ComputerHunter.org |
|
|
|||
|
 |
Business Goal Setting and Then Following Through
Your business can't go according to plan if you have no plan. What do you want to achieve this year? More new customers per week? Higher average order amounts? Better customer service ratings? No matter what it is you are shooting for, goal setting is one of the most important things that you will do in the New Year. I've got a few tips to help you get there. 1. Keep it Challenging but Realistic. Any goal that you set for your company should be challenging but don't over do it. For example, if you had an average order amount of $700 last year, you wouldn't want to set your goal for this year at $3000 per order. Unless you make drastic changes in how your company runs or what you are selling, that goal is just not realistic. You know best what you may be able to achieve in your particular industry, so be honest with yourself and set your goals accordingly. 2. Write All Your Goals Down. You may say to yourself on January 1, "I want to get 20 more new customers per week this year." A few months later you will be saying "Did I say I wanted 20 or 30?" Or more realistically, you have forgotten that you even made that goal. If you have all of your goals written down you will be able to not only go back and check them, you will also be able to go down the list every few months and check to see how many of them you have completed. 3. Assess Your Current Situation. To set goals you have to know where you are at right now. In 2003 I wanted to assess our customer service rating so we sent out a survey to all of our customers on which they could rate us in each department of our operation. That helped us establish our base. Now we send the survey to every customer after every order. This way we can keep track of how we are doing and if there is ever a hiccup we can fix it quickly. Don't assume anything. Always assess the current situation before setting a new goal. It's Only Going to Hurt A Little... Now, in financial goal setting for your business, one invariably comes to the question: "How do I decide on a budget when starting a marketing plan?" This is obviously the first question that you have to answer in order to get started on your new campaign. And in order to reach the income goals you have set for yourself. So how do you figure out what your budget should be? Here is an easy method to help you find a number that is going to work for you and your business. Some might say that it is a good rule of thumb, but I personally judge things on whether or not they work and get results. That's all. Moving on... Start with the amount of income that your company generated last month and multiply it by .14 (or 14%). That means that if you had $50,000 in Gross Income last month you should budget to spend $7000 on marketing in the next month. Wait... I know, it sounds painful but it is just like a shot at the doctor. It might hurt for a minute (or in this case a month) but down the road you are going to be glad that you went through it. Putting that much toward the right marketing will bump up your income the next month and start you on a cycle of steady growth. I know that some businesses run tighter than others and it is possible that you won't be comfortable with that amount in the beginning. Don't misunderstand me, any marketing is better than no marketing. Don't get discouraged if your budget is lower than 14%. But use 14% as the ideal to strive for because, for me as well as many other growing businesses, it has proven to give the best rate of growth possible. How do I know, you ask? My company has expanded 400% in the past 2 years. Now picture your business at 4 times its current size... There's that smile I was looking for! The growth of your business is based on three factors; quality products, great customer service and the proper amount of marketing. If you know you have the first two taken care and you still aren't experiencing healthy growth then you need to take a serious look at your marketing budget. So sharpen your pencils, start calculating and decide how rapidly you want your business to grow. Please take a moment this week to sit down and decide on your goals for the New Year. Even if it is past the New Year and even well into the year, set your goals for the rest of the year. Everything is easier when are working towards a goal. My goal is your success and I assume that is your goal as well. Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998; her only assets a computer and a phone. In 2004 the company did close to $9 million in sales and employs over 60 persons. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. Now she's sharing her marketing secrets with others. For more free marketing advice, visit her website at http://www.postcardmania.com
Top Stories - Google News
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
You Are What You Do! Too often, people say one thing and do another. I admit that I have often slid into this rut and thought about how I need to do something (lose weight for example) and then don't follow through and do anything about it (yes, I'm still 245 pounds). So even though I say that it's important to me to lose weight, I don't display the requisite motivation to follow through and do it, so my words are hollow. Are Your Goals Exciting? This may sound like a strange question, but are you really excited about your goals? Of course, I'm making the assumption that you have already invested the time to think about what you want your life to be like and identified some of your goals in several areas. If not, please do this immediately. If you don't know where you're going, how will you know when you get there. Planning Ahead Of Everyone Else To Win What does it take to plan like a champion? How to Handle Getting Caught Off Guard I remember the time that I swore to myself that I'd never be caught off guard again. I was in my new job on Capital Hill and it was the first week on the job. My new mentor at the office was the daughter of the other US Senator from Nevada so she knew everyone who was anyone. I tagged along with her one day to a meeting and I found myself in a mess! Achieving Impossible Goals By Ignoring The Experts "If the world were to blow itself up the last thing you would hear would be the voice of an expert saying it can't be done." --Peter Ustinov Time for a Change As 2005 approaches, many of us are thinking about change. Many of us are setting goals, and making promises to ourselves and to those we love. We may vow to do everything different-better-next year. We set lofty expectations to lose weight, learn a 2nd or 3rd language, never yell at our kids again, or give up our vices completely. And as the calendar closes out one year in favor of another, the timing seems just perfect to make those changes. But are we really, really ready? Attempting to change before we have made a fully educated CHOICE to commit to the process may be our first (and biggest) New Year's mistake. Goal Setting - The Facts Behind The Fiction To have hopes and dreams for the future is a wonderful idea. If you want to call them 'goals' that's fine also but do learn to get things in perspective. They are NOT achieved in the way you have been led to believe. Goal Objectives: Looking Ahead To Get Ahead With Planning With goal objectives in mind, consider the organizers of a marathon race. They take time to mark out the course. The way is planned. Otherwise reaching the finish line would be a matter of chance depending on whether a runner just happened to be in the area to see it! Got Goals? Did You Reach Them? Most of us have goals. Fulfill Promises You Make to Yourself I believe innately we all do our best. We work with the tools available to us at the moment. With that in mind, a lot of us do let one person down a lot.. look in the mirror. Yes that is the person. We do try. Yet often we fall short of the commitments we have promised ourselves.. 10 Ways To Hold Your Focus and Get Your Goals Hocus, Pocus, it's all about focus. That's the real magic of goals! Habits What I Want For You Think for a moment about your Self. Is there something that you would like to have, somewhere you would like to go, or something you would like to do? What is holding you back? I can probably guess at the possible answers:"Not enough money." "Not enough time." "I couldn't do that!" 21 Life Changing Questions You Cant Afford to Not Ask! Imagine finally taking off seven coats you've been wearing on top of each other for years and years. You've forgotten that some people consciously choose to live without seven layers of coats on even though most people are living that way. Stop Procrastinating - Start Achieving Your Goals It has been said that 60-80% of New Year's resolutions will be broken within the first two weeks. In other words, a lot of people have a hard time making the changes in their life they want to make. So you are not alone. Personally, I am not a huge advocate of New Year's resolutions because I believe in setting and achieving personal goals all year around. That being said, I wanted to share with you the top ten ways to increase the likelihood for success with achieving your goals. Establishing Dreams and Goals (Excerpted from Week Six of the Jim Rohn One-Year Success Plan) Goal Setting and Goal Getting: What Would You Like to Accomplish in 100 Days? Here's a question for you: Reaching for the Goal Can goals be easily reached? This question is in most of our minds. Some tend to think that goals are hard to achieve and that only very clever people can be true achievers! Setting Financial Goals - Part 1 Setting goals is difficult enough without adding the word finance in the mix. Many people are reluctant to tackle the task of determining financial goals. Unfortunately failing to do so can have an adverse effect on achieving a comfortable lifestyle later on in life. This article helps to guide you in successfully determining financial goals that you can actually achieve. Jules Obtains the Jewels Jules Asner, the current cohost of E! News Daily, along with Steve Kmetko, had a golden opportunity to be the first one to host E!'s "Wild On" adventure series. The series was originally titled "Sex on the Riviera." When Eleanor Mondale left the show, Jules filled in and ended up hosting "Wild On" for a year and a half. The "Wild On" series takes viewers around the world and shows them that there are OTHER extremely wild people besides Americans doing extremely wild stuff. Yes, Brooke Burke DID have a predecessor. Although in an interview, Jules mentioned that she was reluctant to host the "Wild On" adventure series. She wasn't sure if she wanted to put herself through the dangerous demands of para-sailing, for instance. By the way, her para-sailing adventure was one of her scariest moments. Apparently, Jules was terrified, and rightly so, when the wind kicked up more than usual and Jules was drifting in the air more than what was planned. It also didn't help matters that the producers took their time bringing her down. Physically, she ended up fine, but her anxiety was obvious because of the expletives were bleeped out and by watching what she was experiencing. A Winner Never Uses Chance or Luck to Win In games of chance, what separates a player from a winner and are they mutually exclusive?
|
|
|
|
|
