Setting Resolutions You'll Actually Achieve in Your Business
By Andrew Patricio
January 06, 2016
Small Business & Entrepreneurship
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By the small business content developers at BizLaunch.com.
If you think resolutions aren’t worth making, think again. They’re actually great tools for your business to identify goals and work toward them throughout the year...if you set them the right way. Not sure where to start? Never fear: we’ll help you do just that in this post.
Start By Deciding What You Want
The great thing about the start of a new year is that it’s a fresh slate for whatever you want to accomplish in 2016. If you want more customers or to add a new product line, now is a great time to think about those changes.
Make a list of everything you want to accomplish in the next 12 months.
Now, Get Specific
The reason why so many New Year’s resolutions fail is because they’re vague. If you say “I want more customers,” how do you know when you’ve achieved that goal? When you have just one additional customer? Probably not.
Instead, get down to details. Maybe you want to have 20% more customers than you had in 2015. This is easily measured: you simply look at how many customers you had last year and add 20%. Now you have a measurable goal to work toward.
You’ll probably have to spend some time in your accounting software to look at last year’s numbers so you can get details about what you want for this year.
Add To-Dos
Simply writing out your resolutions isn’t going to make them come true. You’ve got to also put in the hard work! To that end, you’ll need a list of everything you (or someone else on your team) needs to do to reach a given goal.
So with that example goal of increasing customers by 20%, your task list might look like:
For each of these goals, assign an owner and a deadline, and follow up every month or quarter to check progress. That way, you’re informed throughout the year how you’re doing moving toward accomplishing each goal.
At Year’s End…
Next December, get your resolutions list out and determine which you achieved. What kept you from accomplishing them all? Understanding the roadblocks will make it easier for you to tweak goals for the new year.
If you think resolutions aren’t worth making, think again. They’re actually great tools for your business to identify goals and work toward them throughout the year...if you set them the right way. Not sure where to start? Never fear: we’ll help you do just that in this post.
Start By Deciding What You Want
The great thing about the start of a new year is that it’s a fresh slate for whatever you want to accomplish in 2016. If you want more customers or to add a new product line, now is a great time to think about those changes.
Make a list of everything you want to accomplish in the next 12 months.
Now, Get Specific
The reason why so many New Year’s resolutions fail is because they’re vague. If you say “I want more customers,” how do you know when you’ve achieved that goal? When you have just one additional customer? Probably not.
Instead, get down to details. Maybe you want to have 20% more customers than you had in 2015. This is easily measured: you simply look at how many customers you had last year and add 20%. Now you have a measurable goal to work toward.
You’ll probably have to spend some time in your accounting software to look at last year’s numbers so you can get details about what you want for this year.
Add To-Dos
Simply writing out your resolutions isn’t going to make them come true. You’ve got to also put in the hard work! To that end, you’ll need a list of everything you (or someone else on your team) needs to do to reach a given goal.
So with that example goal of increasing customers by 20%, your task list might look like:
- Launch customer referral campaign
- Build out promotion calendar
- Target new geographic area with local advertising
- Hire a new salesperson
For each of these goals, assign an owner and a deadline, and follow up every month or quarter to check progress. That way, you’re informed throughout the year how you’re doing moving toward accomplishing each goal.
At Year’s End…
Next December, get your resolutions list out and determine which you achieved. What kept you from accomplishing them all? Understanding the roadblocks will make it easier for you to tweak goals for the new year.