7. GOALS
Your goals are broad and long-term achievable actions. These are the outcomes you want for the year. For instance, you may have the following goals: • Increase brand awareness by 60 percent • Increase sales by 200 percent • Increase customer retention by 40 percent
8. OBJECTIVES
Your objectives are the specific ways you will achieve your goals. Make your objectives SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound). • Increase brand awareness 20 percent each quarter • Make $50K per quarter • Improve customer retention 20 percent by 2Q • Improve customer retention by another 20 percent by 4Q
9. STRATEGIES
You can create strategies for either goals or objectives. I use strategies to describe how I will approach my objectives. Here are some examples: • Use social media to increase brand awareness • Use digital strategies such as directories and listings to increase brand awareness • Join local associations and attend digital conferences to raise brand awareness
• Offer two more group coaching programs to increase sales by $20K per quarter • Offer two more online courses to increase sales by $5K per quarter.
10. TACTICS
Your tactics are the specific actions you will take to execute your strategies and achieve your company objectives. I treat tactics as projects since they usually involve a group of activities. For instance, increasing brand awareness on the Facebook platform consists of a group of tasks such as: • Setting social media goals, such as reach • Developing content and creatives • Setting a budget • Monitoring outcomes • Determining campaign and ad sets Most new business owners have problems gaining traction because they often start at the tactical level (well—kind of). For instance, they may create a website and a Facebook Page, but it does not trace back to a goal.
SUMMARY
Managing a business can be disorienting. The ability to trace your actions to a goal serves as a compass. Take the time to map out your strategy for next year to know the steps you are taking to trace back to your company’s initiative.
The Daley Word with Jowanna Daley Jowanna is a business and personal coach, consultant, freelance blogger, and personal brand photographer. Jowanna uses her 20-plus years of business, information technology, business analysis, and project management experience to serve solopreneurs, microbusinesses, and professionals through consulting, coaching, training, and workshops. She is also a freelance blogger who serves corporate and non-corporate clients. Visit her website at https://www.jowannadaley.com/about/. Email Jowanna at jowanna@daleyconsulting.com or message her on Facebook @jowannadaleyllc.
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