As a business, you have goals which you aim to achieve. These could be short, medium and long-term goals. They are necessary to keep your business on track. So what happens, when you try to achieve these goals and you keep on getting disappointed by the appalling results you get?
Your competitors are getting it right, but you have never even for once. What do you do? You imagine what everybody has been doing right that you failed to do. You monitor and track your competitors, yet fail to identify what they have been doing right.
What happens? You become frustrated.
What if I tell you that, the answer to your worries is an undermined evergreen cliché? It has proven to stand the test of time. It not only works but delivers outstanding results.
In this post, I share with you an age-long cliché that will get you closer to your business goals, and enable you to achieve all the good things you have ever thought of for your business.
Before then:
What is the mindset of every Business?
Every business has its mentality. This differs based on the type of business you operate. But there are some rules applicable to all businesses.
It is this conviction that spurs you to take actions. It makes you wake up to your responsibilities early in the day, and sleep late at night. It is the distinguishing factor between the go-getters and the under-achievers.
Generally, the mindset of every business include:
- Increase Customer Satisfaction: You can’t be in business without your customers. Hence one of the most important mentalities of every business is to satisfy the customer. When you satisfy the customer you get more sales, you improve your company’s brand and overall performance
- Generate More Revenue: You can’t run a business without money. Generating more revenue is a mindset that every business has. It is only when you do so that you can pursue your business goals.
- Maximize profits: When you start a business, you always wish to maximize profits. One of the convictions of every successful business is to make profits. When you do so, you get even closer to your business goals.
What every business goal must entail:
There are parameters to measure the goals of every business. These determine what the business goal must entail. If you could observe these in setting your business goals, then you are on the right track. Every business goal must be SMART.
By SMART, I mean it must contain these elements:
- Specific: Your business goal must be clear, unambiguous, and well-defined for anyone who is working for you.
- Measurable: Your business goals must be obtainable. Say if you plan to achieve it in x-months, then it should be so. No time for indecision.
- Achievable: Your business goals shouldn’t be unrealistic. All the stakeholders must agree to it, and attest to its viability.
- Realistic: Your business goals should be realistic to an extent that you know what you could achieve with the resources, time and knowledge at your disposal.
- Timely: You should specify the time in which you intend to achieve the business goals. In this case, you must provide enough time to achieve the goals, but not too much in order not to affect the project and your goals.
How to achieve your business goals?
As a business, you are confused about what to do to achieve your goals. Not that the goals are not smart enough. But, it ends up more like: you can’t figure out what could be wrong.
You begin wondering, what you can do to achieve these goals, and be miles ahead of your competitors?
Some of the things you could do include:
- Stay Motivated: It’s good to dream, and even great to write down your goals. But it is difficult for anybody in business to stay motivated. You must stay motivated even in the face of daunting challenges to achieve your business goals. You will have a lot of setbacks, fears and discouraging moments. Sometimes you feel like quitting. But it’s the courage to remain motivated in these conditions that will make you achieve your goals
- Do something daily: In order to achieve your business goals, you must take actions daily. You must carry out tasks that align with your goals and get you closer to them. When you do, you will see a tremendous effect on your business.
- Get a mentor: A mentor is a person who you look up to in business that has achieved relative success in what you do/ plans to do. Though a mentor will not help you achieve your business goals immediately, he/she keeps you on track, give you the necessary resources, information, and guidelines that you need. Still, make sure that you are the one making the major decisions in your own business.
- Write down your achievements: Documenting your achievements is a potent tool that can ease your way to achieving your business goals. When you write down your achievements, it gives you the motivation to work harder. You impact your online brand like an expert when you write down your achievements
- Feedback and Reward: The human brain responds to two things positively: Feedback and Reward. To ensure that you achieve your business goals, then you must request for feedback about your work from others. You should also reward and give yourself a pat on the back when you get things done right.
Why are you not achieving your business goals?
There are many reasons why you do not achieve your business goals. Though some of them are not peculiar to you. But most of them are. As a business, you must constantly evaluate yourself, what you do, how far you have gone, what steps you have taken correctly and so on. Even the way you think must be looked at closely.
If you can observe well, you will notice that the two major reasons why you fail to achieve your business goals include:
- Setting unrealistically highs: In an effort to achieve great goals, many businesses fail to start small. As a business, you should wade off any belief that, the more goals you set, the higher you will achieve, as this is not entirely true. You should make sure that the goals you set are realistic and moderate. When you do, it will help your team to work together as one to achieve it.
- Setting vague goals: Goals that are vague will do your business a lot of harm. When setting your goals, it should be structured in such a way that anybody can work with little or no supervision.
Achieving your Business Goals: How This Age-long Cliché will help you out
Let me ask you these questions:
- Why is it that someone who you started out business together suddenly outshines you in his pursuits?
- Why is it that despite the economic challenges faced by many, there are still some who don’t struggle much?
- How is it possible for one whom you taught the rudiments of business suddenly becoming the cynosure of all eyes?
It is a fact that to remain at the top is tougher than getting to the top. To remain at the top, you need to do extraordinary things. You need to go all out because the competition is stiff.
You shouldn’t undermine the age-long cliché which says: “What Got You Here Will Not Take You There” This one has stood the test of time.
You must understand that the actions and tasks which you performed to get into the present situation you are in now, isn’t sufficient to take you farther.
You need to learn new things, acquire up-to-date skills, take innovative actions, perform different tasks, and work more on your business to remain relevant.
It doesn’t matter whether you shared ideas together, or started business together or achieved similar goals. What matters is that distinct factor
The things you did to succeed in your prior role, are not same with what you will do to succeed in this present role.
In his book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, James Clear states: “Many people enjoy living in the past, especially if going back there let them blame someone else for anything that’s gone wrong in their lives. That’s when clinging to the past becomes an interpersonal problem… When we make excuses, we are blaming someone or something beyond our control as the reason for our failure. Anyone but ourselves.”
As a business, you shouldn’t leave in the past, you must understand that there are tougher challenges ahead.
With this evergreen cliché: Some businesses fail woefully while others excel overwhelmingly. With it, the newbie business in your niche can suddenly become the best.
As a business, don’t be a mediocre that does same thing always and expect a different result. Don’t expect a positive change in your business when you don’t approach it with the right attitude and mind-set.
You need to realise that every situation requires a special attention, and every problem calls for a specific solution.
A True Life Experience:
In an interview with Jarushub, Mr. Niyi Yusuf, CEO ACCENTURE NIGERIA explained how not learning this age-long cliché earlier enough almost cost him his studies while in the University:
“I had a resit in Mathematics. I did not take the resit exams and so carried it over into my 200 level. I was consistently the best student in my secondary (high) school, and so was confident about my academic ability. I was also hardworking, patient, prayerful and focus on the goal (attributes I picked up from my mum while growing up). I was fortunate to have another uncle who just graduated from UNIFE (A foremost University in Nigeria) and who mentored me about the need to change my style. I need to read textbooks, practice past questions and attend tutorial classes.
All 3 things I did not do in my first semester in UNIFE as I did not need to do these 3 things while in secondary (high) school. All I needed to do in secondary (high) school was to attend classes, take notes, and read my notes for the exams. These were very sufficient, Later on in life, I read about that basically says “what got you here, will not take you there”. That is, the things you did that made you to succeed in your prior role will not be sufficient to make you succeed in this new role. So, the things I did that led to success in secondary (high) school will not be sufficient to guarantee me success in Great IFE. It was a lesson I learnt the hard-way.”
On a Final Note:
- Your business is a gateway to many opportunities.
- You need to fine-tune a lot of things to achieve success.
- As a person who desires to achieve tremendous success, this cliché comes in handy.
- It develops your business, makes it competitive and also makes you focus on the goals.
You need to understand that the things you did to achieve success while starting your business, are not the same things you will do to remain relevant in the business.
If you can adopt the cliché: “What Got You Here Will Not Take You There,” in your business, it will get you closer to your business goals in no distant time.
