3 Things you must do to achieve business goals

As a business owner, achieving your business goals should be your overarching priority.

But, there are conflicts right? Too much to do, not enough time, sometimes it just feels like you are the proverbial hamster on the wheel! It can be overwhelming, stressful and simply exhausting.

But, it doesn't have to be.

As a business owner there are 3 things you must learn to do and be doing them consistently to bring some order and focus to your life and to achieve your business goals:

• Prioritise your time
• Think strategically
• Resolve key business challenges

Let's discuss each one briefly.

#1 Prioritise your time

Learn how to allocate more time to the activities that drive business value

As a business owner it's a common scenario that all roads lead to you. Being constantly pulled from one thing to another seems the normal path.

But keep in mind that your time is a valuable resource... once its used, it's gone.

The key is to use it wisely by prioritising where you spend your time. And, being ruthless in enforcing the right priorities.

The overall business goal and the priority for a business owner should be to keep customers coming through the door. Seems obvious right? No customers = No revenue.

Of course it's not the only thing you need to do and it's not the only valid strategic priority, but relative to everything else it is the space where you should be spending the biggest proportion of your valuable time.

There is an element of discipline involved here because it's very easy to say "I am going to make the time tomorrow". But, as we know, tomorrow never comes. So, start today.

Start by making a list of all the things you do, how each of these things contributes to your business goals and how much of your time you are spending on them. Then look for ways to adjust the balance so you can focus on the high value activities which are inextricably linked to your business goals.

#2 Think strategically

Learn how to take a holistic view of your business and drive sustainable growth and success.

Business owners don't like to hear this, but business goals and strategy are essential for long term business survival.

There is no doubt that there is a lot of tactical thinking required in a business to solve immediate and short term requirements. But, this is not the main driver for achieving business goals. So, if that's you main mode of operation then you should be seeing it as a massive red flag.

Imagine you are walking down the street and only watching the space immediately before your feet. It wont be long before you trip, walk into something or have a major accident. This is the essential difference between tactical (short term) thinking and strategic (long term) thinking. In business you must be able to do both.

Business owners often find themselves fully focused on operational and tactical activities, effectively operating with a short term focus. Sometimes this is conscious, but for the most part it's unconscious.

That's why it is critical that business owners consciously and deliberately make time for strategic thinking and creating the business goals, strategic blueprint and roadmap from which all other activities stem. This doesn't necessarily have to take months to do, nor does it have to cost tens or even hundreds of of thousands of dollars to do. But, you must invest in this process.

The cost of not investing in the right strategic process for your business will ultimately be significantly greater.

Make time to create your strategic blueprint and roadmap. But furthermore, ensure you have the mechanisms in place to achieve your strategic business goals. Overall growth and success depends on it.

#3 Resolve key business challenges

Learn how to identify your key business challenges and develop effective strategies to manage them.

Business owners and other key people within a business leadership team seem to spend a lot of time resolving challenges. But, should they?

Well of course they should. But, this is not so much a yes or no question. It's more a question of how much time and which challenges.

There are lots of changes facing your business and many will impact your ability to achieve your business goals. And it's easy to get caught up in fixing problems. There must be a limit, otherwise two things occur:

• All your time will be spent of fixing problems.
• You will create a significant risk within the business (key-man risk).

The key is to ensure that day-to-day problems are handled efficiently and effectively elsewhere so you can focus more on bigger problems and strategic challenges that impact business goals.

Major issues, problems and strategic challenges require dedicated thought and effort, they must be rigorously and methodically prosecuted to fully understand them and ultimately to get the best outcome. So make sure you have a clear and consistent process for getting the right people engaged and focused on resolving key business challenges. Consider using external facilitation to expedite the process and maximise the value of stakeholder time.

Key business challenges are strategic in nature, therefore they require strategic solutions, not tactical solutions.

What now?

There is a lot of pressure on business owners to ensure their business is successful - adopting these 3 must dos is an essential step to achieving that overarching business goal.

This is particularly important given the range of tactical and strategic challenges facing every business, hence the importance of being able to prioritise effectively.

The size of the business is irrelevant. Typically the smaller the business the more hands on the owner(s) is. Regardless of size, these 3 must dos still apply.

A business owner must not only make time to drive their business strategically, they must also ensure here are effective mechanisms in place to keep business goals and strategies appropriate, relevant and visible over time. Hence it's not a set and forget exercise, its a continuous process that if executed effectively will yield high value now and into the future, driving continuous business growth and success over time.

If you would like some help setting your business up for sustainable growth and success, book a CHALK Discovery Session or get in touch via our Contact Page.