Goals that energize drive profits

Do you have an effective process for determining your goals and mapping out how to achieve them? Do you know what really makes a small business profitability plan work?

If you’re struggling to make your small business profitable, it may be time to revisit the goals and strategies that guide your company.

Setting specific and achievable revenue goals is vital to increasing your organization’s profitability and sustainability. But not just any goal will work. The best goal statement energizes and inspires so that you can hold your course as you develop and carry out your plans.

When you align your goals with the values that get you genuinely excited, it’s easier to achieve them. Here’s an overview of the goal-setting and achievement process:

1. Incorporate your motivations in your general goal statement
2. Identify opportunities and evaluate/prioritize them using profitability projections
3. Start planning the project’s steps and milestones, assigning responsibilities to your team
4. At each project milestone, measure achievement and celebrate wins
5. Adjust the plan and/or SMART goals
6. Celebrate the wins again

Today we’ll do an exercise that addresses step one, weaving alignment and motivation into your goals like weaving a ribbon into a braid.

Your goal statements will provide a guidepost for planning your business strategy and evoke your needs, motivations, and values. Creating an exciting goal will allow you to develop a sustainable plan and help ensure that profitability doesn’t feel like a constant struggle.

Let’s say, for example, that you want to increase your profitability by about $5000 per month.

Many small business owners don’t get terribly excited by the number itself. To help you feel energized about your goal, find your fire – consider how you can describe your profitability goal in a way that gets you eager to start. What difference will that $5000 make in your life and your business?

As you read each example below, pay attention to how it feels. Which approaches feel more energizing for you?

• Need/pain: “I need more money to live on, so I will make at least $5000/month in additional take-home pay.”
• Pride/value: “If I were an employee hired to do all the things I do, I’d be getting $5000/month more than I’ve been paying myself.”
• Service/vision: “I want to be able to help more clients, so to increase my personal capacity, I need to relax more. That means my income has to go up $5000/month.”
• Incentive/Fun: “I want to make an additional $5000/month so that I can buy a piano and take one-on-one piano lessons.”
• Loyalty: “I want to make an additional $5000/month so that I can give my employees raises.”
• Your motivation here: ______________________________________

Having identified your motivation, describe your goal with a sentence describing the action you intend to take. Feelings come and go like the weather, so don’t stop with one goal statement. Create one or two extras. Post them somewhere you’ll see them frequently. Many people choose the bathroom mirror or on a wall in their office.

But let’s say that an additional $5000/month is not the right profitability target for you. So how do you find the right target? By looking at the need, value, or motivation described in your goal statement.

For example, if the goal statement addresses your unmet needs, look at your household budget first. If you’re trying to give your employees raises, consider how much you want to pay them and calculate the additional payroll expenses – taxes included. If you want money for fun stuff, look up how much that piano and lessons are likely to cost.

Want more personalized advice or support in goal setting, planning, and keeping on top of your financial records? Join our mastermind program – or get your bookkeeping done for you by Team Bliss!