As a small business owner, it is often hard to put to paper an outline of new goals in a new year. However, the benefits of goal setting can help drive business growth, innovation, and overall success. ClarityHR knows that every business is different. Tailoring goals that resonate with business owners is imperative, having a plan to achieve them is paramount.
How do you create a manageable plan to follow over a 12-month period? We have some ideas of how to focus your efforts. In this blog we are going to give your team ideas on different goals to consider adopting this year.
Did you know that in the United States there are about 543,000 new businesses start-ups each year? Within the first two years only seven out of ten are still in business. In addition, after following those businesses for 5 years only five out of ten are still in operation. What did all these small businesses have in common? Seventy percent followed a strategic business plan according to Nazar.
Business Goals You May Want to Consider:
No matter how small your business is, it is important to set goals each year to help hold you and your team accountable. Growth comes from planning and executing meaningful and measurable results. Here is our list of ideas for developing your own business goals. You can customize these to fit your business model.
Employee Satisfaction & Retention:
Employee satisfaction and retention is key to business growth. On average a small business will pay thousands of dollars to acquire a new employee and spend more money training them. Making sure that the people you have invested in stay is a big business challenge. Consider developing a satisfaction and retention plan as one of your business goals.
“Human capital is typically recognized as the only resource that is enhanced continually. In long-term efforts to increase the level of organizations, it may be considered significant”
– Kremer H., Villamor I., and Aguinis H., “Innovation leadership: Best-practice recommendations for promoting employee creativity, voice, and knowledge sharing,”
Employee Development:
Invest in training programs to enhance the skills of your employees. Implement mentorship programs to foster professional growth. Improve employee satisfaction and retention rates. Ongoing employee training is a key component for employee performance and job satisfaction. Read more about it on our blog HERE.
Compliant with State and Federal Regulations:
Every state requires that your human resource department to be 100% compliant with employer regulations (including the ones you do not know about.) If you are a small business that does not have a dedicated HR person who is versed in state and federal regulations, you should consider hiring ClarityHR to help you with your outsourced HR needs. You can learn more about our services HERE.
Revenue Growth:
Increase overall revenue by a certain percentage. Expand into new markets or geographic regions. Launch new products or services to diversify your revenue streams. Set goals for increasing your revenue and growth rate. Growth rates are typically measured annually. However, setting quarterly or monthly revenue goals may help your small business to track progress and predict trends more accurately.
Community Engagement:
Establish partnerships with local organizations or charities. Sponsor community events or initiatives. Implement corporate social responsibility programs. When your business is part of your community you build trust with your customers. They see you doing things to invest your time and energy into the place you live and work, they are likely to think of you the next time they are shopping for your product or service. It just makes great business sense.
Market Expansion:
Explore opportunities for your business to expand. You could look to take your product online, offer loyalty programs to encourage repeat customers, open a new location. There are several options for small businesses to grow. You may want to collaborate with strategic partners like ClarityHR to develop a strategic plan and conduct market research to identify untapped opportunities.
Cost Management:
Identify areas for cost savings without compromising quality. Negotiate better deals with suppliers. Implement cost-effective technologies to improve efficiency. Setting a goal of maintaining costs and saving where you can is an important part of ensuring that your business has a profit margin. Analyzing your costs can help you identify places you can save.
Risk Management:
Develop and update a comprehensive risk management plan. Diversify your client base to reduce dependency on a few key customers. Anticipate and plan for potential economic or industry-specific challenges.
Brand Building:
Enhance brand visibility through targeted marketing campaigns. Work on developing a strong brand identity and messaging strategy. Schedule time in your calendar to monitor and manage online reviews and reputation.
Improve Your Digital Presence:
Every small business should have a digital presence online. Social media platforms are one place for small businesses to build an online presence. Enhance your online presence through improved website functionality and user experience. It is important to understand how your customers are using your website and what kind of engagement you have with customers. Where do you convert leads? Where do you make online sales? All of these things should be part of your yearly analysis of your digital presence.
It is also important for your business to develop and implement changes based on your data. If you need help understanding this, it is worth asking an expert to help you analyze your online digital presence and develop a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.
Customer Acquisition and Retention:
Do you track where your customers are coming from? Is it word of mouth, was it a referral? Did they find you on Google? Understanding where your buyers are coming from is an important part of customer acquisition and retention. If you have a goal for acquiring a specific number of new customers, you need to have a goal of where those customers will come from. Understanding your current customer base will help you predict future customer growth.
Set goals to improve customer retention rates. This could come through loyalty programs or enhanced customer service. How many times do you reach out to your customers in a calendar year? Do you have a plan to engage with customers weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly?
Have you considered conducting customer satisfaction surveys? Ask how you can improve? Then take the data from surveys to improve your retention.
Data Security and Privacy:
Strengthen cybersecurity measures to protect customer and business data. Ensure compliance with data protection regulations. Educate employees on data security best practices. No business is too small to be targeted by hackers. In fact, 43% of data breaches involve small business victims.
According to a report by IBM, the average data breach cost for businesses with fewer than 500 employees is $2.98 million, and the average cost per breached record is $164.
It is extremely important that even as a small business you protect your data, which means website security, systems security and monitoring the use of both business tech and personal tech that can access your systems. We wrote a blog on employees using personal devices you can read HERE.
How Can ClarityHR Help
Make your goals SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) and regularly evaluate your progress to adjust as needed. At ClarityHR we can work with your small business to develop and implement business goals and develop a business plan to help you and your team to be accountable. We will work with you throughout the year and hold you accountable for meeting the goals you set for your business and employees. Contact us HERE to get started.