BizTips from SCORE – A SMARTER way to achieve your objectives

Setting clear objectives is essential for any small business owner to drive success and growth. After you have identified your business’ vision and mission, conduct a SWOT analysis to understand the issues facing you, use the SMARTER approach to establish your objectives with your team, then break them down into actionable steps that are prioritized.  And, monitor them to determine how well you are doing in accomplishing your objectives.

Use the SMARTER concept by following these prompts:

S – Specific: What exactly do you want to accomplish?

M – Measurable: How will you know you achieved your objective(s)? 

A – Action: What steps will you take to achieve your objective(s) – list at least 3 actions.

R – Realistic:  Can you actually achieve the objective(s)?  What resources do you need?

T – Time: What is the deadline to achieve this objective(s)?

E – Evaluation: What do you need to adjust to achieve the objective(s)?

R – Reward:  How will you reward yourself when you achieve your objective(s)?

Contributed by Marc L. Goldberg, Certified Mentor, SCORE Cape Cod & the Islands, www.score.org/capecod, 508/775-4884.  Source: Etsy.com -Joey Joelle.