Business

So it’s fair to say that throughout life we all have goals, no matter how big or small they may be. It’s the same when we first start out in business but then how often do we review them, measure them and then set new ones?

In most industries, it’s a very competitive environment with competitors looking to gain an advantage and even poach your customers. So it’s important that some goals may not be linked to increasing customer base, it may be that one of the goals is to have great customer service so you retain all your customers.

Setting short, mid and long term goals is very important in business, just as it is in life. It gives you focus on what you’re doing but more importantly, why you’re doing it. There is an outcome that you can look forward to.

So to give you some examples of short, mid and long term goals, we’ve set out the below.

Short term goals (in the next 1-4 weeks)

1. Gain 2 new customers
2. Carry out customer feedback forms in order to improve service
3. Finish off customer project X and ask for recommendation

Mid term goals (2-3 months)

1. Gain 6 new customers
2. Action all points on customer feedback forms in order to retain all customers
3. Hire new member of staff to help with workload from new customers

Long term goals (6-12 months)

1. Increase gross profit to £100k
2. Hold customer event before Christmas
3. Move offices to enable us to hire new staff in the new year

These goals are just an example of how you break down long term goals. You’ll see how each of them are linked. The long term goal of increasing gross profit is linked with the increase of customers on short and mid term goals. This is to make the goal more achievable and manageable.

We work with businesses on goal setting all the time and one of the most important things about them is to keep looking at them each week. Review your progress, and if you need to slightly change the goal for the following month that’s fine, but understand the effect it will have on the long term goals.

If you’d like some help in looking at goal setting, feel free to get in touch!