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One of the biggest mistakes you can make in your business is in the way you set your goals. To say "our goal is to increase sales" is too vague and ambiguous. You need to get down to specifics so that you have something tangible to act on. Only in this way can you accomplish your goals successfully and know when they have been achieved. The fact of the matter is that goal setting is not as effective when done in ambiguous terms. Specific business goal setting requires that you follow certain steps to determine exactly what your goal is in measurable terms. Just saying you want to increase sales is not enough. It is too vague to really be an effective goal. When you set a business goal, you must incorporate some way of measuring the result. Goals like "we will increase sales by 5% this year" or "foot traffic in our store will increase by 50 people per day" are effective because they contain a benchmark against which success can be measured. Make sure, however, that your specific goals are attainable. In your first year of business you might not be able to achieve 50 people per day. It may take a couple of years to get to a point where 10% sales increases over the year is a feasible goal. You should be able to set reasonable goals that you can hope to achieve. Just as you need to make sure that your goal is reasonable, it should also be challenging. Constantly setting easy goals will not help you learn to work hard to overcome challenges. Make sure that your goal requires you to stretch a little bit. Then your next goal setting session can involve goals that are even more ambitious. Creating a plan to achieve your goal is an essential part of business goal setting. Essentially, creating this plan to achieve one over arching goal is setting a few smaller goals that lead to the finale. Breaking down a big goal into smaller sections of smaller goals is a great way to keep up morale as you move toward your ultimate goal. A specific plan for accomplishing your specific goal can help you more efficiently reach your destination. If you set an effective, specific business goal, you will have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and chances are your business will thrive. Most businesses collapse within the first five years which is why you should devise a five year plan which consists of a range of specific goals. Without a specific goal and plan, your business will be doomed to failure from the start. Specific goal setting helps you to accomplish your goals and to succeed. But the key to achievement lies in writing them down, it makes your vision more real, more solid. And write out your plan, so you know exactly how much you've achieved, and what you need to do next. As a matter of fact, unwritten goals often remain pipe dreams, they are never met. So set it straightaway, put pen to paper, and off you go! Well on the path of success and achievement.
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About the Article Author
About the author: Vlad Ehrsam writes exclusively for Full Info on Business, it's one of the webs most up to date Business sites, why not sign up for the free Business newsletter. This and other unique content business articles are available with free reprint rights.
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