With 2021 coming to a close, many business owners are taking this time of year to think about their 2022 business plan.
Once you have identified your business goals, it’s time to start crafting measurable objectives to help you reach those goals. Measurable objectives are used to help a business determine how effective a particular approach, product or service is performing.
To create measurable objectives, consider using the SMART framework – which will assist you in creating business objectives that are planned, clear and trackable. To do this, make sure each of your objectives are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timebound (SMART). Here’s a look what what this means:
- Specific – Be as clear as possible with what you want to accomplish.
- Measurable – Quantifying your goals helps to ensure they are more tangible and trackable. For instance, “Increase profits by 10 percent” or “Increase Google Review ratings to 5 Stars.”
- Achievable – Too ambitious can be overwhelming and too easy can limit your business potential. Be sure to identify an objective that you can reach.
- Relevant – It is important to line up your objectives so that they are assisting you with reaching your goals.
- Timebound – Setting time limits and time frames around your objectives help you focus and balance priorities. It also ensures you are working toward your goal in a timely manner.
Often times, businesses will set objectives within the following categories:
- Earnings – Measure how much has your business earned per quarter, bi-annually or annually.
- Marketing Approaches – Measure how well your communication methods are performing.
- Market Share – Measure how much your products, services are performing in comparison to the overall market.
- New and Repeat Customers – Measure new customer volume as well as repeat customers (which can give you insights into your customer service and product satisfaction levels).
- Consumer Complaints – Track the type and frequency of complaints, which can give you ideas of areas of weakness and what can be improved.
Have questions? Accent Distributing provides marketing assistance for its 3M™ Authorized Dealers. Contact Inside Sales at [email protected] or at (941) 922-5268 to request to get connected with a marketing professional.
