How to identify a business priority.

One of our end of year tasks is to focus on identifying our business priorities for the upcoming year. How do we identify business priorities?

FIRST, determine what you must do in the coming year to realize continued business growth at your desired growth rate. If you want your profits to grow by 20% in the coming year, what do you need to do to make that happen? How will you increase your revenue? Do you need to identify new target customers? What action steps do you need to take to target new customers? Do you need to expand your offerings to existing customers? How will you engage existing customers to expand your offerings? How many new or existing clients will you need to realize your growth target? What steps do you need to take to decrease the cost of bringing product or service to market or overhead so that you can realize greater profits?

Start with a simple list of things you need to do.

NEXT, prioritize the list. Of the items on that list, which three items are most important?

THEN, develop a timeline for accomplishing the identified tasks. Will you need to accomplish these tasks early in the year such that the bulk of your efforts will need to occur during the first quarter of the year?

FINALLY, repeat the exercise for the remaining priorities for the year. Try to challenge yourself and your team without being unrealistic about what can be accomplished in a year.

Here’s to more business birthdays!