How did your business do this year? Have you reviewed your financial statements to analyze where changes should be made, and use the information to help you determine your 2016 goals?
No matter what kind of year your business experienced, December brings a chance to set goals for the upcoming year. Here are some things to consider for your 2016 goals:
- How many customers do you want to serve? How many will be new?
- What are your revenue goals? You may want to set gross revenue (income prior to expenses) as well as net revenue (what percentage of income is left after paying all costs)
- How many team members do you want working with you (whether employees or freelance workers)
- How many products and/or services do you want to offer?
- How many business meetings with referral partners/business associates would you like to have each month?
As you can see, not all the goals need to be financial. Use the “SMART” acronym to help you with your goal setting. They should be:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time Bound
Specific goals are those with a very hard number (increase sales by 10%, meet with two associates a month, etc). A vague “I want to increase my business next year” isn’t firm enough. Measurable goals allow you to see if you are on track by comparing figures to other numbers. For instance, if you want to have a specific number of new customers, it’s easy to see how many you’ve added over last year.
Attainable is very important. If you are a new company who made $50,000 in your first year of business, a goal of reaching $1 million is most likely not an attainable goal. But setting a reasonable increase over the prior year would be. A relevant goal is just as important. The goal needs to have meaning to your business. If you are serving business customers, tracking how many individuals you meet who aren’t entrepreneurs isn’t relevant to your business success.
Finally, setting a time limit to meet your goals is important. Without a time period to measure your results (weekly/monthly/quarterly/annually), you’ll have no way to know if and when you met your goal.
Your bookkeeping information can help you set your 2016 goals and allow you to see if you met them. If you don’t yet have a process in place, now is the time to do so. If you would like help with this aspect of your business, contact us today! We can be reached at 310-534-5577, or you can fill out our questionnaire to get started. We look forward to hearing from you!