I ask this question having recently been with a client on a strategy week where all present were stretched to think about what they could do in their business if a target to become a business worth £100M was in place. What was really interesting was that despite having recently gone through a budget build process they came up with far more that could be done when asking themselves a more ambitious business.

So, to start the process of setting business growth goals in an SME environment I suggest that you start with the questions – what do I want from the business? And when do I want this from? This is the dreaming phase so ensure you do not get constrained by a mixture of limiting beliefs, concerns on how it can be achieved or worries about constraints that may normally in your mind when considering your future plans. These can be in the form of financial drawings from the business, exit strategy and build of business value or any other combination of time and money appropriate to you.

Once the dreams have been set the business goals should then be reviewed in line with the personal goals. There can be three things that occur now –

  • The dreams seem too big at this stage. If this is the case, please remember that a business is there to support a business owners life and not the other way round!
  • The dreams are felt to be relatively easy to achieve through the business. If this is the case then just ask yourself the question – am I being ambitious enough based on what we have achieved to date? If you are then well done, your business is growing at the right rate for you! However, it may also be the case that your dream is more of a to do list that you know to be achievable based on how you got to where you are now and this may be the time to consider dreaming bigger and then option 1 may apply after all. Did you know that men are historically worse than women at dreaming. This is felt to be due to the level of responsibility to achieve that goes with a male brain and this acts as a brake to genuine dream building and goal setting. So, take another look and ensure you are going at the right rate.
  • The dreams are not easy to even consider and picture. This is often when times are tough and confidence is an issue. As the saying goes, it I shard to soar with eagles when you are surrounded by turkeys! If this is where you find yourself, set shorter term plans to get stable and then allow yourself to dream big.

The process that needs to be applied to setting business goals is either to add your required drawings to the overhead of the business and then plan the profit required, the gross profit required and then the revenue required to achieve these or to use a sector typical multiple to profits to arrive at a target value.

This sets the monetary goals and you then have to add specific goals to your business that will enable you to visualise what the business would need to look like to achieve these profits.

The third element, which is the one many miss out is to decide what do you need to learn in order to achieve the goal. This may be in the form of competitor analysis, market research or some level of up-skilling needed to move towards the goal set.

Once this has been done you can then finalise the goals, set a plan and carry out the required actions safe in the knowledge that they will get you towards your dreams.

I hope this has been an interesting and useful read. Please contact me on rogerpemberton@actioncoach.com to discuss how this can work for you.