While 2022 was no doubt the most challenging year that businesses both small and large have faced in modern times, it is also a year that has presented a number of opportunities to learn new ways of operating, the potential for experimentation and innovation in your products and services, as well somewhat forcing organisations to become more agile as a whole. While it was a somewhat disastrous year for a huge number of businesses and individuals alike, 2022 was also a year that proved that complacency is dangerous, and often fatal for organisations that aren’t willing to do the work and implement something reminiscent of a new year’s resolution for its operations. 

So, with that, let’s talk about ten of the best new year’s resolutions for your business to help steer you into 2023/2024 with the confidence, direction and strategic-underpinning that businesses, stakeholders and customer confidence demand in the modern era. 

Why Keep Resolutions for Business?

Just like personal resolutions, setting goals for your business allows you to focus on your priorities and develop a plan to achieve them. By setting measurable objectives, you can track your progress and adjust your strategies accordingly. This could include changing your digital marketing strategy, posting more on social media or increasing your sales target. Additionally, the act of setting goals helps you clarify your vision, which can motivate your team and align everyone towards the same direction.

Setting business goals also helps you establish a clear strategy. By identifying what you want to achieve, you can develop a roadmap that outlines how to get there. This can improve your decision-making process and help you make informed choices about where to invest your time and resources.

Setting business resolutions

So, now that we have established that it is important to set business resolutions to help your company grow, Here are some ideas for business resolutions that can help you achieve success in the coming year:

Increase Digital Marketing Efforts

In today’s digital age, it’s important to have a strong online presence. Consider increasing your digital marketing efforts by investing in social media ads, email marketing campaigns, and search engine optimization.

Increase customer service

Customer service is a crucial aspect of any business. Make it a priority to provide excellent customer service by training your team members, improving response times, and addressing customer complaints in a timely and professional manner.

Foster employee engagement

Engaged employees are more productive and invested in the success of your business. Consider implementing initiatives to improve employee engagement, such as offering training and development opportunities, recognizing and rewarding employee achievements, and providing a positive work environment.

Increase cash flow

Cash flow is essential for the success of any business. Consider implementing strategies to improve your cash flow, such as offering discounts for early payment, reducing expenses, and improving your invoicing process.

Create a long-term business plan

A long-term business plan can help you stay focused on your goals and achieve success in the coming years. Consider creating a comprehensive business plan that outlines your mission, vision, goals, and strategies for growth.

Setting resolutions for your business can help you achieve success in the coming year. By reflecting on your business’s performance and setting specific goals, you can prioritize tasks and ensure that you are focusing on the most important areas of your business. Consider implementing some of the ideas discussed in this article to help your business grow and succeed in the coming year/

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A mission statement will help you structure your life.

A mission statement is a written declaration of what you want to accomplish in the world, how you want to be remembered, and how you want to live. It is your compass for navigating life’s twists and turns.

Your written declaration can serve as a guide when making decisions about where to focus energy, time and money; it can help clarify why certain choices make sense for you now versus later; it can also guide decision-making in situations when there are no clear answers or options available.

It helps you prioritise what’s important in your life: If a potential opportunity doesn’t line up with your values or goals then there’s no point even considering it because the odds are that doing so wouldn’t fulfil you.

A mission statement will help you prioritise.

Instead of wondering what’s important and what’s not, your mission statement will give you the answers. You’ll know exactly where to put your time and energy, even when it comes to making tough decisions like whether or not to change industries or go for that promotion at work.

A mission statement will help you decide what to do next.

You’ve got so much going on in your life, and it can be hard to keep track of everything you want out of your career or life. This is where writing a mission statement comes in handy; it’s an easy way for you to figure out exactly what direction you want your career or business to go in.

A mission statement gives you something concrete that guides all of your future decisions and actions.

Writing down clear goals will allow them to become more real, so when they happen they won’t feel like such a surprise!

Writing a mission statement could change your life for the better.

Writing a mission statement could change your life for the better. Here are four reasons why:

• You will find it easier to make decisions, as you’ll have a clear idea of what’s important to you and what’s not.
• You will be able to focus on what matters most to you in each moment, rather than letting emotions from past experiences dictate your choices.
• Having a clear sense of purpose makes people feel more in control of their lives, which is incredibly empowering! And knowing exactly where they’re going makes people happier too; it’s been proven that having goals—whether they’re big or small—increases self-esteem and overall happiness. So don’t miss out on this opportunity just because it doesn’t seem realistic at first glance…you’ve got nothing left to lose but everything left to gain by giving yourself permission

We hope that this post has given you some insight into what a mission statement is and why it’s so useful- now the ball is in your court. Take some time to think about what matters most to you, and then write it down so that you can live with purpose every day of your life!

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Set goals that you can measure

The type of goal that you set for yourself is important. If you can’t measure your progress toward a goal, it’s likely to be too vague and difficult to achieve. For example, “I want to start writing again” isn’t a good goal because it doesn’t say what exactly you’re going to do or when. Instead, try setting goals that are more specific—for example: “I will publish at least one article on my blog every month.” Setting measurable goals also makes it easier for other people (like your boss) to see how well you’re doing at meeting the goals that they’ve given you.

How does your goal compare to your previous goals?

Are your goals the same as last year?

If so, why? Are they still relevant and important to you or have things changed in your life that might require a different approach to get what you want in the New Year? If not, what are the differences between this year’s and last year’s goals that make them better suited for success this time around?

Ask yourself why achieving this goal is important for you.

What will you do when you achieve it and how will it help you achieve your other goals?

Goals should include benchmarks along the way.

The benchmarks you choose to set for your business goals should be specific and measurable. For example, if you want to increase the number of clients you work with this year, decide how many new clients are enough. Maybe it’s 5 or 10 more than last year; maybe it’s 15 or 20 more than the year before that—whatever number makes sense for your business, measure what counts as success.

These benchmarks can also be financial in nature, like increasing profits by 30% each quarter throughout 2023. Or they could relate more generally to how well your company is doing: Does having one employee who only works part-time qualify as “flexibility?” Is $100K in revenue per month enough evidence that there’s enough demand for us? Only when answers are clear will you know whether our goals have been met along the way–and whether you need another round of reflection and adjustment before moving forward again!

A vision board can help.

If you’re not familiar with vision boards, they are a very simple technique that can help guide you towards your goals. They consist of images and words that represent what it is that you want in life, and the steps it will take to get there.

Here’s how to make one:

• Gather images and words that represent what you want to achieve (for example, if your goal is to finish your novel by the end of 2023, include an image of a book or the word “novel”). Also gather any other items related to your goal (for example, if writing is important for achieving this goal then gather some pens or paper).
• Arrange these items on a board evenly spaced out from each other until there are no more spaces left on the board. You may need several boards depending on how many goals/priorities you want to be included in this process.

Breaking down big tasks into smaller ones is helpful.

This method is very common in achieving goals and can be done in a variety of ways. For example, you may have an end goal of losing 10 pounds this year by exercising more, but you might also set a weekly or monthly goal to go on a walk with your dog each day. The reason this approach works so well is those big goals are often overwhelming, especially if they are not easily measured. Having smaller tasks allows you to measure your progress along the way and provides benchmarks so that if something goes wrong or doesn’t happen as planned, it isn’t too hard on yourself because there were still some small successes along the way.

Seeing your progress in writing may help motivate you.

One important factor in goal-setting is writing down your goals. In fact, it’s one of the most important ones. The act of physically writing down your goals forces you to think about what they are and how they can be achieved, which helps you clarify your intentions and better plan for success.

Make sure that every goal is specific enough that you know what steps need to be taken in order to achieve it—and write those down too! If a goal isn’t clear enough, then it won’t be possible to set up an effective plan for getting there. 

Setting up a visible reminder where you can see it throughout the day can help keep these thoughts top-of-mind when making decisions throughout your day or week (for example: putting them on a whiteboard in your kitchen). It can also help if you include something about how far along you are on each step as well.

Revisit your goals frequently so you don’t forget them or get distracted by other things that come up during the year.

You might consider keeping a list of all your goals, or just the ones you’re trying to achieve right now.

Look at them often and think about what is holding you back from achieving them—is it time, or money? If so, make plans on how to overcome these obstacles. But if it’s not a matter of resources or time constraints, then ask yourself: “why am I not moving forward?”

Don’t get discouraged if you don’t make progress every day—focus on reaching your goal in four weeks rather than one day at a time (or even a month at a time). Be patient with yourself and remember: no one was born overnight!

You can set business goals and resolutions just like everybody else!

A lot of people think that goal setting is only for individuals, but the truth is, you can apply these same principles to your business. If you want to make more money, hire more employees or sell more products this year then a goal-setting approach will help you achieve these things.

The most important part of setting business goals is to make sure that you are realistic about what you can achieve. If you don’t set your expectations high enough, there won’t be any room for growth or improvement in your business. And remember: nobody ever got anywhere without taking risks!

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1. Take a new class.

Improve your career prospects by learning something specific—like coding—that will make it easier for employers to see why they should hire you over someone else who has similar experience but lacks the skill set required by the job description.

Or sign up for an adult education class that isn’t related directly to what your job requires—but still helps boost overall professional development skills (e.g., presentation skills or networking tips). This can also be good if there is no formal training provided within your company already!

2. Set up weekly career coaching sessions.

We’re sure you’ve heard of career coaching before, but just in case, here are some points about what it is and why it’s so useful for your development.

A coach will help you to identify and define the best career path for yourself. They’ll also teach effective strategies for achieving your goals, including how to prioritise and organise them in order to stay on track.

Coaches can also help you identify strengths that aren’t being leveraged properly at work. They can also help prepare you for interviews by providing feedback on interview skills like communication style, body language and more.

3. Create a mission statement, goals, and values.

A mission statement is a simple and powerful tool for your work life. A mission statement gives you clarity on what matters most to you in the world, and it can help guide your day-to-day decisions. It’s something that will evolve over time, but we believe it’s an important starting point for defining who you are as an individual working with others toward a shared goal.

4. Evaluate your career plan.

Every year, it’s a good idea to take some time to evaluate your progress and assess where you are in terms of your personal and professional development. In 2023, this is especially important as you’ll want to make sure that you’re on track with your job search goals and that they align with the skills that employers are looking for.

To do this, ask yourself:

• What is my goal?
• What are my skills?
• What have I accomplished so far?

The answers to these questions will help guide the next steps in your career plan. 

5. Take something you love and turn it into a work or business opportunity.

If you have skills, interests, ideas or passions that you would like to turn into a business, this is your time to do it! The internet has made it easier than ever for people like us to make money doing what we love.

Turning your passions into a viable income stream is one of the most rewarding things in life and can also help teach you lessons in both your personal and professional development. 

6. Identify your “why” in work and life.

Another way to focus on personal and professional development is to identify your “why.”

When you know your purpose, the rest of your goals naturally follow. It is easy to become distracted when you aren’t sure why you are doing something or if what you are doing will achieve any results. By identifying the “why” behind a goal, it becomes easier for us to prioritise our actions and make decisions about what matters most in our lives and careers.

7. Learn how to network effectively.

If you’re looking to build your network, you have to be prepared. A good rule of thumb is, if you don’t know why someone would want to connect with you, then they probably won’t. 

So what should you do? 

First, make sure that your professional brand is consistent across all networks (social media accounts, LinkedIn profile, resume). Then prepare for any networking event by reviewing the guest list and researching some people before the event. Once there, keep in mind that this is not a job interview; be able to share accomplishments and goals but also be ready to ask for help when necessary. Finally—and perhaps most importantly—make sure that the conversations are two-way streets: listen carefully as much as talking!

8. Prioritise your personal health and wellness.

To give your personal and professional life the attention they deserve, you need to maintain a balanced lifestyle. If you’re not taking care of yourself, it’s much more difficult to focus on anything else in life. This can mean taking time off from work to relax and re-energise or establishing a regular exercise routine that provides physical and mental benefits. It also involves making sure you eat well and get enough sleep—both are key components of maintaining good health!

9. Update your resume with new skills and accomplishments.

Even if you’re happy in your current job, you should be updating your resume every few months to keep it fresh. You don’t want to be caught off guard if a job opportunity comes along and have to scramble to update your resume at the last minute.

You should also update your resume when you’ve made significant changes at work or added new skills or accomplishments that aren’t represented on your current resume. This can include promotions and salary increases, as well as any professional development courses or certifications related to your field of work (or even life in general!).

10. Don’t lose sight of yourself while building your professional life.

You’ve probably heard the saying “don’t lose sight of yourself while building your professional life.” Well, it’s true.

If you’re focused exclusively on one area of your life at the expense of another, you’ll be less effective in both arenas. In order to focus on personal and professional development in 2023 and beyond, it’s important to maintain a balance between work and home—and sometimes that means making sacrifices for your career or for family obligations. But this doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing endeavour: even small shifts in how you approach each aspect of your life can make a big difference overall.

The key takeaway here is investing in your personal and/or professional development can come in all shapes and sizes. Don’t let the year get you caught up in the routine and try and focus on a few of the above suggestions to help you continue to grow and flourish in whatever you choose to do.

The post <strong>10 Ways To Focus On Your Personal and Professional Development in 2023</strong> appeared first on Best Practice.

As a leader the first thing you need to understand is, how is your ego serving you or handicapping you?

A leader is put in that role to manage a team to work at the best of their ability. Strong leaders effectively communicate with their team members, actively listening to their suggestions and approaching the majority of situations with empathy. A strong ego can alter ones perspective of their position in that role. Strong egos can create dictatorship management styles and this will hinder the team’s results, achievements and the culture within that team.

So, how can one develop and improve their leadership skills and acquire the characteristics of a good leader?

Well it’s not as easy as taking a short course on leadership and BOOM, you’re suddenly a great leader overnight. Improving your leadership is a long process that involves actively placing yourself in difficult leadership situations and learning from your mistakes. It takes time to develop leadership qualities and other important qualities so that you’re prepared with whatever challenges that being a leader can throw at you.

As a manager you want to be in a position mentally where you are thinking to yourself;

• How can I serve them?
• How can I help them?
• How can I make their job more fulfilling?
• What resources are available to my team to help them achieve their goals?
• Why are they here?
• What are their motivations?
• What are they engaged in?
• In which areas can I offer assistance?
• What are the traits of an effective leader?
• What makes a good leader?

To be a leader you must understand each team members vision, mission and purpose. Managing is a win-win situation between yourself and your team, where through your guidance the company is getting the most out of their staff, and your staff will feel fulfilled by excelling at work.

Leadership styles can be affected by the concept of humility. Start by asking yourself the question – how can you be more humble?

Qualities of a good leader go beyond being liked by your peers in the workplace. True leaders have a high level of emotional intelligence and are constantly building trust between themselves and their team members. A truly effective leader consistently inspires his team to work harder and smarter. This can be done through significant investment in professional development activities such as team building exercises.

Contrary to popular belief, issues with management styles occur because most people are overconfident rather than under-confident. By being humble, you encourage self-awareness and help your team work for a common goal.

The power of effective leadership and being a good leader is that most businesses cannot get to where they strive to be without the help of their teammates. Many goals are not achievable alone.

A great quote by John C. Maxwell states, “leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.”

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Here are things to avoid doing to become a better leader;

1. Criticising others – criticism is an ineffective management trait as it creates a blame culture within your team and can ruin an employers self-esteem. If there needs to be constructive criticism given to a staff member, frame the conversation in a way that acknowledges the problem and provides solutions and resources to solve it.
2. Complaining about anyone or anything for any reason – complainers within a business herd together and a negative spiral forms within your team. As a leader you need to set an example for your staff and not engage in complaining, but rather discussing issues within the team and collaboratively offering solutions. Complaining has no purpose in business unless you are actively trying to intervene and improve the situation.
3. Condemning people – follow the old saying, “if you can’t say anything positive, do not say anything at all.” Putting down other staff members or your competitors will not benefit the organisation in any way. Energy is contagious in a team, so strive to be the positive, inspiring leader your teammates can look up to.

Leadership motivates people to a higher level of performance through their strong human relations. By training to be a leader and developing leadership trai you can maximize efficiency and help achieve the organisation’s goals.

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We know – better than most – just how much work is involved in submitting an effective bid on a tender. Today we’re going to check out the tender development checklist, and outline major elements that are often glossed over – even forgotten – in a bid. The agency putting out that bid wants your tender response to encompass all their criteria- and that’s just the beginning. Keep reading to find out what makes up the tender development checklist.

The first step is to outline a definition of your business, and establish the scope of your operations. This will help signify whether or not your business is eligible to qualify for the tender on offer. If your business has only worked on small-to-medium-sized projects, it’s unlikely you’ll get the tender if other organizations have completed large-scale projects in the past. It may seem disheartening, but taking a realistic view of projects you bid on will save you countless hours and effort of submitting a bid that ultimately you’re unqualified for. Also important in this phase is to outline both your unique selling points, and your points of difference over your competitors. This can be an opportunity to advertise your ISO certifications, or leveraging testimonials from previously completed projects.

Now, moving on, we’re starting to address the tender requirements. This is where you’ll need to outline how your business addresses the strategic aims and objectives of the tender. The organization putting out that tender wasn’t just trying to fill up the page by including its aims and objectives, so you’ll need to make sure you address these directly.

Consider whether you’re addressing any of the supplementary strategic aims and objectives, how you can compete on costs – example, sourcing locally can be a good tactic in this regard – as well as advertising what skills and expertise specific to your organization that could put your bid ahead of the competition. Can you provide evidence to show that your business can respond quickly to events and carry out effective decision making? Something like ISO9001 ties in neatly here.

Summing up your tender requirements, you’ll want to provide more evidence to show you’ve built relationships in the past with your customers; referees are the most effective way of presenting this, as well as strengthening your skills if the project was completed on time, on-budget and to a high standard. Do you have any documented evidence to show your business is flexible, and can adapt when something goes wrong? Do you have innovation products or services that service certain specific market niches? Consider all of these when addressing the tender requirements in the bid you eventually submit.

The next step addresses your business’ capabilities. A self-checklist here is one of the more effective ways to measure how your organization stacks up to the competition. Consider things like: what are your main business activities? What industries do you supply to? What are your key products and services? What specific equipment can you provide? Leverage key people in your business that can attest to the specialized capabilities of your operations; provide evidence of their training and skill assessment if applicable. Throughout this checklist, you’re trying to – objectively as possible, in the interest of saving time – assess your organization’s suitability for the tender on offer, to make sure you can provide the level of quality the tender requires.

The next step in this process is formulating a checklist that assesses whether or not you’ll be able to deliver the right tender outcomes. Tenders are high-stake, multi-million-dollar projects that don’t accommodate for mediocrity. In this stage of the process you’ll want to clearly sketch-up plans to address things like: How will you deliver the tender’s outcomes? Who are the tender’s end customers and how will they benefit from the delivery of the tender contract? What specific delivery objectives will you focus on, and how will you achieve them? How will you measure performance and ensure success? What would your business requirements be as part of delivering the tender?

It’s also important to consider things like: how much it will cost to deliver the specified outcomes/specification requirements. Who can provide strong references in order to demonstrate that you have a track record of successful delivery? What other businesses could collaborate on the tender as part of a consortium or subcontractor?

Ensuring you’ve taken into consideration these elements of the process will put you in a much better stride as you approach your tender bid. Often business neglect to address several of these points, and for those in the decision-making process, it doesn’t reflect well on the organization. With large-scale contracts on offer, they’ll look to the most thorough tender application, that touches on all their required points and provides more information that is needed for the job. If you were in their position, you would too – so don’t underestimate the importance of having a tender development checklist outline for you to refer to early in the process of forming your bid, and refer to it consistently as you’re forming your bid.

For more business related tips and answers frequently asked questions, check out our News page.

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Recently I’ve been reading on the topic of serendipity in business: how by a seemingly random sequence of events, you can see both your personal and professional life changed forever. There’s a few notable examples of this that we’re going to cover in an upcoming thread of content kicked off by the piece you’re reading right now. We’re going to discuss how Starbucks became the world’s largest coffee company, buoyed by a stroke of luck in Italy, as well as ways in which you can foster more serendipity in your life.

Let’s get into it.

There’s a researcher at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK who has written a body of work focussing on serendipity, Richard Wiseman and says that good fortune isn’t simply a matter of chance, but the product of choices that leave an individual open to more opportunities, and therefore more serendipitous opportunities than others. Judging from my experience, I have to agree. I’ve noticed that some people can become more closed-minded and rigid in their schedule, which leaves them less likely to come into contact with that potentially life-changing rendezvous.

“Opportunity may be the one to knock on your door, but serendipity is the one that makes sure you’re home at the [right] time.” -Serhat Pala

A Starbucks Story in Serendipity

Wiseman says that people who are more likely to run into serendipitous strokes of luck are more “skilled at creating, noticing and acting upon chance opportunities,” through the way in which they are experts at “networking, adopting a relaxed attitude to life and by being open to new experiences.”

Howard Schultz is a household name in business circles, having steered Starbucks from a modestly-sized company in Seattle selling coffee beans and homebrew machines to nearby clients. In 1983, Schultz was working as the Director of Retail Operations and Marketing for Starbucks, who sent him to Europe to attend the international housewares show in Milan, Italy.

Rather than attend the conference in full, Schultz took the opportunity to check out local cafes to gain an understanding of European coffee culture, and more specifically, Italian coffee culture; arguably the most fiercest coffee fanatics on the continent. According to Schultz’ autobiography, his detour away from the conference was the catalyst or change that would soon see Starbucks become one of the world’s largest companies. “It was like an epiphany,” he wrote. “It was so immediate and physical that I was shaking.”

What Schultz realised as he cruised Milan’s backstreets observing locals in their natural habitat was that people weren’t at the cafe for the sole reason of drinking a coffee- they were there for the conversation and the heated debates amongst friends. Schultz says that this single-handedly changed the way he envisaged what Starbucks should become: a company that pays more attention to the communal setting in which customers drink their coffee, rather than just the coffee itself. Starbucks soon set out to conquer the world of caffeinated beverages with an emphasis on the setting in which people drink, hoping American buyers – foreign to the concept of a European-style cafe – would buy into the idea, as well as the cup of joe.

Frans Johannson, author of The Click Moment, which talks about both randomness and serendipity in business says that “as ironic as it may sound, it actually pays to schedule time to do something unscripted and unplanned,” he says. “Leave some flexibility in your schedule. Then, make sure you use the flexibility to explore something unrelated to what you are doing now, or follow up on a curious idea you have been considering.”

How to Foster Serendipity in Your Life

Make sure that as you move through your life, you keep your mind open with everyone you meet; more often than not, they won’t be the life-changing contact, but you need to remain open to the possibility they will be- or how they could spark the idea for an organisation-changing product or service. As Frans Johannson mentioned above, keeping time spare to explore seemingly unrelated areas of your life opens you up to the potential for making those life-changing connections, or having a profoundly powerful epiphany.

On a similar note, you need to remain true to your gut-feeling, or intuition. Intuition can admittedly steer you off course sometimes, but it’s also one of the most important tools at your disposal when you’re making a tough decision; don’t underestimate the power of your instincts. When it does steer you off course, make sure you’re taking note of what went wrong, and you turn this into a learning experience. Everyone makes mistakes- but it’s how we deal with the aftermath that defines us; there’s always an important lesson to be learnt following a decision gone-bad, the difference is who learns from it, and who doesn’t.

From here, go about your personal and professional life with an air of confidence that will hopefully sweep up the right people and put them in a position near your circle that you can act upon. Remember that deals can quite often be sealed at the bar shortly after the conference wraps up, not at the conference itself, so you need to be prepared to go out and make those potentially life-changing connections.

Thanks for your time- I’ll see you in the next piece.

Kobi Simmat.

Founder of Best Practice Biz

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In order to achieve any type of growth or success in business, you need to be setting goals that fall in line with your business strategy. Goals allow you to measure your progress and improve customer service and increase sales. After all, in business our primary goal should be to offer the best possible service to your customers.

Setting goals and achieving your goals as a small business whether they be financial goals like to increase profits or a more long term goal like expanding into an international market, is a vital element of creating a business plan. If your business fails to plan for the future and wings it on a daily basis, then you’re setting yourself up for failure.

However, the goals that you set can’t just be random. They need to be specific, measurable, time bound goals that reflect where you want to be in the next 12 months. This article will go through some tips in setting smart goals for your business, whether it be a small business or a larger one. Remember, your overall goals need to reflect the future vision you have for your business. Before you start creating a specific goal, you need to be clear on this first.

What are some examples of goals for a business

In order to set the right goals for your business, you need to underpin your vision and mission, setting goals that are tangible, measurable and get you closer to fulfilling your vision on a year-to-year basis. You should be setting goals for the next 12-months So that when you achieve them, you know you are on the path towards your vision. I think it’s worth adding that one of the most impactful goal-setting techniques I’ve taken on board with my organisation and consulting is to implement SMART goals; goals that are specific, measurable, actionable & achieveable, realistic and timely.

Break down your goals into sizeable steps or ‘chunks’, milestones are critical points along the way to achieving your goals and are the necessary steps you will take to get you there. You need to set milestones for each quarter- every three months you must reach each milestone to know you are on target for hitting each goal.

In terms of who you need on your team to build an organisation that can succeed, and how to build the right culture. You want to work with like-minded people who also love your vision, and connect with your mission and values; people who are willing to take ownership. You can’t find success in business by yourself, you need a team around that is motivated and driven to be by your side through the hard times and the good.

Some examples of goals that you can set for your business include financial targets, cultural targets and growth targets. There could be multiple goals stemming from each of these categories. For example, a growth target or goal could include winning a specific number of new clients or could include growing the size of your organisation in terms of staff. A cultural target or goal could include greater enthusiasm for innovation within your organisation or improved employee retention. As mentioned before, whatever your vision is for your business in the future, your goals need to match.

How to measure success

Measuring your progress on your goals is a key element in how to measure your key performance indicators – KPIs. KPI’s let you know how you are tracking and if you are on the path to achieving your objectives and goals. These goals could be in your marketing division, sales team, people, development, finance, operation and delivery and distribution elements of your organisation. Marketing, for example, should have KPIs that encompass things like social media campaigns per month, number of leads added to the database and compare these to a target for leads to build the database each month. If at the end of the month the marketing team hasn’t hit their goal, this might be time to take an objective look at the tactics they are deploying to see if a change in direction might be more effective in targeting new leads.

However, the success of some goals can be easier to measure than others. A cultural goal like improved motivation or enthusiasm is generally quite hard to measure with a specific number. This type of goal is usually felt within the day to day operations of a business, but indications of success can often be observed through other performance metrics.

At the end of the day, every business’s goals are different. Every business has different a vision for the future, a different why and different solutions to different problems. As said before, as long as your business’s goals are in line with its vision, mission and purpose, you’re on the right track.

Good luck!

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Learning helps you stay employable.

Learning new skills, knowledge and approaches can give you a competitive edge in your field. It is also essential for developing new ideas and approaches – the kind of thing that could make the difference between being stuck at your organisation or ending up elsewhere.

Learning helps employees plan their careers carefully because they understand what skills are required in different roles at different levels within an organisation.

You get challenged and inspired by your learning experiences.

Learning is about being challenged and inspired. It’s getting out of your comfort zone in order to grow, it’s challenging yourself and learning from others’ perspectives, and it’s stepping up to opportunities that require you to prove yourself. Learnings are often unexpected, but always rewarding in terms of self-growth.

Prioritising learning and development at work is essential to being successful in the rapidly changing world of work.

We are working in a changing world. The way organisations do business is shifting and it’s crucial to keep up with the pace of change. In fact, it’s essential to be able to adapt quickly and continuously or else you risk being left behind.

This applies not only to organisations but also individuals – including you! If you want to stay relevant and competitive, then it’s important that you constantly learn new skills, develop yourself professionally and upskill regularly throughout your career.

Learning and developing new skills helps you build confidence and independence.

Learning and developing new skills helps you to build confidence and independence. It also helps you be more creative, focused, resilient and open-minded.

You might be thinking that learning is only important when you are going through a big transition in your life or career, but that’s not true! Even if everything seems fine in your current job, prioritising learning and development will have professionally benefits in both the long and short term. Here are just a few:

• Learning new skills will help you grow as an individual
• Learning new skills builds confidence for tackling challenges
• You’ll feel happier about yourself (and others will too!)

Learning and development is important for the whole business

Learning and development is important for the whole business, not just you as an individual.

Learning and development can help to:

Grow a business by encouraging learning within your team, you’re helping them to stay up-to-date with industry developments and best practices. If a business can stay current, then that means their work will be of higher quality and more efficient than if they were working from outdated knowledge.

It’s also a great way to retain talent. If employees are engaged in their work on a day-to-day basis (which learning should help them do), then it’s likely that they won’t want to leave when another opportunity comes along elsewhere. If this becomes habitual among all employees who view their job as something worth staying at for long periods of time, it helps businesses retain valuable individuals rather than having them poached by competitors or other firms offering better benefits packages etc.

It helps you grow in your career

Learning and development is important because it helps you grow in your career. It’s a process that allows you to learn new skills, develop existing ones and progress in your career. Without learning, we’re stuck in a cycle of stagnation, which means we can be left feeling frustrated or unfulfilled by our work.

Learning is essential for professional growth and success. If you don’t learn new things or improve on existing ones, then there will come a time when you hit a wall with regard to what’s possible within your company or industry. You may find yourself reaching the same roadblocks repeatedly because no one has shown you how to break them down—or even if someone has shown you how before, they might not have done it properly so there’s still room for improvement!

Investing time and money in training your staff is an investment in both their futures and yours.

Investing time and money in training your staff is an investment in both their futures and yours. When you invest in learning and development, you are helping them to grow as people, develop essential skills for success in any career, and build confidence and independence – all of which will help them become more productive at work.

A well-trained employee is an asset for any business because they are more engaged with their job and the company’s objectives. This can lead to higher levels of productivity, greater innovation from employees and improved customer service levels too.

In the modern workplace, learning is not just something that’s nice to do; it’s essential. No matter how much experience you have or how capable you are in your current role, there’s always more to learn—and in today’s employment landscape, learning new things is one of the best ways to stay employable. If you want your business or career to succeed, then investing time and money in training staff will give you a competitive edge over companies who don’t prioritise this kind of investment.

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Leadership is defined as the act of motivating a group of people to act toward achieving a common goal. Competent leaders create a culture with high levels of trust, engagement, and productivity.

A good leader can make an enormous difference to the performance of an organisation. Great leaders are often equipped with a number of valuable skills including high level communication skills, high emotional intelligence and are able to easily build trust with team members. One of the most important traits of effective leaders is frequently engaging in active listening. This ensures business leaders understand the wants and needs of their team and are able to approach those wants and needs with empathy.

Read this article to understand the impact bad leadership can have on an organisation

What are the key qualities of leadership and how can we implement them in our business?

Qualities of a good leader

Trust – There are many things that good leaders can do to establish trust with their employees, which include; being open and honest about changes that will impact them, effectively communicating by talking to them, not at them, having an open-door policy, and then following up, and being willing to pitch in to help.

Humility – Being honest, having integrity, and listening to employees will only help gain their respect, which will pay off when it comes time to exercise decisiveness. While it’s true that everyone loves confidence, humility creates a likable persona, making others more comfortable with their position.

Transparency – Transparent leaders are not micromanagers; they give credit to others when success occurs, and take the blame for failures. Transparent leadership means leading with openness and honesty. These types of leaders keep their team in the loop, share information freely, and invite open and effective communication within their companies.

Decisiveness – This trait is a key quality for successful leaders. As Scott Hoffman told entreprenuer.com that he often looks back on advice he received from a mentor when learning how to officiate basketball games; “make the call fast, make the call loud, and don’t look back,” he said. He went on to note that many times, wrong decisions over trivial matters made in a decisive manner yield better long-term results and a strong team mentality than “wishy-washy” decisions that end up being correct.

Integrity – Integrity in leaders refers to being honest, trustworthy, and reliable. Leaders succeed when they stick to their values and core beliefs and without ethics, this will not be possible. Regardless of leadership style, a true leader always has integrity.

Inspiring – Inspiring leaders want their people to develop. They invest in them, and they encourage activities that foster physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual growth & well-being.

Passion – Passionate leaders elevate productivity and ensures employees are committed to your company’s vision, mission, and values. Leading people to achieve remarkable results, leading people to achieve optimal performance, leading people to realise their highest potential.

Innovation – As Steve Jobs said, “innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” A leader needs to be creative and innovative at the same time to bring their teams ideas into reality.

While successful leaders may carry and exhibit these essential leadership qualities to varying degrees, all good leaders can embrace and strengthen these characteristics of a good leader within themselves if they remain open to growth. When implemented, these qualities improve in-house communication, employee morale, and strengthen company culture.

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