Transform Your Business Today, with These 5 Tips

Are you making progress on your business goals yet?

If not, consider taking a more strategic approach to business growth by setting measurable and realistic goals, planning for obstacles, preparing for change and, ultimately, having a better and more clearly defined purpose for your business and your team.

Here are five things you can start doing now to help you strategically win in business:

1. Set strategic goals.

It’s one thing to set a goal for the future, but how accurately are you keeping track of your accomplishments?

What systems do you have in place to keep you on target?

Writing your goals down is the first step, of course, but that’s just the beginning. Set your goals incrementally, with short-term plans that take steps toward the larger things you want to complete.

• Write down what you want to accomplish this year, then take a step back… What do you need to do this month to realize that goal?
• Take another step… What do you need to do this week to move closer to your monthly goal?
• One more step… What can you do today to make progress on your weekly goal (in turn making progress toward your long-term goals)?

Most people fail to achieve their goals because they have a flawed process, set unattainably high expectations, or because they set goals that do not inspire them.

Keep this in mind when forming your goals, and remember that they don’t all have to be business related. It’s perfectly okay to include your personal goals here too. In fact, you should!

A balanced mix of personal and professional goals will help you get a clear picture of what you want to accomplish across the board, and the time it will take to get there.

Here’s a goal setting worksheet I created last year (and I’m still using the same one!)

2. Prepare for change.

Every year, new technology, legislation, trends, and tons of other factors change the needs of various industries and consumer groups… It’s inevitable, really.

Maybe it’s a new innovation (like what the kindle did for e-books) or marketing strategy (like Zappos free shipping, 365-day guarantee) that completely changes the market landscape.

Whatever the case may be, you need to be prepared – just as my mentors, Keith Cunningham would say: “Ask yourself, what am I not seeing?”

Looking down the road for potential change is always a good practice.

• What rumbles are you hearing in the marketplace?
• What results are your customers’ actively seeking out and asking for?
• What other advantage or benefit can you offer the marketplace?

This is where our Growth Factor question (“What can I do today to provide my customers with a greater advantage or benefit, to get them closer to the ultimate result they are after?”) can really offer some real breakthroughs for your business.

3. Consider the problems of tomorrow.

Similar to the point above, the products and services you are selling today should meet the needs of your customers today, right?

What about the stuff you have on the drawing board? Everything you plan on releasing tomorrow needs to be a solution to the problems of tomorrow.