Making your goals

Quantifying your goals can be a long process.
You'll have to gather a lot more information
before you're ready to set specific targets.
Eventually, you'll probably want to put those
goals together in the form of a business plan.

But before we move on to the process of getting
that information, let's take a look at some of
the guidelines you should follow when quantifying your goals:

* Be specific ­ establish targets that can be
easily measured, and use numbers as targets
whenever possible. For example, you may set a
goal of selling your goods or services across a
particular number of counties or states, having a
certain number of employees, or reaching a
particular level of sales. Tie those numbers to
specific time frames (within six months, within
two years, within 10 years, etc.).

* Be realistic ­ having high expectations is
great, but make sure that you establish targets
that are reasonable and potentially achievable.
If you're opening a fast-food restaurant, to say
that you want to be bigger than McDonald's within six months is not realistic.

* Be aggressive ­ you can be realistic and still
aim high. Don't set goals that are too easily
achieved; also, set both short-term and long-term
goals. If, after six months in business, you
accomplish all of your goals, then what? Don't
sell yourself short; if you want to be bigger
than McDonald's within 20 years, go for it.

* Be consistent ­ Beware of inadvertently setting
inconsistent goals. For example, a goal of
growing fast enough to have three employees
within two years might be inconsistent with a
goal of earning a particular amount of money if
the cost of adding the employees ends up
temporarily reducing your income below the target
level. There is nothing wrong with having both
goals. Just be aware that the potential conflict
exists, and establish priorities among your goals
so that you'll know which ones are most important to you.

In developing your goals and objectives, you
should be specific where achievements can be
measured. Normally you would have a numbered list
of a few selected objectives. Keep your list to
about ten, because long lists make it hard to focus.

Making your goals concrete is the best way,
possibly the only way, to tell when you've
achieved them. Your chance of implementation
depends on your being able to track progress
toward goals and measure results, and
implementation is critical. Set measurable
objectives such as sales or sales growth, profits
or profitability, market share as published by an
objective and accessible source, gross margin as percent of sales, for example.

Avoid listing vague goals that can't be tracked.
Where general or intangible goals are important
to your business, find a way to make them
specific. For example, if customer satisfaction
is a priority, put your objectives in terms of
percent of returns, specific numbers of
complaints, or letters of praise, or some other
measure related to satisfaction. If image or
awareness is a priority, include a survey to
measure the change in percentages in your plan.
You can build a customer satisfaction survey into
your plan, set the sample size and satisfaction
scores you want to achieve, then carry out the survey to check on success.

Since you deal with products, you might watch
gross margin or unit sales, so you should set
objectives for these key factors. If you are a
distribution company, for example, then you will
also want to focus on tight management of
logistics, working capital, and personnel costs.
If you are a publisher, then you might focus on
product quality, titles, or marketing. This
obviously depends on your type of business.

About the Author:
Brian Hazelgren is a globally recognized expert
in business planning, strategic planning,
infrastructure development, training, sales and operations.