How to set goals for your business
Setting goals and targets for your business helps you see if you’re on track to grow. Whether it’s sales targets, revenue, or expansion it’s important to plan ahead for success.
What are SMART goals?
SMART goals are a way to set goals for your business, and a guide on how to achieve them. SMART goals stands for:
- Specific: Focus on one thing to make it easy to plan.
- Measurable: How you can measure your success.
- Attainable: Make sure you can achieve the goal.
- Relevant: Is beneficial to your business to success.
- Time based: Set a realistic timeline to complete the goal.
When you set your goal you can use the SMART goal template to help. It also guides the research you will need to do to make sure your goal is achievable.
Look at the data
If you’re an existing business you’ll already have data on your sales, revenue and business performance. By analysing your data you can look at any trends and see what a realistic increase could be.
If you’re a new business, this could be a little trickier. Instead, try setting conservative goals and learn from the results. Any competitor or market research you can do will help you to guide your goal.
How will you achieve it?
Once you know what you want to achieve, now you need to figure out how to achieve it. Whether it’s increasing your marketing, upselling to current customers or launching a new product, set a step-by-step plan to guide you.
Set your goal
It’s important to set a specific target. So, if your goal can be set with a number then do that! Whatever your goal, you also need to set a deadline. It makes it easier to measure your success, and you can learn from the experience when the deadline has passed.
Inform your team
If you run a business with employees or partners, it’s important to let your team know about the goal so everyone can work together. Setting targets helps your employees stay on the right track, and their input in how to succeed can be valuable.
When you meet or exceed your goal you should celebrate your success! If you don’t, you can look back on what went wrong, and make any changes necessary to meet your next goal.
How accounting can help you set goals
When you do your accounting regularly you’ll have all the information on your sales and expenses that you need to help you set business goals. Using accounting software with automated reporting makes it easy to get an overview of your finances, or dig a little deeper to get the information you need.
With Bokio accounting software, you can do your bookkeeping, invoicing, and manage your finances all in the same place. Our automated reporting means you can easily check how your business is performing.
We have everything you need to help you prepare for your Self Assessment tax return, submit your VAT Return for Making Tax Digital and keep the right financial records. If you need an extra hand, we can help you find an accountant to work with.
Accounting is kept simple with Bokio, so you have more time to spend running your business.
