Managing Performance In Your Business

Recently there has been widespread reporting that large organisations are now promoting the idea that yearly or half-yearly performance reviews are best abandoned as not being useful.

It seems that the type of performance appraisal out of favour is one where employees are graded yearly by a manager who doesn't work with them directly and uses the exercise as an excuse to find find fault with the employee.  If anyone is still operating this way then stopping such a ritual is probably a good idea. It does seem a strange thing to ever have been doing. 

Unfortunately, outside of large corporate environments, many businesses have no procedure for managing performance effectively.

Instead of creating a stressful situation, you can make performance management an integral part of the way the business operates, keep productivity high and stop any activity that is not benefiting the business, right where it starts.  This is a chance to get the very best from the employees at work in the business.

That means building performance discussions and feedback into the everyday way the company operates. 

 Making the most of the potential within the workplace

Done well, it can be an ongoing part of your relationship with employees to track their progress, recognize their accomplishments, notice where they are struggling and provide some remedial assistance as it is needed, to encourage the best performance from those who report to you. This is a fabulous opportunity to develop a winning and supportive culture that generates excellent results. 

Good procedures – written – make life much easier for employees to do the right thing and know what that is.

For the business owner a documented procedure for managing performance makes life far easier and less stressful around managing employees.

Why manage performance

Improving operations allows the business to stay competitive and to ensure employees and managers are performing to the highest standards, opens the way to increased productivity, engaged employees who will go 'the extra mile', and ensure that employees want to stay with the company.

Employee turnover is disruptive and expensive. Ineffective employees are also expensive and can erode the profitability of the business.

Start with an appraisal of the business performance

Before you look at the performance of employees, it is perhaps worth considering the performance of the business as it exists right now. 

Current Position

Review the current position in your business. 

Are good systems in place already? 
Do they need updating? 
Do employees have the tools they need to do their work efficiently?
Are tasks and responsibilities for all roles documented? 
Is there a clear and specific reporting protocol that everyone understands exactly who they are supervising and to whom they report? 
Are employees undergoing regular training to develop their skills and allow the business to benefit from this improvement? 
Overall, are the operations being carried out more skillfully and with less disruption than the year before? 

Being able to track the progress of the business over time and identify issues that are causing problems, work needing to be redone, or work not being won, means optimizing the potential the business is capable of achieving. And that relates directly to the bottom line profit. 

Employees need clear instructions and boundaries of where their responsibility begins and ends.  They cannot be expected to read the mind of the owner of the business, or the manager. 

Needs of employees and business need to be met

Employees also need the right tools to carry out their role and meet their commitments to the job efficiently. 

Waiting around for a computer that has poor memory and a dismal signal on the internet is not helping them be productive. Neither is being forced to use old programs that cannot do what can be easily done now with modern applications in a fraction of the time. 

Your business needs to be efficient, to be consistent in delivery of your product or service to customers or clients. 

It needs whatever it needs to operate at peak efficiency and effectiveness including well trained employees - and managers and director whose own professional development is keeping pace with this very dynamic marketplace. 

Recognition of good employee performance 

While many companies are ready to pounce on poor performance, it is often the employees doing the right thing and excelling at their work who never get noticed at all. 

Adopting a management style set to catch people doing good - and acknowledging it - is a good start to improve morale and gain useful insight into what's happening in the business. 

Business owners often think that the only reward people want is money but that is shown over and over in studies, to not be the case. A financial bonus or pay rise may be indicated in some cases for continued good performance, but that's over and above the regular recognition and acknowledgment that people appreciate. We hate it when we are dismissed and overlooked. Just as we love it when someone notices that we go the extra mile, or have a willing attitude. Thank you goes a long way and this impresses not just the person involved but also the other employees who see they are working in a business that notices and respects them and their good work. 

How can you implement a system in your business to give recognition to good employees?

How well the business performing for the employees

It's all well and good when employees are doing great work and the business is booming. It's not so good when the benefits are all going out of the business and not improving their lot. 

In some business, owners splash about a lot of cash on personal items that the staff hear about while they are starved of the resources and tools they need in the business, and penny pinching is going on that keeps them from improving their own financial situation. 

That's not a good look and can build resentment and lead to bad attitudes and even misconduct. 

Steps to managing performance 

You want your business to operate like the best.  Those are the businesses that are constantly improving their operations to stay competitive in their industry. Employees and managers need to be performing to a high standard for that to happen.

High performance in business means benefits such as:

• increased productivity
• engaged and committed employees
• good employees are retained
• less wasted cost from staff turnover

Employees performing poorly can result affect the business in many ways, including leading to unhappy customers or clients, decreased productivity, high turnover and even demotivating other employees. 

Serious misconduct is even worse and can be seen when an employee causes serious risk to the health and safety of another person or to the reputation or profits of their employer's business or deliberately behaves in a way that's inconsistent with continuing their employment.
Examples of serious misconduct include:

• theft
• fraud
• assault
• being drunk at work
• refusing to carry out work duties.

1. Create a written procedure for how you will be managing employee performance 
2. Work out the business goals for the year ahead 
3. Think about individual performance goals for each employee that will help your business reach its goals.
4. Prepare a template to use for performance meetings so that you can record the points you want to speak about. 
5. Engage with each employee to let them know about the new process and to learn more about their personal goals for their job and ensure they are relevant to their job and realistic.
6. Record these once  you have both agreed upon them and worked through any support you need to provide to help them reach these goals. Training, would be one example. 
7. Set some realistic time frames for these goals to be achieved. 

Final thoughts 

When you see your role as facilitating good performance, the stress goes out of the process. Suddenly you are all on 'the same side' and when you are all aligned towards a common purpose, magic can happen. 

It helps to have a clear vision articulated that employees can buy into. 

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How Data Can Increase Your Sales

Knowing Your Customer 

The more we know about our past customers the more we can tailor our marketing to their specific needs and interests. There is nothing that says "I don't know or care about you" than sending marketing messages to people for products and services that they could never use.

The more quality information you have on customers the more you can tailor our offers and program your future contact with them at appropriate times.

Collecting all that information means that a highly flexible database for marketing is necessary.  This is not your customer list that you may use for your tax purposes, this must have more functionality than that. It should be kept updated with new information added to the file when the client is interacting with the business or buying.   While this can seem like a lot of work, it is the key to building a business asset will have the capacity to bring you more sales, more profit and less wasted effort.

It will also enhance your business appeal when the time comes to sell the business.

Adding social media to the mix really boosts the range of ways this database can be used effectively.

Know Your Prospective Customers Too! 

Long before they become customers you may have touched on people who will become customers in the future. Creating a database for these people too is a sensible way to collate the historical contacts you have had and each contact puts us closer to a sale.

Profiling  Your Customers

Taking the time to profile existing and past customers is a good way to deal with the true substance of your customer base.  To do this you need  to have access to the information that will let you identify key aspects of your customers actual buying history, value of the client to your business over time - Lifetime Value, (dollars they have spent with your business over time)so that your analysis can yield to you quality data that is both objective and subjective. For example Lifetime value is objective (it is a factual data point) and the customer's ability and willingness of referring new customers to you may be more subjective.

Customer Personas

Once you have a review of your customer profiles you can identify different types of customers by their characteristics that they share. This also allows you to analyze how that compares with what you would regard as an IDEAL customer. You may have very few of those and lots of customers who are not yet ideal, but unless and until you work through the process you are just guessing.

Guessing is notoriously unreliable. Many times the customers who seem to be the most valuable to the business - are not the ones who are supporting us best.

Now you have your groups of  customers separated you can go deeper and create a picture that you build from adding in more common details.  Demographic information and income bands and aspiration positions.

You can name each group so they are easy to bring their defining characteristics to mind when you are creating promotional offers for them that are a good fit for their buying patterns and product preferences.

More information on setting up buyer personas here 

The Database

Capturing the data helps marketers to:

• Recognize who the customers are
• What products they have with the company
• What products they don't have with the company
• When buying needs might arise
• How many times the customer has returned to buy

Smart managers make sure that the company can maximize the potential of the database by treating every customer as an individual. 

Target Information To Customers

While big corporations are investing millions of dollars in fine grain data mining of their customer buying traits, all businesses can at least begin to market smart by collating useful data to drive new business and retain existing customers. 

Every contact with a customer is an opportunity to enhance the customer database and to use the information in a timely manner to target messages correctly and to encourage interaction with the customer in a two-way communication. 

This is the beginning of Relationship marketing and where businesses can build on their knowledge of customers to provide them with standards of service that meet their needs and bring them coming back again and again. 

What This Means For Your Business

That's a great jump-off point for generating more referrals and becoming a part of the customers' networks of friends and family who have potential to also become customers. 

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Related posts:

Inbound marketing - the new old fashioned service 
Many hands make lighter work of social media for local businesses
Here's how to save time and get good content for your business online
Inbound marketing the new old fashioned way to do business
Financial planners: Social Marketing the key to keeping business on the books
Business writing not just on the social media wall
What every business should know about social media

Like to discuss your business?
Call Lindy Asimus on 0403 365 855 or use the contact form on this page.

  Lindy Asimus Business Coaching

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7 Steps To Make Your Business Strong

"A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time."  – Henry Ford

Running a business can be so rewarding... but it can be tough too. Problems are faced in small business and if we are not careful they can be handled emotionally not with a rational approach that the business needs to maintain.

Some of these issues - many of them - are around money. Pays, expenses, things that take money out of the business, but at the end of the day are just elements of The Cost Of Doing Business. 

When managed well, the issues below can be a productive and rewarding aspect of the business, not just a problem to be avoiding.  When managed well, or not managed at all, they threaten the viability and future of the business.

1.    Pay employees correctly. 

Every week there are more cases being resolved with small businesses being found to have underpaid employees resulting in this money having to be repaid PLUS the fines and damage to reputation that follows.

About fifty claims against business are made by the Fair Work commission each year.

Aside from being fined and having to eventually pay the money anyway, this approach to avoid paying employees fairly has side effects that work against the business and cost the business money and status.

When you underpay or try to cheat your employees, the business is

• Not making the most of staff productivity 
• Generating ill will 
• Encouraging theft. 
• Making a goose of yourself in the public eye. 

If wages are an issue then the real issue is the business model. Time to revisit that and work out the viability of the business and a strategy that will allow the business to trade effectively AND pay the expenses that the business is responsible to pay.

Current financial position of the business - knowledge is power

For some businesses the root of the problem will be a lack of understanding and control of the current financial position. This is why a good bookkeeper and accountant that can help you monitor your costs, income streams, help to set a proper pricing model in place. Tidying up the financial management, together with a marketing plan to generate more sales and repeat business is vital.

2.   Respond smartly to reviews or complaints online or offline. 

There was a time not all that long ago when a business would pay for an advertisement in the Yellow Pages and the phone would ring, and any complaints that customers had would be shared with a dozen of the people they know. 

Not today. Today nobody uses the Yellow Pages, and the first place people seek information and resources to access, happens on Facebook or their other social networks.  Maybe they use Google too and cross reference what they find with their friends' recommendations. 

Complaining To The Many

When they complain, customers don't now complain to a dozen people. They complain online and that goes out to hundreds of people, possibly thousands and very likely ends up on a website that Google indexes and stays there for ever and brings up when someone searches for your business. 

Sometimes the business owner responds by attacking the customer. 

Sadly, it is becoming all too common to see businesses in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. They are in the media because of their bad attitude to customers. Here is the most recent example to hit the headlines, but it is a regular story on social media.

It can be tempting to defend a complaint against a business, if there is something bad posted online or a bad review posted on Facebook, or Tripadvisor or any of the other review sites. Responding defensively is the worst possible way to respond!  The business needs the response to be measured and according to a well rehearsed protocol that defuses the situation and doesn't turn it into a major embarrassment, due to a poorly considered and emotional response taken in the heat of the moment.

3.    A Plan For Recruiting And Bringing On New People. 

It's been estimated that recruiting a new employee can cost in real terms, more than a year's salary.   So making a good choice and bedding them into the company well so they can flourish is a responsibility the business owner needs to take seriously and in doing so reap the benefits of a productive employee. 

Common problems that new hires face - and that bite the business as a consequence are things like:

• No standard policies 
• No documented roles and responsibilities 
• No clear job description
• No process to hire with well chosen criteria and according to the needs of the role
• No induction
• No clarity on who reports to whom
• No company standard procedures 
• No buddy for the new hire to find out things they need to know without bothering the manager. 
• No effective system for managing performance 
• No training system or budget

Just as having none of these things is detrimental to a business, putting these in place will make hiring new people much more simple, more effective and allow the new person to fit right in without having to guess what is expected of them to please you and fulfill that role to the best of their ability.

4.   Market Consistently Week In - Week Out

Waiting till the new work dries up and then thinking about marketing is a disaster! When you develop a marketing plan you don't have to guess any more what needs to be done. Once the initial details of the plan, the responsibilities, assigning of staff to carry out the activities and budget allocated, you will have a schedule of activities to follow much like a blueprint of a house to be built, that can be put into place at the times decided on, and the results reported so that you can follow your progress and make adjustments as required.

You'll want to document activities: 

• In traditional advertising channels
• Clarity of your message 
• Segmentation of customer personas
• campaigns for marketing programs throughout the year
• customer nurturing 
• new client acquisition
• developing an online presence and 
• developing content marketing 
• updating content marketing to build your network in the social environment
• inbound marketing 
• marketing calendar
• social media scheduling 
• training needed 
• reporting and monitoring 
• budget and sales attributed to marketing campaigns 

With this in place it is like your business' marketing machine that chugs along 24 hours a day. 7 days a week leading people to your business. 

5.   Expect Good Things To Happen In Marketing Because You Allocated A Budget To Make It So

Not allocating a budget for the marketing activities and other essential activities the business needs starves it of the very thing it needs to produce consistent new business and repeat sales.

What the business needs, requires making available the resources to be dedicated and made available for such purposes.

6.   A sales strategy and sales training program

Sales don’t just happen. Too many businesses have no formal sales strategy or training system in place and no ongoing education to ensure sales staff are developing and improving their sales expertise.  When that happens the owner of the business is not doing the business, nor the customers and not even the employees, any justice at all.

7. Your fully functioning marketing database drives profit

Not building up a customer and prospect database to use for marketing is like paying rent on the premises then keeping the front door locked.

These are the people who  can bring you more sales and without collecting their data you have wasted that opportunity for more sales and more profit and more satisfaction of customers.

Summing Up

Each of these 7 steps are achievable and are the hallmark of a business with plans for a long and prosperous future.  Equipping the business with the insulation it needs to weather the stormy economy is number one responsibility for any business owner. If these are not areas that you are confident to improve alone do get some help.

The strength of any business will be a reflection of the strength of the owner to be willing to make the steps necessary to get the help they need.


Related posts:

Inbound marketing - the new old fashioned service 
Many hands make lighter work of social media for local businesses
Here's how to save time and get good content for your business online
Inbound marketing the new old fashioned way to do business
Financial planners: Social Marketing the key to keeping business on the books
Business writing not just on the social media wall
What every business should know about social media




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Like to discuss your business?
 Contact Lindy Asimus on 0403 365 855
 or use the contact form on this page.
 Lindy Asimus Business Coaching
 Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

No Money And No Time In Your Business?

Too little money or too little time? 

What's the problem with your business that stops you doing the things you want to do?

There are so many different facets to running a business that can stymie our attempts to have the business that we most want.  Michael Gerber outlined this well in his book The E-Myth and referred to the entrepreneurial myth that exists - where business owners are often acting more like technicians in their business, than they are operating as entrepreneurs.

Too Little Money In The Business

It's often the case when I speak with business owners about the activities in their business that are not happening or don't have budget allocated to them to enable the business to be more effective, that there is simply "no money" for that activity.

No money is a clear sign that the business is not operating at the level it needs to be to deserve the amount of time and effort going into it.

The conundrum with this is that the business won't be able to operate optimally, when it is starved of the money and resources it needs to carry out all of the functions it need to do to be healthy and productive.

Funding for the essential elements of the business is not an optional or "nice to have" expense. It is part of the cost of doing business, and is as necessary to a healthy business, as good food and good lifestyle choices are.

Let's look at the various activities in a business that are vital.

Production
If you create products or make things to sell, or whatever it is that your business does at an operational level, it needs to be able to provide a consistent quality product and output. That might mean ensuring materials for the production is working right and you have all the materials you need to produce what you make. It will include the right levels of staffing to ensure that you can maintain the levels of production you need and ensure that customer are able to buy what you sell when they need it and when they want it. If your business distributes product that others make then your inventory will be important too - you want to have sufficient stocks to cover you for your sales and for the period between when orders can be delivered to you so that you have stock to sell, but not piles of money invested in stock sitting around not selling.

Administration
Let's include things like purchasing well in this section. Buying well with not only the right amount of stock, but also at the right price and the best deals you can arrange with your suppliers. There is no "one price" when it comes to negotiating terms and you need to be good at getting the best arrangement you can - and monitoring the suppliers to ensure they deliver at the price negotiated and the quantities specified and the terms agreed upon. Trust is not appropriate at this time and you need to make sure that you are getting what you have ordered.

Admin duties around accounts payable, and best times to pay without making payments too soon or too late and gaining a reputation as a poor customer who can't be trusted.  Ensuring that employees in these positions are on top of their game and not skimming money out of the business - yes it happens surprisingly often - is another of the responsibilities of the owner or manager.

Compliance obligations
Employee benefits and pay rates, managing rosters and staff performance are all things that need to be done, and are not optional, for a healthy business. 

Sales performance
Recruiting well - the right people for the right job, training in product and soft skills. These are vital to the business selling the most they can and at the right price. Discounting is often a sign of poor sales skills and poor preparation and training  - or dud products and lack of understanding of what is of value to customers. Independent businesses are unlikely to be able to compete on prices for the same stock as large companies and online stores, so product differentiation and sales experience for customers in store and in your online store is the key to being relevant to customers. While sales and relationship with customers is where the money flows into the business, there is often precious little training being done to optimise that transaction period during the sale, and in the after sale period.

Marketing
Marketing is like the lungs of the business. Just as you breathe without thinking about it so too your marketing should be happening ongoing and all the time - not just when you think about it. Not just when you remember. That wouldn't work for your breathing - and it won't work for your business.

What we call marketing now has changed too. The channels for marketing and activities of marketing are much broader now.  Your website, your online social profiles and your ability to engage with both customers and potential customers is much more community based now and the ability to be seen by friends of those who are customers has never been more available to business. That can work superbly for a business doing right by customers - or brand you as a dud if you are not treating your customers in a good way and providing them with good products at prices that are fair and consistent with the wider marketplace. Think you will overcharge for products that are available anywhere and you are dead in the water. Customers know what things cost, so treat them like intelligent people they are. Social media is another facet of business activity, not a game. It needs to be treated with the same respect and professional training as every other aspect of the business.

Customer Service 
Customers pay the wages. Customers pay all the wages. That doesn't mean they are not a pain in the neck sometimes but that's part of managing the business. Providing a service or products in a way that is easy for customers to get what they want without a lot of hassle. That's your job as the business owner or manager to ensure. If customers are regularly complaining about the same things, then it's time to take notice of the feedback and fix whatever is causing the problem. That doesn't mean you put up with customers treating you badly as there is no reason to accept that as part of the day, but developing the soft skills of your staff and having good customer-friendly policies and protocols will help with that. Customers can't fix the problems in your business, you must.

Training is a basic part of running a successful business

What happens when you have a well trained and competent workforce in your business?

Each of these areas of the business outlined require a high degree of good management within the business. That means ensuring that good policies and procedures are in place that serve a desired purpose for the business. Not just haphazard, not just "we do it this way because that's just how we do it". That's not good managing that is letting the business down and bad for the business.


Good management compounds the advantages to the business. 

The upside of good management. Good staff, well trained with checks and balances in place and with good governance and oversight by a good manager has many rewards.

It means efficiency in the operational matters within the business.
It means high sales conversions and best margins possible are attained.
It means product mix and pricing is right for customers.
It means customers feel welcome to shop with you and feel confident they are being respected and well served.
It means optimised profit for the business.

And the spin off for the owner? As well as all that ... it means that you have time to think. Time to focus on the things that only you can do.

It means that you can get time away from the business. You manage your business instead of the business dictating what you can do with your time. 

It means that you have the pressure off and the time to act as the CEO of your business, and not one of the hired hands.

That's a gain in the health of the business.
And a gain for you in Time and Money. 

And that's a nice place to be.

Related

Online coaching and how to choose a coach that's right for you
Prepare your business now to sell it later for the best price 
Your business plan needs a compelling vision to drive it
Manage your effectiveness as a manager with coaching 
New habits are the foundation to motivation and successful change 


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Like to discuss your business?
Lindy Asimus
0403 365 855
Business & Life Coaching
Based in Newcastle NSW, Australia.

Lindy Asimus Business Coaching

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"Should I Buy This Business?" - How To Know If You Should And How Much It's Really Worth

"I've seen a business that I can get for a good price and I wanted to know what you think.."

So came the request.

Now the business, as it turned out, was in another state. Nice part of the world. A shop only a few years old and the owner wanting to sell because of health issues in the family.

You've heard of that one, right?

"Do you have the full financials for the period they have been trading?" I asked.

"No, but they sound okay."

So here we have "a good price" and "okay financials" ... but no real data.

What followed was series of more questions with very few answers and none of them backed up with any evidence. But it was a good story and on the face of it you could see how picking up a newly established business with fit-out for less than half the price paid new for the equipment seemed like a deal.

When considering buying a new business there a lot of questions to be considered before embarking on the process of narrowing down the issues that will allow you to make a good decision.

Personal Issues When Buying A Business

Before any merit of a business is considered, we need to be clear on our purpose and intention for making that jump.  If we are to buy a business what business has the capacity to produce a return that we would be happy to achieve?  How much would we need to achieve to make it worth the risk and sweat and hard work that will surely go into it?  Are we skilled in this industry or are we completely green with no knowledge at all?  Is your temperament suited to working with the customers your business serves?

Importantly, can you afford to stop work and getting a paycheck and invest money into this venture for the first year, without taking money out of  business? Realistically, that might be what needs to happen.

Due Diligence - Your Job To Know The Real Position Of The Business You Want To Buy

Beyond your own suitability for owning a business is the question of whether you want to build a business from scratch, or buy one that's a going concern.

Either way you need to be able to know how to research the market where the business will be.  You must understand the competition it faces and the trends that will affect the longer term viability of the business. Anyone  trying to sell a Music CD store or video rental shop might find themselves hard-pressed to get a sale for it now.

What's the long term outlook for this industry?
Who's leading the market for this nationally?
Who owns the top position locally for this?
What can your business offer customers - that they want - that they can't get already?

Many owners of restaurants and retail stores complain about issues that the owners should have taken into account before they opened the door to a new business. The cost of doing business is an element that is crucial to understand.  Employee wages are just one element that is a factor you need to expect as an ongoing cost.  Wages are a cost but being cheap and exploiting people isn't necessarily going to give you value for money.  Those employees you hire can be a real asset to the business and done right can be instrumental to generate income for you too - not just cost money.

Cash-flow - The Ins and Outs

Yet it is money you have to find and is only one part of the costs for you to have calculated when it comes to determining your options regarding the financial stability of the business. Opening hours, pricing, realistic numbers of tables you can fill and meals out the door... all of these have implications.  If you are running an eatery: times of service, levels of return you can make during a sitting, selection of menu items, cost containment and minimal waste. All of these are factors that will have bearing on the ability of the business to perform at a level that is workable. How well your business is located, marketing plans, rent and operating costs - all of these are issues you need to have answers for in order to know if a business is worth buying or opening.

And you need real numbers - not just "sounds right" numbers you made up, or someone told you.

To test your business value now or check the value of a business you might want to buy, check out this great app to calculate the real value of that business.    This will help you find your way through the maze and has been designed by a certified business valuer,  and is easily accessed. (I respect their professional ability but have no vested interest).

 A 'Quick Business Appraisal' APP is currently available for IPads & IPhones.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/quick-business-appraisal/id452170755?mt=8&ls=1

An Android version is also available from Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quickbuiness.appraisal

As it turned out, the business that was being looked at we began with, was just sending up too many warning signals for it to be a good buy for the person who asked for help in assessing the deal. 

Thankfully, he wasn't made a fool of in that deal, but he'll know a lot more about what to ask for in future as he looks for a business to buy.  The right business, for the right reasons.  

Related business articles:

When it comes to starting a business - passion alone is not enough
How to tweak your business for more sales
How to step-up in you business for better results
Prepare now for that business you want to sell later
Make your five year plan for life goals and for your business vision

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Life Goals Cheat Sheet

"Setting goals is fun! It is about giving you exactly what you want in life"

Goals are a passion of mine. I love, love, love working with clients on setting goals and putting a structure in place for them to make improvements in life so they can get more in control of their life and importantly, their time and get rid of some stuff that is not doing them any good, to free up space for things that matter most to them but have been off the agenda for too long.

Now one of the strange things is that when you get right down to it, it can be hard to think of what you want!

When setting goals we need to look at all areas of life so we don't forget something important. For example, achieving financial goals is not much benefit if your health and relationships suffer as a result. So ecology needs to be kept in mind - across all the areas of our life.

So I thought it might make things easier if I wrote out some sample goals. Now you can adapt these to suit your situation but these goals should prompt you in the areas of your own life where you can more easily imagine a parallel goal that would work for you.

Also worth thinking about in setting your goals is the time frame. Like saving, it is good to have goals for the year, and goals for the longer term, say 5 years, which you may reach by attaining smaller goals as steps along the way.

Some goals - those for material things - need to be really specific. On the other hand, goals around relationships require actions. You can't "make a better relationship" but you can implement actions, which result in better relationships. Keep these two kinds of goals - material and abstract - in mind.

If you are in a relationship - remember your goals, and your partner's goals should be complementary. If your goal is to be single that could be a problem for your partner! And remember to set another list of joint or family goals that you can work towards together.

Goals should be well formed - this checklist does not meet that criterion but they can be easily adapted when you come to writing your goals down.

In no particular order...

Goals to achieve in the next 12 months

Health

Assess your current state of health. You want to use this as a benchmark for future comparison

Stop drinking cola and sodas. Switch to making your own unsweetened iced tea instead of fizzy drinks

Start cutting down current alcohol intake

Improve your diet by cutting out junk food to get to a better weight.

Walk or cycle for one hour 3 days a week (specify days and diarise)

Learn to cook 3 great recipes for meatless main meals to serve regularly

Stop doing - (that activity that is hurting your body or peace of mind)


Financial Health

Write up a budget with all  current spending.
Review and adjust your budget to improve your cash position

Build up savings of $2000 in emergency savings account and maintain this at all times

Open a savings account for long term goals or bigger items and deposit $100 per pay

Reduce credit card debt to zero

Increase payments to mortgage by $100 per month above required payment

Learn about how money works in the economy, how interest rates work and compound interest


Relationships 

Set aside one night a week for a romantic dinner and a movie

Make arrangements for the kids for these nights

Schedule in your diary 2 long weekends during the year for you and your partner to go away alone.

Make one hour every week to spend time with just one child to play or do an activity together as an outing

Phone parents every Sunday night for half an hour minimum

Make a visit to your parents twice a year for no special reason

Make time to spend with brothers and sisters each 2x per year outside of family get-togethers

Contact your good friend that you have not seen for a long time and reconnect and maintain


Career

Develop the skills you need to be promoted to the next level

Work towards a pay rise

Find a better job

Ensure that you apply yourself to your work every day - seek assistance if you are having problems with your work.

Seek training in areas that will improve your job opportunities

Find a mentor in your industry to help you develop your career


Start the part time business that you have been talking about for years. If it is complex, begin by making a plan of what is required and setting aside the resources that you will need and a deadline to begin.


Self education/ personal growth

Enrol for that course you wanted to do

Learn piano or guitar

Teach a class

Learn Italian

Start a kitchen garden and grow your own herbs and a few vegetables

Learn to cook

Learn about fashion style tips for your best look

Do a values inventory to understand your core values, motivators and beliefs

Get a coach - one on one coaching can be a real catalyst for personal development


Recreation and Indulgence

Take up a hobby or learn to do an activity - dance class, sailing, karate, swimming, ice skating, birdwatching, yoga, tai chi

Make a list of 5 books to read this year and read them

Schedule 2 long weekends away for the family

Plan and book a holiday during the year for the family

Set aside an hour per week just for you to spend doing nothing.


Contribution

Volunteer

Join a community group

Adopt a rescue dog

Choose a charity to support


Spirituality

Learn to meditate

Set aside 30 minutes twice  week to meditate

Keep a log of your meditations

Learn about Hinduism and Buddhism and other western religions

Read works from these religions


As you can see, even just choosing one goal from each of these areas would combine to have a dramatic effect on your life in the year to come.

Importantly, setting goals should be fun! After all, it is about giving you exactly what you want in life, instead of just getting what you get.

Related articles on Goals

Goal Checker - A Tool To Use

Beliefs and Goals

How To Set Goals You Can Reach

Focus Before Goals 

Steps To Creating An Achievable Outcome

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Business Coaching Articles Catch Up

Looking at this blog I can see it looks like I  have been quite remiss in updating the posts. Truth is I have been writing some for another blog in the UK to which I contribute so here is a quick way to catch up if you would like to read more business articles. 

I will get back to posting here but for now check out these articles which have been on topics that have been figuring large in the real space lately, for business clients. Feedback welcome as always. 

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