HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND A VERY HAPPY, HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!!
SETTING BUSINESS GOALS FOR 2020:
A WORKSHEET
LOOKING BACK: Typically this time of year lends itself to a ‘winding down’ period as businesses and individuals turn their focus to ‘wrapping’ things up for the year (gifts AS WELL AS…outstanding business commitments); it is a time of introspection and reflection. We need to take time from our busy personal and business lives at year end or at the beginning of the new year to work ‘on’ our business and not ‘in’ our business. To do this, you will need to spend some uninterrupted time looking back over the past year.
This is a good time to do a ‘SWOT’ analysis. It’s time to identify the STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSES/OPPORTUNITIES and THREATS to your business.
In doing this, here are some questions to ask yourself:
- What are my biggest strengths? What should I be spending more time doing?
- What are my biggest weaknesses? How and who can I delegate this to (which frees up my time to work on my strengths?)
- What are the biggest opportunities available to me right now and into next year? How can I take advantage of them?
- What are the biggest threats to my business? What keeps me awake at night? How can I overcome those threats?
A review of the year’s profitability, accomplishments, and commitments (fulfilled and unfulfilled) is also be beneficial. (Your department heads can help to complete these exercises for each area, i.e. A/R; A/P; HR).
LOOKING FORWARD: Now it’s time to turn your attention to the New Year. Establishing realistic and obtainable goals for next year will help give you and your staff direction and focus. For the upcoming year it’s important to have a ‘game plan’ with realistic targets and time frames. Establish monthly and quarterly reviews to assess if you’ll meet or exceed these targets on time. (Regular reviews allow you to modify your action plan if necessary). You may want to have your key people complete a similar worksheet. (You may need to modify for their particular role in the company).
SOME QUESTIONS TO GET STARTED:
- What is the financial health of your business? Review your company’s Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Cashflows. What’s working? Where are the problem areas? What needs immediate attention?
- What are the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) you use in your business to monitor whether you’re on target to achieve your goals (i.e. number of new clients; sales numbers, etc)?
- Looking back on the past year what things/ideas/procedures worked well and why?
- What things can you replicate/expand upon for next year?
- What is the most critical issue your business faces today? Is it Growth? Cost reduction? Competition? Succession? What can you do to address these issue?
- Do you want to grow your business? What is your ‘stretch goal’? Dream Big.
- Describe what your life will look life if you accomplish this goal, i.e. a bigger house/send kids to private school/sell business at a great price. Can you break down this goal into quantifiable activities/tasks?
- What is your time frame for accomplishing it? Establish milestones with dates attached. What obstacles would prevent you from achieving this ‘stretch goal’?
- What processes/activities/funding must be in place to make your ‘stretch goal’ a reality? New hires to make this happen?
- Develop your Marketing Plan, Sales Plan and Budget for the upcoming year and break these down into quarterly, monthly, weekly targets. Schedule there reviews!
Although these exercises require a great deal of thought and effort, hopefully you’ll have found it inspiring and meaningful. Jan Wallace, ASE.
Wishing you Prosperity and Purpose in 2020!