By Ariana Geneva

I have a friend, Brad, who is the General Manager of a restaurant in Downtown Memphis. He had a meeting with his management team at the beginning of the year and in that meeting, he tasked his managers with this: “Pick 10 things you want to accomplish this year. Got them? Good, now pick 3 from your list. Now pick 1. That is all you will be able to accomplish in a year in this restaurant.” Was he wrong, oversimplifying goal attainment, or underestimating his team? I think in this meeting he hit on what every business will eventually have a hard time doing:  prioritizing goals for their business and setting an actionable plan to achieve these goals. 

Setting a goal, whether it be a personal goal like running a marathon or a business goal like increasing your local customer base by 25%, doesn’t seem so hard. I just typed out two in one sentence. However, setting attainable, measurable and relevant goals to your business can be much more difficult when you sit down to map out how to get yourself or your business from where you are to where you want to be. 

Why should you set goals in the first place? 

Goals help you visualize what you want to accomplish and how to organize the steps you will take to achieve these goals. Plus,  goal setting itself is motivation for attainment! “Goal setting is a purposeful and explicit process that starts with identifying a new objective, skill or project you want to achieve. Then you make a plan to achieve it, and then you work to complete it.” (LucidChart)

Any business, whether new or established, always has room for improvement. Setting goals can help do just that. A business should want to maintain momentum and keep working towards positive growth. Having a goal as a team is motivating while also contributes to team cohesiveness and identity within your company as well.  

How do you determine your goals?

Personal goals, like the previous example of running a marathon, can be born from inspiration from a friend's achievement or a gradual “next step” in a fitness training journey you are already on. Business goals can sometimes be a little more complicated to create. One business tool you can use to help determine where you may need to set goals is to perform a SWOT analysis for your business. Analyzing your businesses Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats can help you clarify what goals you would like to prioritize based on what you are already doing well, what you determine needs improvement, and what other competitors may be doing better than you. 

Let’s go a little more in depth with what a SWOT analysis is in regards to using it as a business tool. 

• Strengths - What you do well; Sales performance, customer retention, financial backing, a well known brand, strong sales performance. Your competitive advantages. 

• Weaknesses - Internal Factors that will prevent you from achieving your goals and objectives; Poor company culture or morale, lack of training or expertise, outdated equipment or technology, inconsistent business practices. What can be improved upon from within the company.

• Opportunities - External factors that allow for growth or success; New technology, financial backing, new business tools or innovations, new team member hiring, shifting market trends in your favor. 

• Threats - External factors that your business must overcome to succeed; Shifting market trends, strong competitors, legal or regulatory industry changes, poor supply chain, technological changes, shifts in the economy. 

Once you have determined a list of each of these aspects you can then ask the following 4 questions of your business: 

• How can I use my Strengths to take advantage of my Opportunities?

• How can I use my Strengths to reduce these Threats and the impact they may have?

• How can I overcome my Weaknesses that contribute to these Threats?

• How do I overcome the Weaknesses that prevent me from taking advantage of these Opportunities? 

Like my friend Brad suggested to his management team, from your SWOT analysis you should pick 3 priorities to create goals for. In this article, BPlans highlighted as an important part of this next step, after you have picked your priorities to create these goals for, solicit feedback and input from your employees and team members. I think this is incredibly important and is repeated often in other articles about goal attainment as well. Your employees and your team are the ones who know what's working and what isn’t, they interact with customers and hear their feedback.  They can provide valuable feedback and insights in regards to setting and attaining your business goals. Not only is their expertise invaluable but, your team is who is going to execute your plan to achieve your goal. Involving your team creates motivation and inspiration. 

Just like breaking down your SWOT analysis, I am also breaking this blog into a 3 part series. In Part 2, I will explore the difference between broad goals and specific goals, why specific goals are important and how to set them! Keep reading the blog and watch out for Part 2 of Go Get Your Goals!