How to achieve your business goals

WORKING IT

I remember a motivational speaker in the USA saying that a dream is simply a goal without a timeframe. Would you put a New Year’s resolution in the same category?

In late December I was asked by TV3 news to comment on making and keeping resolutions. As you probably know, the top three categories of personal resolutions are health, weight and budget.

And if you’re like the majority, you’ll be one of the 25% who have failed in your resolution by the end of January, or the 75% by April 1.

My comment for TV3 was two-fold. Success comes to those who make SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely) resolutions or goals and make room in their  busy lives to achieve them.

Heaping more activity on top of a frantic lifestyle normally results in failure.

Let’s apply this to business. What are your business resolutions/goals? How do you go about turning them into achievements rather than failures?

1. Start by being specific, time bound and measurable.  It’s not “I want to earn more”. It’s "I want to earn $10,000 more” or “10% more in 2011”. Or, “I want to be a senior manager within the company by the age of 37”.

2. Next determine what your route is to get there. Change career or job, seek further education or training, gain more experience? To earn more – it could be that you need to attract a different type of client or get more business out of existing clients.

3. Once you’ve charted your course of action, simply chop it up into small (bite-sized) specific, actionable pieces. And do each within a specific timeframe.

$50,000 Increase
Here’s an example. You want to increase business income by $50,000 a year. If your average client brings in $3000, you’ll need to either get 17 extra clients in addition to your normal new ones next year, increase your income from $3000 to $5000 from 25 of your existing clients or a combination of both.

And 17 new clients is about one more client every 2.5 weeks. So your action plan might be:

a. Personally call top clients during the year to see if there is more business waiting for you, plus asking for referrals. If you have a total of 100 clients to call, your bite-sized activity is two calls a week.

b. Focus your business development on those prospects that mirror your top clients. Seek new business by calling, getting referrals, networking, getting X number of appointments per week (figure in your success ratio of appointments that turn into clients.)

c. Develop your profile. Divide this into activities like article writing, seminar presentations and networking. Write one article every two weeks (get a ghost writer to do it for you) and quarterly client seminars where they are asked to bring their clients (prospects for you).

Do not forget to celebrate your successes along the way and give yourself a pat on the back. 

You may be thinking, “But I’m so busy now! How Can I possible fit it all in?” That’s why it is critical that you put your focus on the right activities.

You cannot escape the fact there are limited hours in the day. Or that you don’t really know the balance of your bank account of time.

You must therefore be clever and spend each moment wisely, focusing your time doing the right activities for you.

For example, running your own business. If your role is to produce income or be the strategic thinker, is it the best use of your time to do administrative work?

Bumble around with the computer? Help staff solve their every problem? Do the cleaning around the home?

Absolutley not! You must focus your time on activities that will best help you achieve your goals. Delegate what won’t.

It is a useful exercise to list everything you do on a regular basis for the different roles in your life – as a parent, partner, employee, friend or member of the community.

This self-examination is where your time and balance breakthrough begins.

Go through your list of activities one by one and grade each. Find ways of eliminating time wasters from your life. Keep pleasurable activites on it.

For business, ensure you rank the activities that are the most profitable. I always say that it takes the same amount of energy to market and develop a $500 client as it does for a $5000 client.

So why would you waste your time going for the $500 clients? If you want to develop new business, why waste your own time on administration?

Even if you’re a commission-earning salesperson, you would profit far more by hiring a part-time student to do your $12.75 an hour paperwork and free you up for the $50-plus an hour income-producing work.

You can achieve anything and everything you’d like to. Have an open and imaginative approach to setting SMART goals. Break your action plan into small bites and, one by one, start putting it all together. 

And, finally, remember not to to get caught up in menial activities. Make the best use of your time by focusing on activities that are going to be most advantageous to you and your business.

Debbie Mayo-Smith is one of the most sought-after speakers in Australasia. For a free quick tip newsletter, a vast collection of "how-to" articles and other resources to help you work smarter and save time, visit www.debbiespeaks.co.nz