Goal-Setting and Strategic Planning

Here is this months question: "If you don't know where youre going, how will you know when you get there?"

A common problem for most of us who own small businesses is forcing ourselves to step back from the daily grind to take a comprehensive and objective look at the businesss performance as well as its future prospects.

We say, "We own the business. In far too many cases, however, nothing could be farther from the truth."

We don't own the business. The business owns us.

Here are several things you can and really, should do to gain effective control of your business.

Review Monthly Financial Statements

Financial reports are a simple measuring stick, but a shocking number of Small Business Owners dont know their businesss financial condition.

So who owns whom?

Set Performance Goals

Here are some good rules of thumb. First, Goals must be specific. "Increase sales" is not a goal. "Increase net sales by 10% in the next 6 months is a goal."

Secondly, goals must have a timetable. Otherwise, how will you know when you get there? And timetables are easy. Time them to coincide with your monthly financial statement review.

Third, dont set too many goals. Three to five goals are a good start if youve never set goals before.

A final very important point: Set goals that are meaningful to your business, and that force you to stretch a little beyond your comfort zone.

But set goals that can be achieved. Meeting goals is a wonderful feeling; falling short is a real downer.

Have a Strategic Planning Retreat

Large businesses have engaged in retreats for their key personnel for years. Why shouldnt you?

Go to some nice place with your key people, arrange for a meeting place separate from your rooms, and conduct a critical review of operations.

Here's a proven technique used by Big Business for years, but applies equally to Small Businesses. Used properly, it can transform the way you look at your business, and at yourself.

This technique is called a SWOT Analysis. SWOT is an acronym for

· Strengths

· Weaknesses

· Opportunities

· Threats

Strengths and Weaknesses constitute an internal review of your company. In essence, you now have a series of plusses and minuses describing the company.

The Opportunities and Threats are another series of plusses and minuses, only this time you're looking at factors external to your company.

Plan to spend some time on this phasegenerating SWOTs. When several people are involved, it's really kind of fun. And you begin to see things that were there all along but that you had never realized!

Once you've identified your SWOTs, take some time off--remember, youre in a nice place, and you've got more work ahead of you.

Here's your next step. You've looked at Inside and Outside the business, and have identified plusses and minuses in each dimension.

Now change dimensions. Look just at the plusses, Inside or Outside. And then look at the minuses, Inside or Outside.

Bill Belchee

Beacon Small Business Solutions