Each entrepreneur and their companies rely on business goals. How often have you set a goal in your head that you want to achieve, and you have not achieved it? The answer is probably many times.
Business goals are something that you must achieve. They are not a subject that can be set and forgotten. But, how can you increase efficiency in achieving your personal and business goals as an entrepreneur?
The answer is a commitment to achieve those goals.
What Are Business Goals?
The goals are simply something that you should achieve within a certain time in the future. They are made of:
- Something that should be achieved. For example, the goal is increasing sales.
- Period of time in which it must be achieved. For example, the goal is increasing sales in the next year.
- The measurable indicator that can tell you whether it is achieved. For example, the goal is 20% increase in sales in the next year.
I write a post about How You Can Achieve the Personal and Business Goals where you can find the process of goals achievement.
Entrepreneurial Commitment for Business Goals Achievement
The most important thing about achievement is an entrepreneurial commitment. Imagine the goal of an entrepreneur that he/she is not obligated to achieve. Does this have logic?
If you as an entrepreneur are not obligated to achieve your goals, then do you think your employees will be obligated to achieve them? I don’t believe that employees will commit themselves to achievement in such a situation.
Therefore, here I want to present the five steps that you as an entrepreneur will need to do if you want to commit towards achievement:
1. Make sure that your business goals are achievable.
The biggest enemy of achieving business goals is setting up unrealistic goals. For example, if you set the goal to increase sales by 500%, although the industry’s growth is lower than 10%, it is sure that 500% would be unrealistic.
If you notice that you cannot achieve some goal, simply adjust it in line with reality. For example, use a 15% increase in sales instead of 500%. The goal of 15% would be much more realistic, and indeed, it will be imperative for you and your business to achieve it because it is above average in the industry.
2. Use specific sentences in your business goals.
Imagine the goal from our example above: increasing sales in the future. For how much will we need to increase the sales? At which time will we need to increase the sales? This is a confusing and undetermined goal. If you don’t know what to achieve and when to achieve it, you will probably not try to achieve it.
3. Write your business goals on the paper.
Different scientific researches prove that if you put something on a paper, your commitment to that something will be higher. In his book Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini gives an example from the Korean war. In the camps where he held prisoners (soldiers), the Chinese soldiers were looking for written statements that communism is better than the US system to write on paper. Thus a long time, they were committed to his statement in which they did not believe.
If your business goals are written on paper, they will be in a group with a higher commitment than the goals that remain only in your head.
4. Determine the activities that must be accomplished.
Knowing the activities that you must implement to achieve your business goals in advance will increase the level of commitment to the goal. Therefore, once you have the goal on paper, list the activities.
5. Assign responsible for each activity.
At the end of each activity, assign responsibility for implementations. In such a way, the commitment will be transferred to the employees or your team members, and at the same time, will assure achievement.
If you follow these steps in setting and achieving your business goals, the likelihood of achieving the goal will be much higher. I wish you good luck!
