Calgary, Alberta (PRWEB) January 10, 2012
With the beginning of the New Year about to unfold before us, many small business owners are feeling a renewed sense of drive and purpose. Along with this new enthusiasm comes the time honored tradition of making our list of New Year resolutions. Small businesses can also benefit from this tradition and use this time to implement their own list of high priority goals to achieve in the upcoming months.
Setting goals provides us with an opportunity to evaluate our existing position within the marketplace, and drill down to the key components that will propel our businesses to new heights. The motivation that comes with not only setting goals, but achieving them throughout the year will provide you and your team with an ongoing sense of purpose and commitment.
Listed below are a few tips to help you and your business get the most out of your 2012 goal setting campaigns.
Goal Priority
While we have dozens, or even hundreds of goals we’d like to see implemented within our businesses time generally dictates that we prioritize, and choose the one’s that will make the most impact and add the most value to our businesses. This will allow us to focus our energies on the goals that we’ve determined to be the most important within our businesses.
Goal Fluidity
It’s important for business owners to realize and accept the fact that goals are fluid in nature, and can, and often will change and adapt as a business and its team continue to develop and grow. If a goal set at the beginning of the year is attained within a shorter period of time than you anticipated, you can choose to accept it as a quick accomplishment, or expand on the goal and take it even further.
Goal Reminders
It’s important to keep the goals you’ve set for your business front and center, where the key players involved are able to see them at a glance. This can be as simple as posting them on whiteboards, walls, and cubicles, or perhaps including them in weekly or monthly memos.
Stretch yourself
Often business owners are tempted to set goals they can realistically (easily) expect to achieve. While it is important and even falls into the S.M.A.R.T. mnemonic under both A. “attainable”, and R. “Realistic/Relevant” it’s still a good idea to push boundaries and stretch yourself if you hope to hit new heights, or reach new levels of success within your business.
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable
R – Relevant
T – Time-Bound
Involve Your Team
If your business is made up of more than just yourself, make sure you share your goals and ideas with your team. An even better option might be to involve them in the goal setting process from the very beginning so they feel they not only have a stake in the business, but are also setting goals and targets that will be a focus for the company for the entire year ahead.
Positive vs. Negative Goals
Try phrasing your goals using positive wording such as “our team will work as a highly organized group” rather than the negative “we will stop being a disorganized team.”
Tracking and analyzing
It’s always important to choose goals that have measurable characteristics so that you can track your progress, or perhaps at times even lack of progress which will then allow you to dedicate more time and resources toward achieving that particular goal. Depending on the priority value you place on the goal will determine the frequency with which you choose monitor it. Daily, weekly, or monthly will likely be the choices for an annual goal.
It’s important to remember that as you go through the next twelve months these goals were the ones chosen out of all other possible goals as being THE most important to the success of YOUR business. Keeping this in mind as you set out to achieve each goal on your list will ensure every single goal receives the upmost commitment to detail, and level of focus that it deserves in order to be accomplished.
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PLR Internet Marketing is an e-business portal helping entrepreneurs learn about and effectively implement e-business, SEO, internet marketing, and more. Their target markets are entrepreneurs who are starting up a business and need some extra guidance and tried-and-tested tools that can help them as they launch, as well as entrepreneurs who have already launched a business and are looking for new growth opportunities through more effective internet marketing. For more small business tips, and for media inquiries, visit http://www.plrinternetmarketing.com.
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