11 Goals You Should Have for Your Business

Without a clearly defined goal, you are wandering in the dark, grasping for something that you made intangible. Goal-setting is an important part of keeping a business afloat and moving forward. Sketching out new goals might be something that you’d typically associate with the start of a new year, but on the contrary setting, goals throughout the year can do wonders in terms of the business’ growth and development.

It is a good idea to get in the habit of setting multiple goals throughout the year to keep the direction clear to everyone. It will also help you stay motivated throughout the year and keep morale from dipping too low.

Below is a list of goals to help you navigate through the business world at a steady pace and keep you out of stagnancy or business bankruptcy.

Increase Productivity

Take time to sit and think about the normal course of productivity in a workday and how that can be improved upon. This may include eliminating distractions, limiting meetings, or adjusting email practices. It might be a good time to meet with employees to ensure that they have everything they need to work effectively, and to cater to any needs or concerns they may have.

Trimming Expenses

A huge part of both increasing productivity and trimming expenses now more than ever is automating duties when possible.Tasks like bookkeeping are often tedious and time consuming, and also siphon payroll funds and leaves room for human error. Utilizing things like AP Automation software can eliminate these trouble areas entirely by computerization. This is true for other departments, even those you don’t often think about. All IT departments can benefit from disaster recovery software. Social media teams can be hugely helped by social scheduling software. The list goes on and on.

Implementation costs range according to what you’re automating, but that initial investment goes a long way, especially for growing companies.

Hiring An Employee

If you are currently a “one man show” and feel your business has gotten to a point where it is no longer feasible to do it all yourself, consider hiring an employee. Take some time to consult with professionals on the matter, and see if this step makes sense for you. There are regulations you should be mindful of, so be careful to have all your bases covered.

Increasing Traffic To Your Business

The internet offers a tremendous opportunity for people to know who you are and what you do, and an increase in traffic often means more money for you and your business. Think about taking measures to increase the amount of traffic you receive and set goals on how to improve it. If your business is on Facebook, consider looking into Facebook Business Manager if you haven’t already. It is a fairly intuitive system that allows you to track your exposure online.

Create Something New

Changing up what your company offers is a good way to push innovation explore new avenues. Another benefit of being online is the opportunity for constructive feedback. Consider the feedback you have received over time and make sure your services and offerings are congruent or adjusted accordingly.

Improving Finances of Your Business

Are you completely aware of the incoming and outgoing expenses of your business? For a self-starter, this area can often fall by the wayside and to the detriment of your profit. This might be another area where automation is preferable. An e-invoicing system can take the headache out of tracking expenses by logging everything in a neat and orderly fashion without needing to lift a finger. In 2017, this is increasingly becoming a staple for businesses of all sizes.

Fine-Tune Customer Service

Exceptional customer service goes a long way in ensuring the health and longevity of your business. Even if a person does an exceptional job, if the personality is absent or otherwise off-putting this can keep a customer from returning for a second go around. Set goals on how you think this can be improved and always remain conscientious of customer experience.

Keep Employees Happy

Obviously, paying employees more is better, but if you can’t do that, there are other investments you can make. You can give more PTO or put extra focus into mental health. A lot of business owners don’t know this, but mental health conditions can at best decrease productivity and at worst put employees out on Social Security disability for mental health conditions. It’s not just about money with employees. It’s important to create a positive culture if you want to succeed.

Opening Another Location

If you operate your business out of a brick and mortar shop, consider expanding the operation to a second location (chosen strategically of course). Only consider doing this if you feel your original location has a strong foundation and has ironed out kinks sufficiently.

Consider Paperless Options

If you haven’t already, consider the potential of paperless methods. Depending on the nature of your business, this can save on costs and quicken productivity. Although this is a feasibility for some businesses, it may not be right for others, so be sure to give this some premeditation before diving in.

Marketing Audits For Your Business

To stay on top of your marketing efforts, you should take time to inspect what is effective and what isn’t. If you are putting lots of money into one method of advertisement but not getting much of a return on it, it’s probably time to make a change and reapportion your funds.

Increasing Market Share

After doing some market research, hypothesize some ideas on how you can increase your market share. If you have a window installation company for example, see what varieties and styles are trending highly in your geographic domain to make sure you can compete with others in the same business.