How Important is Goal Setting for you and your business!

Nothing else can have the impact that setting goals can have on your business and on your life.

Goal-setting isn’t difficult. So why do so few people do it? Ultimately, it’s because people don’t think goal-setting is that important. But show me a highly successful business owner and I’ll show you his or her goals and the plan to achieve them. EVERY SUCCESSFUL CLIENT WE HAVE USES GOAL-SETTING. Think about that for a moment… there’s a big clue in there!

Quite frankly, if you’re not setting goals, you’re not that serious about building your business and achieving startling results. Just by thinking carefully about your goals, writing them down and then creating a plan to achieve them, takes you to a completely different world than the one you’re probably operating in at the moment.

Setting Goals for you and your Business!

Think about it…

If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you get there? It’s like sailing a ship without a rudder. But setting in place a number of goals gives you direction. Of course, rarely do you get there in a straight line, but knowing exactly where you want to get to gives you a focus that you won’t have experienced ever  before. As   Zig   Ziglar   said, You’ll never make it as a wandering generality.” Defining specific, precise and clearly set goals gives you purpose, gives you motivation and gives you a path to follow. If you’re just meandering—all that you need to get you back on track is a defined set of goals.  So decide what they are and write them down. Next, because you know what your goals are, you can then put in place a plan to achieve them. 

Make no mistake, this is of course a critical part of achieving your goals. The often unspoken benefit of setting goals is how easy it makes your daily decision-making when running your business. Think about it… the actions and decisions you take each day have an effect on the journey you take.

So when you know where you’re going, making even the smallest decision in line with your goals makes the whole process so much easier AND ensures you get there quicker and without having to take too many wrong turns or detours.

Employee Engagement & Turnover!

We all know that the best employees are engaged and highly motivated. However, most businesses don’t consider the relationship between employee engagement and turnover. Research shows that companies with highly engaged employees experience higher employee retention rates, improved profitability and better overall effectiveness.    Contrary to popular belief, those leaving at the greatest rate are not necessarily those who are the least engaged. It is those with average engagement, the passively engaged staff that leave. These employees are the solid workers that contribute reasonably well to the business. They leave because they are "looking for something better" and when they leave, they take their knowledge and abilities with them. Unfortunately, those with low levels of engagement are very often the ones who stay in the firm. Why? Because they've landed the perfect job! They are satisfied and are collecting a pay cheque each month. By measuring and making some targeted changes, employees with average levels of engagement can often join the ranks of the highly engaged. With this come the benefits of higher profit and higher productivity.

Remember Your Clients - Or They Will Forget About You!

If you don’t ask you don’t get! Just because you're good at what you do, it doesn't mean you'll get referrals for new business. Many business owners know that the best source of referrals is from satisfied clients. They go about doing great work and making their customers happy, then wait for the referrals to come in.

To a degree this works, depending on your business and its reputation in the market. However, this alone does not generate enough new referral work. The problem is that receiving referrals is more important to you than giving referrals is to your past clients. Clients may love working with you, but may be too busy to pass your name along.

Asking for referrals is a good place to start. You might mention it in a phone call or email as a natural part of the work you do together. You can have a form on your website or in paper form that clients fill out when they start work with you. It doesn't matter what you do, just as long as you have integrated it into your business system.

If you don't remember past clients, they certainly won’t remember you. When you stop working with a client, they don't have a reason to think about you anymore. If you want them to remember who you are, keep in touch with them. This is easy to do with ongoing clients. If you work with them every month, they will naturally remember you.

Stay in touch with former clients with regular email marketing, an invitation to an annual client event or perhaps a message through social media. You could consider following them on Twitter as they may follow you back.

The key is to keep in touch with previous clients through scheduled email / marketing. Quarterly or twice yearly contact is often enough, and don’t forget to ask for a referral. Make sure you get the message right rather then being too pushy.  Something along the lines of, “Business is going well. We are always looking for more. If you would like to refer a friend or contact to us we will look after them as well as we looked after you…”

Please feel free to post your thoughts and comments to make us better.

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At APJ Accountancy we aim to provide you with the most relevant information to run your business whether you are a Contractor or Small business.

Why Businesses STOP Growing?

To understand why growth slows or stagnates in any business, we first need to look at how a typical business evolves and why the frustration starts to mount as this growth slows. We call this the ‘Growth Roller-Coaster’.

Take a look at the illustration below. 

The starting point is the beginning of a business, usually created by a sole proprietor or a small partnership/directorship. Typically, the owners are very hands-on at this stage with few, if any, staff and modest resources. In the early months and years the business grows very well. 

Customers receive a high degree of director attention with high levels of expertise and customer-care as a result. Costs in the modest operation are relatively low and the business can respond quickly to customer and market needs. 

Word is spread by customers and referrers about the great, cost-effective products or services and new business is easily gained. The business quickly expands to a peak at point A, driven by the personalities and skills of its owners.

In an ideal world, two conditions will now be met. Firstly, the directors will recognise that they have reached the pinnacle for a personality-driven business and secondly, the business and financial performance will be at a level that completely satisfies them. In reality, neither is the case.

What happens in the real world is that the owners continue to drive forward. However, with growth problems materialise…

Staff and resource levels have been increased to serve the growing customer base, increasing costs and tying up director time. The owners themselves come under increasing time pressure, being torn between customer, staff and business needs. Falling service levels and rising costs see the growth constricted and dissatisfaction around the business grows in its place.

Have you ever heard yourself or a colleague say, “This was so much easier in the early days!”

Now the owners find themselves at point C. Right now, you are likely to be at some point between A and C.

Reality has dawned and the business is at a crossroads. 

Do you remain a personality-driven business and attempt to claw your way back to point A by downsizing, culling customers and laying off staff and try and raise point A to a higher point?

Or, do you undertake the investment (mostly in time and effort) required to move forward and become a systems-based business at point C. I guess as you’re taking this course, it’s highly likely this is what you want to achieve.              

Interestingly both types of business can be successful with the right planning and management. But, too many businesses find themselves falling into the trough in between simply because they’ve didn’t consider early enough what their fundamental strategies and goals should be.

Instead emphasis is placed on the process functions of the business like, delivering the product or service and support to customers and essential marketing and management of the business is overlooked. Growth, consequently, is limited.

Let’s look then at the high-level view of your business (which can be any business). As I mentioned earlier, it has three key components…

1. Process

The mechanics by which any business ‘produces’ its saleable products or services.  This is how you generate income.

2. Marketing

The generation of new customers, the retention of existing customers and the maximisation of customer value.  This is how you acquire and retain customers and this course focuses on this particular component.

3. Management

The running of the business – its performance management, strategies and goals as well as the financial management of your business (where we come in!). This is where you generate profit and wealth.

 When a business is growing steadily and reaching the owner-managers’ objectives, the 3 functions work together to create a harmonious cycle (see diagram below) 

In reality, the majority of people in business are taught process skills from school days, through skills training and onwards.

We are taught how to read and write. How to follow instructions and answer questions. How to replicate what we learn. You develop expertise in how to do ‘things’.

In other words, your expertise and skills invariably lie in the PROCESS function. Consequently, with the skills and knowledge loaded towards the Process function, businesses can only grow whilst there is capacity within the Process function to do so.

But without the same relative development in the management and in particular marketing functions either side, growth becomes limited…

The cycle now starts to look very different (see diagram below).

 So the solution is simple…

You need to start putting more effort into the marketing and management functions of the business to realign the balance.

This doesn’t mean you neglect the process function.

It just means you work smarter and allocate your time and effort better to include these two crucial areas of your business.

So, there is little doubt as to why most businesses do not achieve the growth objectives the directors or partners have set  and why now is the time to make the transition from a process-led business to a management- and, in particular, a marketing-led business.

Our goal is for you to have a systems-based business that’s set up to achieve your objectives. In each issue of blog series, we’ll do our best to give you everything you need in order to achieve this goal.  

APJ Accountancy - Together We Will Make It Happen

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