Target Setting, Goal Setting & Accountability for Businesses: Make 2023 Your Best Year Yet!

The last few years have been extraordinary with extraordinary circumstances that have challenged almost every business owner. To overcome these challenges, we’re working with many of our clients to set targets and goals for the coming 12 months. In this article, we’ll outline how you can approach target setting and goal setting for businesses in 2023, and why accountability is key to your success. 

Steps for Target Setting and Goal Setting for Business Owners

Look Back Before Looking Forward

It’s important to take a look back over what you’ve achieved before looking forward to your future planning. Consider what you’ve done well over the past months, including noticing which areas of your business have thrived, what decisions you’ve made that worked as well as (or better than) expected, and what surprised you or surpassed your expectations. If you don’t have any formal planning in place, make note of these things. 

Knowing what worked well, and what hasn’t or isn’t working, provides data to help you make better decisions going forward.

Get Clarity on Where Your Business is Now

Once you’ve reflected on how your business has been going, it’s important to gather information about your exact position now. Consider your financial health, your operations, and cash flow, before looking at the health and direction of the market as a whole. 

For more information about assessing the health of your business, read our blog post on Business Health Checks here.

Make a 12 Month Plan

With the new year just around the corner, now is the perfect time to set targets for the next 12 months. But the reality is that you can start planning for the future at any point during the year – today is always the best day to start being prepared. 

A 12-month plan helps you stay on track no matter what challenges come your way. It gives you the space to consider what you would like to change in your business, how your cash flow is impacting your operations, and what needs to change to address your operational and financial challenges. 

Importantly, a 12-month plan also helps you stay focused when other opportunities come your way. The world is developing at an incredible pace. And businesses are inundated with new technologies, new marketing techniques, and new tools. These often promise to drastically improve your business when in reality, the time you’re taking to assess them could be better spent elsewhere. If you know what you need to improve across your business in the next 12 months, you can focus on making the changes and taking advantage of the opportunities that will be most impactful. 

Target Setting and Goal Setting for the Next 12 Months

You should consider setting these targets for the next 12 months: 

• Profitability Targets.
• Cash Flow Targets.
• Marketing Goals.
• Staffing goals. 
• Succession or exit planning. (What steps do you need to take this year to ensure your business can keep running when you leave?)

For each target, you will need to generate actionable steps and a timeline for implementing them. This is where an accountability partner can really pay dividends.

We work with many of our clients to set goals, then keep them accountable to them. They often find that it helps with motivation, focus, and confidence since we’re here to act as a sounding board for their ideas too. 

If you need assistance planning for your business’s future, get in touch. Our business advisory team would be thrilled to assist.