I personally see 2013 as a year of growth for not only the vending industry, but for the nation as a whole. In order to actually grow, one can’t wait for the opportunity to fall in your lap. It’s all about the attitude and planning you bring to the table. If you approach your business with goals in mind to achieve, you will see success and more importantly, growth. Sounds an awful lot like a New Year Resolution doesn’t it? Let’s not call it that, but instead look at it as setting goals for yourself and your business. This time around though, we are going to be SMART.
Set measurable goals
The reason why most goals tend to fail is because a person has incredibly high expectations that are very hard to achieve in a 6-12 month period. The key to setting and achieving goals is by being realistic in your approach. Setting SMART goals is a great tool to use when sitting down to plan. SMART looks something like this:
S- Be Specific with your goal. It’s not just enough to say, I want to increase revenue, but assign a percentage of revenue increase. This will help you structure ways to achieve your goal.
M- Your goal must be measurable- If you want to add additional employees, state how many people you will add to your company.
A- Attainable- While having high expectations is good, you should set goals that are attainable and realistic, otherwise you are setting yourself up for failure.
R- Responsible Person- There are a couple of different definitions for this one, but I understand it as simply not coming up with a goal and assigning it to the rest of your company to achieve. You must present the goal in a way that gives your team ownership of the goal and the opportunity to offer their insight as to how to achieve the goal. This is a group effort.
T- Time Specific- It doesn’t always have to be a 12 month period. Some goals are small and can be achieved in 6 months or less. Remember to make sure that your time period is attainable. If you want to get into installing your first micro market location, it’s probably a bit of stretch to be up and running in 3 months. Research so you understand how long the process might take and what to expect to set your timing goal.
Goal setting is important
While using SMART goals is a process that is not new, it’s still a process that many of us forget when we are trying to implement something new in our business. By setting goals, you will be able to grow your company one step at a time and when we get to the end of 2013, you’ll be able to look back at what you achieved and what new opportunities are in store for you.
