“SMART” Growth, Part 2 of 2

Success Begins with Setting Goals and a Measurable Plan

By Danny Kerr, Managing Partner, Breakthrough Academy

Step 2: Breakdown Your Goal Into a Clear Plan of Action

Once your larger, SMART goal is properly defined, it can be split into smaller and more manageable chunks. For instance, a goal of $225,000 in profit can be broken down into exact revenue that needs to be produced based on a specific budget, and that revenue can be broken down into weekly targets for revenue and labour-hours produced.

Even SMART goals don’t result in improved results without having a very clear plan in place. Our members at Breakthrough Academy spend half a day determining their annual goals and defining smaller goals for each quarter. Then they list out “action items” for everything that must be done over the course of each quarter in order to achieve the goal(s).

Consider doing the above exercise yourself (use our templates to get started). These quarterly plans should be broken down into weekly sections, providing clarity on exactly what the day-to-day focus should be in order to accomplish your big quarterly and annual goals. For example, you may find that to earn $225,000 in net profit, $1.8-million of revenue is required. At an average job size of $32,000, this equates to 56 jobs for the year and approximately 168 estimates if jobs are being booked at a 33 percent success rate in sales. From here, these numbers can be broken into weekly goals for each of the 52 weeks in a year.

Having defined, focused goals for each week of the year will always breed stronger results within your organization. Business owners who are dedicated to specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goals every week have been proven to create extraordinary results over time. This allows for disciplined tasks and action throughout the weekdays in order to achieve a predefined goal.

Your time and energy is highly valuable. What you choose to do with it every week, every day, and every hour will have significant impact on your effectiveness in the long run. If you and your business could benefit from better goal setting and stronger weekly execution plans to achieve those goals, download our proven system for breaking down big goals and scheduling them into a weekly calendar.