Running your own business can often feel like a constant uphill battle where you need to routinely put out fires just to keep your head above water. This can often make it hard to focus on a single business goal, but Newcastle accounting firm SIDCOR reminds its SMB customers that “if you chase two rabbits, both will escape”.

Being able to break down, simplify and execute strategies that help your business achieve measurable goals is the sign of a good business leader and this will inspire greater morale in your employees. People work harder and happier when they feel like an important part of a larger endeavour.

Let’s take a look at some tips you can use to help your business focus on and achieve its goals.

Translate vague goals into specific, measurable steps

The first thing you should do is identify your primary business goals and work to make them less vague. For example, ‘improve revenue’ is a nice goal but it’s not very specific. Having a goal to ‘improve revenue by 20 percent by next quarter’ is much better because it sets out a numerically specific target that can be measured by your employees.

This can also be beneficial as a means to encourage better work from your employees. Having a set number to achieve allows you to overshoot it, giving you and your team a boost in confidence as you have exceeded your own expectations.

A good place to start is with an action plan that breaks down everything into steps that are delegated to specific people. Having your progress towards this goal prominently displayed in your workplace or routinely briefed to your employees can help keep everyone on track and thinking about the same things.

Be prepared to fully commit

Goals are only as good as the commitment you put behind achieving them. Having a really detailed plan for a measurable goal won’t help much if you aren’t prepared to commit the necessary time and resources to it.

Employees are less likely to be motivated by a goal that they don’t see you fully investing in. If you can’t demonstrate commitment to the realisation of a goal, then it’s hard to expect those under you to do the same.

Keep your goals flexible and update them as necessary

One big mistake many businesses make it that they fail to adjust their goals for external and internal changes. For example, if there is a sudden economic recession then it would make sense to scale-back your goals for growth and sales since your customers will be more reluctant to spend.

This doesn’t just mean having room to scale back goals if the market is in trouble, it gives you the freedom to enhance them when circumstances are favourable.

Keep the ultimate end goal in mind

You will likely have a major goal for your business that is the ultimate achievement you strive towards. It’s a good idea to keep this goal in mind and think about how all your smaller goals work towards it.

This kind of big picture thinking can help everyone stay motivated when your smaller goals aren’t dramatic enough to get passionate about. When you think about all of your tasks as working towards a larger goal it makes it easier for you to complete them.

Acknowledge and work around your weaknesses

Every business has its weaknesses and failing to acknowledge them is a major weakness unto itself. Instead of allowing these weaknesses to negatively affect your goals, work around them and create goals that address them.

Trying to do everything perfectly from the start can be counter-productive if you can make mistakes but start working now. Delaying something until it’s perfect may be less ideal than just going ahead and preparing for failures.

Hopefully the above information will give you a clearer idea of how to go about tackling business goals in an achievable way.