Envision Your Business
Envisioning your business is all about understanding why you decided to own your own business and mapping out how you plan to achieve the business you’ve always dreamed of. A successful business owner understands the key fundamentals of what their business is today as well as understands how to further achieve in the future. Take a look at the direction your business is taking. Is it what you had planned? Are you on track and budget? Do you know what your next steps are?
Being proactive means always planning your next move and striving to meet the goals and objectives you set. Take a look at your company’s income statement, balance sheet, and most recent year-end report within the last fiscal year. Are you on target or not? Are you monitoring the effectiveness of your marketing efforts?
A new year is right around the corner—now is a good time to ask yourself what your company’s focus is. Is it to provide fast, friendly, reliable service and become the number-one source for service and repair in your community? Do you wish to surpass the competition in sales and service and become an industry leader? Knowing what you want is great—but how are you going to do it?
Remember that as the owner you are in control of your company’s success! Goals and objectives are important, but be sure not to create too many, which makes them difficult to meet, and will leave you feeling discouraged and overwhelmed. Begin defining what success is within your company. Develop an overall picture of your projected progress and growth by asking yourself this question: What is most important to me, the owner?
- Setting targets for increased sales?
- Increasing your customer base?
- Providing more services to your customers?
- Becoming a household name within one, three, or five years?
- Establishing a set amount of hours you want to dedicate to your business daily?
Remember that it is never too late to put goals and objectives into place—you should define both short- and long-term goals. Business goals should be measurable so try using numbers, dates, and percentages so that you can establish timelines for your achievements. Think of this exercise as an important part of your “road map” to success and remember that our goal at SGITM is to help you achieve greatness along the way!