Meet Alex…
Setting the right business priorities enables your team to focus and work on initiatives that drive the business towards its goals. Meet Alex, the owner of a small marketing agency called BuzzWorthy, who did not understand how important this is.
Alex started his business with the goal of providing innovative marketing solutions to small businesses in his community and to this end Alex and his team set a couple of specific and measurable goals they wanted to achieve and aligned the whole team around them.
Alex had a wealth of experience with marketing projects and marketing operations and assumed that if he continuously provided quality services that they would hit all their goals and that the business would continue to grow and succeed.
But this was not the case. Alex made the mistake of not clearly identifying and prioritising the projects and initiatives that would help BuzzWorthy achieve its business goals.
Everyone had a different idea what to work on and this led to poor collaboration, reduced productivity and poor performance. As the business grew, this lack of ability to identify and prioritize the most appropriate initiatives became a bigger and bigger problem.
Alex and his team had a long list of things they wanted to do and which they thought would provide the necessary momentum, but instead of focusing on the best projects, everyone committed to something else. The business started to get a poor reputation and resulted in difficulty to attract new clients. BuzzWorthy became stagnant and struggled to stay competitive in a crowded market.
This unfocused and uncoordinated approach also started affecting their existing clients. They were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the work produced and started to work with competing agencies.
Have we set the right Business Priorities?
If you’re not sure whether you are focusing on the right business priorities to accomplish your goals, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you have a strategy or game plan in place to achieve your business goals?
- Have you identified specific initiatives, or short term objectives, to focus on and that will help you achieve your targets?
- Are the identified initiatives aligned with our overall business strategy and vision?
- Have you prioritized the initiatives based on importance, urgency, and potential impact?
- Are you consistently working on those initiatives to move your business forward?
- Are you regularly evaluating and re-prioritizing the initiatives as needed?
- Have you clearly identified active initiatives that are not aligned with achieving your goals and made a plan to stop working on them?
If you did not confidently and positively answer “Yes” to most of these questions it is likely that your lack clear Business Priorities and that you are not working on the right projects to move you forward towards your goals.
How do we set the right Business Priorities?
If you’ve identified this as a problem, it’s time to take action. Here are some practical steps to help you define the most appropriate initiatives that are aligned with your business goals:
1. Define Your Strategy:
It is essential to begin with a clear strategy that outlines a specific and actionable plan. This should be a comprehensive roadmap for how you will achieve your vision.
- One practical example of developing a clear strategy is to break down your larger business goals into smaller, more manageable objectives. For instance, if your business goal is to increase revenue by 25%, you should create smaller, practical objectives such as expanding your customer base by 15% or introducing new product lines to achieve that larger goal. Once you’ve established your objectives, you can then outline specific action steps to achieve each one, such as hiring new staff, investing in marketing, or developing partnerships with other businesses.
By defining a clear strategy that outlines specific, measurable objectives, you can ensure that you and your team are aligned and focused on achieving your business goals. With a clear roadmap in place, you can prioritize and allocate resources to the most impactful initiatives, and ensure that you are making progress towards your vision.
2. Identify Specific Initiatives:
To achieve your business strategy, you need to identify specific initiatives that will enable you to take action towards your goals. These initiatives should be tailored to meet your specific needs and be specific, measurable, and achievable. By setting clear objectives and timelines for each initiative, you can ensure that you stay on track towards achieving your overall strategy.
- For example, if your strategy is to increase customer retention, an initiative could be to improve customer service by reducing response time to customer inquiries or improving the overall customer experience. By setting measurable targets for these initiatives, such as reducing response time by a specific percentage, you can track your progress and adjust your initiatives if needed. Ensuring that your initiatives are aligned with your strategy will help you achieve your goals efficiently and effectively.
3. Prioritize Your Initiatives:
After identifying specific initiatives that align with your strategy, rank them based on their potential to contribute to your overall goals. This will help you to allocate your resources most effectively and focus your efforts where they are most likely to produce the desired results.
- For example, if your goal is to increase sales, you might identify initiatives such as developing new products, improving marketing efforts, or expanding into new markets. Once you’ve identified these initiatives, you can then rank them based on their potential impact on sales. By prioritizing the top 2-3 initiatives that are likely to have the most significant impact, you can focus your team’s efforts on the initiatives that will make the most difference. This can help to ensure that you are making the most of your resources and maximizing your chances of success.
Conclusion
By following these steps, you can define clear initiatives that will help you achieve your business goals. With a clear strategy and focused initiatives in place, you can work efficiently and effectively, grow your business, and provide high-quality services to your clients.
