Setting goals for your business
All business leaders should take the time to set goals for their companies. Goals are the foundation of team-building and your company’s ultimate success. A recent article from Business.com highlights the goal-setting process. There are various methods of goal-setting. When combined, they will help boost the success of your business in no time.
- SWOT Analysis – The first step in goal-setting should to be to analyze the core of your company. Utilizing the SWOT approach can be extremely beneficial, as it forces you to examine your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. A SWOT analysis can help to maximize your strengths and take advantage of opportunities within reach. Meanwhile, it can help to improve weaknesses and overcome future threats to your business.
- Be SMART – After a SWOT analysis, you should begin to create goals using the SMART method. Goals should be specific, such that expectations are clearly communicated to employees. They should be measurable in the form of numbers. The goals need to also be attainable–realistic for everyone. Further, the goals should be relevant to the current state of the economy. And finally, the goals must be time-specific, with timeframes outlining when items will be completed and due dates.
- Agile Approach – An agile approach should be used if you are encountering challenges with your previously-set goals. Ask yourself the following questions: (a) What are you intentions behind setting these goals? (b) Why do you want to achieve them? and (c) How can you make the goals easier to accomplish?