Top Home Businesses: Setting And Managing Your Goals
If someone were to ask you how your home business is doing, would you be able to answer, truthfully, and accurately? The honest answer to this question (for most people) would undoubtedly be in the negative. An extremely effective business management system is a simple process called "MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES." In the business world, managers need to know how well their employees and subordinates are doing their jobs, and whether they are completing tasks within an agreed time frame. During a discussion, the manager sets his subordinate a list of "objectives" also known as goals or targets, to be completed by agreed dates.
During regular follow-up discussions progress towards completion of these objectives is measured, those completed are signed off while new targets are discussed and set.
The individual home business owner's reaction might understandably be to question the need for anything like this in a one-person home business. However, the sound reasons for setting and managing objectives apply equally to any business, no matter how large or small. The logic is simply that this process (MBO) is a means of planning for a business, keeping a record of targets attained, and equally of keeping track of those (not) attained.
The basic task of sitting down to think through a plan for your business is a worthwhile exercise in itself. It's a way of listing important items to be completed and ticking them off when done. It's a very good habit to aim for a reasonable "do-by" date for each, as well. If delays are encountered there's no problem, simply re-set the date to something reasonable.
We're all human, and one of man's greatest weaknesses is procrastination. It's too easy to put off those less enjoyable items for another day. Some people are blessed to have excellent memories, but others can too easily forget things that have been postponed for long periods. You can be in serious trouble if you miss a deadline for submitting your tax-return!
The suggestion is to set up a little document, with say four columns:
Date Set; Objective; Importance (1-3); Do-by Date;
You should have no more than about 6 items at any one time, and it's vital to keep this as a living document, that should be reviewed about weekly. Store this on paper if you wish, or file in your computer. There's a certain satisfaction in clicking Delete when a tiresome task is complete and out of the way.
Make some of your goals short-term, (e.g. Try opening folders to keep those e-mails you might want to refer back to) and some long term (e.g. Learn some HTML to make small changes to my Web-site.)
I'm sure that you will derive the benefits of sticking to this little exercise, and it's especially valuable to you in ensuring that your business doesn't stagnate. Later on you will want to invest in new software, to help your business become more effective, or perhaps you'll come across a clever way to bring more visitors to your site, or to market your products better.
New opportunities are kept in the forefront, and it is thus possible to plan for the best timing for each, while you can be sure to have the spare cash ready in time.
I trust that this discussion will have been of interest to those of you who've not come across MBO or one of its many counterparts. Above all - keep it simple and keep it alive.
In our next article we'll discuss the importance of Budgeting for your business.
About the author: Mike Muir owns wwwmikeshomebiz.com
He goal is to share his personal experiences with you, in the hope that this may assist you in making your own choices in setting up your own version of the top home businesses out there.
You are welcome to visit his blog at: www.mikeshomebiz.com/blog for more articles of interest.
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