“A SMART Business is a SMARTER Business” was first published in the business advice section of www.is4profit.com
When looking for ways to improve your business one method of working is by using SMART objectives.
First coined in a 1981 edition of Management Review, S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym/mnemonic for:
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable
R – Relevant
T – Timely
SMART can be used for goal setting, as part of project management, strategic planning or as a wider mind set for your small business.
So, when setting your business goals, make sure they are SMART goals.
What Are SMART Goals?
When defining your business strategy it’s good to make your business goals SMART goals so that you can evaluate the effectiveness of your plans.
Specific
Your business goals must be specific; Not general or vague, but specific. Set out exactly what the expected result is to be and specify who will be involved, how they will achieve the goal, what the goal is and where this will be accomplished.
Measurable
Ensure that your business goal is measurable, because if you can’t measure your progress and your results then how will you know that you’ve succeeded?
Measuring progress will help you stay on track, stay on time and achieve the desired result.
Attainable
Make sure that your business goals are realistic and actually attainable. Setting your sights too high might stretch the business but you may miss your goals.
Ask yourself how your business goal can be accomplished and that will set the path for realistically attaining your ambition.
Relevant
Your aims must be relevant and have a positive outcome for your business. The results should provide a meaningful boost from the right person, team or department, at the right time and the goal should be worthwhile to your business.
Timely
Set a timely date for the accomplishment of your targets and stick to that timeframe. Committing to that deadline will help you focus on the task at hand and ultimately help you judge the success of your goal setting.
The SMARTER Business
Beyond setting SMART goals there are SMARTER tools. SMARTER simply adds two more additional points to the “to do” list and extends the life and the scope of the SMART strategy.
Evaluate
Was your business goal setting successful? How successful were you? What specifically were the points where the exercise was particularly fruitful?
Reevaluate
Looking back over the whole process how might you do things better? Where can improvements be made? Where you’ve gained success is there any scope for further development?
Conclusion
For more effective business goals, use the S.M.A.R.T. objectives and S.M.A.R.T.E.R. business strategies. They’re simple, easy to remember and, if you note down all the details, the whole team will be able to follow the plan and achieve your firm’s successes.
Leave a Reply