MARKET PLACE
Business
intelligence
for appraisers
FIRST TEN
Focusing on short-term
goals now will help
position your business
for the long term
By Diane
Helbig
LAST YEAR, I DID “ROAD
MAPPING” on my radio show,
“Accelerate Your Business
Ever since then I’ve been confronted with
people who are having trouble focusing. They
either don’t set the goal, or they set the goal but
then can’t land on how to proceed. Either way,
the root cause is the same — an inability to see
a big idea in small pieces.
This, for me, is the biggest problem with
goal-setting. We are all taught to set goals,
create a business plan and think big. Where will
you be in five years? 10 years? Do you have an
exit strategy?
set of plays to keep getting first downs. It is those
first downs that keep the ball moving down the
field to the end zone.
In business it means focusing on the short term
to gain the long term. Keep these things in mind
when working on your business:
1. Walk backwards
2. Monitor your progress
3. Stay flexible
WALK BACKWARDS You’ve determined your long-term goal. Now walk it backwards to identify the action steps you can take to start getting there. It’s a process. The more you break it down into small steps, the more likely you are to implement those steps. It is those steps that will move the ball down the field toward your goal. Remember: focus on the short erm — the first downs.
SOUND FAMILIAR?
The difficulty with long-range goals is that they
are so far off, and often times so big, that we
have a hard time getting our arms around how
to get there. We find it hard to focus.
Tony Robbins said, “One reason so few
of us achieve what we truly want is that we
never direct our focus; we never concentrate
our power.”
This is why I prefer to focus on the short
term — the little steps. It may sound elementary,
but if you think about it, those small steps are the
ones that lead us to our big goals. We can’t jump
from here to three years from now; we have to
take each little step toward the goal.
I liken it to a football game. The goal is to
score a touchdown. Rarely do you see the quarterback throw the ball 80 yards to someone in the
end zone. What you do see is the offense run a
Here’s how it goes: based on your long-term
goals, what do you need to do now to start the
process toward that goal? If it’s a revenue goal,
can you break it down monthly? Some businesses
are seasonal or cyclical. With these, you can’t
really break down the annual goal evenly. Rather,
you have to determine which months are traditionally light. Take those expectations and place
them in the heavy months. This makes the process
realistic. You are more likely to achieve the steps
and, therefore, the goal, if your strategy is realistic
and sensible.
The point is to establish the steps you will take
this month (the first month in the process). Only
concentrate on those steps. Don’t worry about the
bigger picture. It will come about when you are
focusing on the current steps.
