How to set challenging and realistic business goals?

Como definir metas de negócio desafiantes e realistas?

Knowing how to set business goals is the first step to a successful path. When we have a defined goal, it is much easier to design a strategy and define what actions are necessary to achieve our goals. Any business needs established goals, because it will be based on them that the whole performance of the company is defined. Unfortunately, many managers do not understand the importance of business goals and start working without having a plan. This is one of the main reasons why companies often do not survive. Business objectives provide a lot of information about the company and to that extent make decision making more efficient and easier. Managers often complain about the lack of information about the company in order to be able to decide consciously and these performance indicators gain a prominent role in making decisions about the future of the company. Managers can only make assertive and sound decisions if they have a full knowledge of the business reality, so it is essential to monitor the fulfillment of the objectives in real time. And nothing better than KPI’s to provide all that knowledge. In today’s article, we leave you some important tips for setting challenging and realistic business goals!

Be specific

The more specific a goal is, the easier it is to find actions to achieve them in a short amount of time. Business goals should be simple, so it is much easier to manage them. An example of this goal is “updating the website quarterly”, which is easy to understand which means updating the website in January, April, July and October. A business goal that says “increase the number of proposals sent” is very vague and gives us no clue as to what we should do to reach it. Thus, it is preferable to use a goal that says “get 3 new customers per month”. It is a much simpler goal and it tells us the time interval. Business goals should be simple, so that the entire team is able to understand them. If you get too complicated, you risk not being able to extract any useful information from your analysis. And if the employees do not understand the indicator can be unmotivated, which harms the whole performance of the company.

Be realistic and objective

We all want to be the greatest entrepreneurs in the world, but there are obstacles that go with that and we have to have that awareness. When you set business goals too high, the risk of falling is much greater. And as the goals are harder to reach, you will be frustrated to realize that you cannot achieve them. You must set realistic goals that are appropriate to the reality of your business. If you do not have a great investment capacity at the moment, you will not be able to define as a business goal to increase the team by 10 employees. Business goals must be established according to the reality of the company at the moment, since only then will it be able to achieve them.

Set rigid deadlines

When there is no deadline for accomplishing a particular task or goal, it is more likely that it will drag on in time and eventually be forgotten. It is essential that you set a deadline to achieve a particular business goal, because only then will you be able to define a timeline and assign necessary actions over time. The stated deadline should be like the business objective: specific and realistic. It should not set too short or too long a deadline, as both cases may cause demotivation on the part of those responsible for achieving the objective.

Do a regular review of business goals

Business goals should be reviewed regularly and should be adapted as the changes are verified in the company. Long-term business goals should be monitored so that you can verify that all the actions required to comply are being carried out. Business goals are not static and it is not mandatory that they remain unchanged. Whenever necessary, you should change and update them, and in more extreme cases, you can even eliminate them if you find that they no longer fit the way the company works. A goal that yesterday was quite important, today may have lost some of its importance. Companies are living and dynamic organisms and as such changes must be monitored in all areas of the company. Evaluate at least every three months whether the indicators that have “assets” are the most appropriate given the period the company is going through. However, care must be taken not to make the mistake of changing or eliminating business goals just because it is difficult to achieve them.

 

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