Taking Aim With Your Business
At the start of a new year, it’s a good idea to take stock of your business by reviewing your Vision, Mission, and your Main Business Goals (If you don’t have a Mission or Vision statement, click here to download an exercise on writing them). Now, I hear you asking, “How are a Mission and Vision Statement going to help my business?” True, having a well written Mission and Vision is not going to miraculously bring you more customers. But, it is going to jump start your strategic brain and ultimately lead you to the detail of business planning: your Main Business Goals.
Your main business goals are the overarching, strategic actions you will take to bring your mission to life and achieve your vision. This is where the action comes to your business. It is your objective, your aim, your target, and your intentions for being in business. Knowing your Main Business Goals will tell you what you need to do each day in your business.
What does a Main Business Goal look like? Take a look at Cold Stone Creamery. Based on it’s mission and vision (click here to read) of becoming the #1 best-selling ice cream brand in America, the company’s goals might look something like this:
- Sell an average of 5,000 gallons of ice cream monthly.
- Open and maintain 500 locations in the thirty largest metropolitan areas across the United States.
- Launch a television marketing campaign that raises awareness of Cold Stone’s products and service, and increases the average per-store sales by 40%.
- Implement customer service training across the company’s stores that results in customer evaluation scores of at least 8 out of 10.
While none of the above goals are genuine Cold Stone goals, they do demonstrate the value of goal setting and how goals feed into the company’s mission and vision. That is, imagine not having the goals above. How would Cold Stone employees know specifically what the company is trying to achieve in the marketplace and its strategic action plan for getting there? Goals set the stage for success. They create clarity about what needs to happen.
To determine the overarching strategic goals for your business, review your vision and mission statements, ask yourself the following question and apply it as it relates to the functional areas of your business. Ask yourself, what needs to happen in each of these areas to achieve my vision:
- Products / Services
- Sales / Marketing
- Customer Service / Delivery
- Business Analytics
- Systems / Automation
- Management Procedures and Policy
- People Resources
