Intro to Business Unit 6 Growing Your Business

Unit 6: Growing Your Business Setting goals for your company, and having a business plan mapping out the route to achieve those goals are important to growing your business--to make it successful. These goals may be able to build your reputation and help in earning more money. There are also different ways to earn money as well. What are S.M.A.R.T goals? These “smart” goals are the achievements that you take steps to achieve, and these goals must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Setting “smart” goals are also beneficial in improving your leadership abilities. 1. Specific ○ Know what it is that you want to achieve exactly. i. vague goals: making more money, achieving a higher level of communication. ii. specific goals: earning $10,000 per month, being able to reduce questions asked by 30%. 2. Measurable ○ These are goal-posts that can show if you have been achieving the specific goals that you had set. i. making $10,000 is a goal that is attainable and can be seen. 3. Attainable ○ The goals should be challenging; however, they must not be outside of your company’s ability. ○ Know what specific actions you can take to achieve your goals. 4. Relevant ○ Your goals should enhance your company. ○ Make sure it makes sense to implement these goals. 5. Timely ○ Set deadlines on your goals that motivate you and your workers to complete them on time. Setting “smart” goals to enhance leadership Not everyone is a born leader. It is something that must be worked on through your life-and it can be achieved if you know the skills that are present in a good leader. These skills are: ● Numerous forms of communication ● Coaching ● Bringing forth inspiration and motivation ● Provide directions ● Be able to assess critical situations with an open, clear mind ● Have a critical thinking mindset--be able to solve problems ● Be able to work in a team productively, effectively In order to set a S.M.A.R.T goal to improve your leadership abilities, pick a specific skill. The following chart gives steps to set your goals: Define your end result ● Question yourself how your goal looks like in the real world. ○ For example, if your goal is to further communicatio n in your team, ask yourself what that would look like in real life. ○ Is your team more efficient and achieving the goals of the company as a whole? What areas of your goal can achieve this? ● What should you improve on to achieve your goal? ○ For example, if the skill you wish to excel in is to inspire others, question yourself about what you must improve on to achieve this. ○ Should you give more positive feedback? Set up metrics to show that you have achieved this ● This is difficult to do; however it can indeed be done. Collect data prior to setting your “smart” goals, and compare it to the results shown after a considerable period of time. Ways to increase your money It is not realistic to rely solely on your business for a source of income. It is important to have different branches from where your income is coming from. The source of your income may be your business, however, the places where it comes from should be different. This is better explained with the following points. 1. Give to rent some parts of your business premise ○ You may not need the entirety of your space if it is commercial and leased. ○ It is better to profit from this by putting the space up to rent. ○ This may benefit your company as well if you rent the space to a company similar to yours. i. this can provide plenty of opportunities for promotion and collaboration. 2. Package service instead of as products ○ You can earn a higher revenue if the services that you primarily sell are packaged and sold at a fixed price. i. this makes your work more tangible. ii. clients are reluctant to invest time in what they see as open-ended projects 3. Diversify your sales ○ Give your customers reasons to buy more products and/or services. ○ Expanding the interests of your current customers is easier and more beneficial than attracting new customers. i. your current customers already understand your company and products. ii. they are already familiar with your company. 4. Lend your employees for profit ○ If you have exceptional employees, it might be a possibility to sub-contract them to other businesses. i. this will be beneficial to employees as they can gain diverse opportunities and experience. ii. this is also beneficial to the company as they will be having a new line of income coming from the company where their employees are working. 5. Include value-added products/services ○ This move increases the value of your product or service as there will be a bonus added on to your original product/service. i. ex: farmer offering delivery services, a store that sells kitchenware providing cooking lessons as well. ○ This allows you to make more money based on specific products. 6. Increase your earnings from your assets ○ Take advantage of all of your properties and assets that you may have i. this includes your leased property, owned property, your products, and your customers. ○ Look and understand if you are underusing these properties and assets, and figure out ways to properly use them in a manner that generates revenue.