4Thought Blog

4thought graphic - blog 2020

Business Owners Can Accomplish Their Goals – If They Prioritize

Posted by Tom Garrity on Thu, Mar 30, 2017

Find me on:

Business Owners Can Accomplish Their Goals – If They PrioritizeWe all have great ideas and plans. But actually moving on them is really hard. (It really isn’t, but we make it that way.)

Why?

Because you can’t do everything. I know – nothing new there – but we all get caught up in it. There are three resources we all have in limited supply: time, money, and people.  And the most critical resource is time. I don’t care how much money or how many people you have, you cannot get any more time.

One of the first lessons of strategic planning is that the toughest part of strategy is not deciding what to say “yes” to, but rather what to say “no” to. Focus and priorities are where success lies.

Companies that are growing have graduated to a place where what they used to do that worked great might not work so well anymore. They have either already encountered problems that they do not feel equipped to solve, or their natural sense has gone on alert, and they believe danger is around the corner.

The foundation of execution is focus, prioritization, and accountability.  The reason so many companies or individuals fail in execution is that they either try to do too much at one time, or they are not accountable to deliver results they signed up for.

READ MORE: Business Strategy 101 - Anyone Have an Extra Napkin?

New Call-to-action Here is the reality. Your day job does not go away! Your day job includes those urgent tasks that must be done simply to keep an organization alive. The day job occupies the vast majority of every employee’s day; it never goes away and it cannot be ignored. It will hunt you down and find you if you try to avoid it.

The only way to execute on new, important goals is to separate those goals from the day job and prioritize/limit them.  Goals are like aspirin – one or two OK; three or four questionable; five, six, or seven unhealthy; eight or more – coma. Same thing with goals – too many and you go into a coma.

Achieving your goals comes down to focus and accountability.  Limit your goals to the critical few. Break them down throughout the quarters to chip away at achieving them.  Ensure that everyone on the team understands the goals, knows what to do to reach them, and knows whether progress is being made towards them. Create a rhythm of accountability with targets, a dashboard, and review dates.

Great execution comes from being able to predict, plan, do, and adjust in order to adapt to what life throws at you.

Tom Garrity is the Managing Partner of Compass Point Consulting, Concannon Miller's business consulting partner. If you would like more information on this topic, Tom can be reached at 610‐336‐0514 or tgarrity@compasspt.com.

Sign up for more Timely Tips for Businesses

Topics: Business consulting

Concannon Miller’s unique, holistic and intimate approach to financial health sets us apart from smaller CPA firms with more limited resources as well as mega firms where mid-sized clients struggle for attention. Contact us here to talk about improving your business.

This communication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered at the time it was published. However, the general information herein is not intended to be nor should it be treated as tax, legal, or accounting advice. Additional issues could exist that would affect the tax treatment of a specific transaction and, therefore, taxpayers should seek advice from an independent tax advisor based on their particular circumstances before acting on any information presented. This information is not intended to be nor can it be used by any taxpayer for the purposes of avoiding tax penalties.

Subscribe for more Timely Tips for Businesses

Recent Posts