Goals Need to Be More Than Financial…If You Hope to Build Your Business
Recently, I was asked about what types of goals a leadership team should have for their business. Of course, most businesses have a financial goal, but were there others that are important, as well?
The simple answer is, yes!
Financial goals are important, because if a business is not making money, chances are it won’t be around to do anything else. That said, without other goals to support it, generally a financial goal on its own is unattainable. The goals of the business really do need to complement each other to achieve success.
So, let’s break down the different areas to consider:
Service to your customer – It is critically important to look at your business through the lens of your customer and to ensure that what they want from their perspective, should be what you want from yours. When these two align, then magic happens. If your customer wants to be able to shop 24 hours a day, then one of your goals should be to provide a 24 hour shopping experience. In the case of setting these goals, please, please, please don’t guess. Take the time to really figure out what is important to your current customers and build your goals around that. These goals could be a change in product, service or service levels…all qualify as service to your customer.
Reaching new customers – No matter the business, there will always be some level of customer turn. In addition, most businesses also like to grow, at least a bit. This means you need to be bringing in new customers to replace the ones that are taking a hiatus, recapturing previous customers, accessing different markets or changing your offerings. There should be goals specifically related to generating more interest in the business and what you have to offer.
Getting better at what you do – This is often a pretty easy one to define. Everyone who is doing a job in your business will have their own ideas about how thing could be done better. It could be they think if they had a different piece of equipment or a different software program, it would literally solve all the issues. One word of caution around this one. This is generally where people feel most comfortable and thus, they will weight these goals as more important than others. They will guise it as saving cost or having the capacity to bring in more customers. Simply, if you have no new customers, the savings you might make in getting better will be lost in the investment. Again, goals need to compliment each other.
Building you and your team – We have written extensively about this but will say it again. Your business is limited by the thinking you and your team. If you are not continually pushing your own thinking and experience, before long you will stagnate as a business. Employee and leadership development is critical in growing and building a business and therefore there should be goals associated with this and those goals should be equally as important as any of the others. These goals could be around taking certain courses, working with a coach or advisor, attending conferences…something to open you up to new possibilities.
There is no doubt that financial goals are important. They should absolutely be on the list, but as you can see, when you round out the areas for your goals, it provides a much more interesting and engaging perspective on what is possible. Take the time to really think about what you want to achieve and you will see how it make a difference in your business.
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