SMART goals and planning for business owners

In this article you will learn about:

• What the SMART acronym stands for

• How SMART goals can help your business become more successful

• How to set SMART goals

SMART goals

Successful businesses set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely – in other words, goals that are SMART. The SMART goal system encourages you to look at your business and the market it operates in and identify strengths, track your progress and pinpoint areas for improvement. SMART goals help small business owners to improve their businesses, increase productivity and profits, improve client or employee retention, measure outcomes and grow their businesses.

Keys to a successful SMART goal:

• Have a clear and specific outcome in mind. Rather than saying you want more clients, outline exactly how many new clients you want.

• Understand how you will measure whether or not you have met the goal.

• The goal needs to be achievable, realistic and practical.

• The goal needs to be relevant to your business and its growth.

• Have a timeframe or deadline in place.

How to set SMART goals for a small business:

• Use the SMART acronym as a starting point. Write down each goal and then break down how it is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely. Start off with small and achievable goals. Here are some examples:

• Find 4 new customers in the next quarter. This is specific (4 new customers), is small enough to be achievable, is relevant to the goal of the business, and is timely (in the next quarter).

• Increase revenue by 10% each quarter in the next year. Again, this is specific, measurable, relevant, achievable and is a timely measurement.

Other ideas to use as inspiration for your own SMART goals:

• Strengthen our sales team by ensuring that at least 80% of salespeople have completed a sales training programme by the end of the quarter.

• Pay off our business debt within the next 24 months.

• Increase the number of positive new customer reviews by 30% year-on-year.

• Transition our IT support to in-house within the next 12 months.

• Increase website traffic by 25% in the next 6 months.

A final thought:

Not setting goals for your business is bit like building a house without a plan. By making your goals SMART you will know what you want to achieve, how you will achieve it and how you will measure your progress.

Key Takeout’s:

Setting SMART goals can help small businesses be more successful.

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