Goal setting & problem solving in small business article
Goal Setting & Problem Solving in Small Business
This article is called goal setting & problem-solving in small business. Small businesses experience problems and they must be effective at solving these business problems.
Identifying the problem seems a self-explanatory step but many businesses who don’t do this work very hard on resolving the issue only to find they come up with the wrong result. A classic example is a drop in sales is causing the company significant problems. The sales team get blamed, heads roll, and they bring in a new sales manager. Still, the sales do not grow. Now the problem may be a competitor has a better product, you have a terrible website or SEO strategy or your customers don’t like your product any more.
When you develop goals to resolve the isolated problems they should be SMART. That stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. When they set goals, they must consist of all of these five attributes. If not, they won’t efficiently address the problem. These goals should be written down and agreed by all parties involved with the problem along with the action required to solve the problem and those using the solution.
Write a step-by-step action plan for every SMART goal. The purpose of the action plan is to inform your team, so they understand what is expected of them when asked to do something and the standard required. Again, as with the goals stage, the action plan must be written down.
When setting the goals for challenging business problems, it is crucial to have an alternative set of goals. Goals need to be able to adapt and change depending on what happens in the business.
In business, its a requirement to continually work on goal-setting and problem-solving, and it’s essential to understand that problems are part of running a business. Once you solve one problem, another comes along. As long as the new challenge is not a result of the actions taken from the last issue, but either way, a business must take them as opportunities. And the worst thing possible to do is ignore it and hope it will go away.
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