learn how to handle difficult customers.
Example: Send all customer service staff to “How to Handle Difficult Customers” training by October 1st.
Goals are specific to your business but there are also a lot of similarities to other business owners. Participating in business groups can generate ideas for you to incorporate into your business as well.
A business coach can also offer insights based on her/his experience with other clients and they will remain objective, telling you what you need to hear even if it isn’t what you want to hear.
Get help with your business plan
Making a business plan for the first time or revising one that was ineffective in helping you grow your business is an investment in the future of your business and its employees. Hiring a business coach gains an objective set of professional eyes on your where your company is now, where it can be, and what is needed to make that change.
If you’re having any issues creating, maintaining, or upgrading your business plan please get in touch. I have helped many small business owners develop strategies that worked to achieve their business goals and I’d love to help you too.
Business Leadership, Business Management, Change Management