Setting Goals for Your Business

 By Jim Hingst 

Every business has the same ultimate goal: to generate a profit for the investors. That prize, however, is contingent on achieving other goals which focus on key business activities, such as generating sales leads; increasing revenue (sales); reducing shop and administrative costs; improving productivity and delivering high quality products and services.

 

Establishing unambiguous goals and communicating these to your associates provide them with direction and motivation. When workers know what is expected of them, they can concentrate their energy and talents on achieving their goals.

 

Setting SMART Goals.

 

The SMART goals protocol has become a widely-accepted business model for establishing goals. SMART, which is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound, provides a guideline for writing a concise set of goals for your shop.

 

Specific. Goals must be specific, not general. Increasing profit, for example, is so general that it provides no target for employees to aim at and shoot. In contrast, by describing your goals in tangible, quantifiable terms, your employees should have no questions of your expectations.

 

Examples of specific goals include increasing annual sales by $250,000, reducing scrap rate by 10% or generating 50 qualified sales leads each month.

 

Measurable. A second key in establishing goal is that it should be quantifiable or measurable. You have probably have heard the business maxim that what gets measured, gets managed. That is not necessarily so. A more accurate adage might be: If you want to manage something, you need to measure it first. Management requires establishing benchmarks and standards for gauging progress.

 

Here’s why. When you measure results against a performance goal or standard, you impose accountability on your organization. A light is shined on employees, who are assigned specific tasks. If something doesn’t get done, you can coach your employees on how to improve their performance or you can take other corrective measures.

 

Achievable. The English poet, Robert Browning, said that “a man’s reach should exceed his grasp”. This is important because if the goal is not challenging, it would be exciting enough to motivate you or your associates.

 

As a manager, involve your employees in setting targets, such as increasing annual sales by 15% or reducing shop and administrative costs by 10%.

 

At the same time, you should not set the bar so high, that you couldn’t possibly achieve it. Setting unrealistic goals for your associates can be counterproductive. Instead of motivating your workers, you could demoralize them.

 

Relevant. Your business goals should be directly related to the overall objective of your organization. In my opinion, there is only one ultimate goal for any business. This is to improve the bottom line. All of your other major business goals in sales, marketing, production and administration should move the needle to this end.

 

Time-Related. Your business goal needs to stipulate an end date. Without an end date, there is no sense of urgency. People tend to procrastinate and kick the proverbial can down the road.  

 

The Importance of Written Goal.

 

If you are serious about your business goals, you will take the time to write them down. The fact is that written goals are more often achieved than those which are spoken.

 

The act of writing forces you to think critically about your objective and ascertain its importance or relevance to your business. It doesn’t matter that you may not have a plan at first. If you are clear about your destination, your mind tends to move in the direction of the target.

 

If your goal is written, you are also more likely to review it. That review process encourages you to develop a plan of action and a timetable for achieving the goal.

 

When you formulate a goal and write it down, you create a destination to focus on. Your mind naturally begins to filter out the extraneous information that does not support your goal. At the same time, you unconsciously accept the information that supports you goals or validates your beliefs.

 

This is why people tend to become what they think about most the time or achieve the goals that they focus on. When you focus on a destination, you may not initially have a map on how to get there. Instead, you move in that direction and gradually your mind begins to formulate a plan.

About Jim Hingst: Sign business authority on vehicle wraps, vinyl graphics, screen printing, marketing, sales, gold leaf, woodcarving and painting. 

After fourteen years as Business Development Manager at RTape, Jim Hingst retired. He was involved in many facets of the company’s business, including marketing, sales, product development and technical service.

Hingst began his career 42 years ago in the graphic arts field creating and producing advertising and promotional materials for a large test equipment manufacturer.  Working for offset printers, large format screen printers, vinyl film manufacturers, and application tape companies, his experience included estimating, production planning, purchasing and production art, as well as sales and marketing. In his capacity as a salesman, Hingst was recognized with numerous sales achievement awards.

Drawing on his experience in production and as graphics installation subcontractor, Hingst provided the industry with practical advice, publishing more than 190 articles for  publications, such as  Signs Canada, SignCraft,  Signs of the Times, Screen Printing, Sign and Digital Graphics and  Sign Builder Illustrated. He also posted more than 500 stories on his blog (hingstssignpost.blogspot.com). In 2007 Hingst’s book, Vinyl Sign Techniques, was published.  Vinyl Sign Techniques is available at sign supply distributors and at Amazon. 

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