In this post, we will focus on setting goals and answer the questions:
- Why is setting goals important?
- What kind of goals should you set?
- How to set goals?
Setting goals is very important, especially from the perspective of motivation for yourself and your employees. On most projects I worked on, there were no goals set, or they were poorly set. It may seem unnecessary to some, but for us at Malinca, the goal-setting system proved to be very effective. When I introduced annual goals broken down by months at Malinca, sales increased, and priority tasks changed as well.
Why? Simply because the entire team was motivated to achieve the goals, as I explained why they are important, where they will lead us in the long term, and because I promised an additional reward if they are achieved. This can be a financial or non-financial reward (recognition, a day off, etc.) – it is necessary to find out what the employees want. You won't believe it, but often it's not money.
Setting short-term monthly goals is important because achieved goals allow us to check where we are, what we can still improve, where we still have reserves, and in the long term, they allow us to realize the company's vision. Goals should be discussed with the team at the beginning of each month and review the results of the previous one. Goals must be relevant and realistic, but not too easily achievable. It is also important that goals are measurable, time-bound, specific, verifiable, and ultimately written down. Example of monthly goals for an online store:
- Increase the number of unique website visitors by ______ in the month of _______.
- Increase the total number of FB likes by ______ in the month of _______.
- Increase the number of email addresses by ______ in the month of ________.
- Increase revenue by ______ € in the month of _______.
- Increase the average cart amount by ______ € in the month of _______.
In addition to goals related to increasing sales and the number of potential customers, it is important to set project goals on a monthly basis:
- Launch a mobile version of the online store by the end of the month _______ .
- Include 3 new products in sales that are in high demand by the end of the month _________.
- Translate 100 products into English by the end of the month ________. (This goal is related to the annual one, which includes translating the online store into English and entering the EU markets).
- Implement one of the customer suggestions into the business – payment via Moneta by the end of the month __________.
- Connect with a new blogger found through Google by the end of the month ________.
Of course, it is necessary to determine who is responsible for achieving the goal or who is involved in the implementation, why it is important to achieve this goal, and the resources needed to achieve the set goal (number of hours, help from external contractors, capital, new knowledge, etc.).
