Goal Oriented: 4 Steps To Reaching Your Dreams
 By B.J. Addington

If your small business is in a stall, it might not be the fault of tightwad consumers. If your solo enterprise is floundering, you might not be able to blame the competition or the economy.

Instead, the problem may fall heavily upon your very own shoulders – lack of goals.

Stephen R. Covey, author of the best seller, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” (Free Press, 1989), believes the major reason businesses fail or remain mediocre is because they lack the ability to take their high-level goals and translate them into concrete actions.

“Organizations either have too many goals or they change them too often or they simply don’t have any,” says Covey.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that you can change, without too much pain. The secret is to dream big, then narrow your goals to specifics and identify actions you can take to achieve them.

Use this four-step strategy for setting and achieving your small-business goals.

1. Dream big
   Start your goal-setting process with big dreams and aspirations. Anything goes.
   
   Maybe you want to grow your small café into the snazziest restaurant in town. Go for it. Or perhaps you want to expand your hardware store to three locations instead of one. It could happen. You might have financial dreams, such as growing your consulting business from $100,000 in annual revenues to $200,000 a year.
   
   All of these are possible. But you won’t get there unless you can identify the dream. So name your dream and write it down.
   
   
2. Narrow your goals
   Now that you’ve got the big dream in mind, identify goals that will get you there. Be specific.
   
   For instance, let’s say you want to double the revenue for your consulting business. Be more specific. Do you want to double revenue within one year? Two years?
   
   You may have more than one goal for your small business. If so, now is the time to focus on the top two or three. Setting too many goals will overwhelm you.
   
   So, identify two goals that are most important to the growth and success of your company. Give those goals priority. After you achieve those, return to the others and give them your full attention.
   
   
3. Develop action items
   Look at the two goals that get your top priority. Identify how you can achieve them.
   
   For example, you want to double your company’s revenue within two years. Break that into measurable chunks. To double your company’s revenue within two years, how much do you need to increase revenue every month? Get a specific figure, an amount you can aim for each month.
   
   Let’s say that to achieve your goal, you need to increase your revenue by $1,000 per month for the next two years. Now look at actions you can take to accomplish that. Maybe you can sell $1,000 more of services to your existing customers every month. Perhaps you need to acquire a new client every two months. Or maybe you can use a combination of the two to achieve your goal.
   
   Write down the actions you need to take. What new services can you sell? Which existing clients might be interested? Where and how can you market to attract new clients?
   
   You now have a written plan for achieving your short- and long-term goals.
   
   
4. Measure your progress
   To accomplish your goals, you need to consistently measure your progress.
   
   Each month, review the actions that you took. Look at which actions worked well and which fell flat. Adjust accordingly. Are you hitting your short-term goal of producing an additional $1,000 per month? If not, stretch for new ideas.
   
   Stay focused on concrete actions you can take every day. That’s the secret to making your big dreams come true.
   
   

(Posted August 2004)

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