How To Set Business Goals For Startup Companies – Managing a startup business may appear to be a difficult task for an individual. This is because all the critical business activities are required to be handled by the business owner.
While a business owner may possess relevant skills and experience in some areas of business management,he/she may lack competencies in other critical areas of business.
Hence, it becomes important for a business owner to set predefined goals and monitor achievements. Business goals may be set for a short term period of three to four months as well as for a period of more than one year.
Let us Discuss Some Important Goals For Startup Companies
Customer Satisfaction
Irrespective of the size of the company, a business cannot survive in the long run without ensuring continuous customer satisfaction.Hence, a startup company should accept only those customer orders which company can execute on time while ensuring proper quality.
Employees should be encouraged by the management of the startup company to focus attention on handling customer orders and customer issues. Any negative feedback received from a customer should be taken into consideration and appropriate steps for resolving the issue should be implemented on time.
Customer satisfaction should be viewed as a long term goal by the management of the startup company.
Goodwill And Market Reputation
Management of the startup company should focus on establishing good reputation for its products/services. High quality products offered at reasonable prices can help a startup company in gaining easy acceptance for its wares.
By building a good reputation, a startup company can compete more effectively with other market players. This may further help in increasing the market share of the company in the long run.
Employee Satisfaction
It may be difficult for a startup company to attract professional employees because of lack of funds.Further, even if the management is able to hire talented employees, a startup company may find it difficult to retain such employees in the long run.
Hence, it becomes important to ensure that employees are satisfied with their compensation packages and work profiles. Regular performance reviews and appraisals can help in identifying the problems that employees may be facing, which may help the management in taking appropriate steps in time in order to resolve employee concerns.
Financial Status
A startup company should prepare short term goals for meeting its sales targets.It may be difficult and expensive for a startup company to set goals for a complete year. Management of the startup company should discuss sales targets with key business managers and review sales performance on a quarterly basis.
Further, it is important for a startup company to ensure that sufficient funds are available to meet financial requirements of various business processes. Hence, it becomes important for a startup company to set financial goals in terms of sales, borrowings and capital contribution from business owners.
It is important for a startup company to set measurable goals for its business processes. Measurable goals help in evaluation of business results and identification of deviations from expected results.