by Adam Hope
If you’ve ever worked in a high pressure industry, you know that when it comes to impressing clients or customers, the proof is in the pudding. This is especially applicable to startup businesses that don’t yet have the business or brand reputation required to stand on their own – they need the numbers to back it up. Business growth doesn’t just happen on its own and every entrepreneur knows that a proactive approach is behind the success of any business.
With this in mind, it’s imperative that as a business owner that you set yourself targets and goals, taking a strategic and systematic approach towards achieving them. We’ve brought together some of the best ways to set the business goal posts, giving you something to work towards and give your business future potential.
Quantify Your Goals
There’s little point in setting a goal if you can never measure whether it has been achieved. Goals need to be quantifiable – whether that’s by increasing your profit margin by 10% or taking on two extra members of staff by the end of the year. By being able to physically measure your progress, you can ensure that you’re keeping on track towards reaching your end goals.
Get Strategic
Unfortunately for those who like to avoid it, this part involves paperwork. Entrepreneurs should identify a system, whether it’s a simple document or a complex formula, to record their business goals. Increase your chances of success by visualizing your goals and writing down how you’re going to achieve them, when you want to reach them and how their outcomes will be measured. Depending on what you want to achieve, you should record your progress next to your goals on a monthly basis, tracking their progress and altering your approach if it’s not working.
Use One Goal To Achieve Another
When looking to expand by taking on new customers or clients, entrepreneurs should think of the process like a job interview. Every time a potential customer is presented with your offering, they are examining your business to see what’s behind the product. Potential customers want to hear real benefits to using your product or service – part of your goals for growth should include taking on jobs that highlight your strengths and have shown real results. Plan goals which you can show off when you achieve them, using them to grow further and achieve new milestones.
Once you’ve established your goals, the real work starts – setting about achieving them. However, with the correct framework, measurements, planning and commitment, your business will be back on track. Make sure that you do at least one activity a day which contributes towards reaching your goals, no matter how small. It’s all to easy to make a plan then set it aside to collect dust. Goal setting is an ongoing activity that should be part of your daily business operations.
Adam Hope is a blogger for Win That Bid. Once a startup itself, Win That Bid is now the UK’s largest bid writing and proposal specialist. Their strategic approach helps businesses win contracts both internationally and in the UK. Our team of bid writing experts and bid managers, combined with our industry experience helps us create proposals that knock the ball out of the park – every time.
Photo Credits
Courtesy of Adam Hope
