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Small Business Growth Vision and Goal Setting for Entrepreneurs

Guest post by: Daryl Des Marais

Article Overview: If you have a small business that is expanding past 2-3 people you will want to start attracting and developing people that achieve your yearly company goals. It is a good idea to start developing a system that will help you achieve your desired outcomes. In developing this system it will be a challenge to your business, but will be beneficial in the long-run in improving

Small Business Growth Vision and Goal Setting for Entrepreneurs

If you have a small business that is expanding past 2-3 people you will want to start attracting and developing people that achieve your yearly company goals. It is a good idea to start developing a system that will help you achieve your desired outcomes. In developing this system it will be a challenge to your business, but will be beneficial in the long-run in improving cost efficiencies and time sensitive challenges. There are 4 areas you will have to review and maintain to achieve your outcomes. They are People, Skills, Deadlines, and Achievables.

People

Finding the right people can be crucial in any business, especially if your business is small and growing. It is important to have people with the necessary skills to some level. The most important thing is buy-in and risk-reward. If the person you are planning to hire has a buy-in or definite reward in the business this may be more important, and the other desired skills you can train. People in any organization can help develop the business, depending on the level of quality and time you are able to put into it. If you want to spend some time to train them ensure you have a moment to have un-distracted or little distracted training time so everything is clear in their mind. The order of tasks, goals, and how the system works most appropriately and efficiently. In doing so you will save yourself time in the future retraining and reexplaining.

Skills

List the types of skills required for the position. Do they match your necessary needs. What are the three most important skills you are looking for? Can you develop some of the skills and invest in training yourself? Categorize skills down to different subsets; technology skills, people skills, management skills and specialized knowledge skills. Compare the person to other industry companies job descriptions and adapt to your desired company skills. Remember the cost of your skill areas and look at developing someone inside your organization with a high level of trust people can go to for training and skill development.

Deadline

What is your deadline?, month, week, day in achieving this company goal? Break down the steps towards the goal that need to be achieved for the desired outcome if this task has been completed in the past.

Deadlines are one of the most important things in business, whether they be task oriented or group oriented. You must ensure prior to the appropriate deadline that steps up to the outcome are being achieved and the desired resulted will be achieved on the deadline. Having a series of questions to ask in regards to the desired outcome will assist greatly in determining what needs to be accomplished still. Also have a reinforced reward after the desired goal has achieved on or before the deadline may be beneficial but not necessary. Reinforcement and repetition is key and only once a greater accomplishment has been made that a reward will be more necessary.

Achievable

Is your goal achievable for the company in the time period you stated with the people involved in the project. What percentage of certainty do you have that these goals will be achieved in this timeline. Are there any parts that may hinder this? I.E. Do you have to have some extra specialized knowledge or technology to complete this outcome? How can this be obtained? Through other business contacts, local sources. Do you have to travel to acquire this technology or knowledge?

In the end, if you have selected the right people, with the right skills or spent time developing them to receive the right behaviors and outcomes with the right tools then your goals should be achievable. Sometimes you may have to adjust your timeline, but this should not be changed easily. Having well defined goals for each person with appropriate deadlines and desired outcomes will lead to your increased business success and help your people grow within your company.

Mr. Des Marais has operated small businesses for over 20 years. He has been a consultant and held positions in some of the fastest growing franchisees in Canada.

He is a private partner in http://www.businessgrowth.ca/businessadvisor

He has increased sales by 200% in 2 months for an herbal doctor; increased sales by 30% in 4 months for a major Canadian Big Box Retailer; 200% sales increase 3 times in a row for a service-based small business and helped several entrepreneurs develop and sell their business. His expertise is in the area of growth and business development. He has also been involved in developing business chapters.

In terms of Business Development and mentoring Mr. Des Marais has volunteered with S.E.E.D.S mentorship review committee, ACE, YEA.

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Article Tags: company goals, small business growth, vision for small business



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