It has been a long, tiresome year, where many people’s goals simply went out the window.
Some of you are ready for Xmas break already!
We will get there soon enough, but first, let’s recalibrate what needs to get done this fall.
Barney Naylor, President of Naylor Landscape Management, shared this with me two weeks ago, that his team is “excited to have their best year ever. At the beginning of the year, they had trouble seeing that double-double digit profit was possible, and they were dispirited by the goal. But now that they are getting close, and they can taste it!” As Barney says, “Anything is possible now.”
Is your team ready to sprint to the finish line?
Now is the perfect time to update your goals, in order to close out the year strong!
You are approaching the final quarter, what should you focus on in this home stretch?
Here are 4 distinct types of goals to help you narrow your focus:
The Discipline Goal. Just like supply-side economics, discipline trickles down from the top. Where do you need to bring more discipline, or ask for more discipline of your key leaders? Think in terms of:
- Numbers (e.g. weekly review of numbers, or consistent job costing)
- People (e.g. employee check-ins or reviews)
- Habits (e.g. certain departments maintaining daily processes)
Identify which people and departments need to recommit to your processes.
The Throughput Goal. This is (more or less) the measurement of how much revenue or gross profit your crews deliver on an hourly basis. Take a look at all your crews and departments, and identify where you are leaving money on the table.
Throughput is an overlooked metric that can have an outsized impact on the bottom line.
Check your incentives and make sure they are in alignment with improved throughput goals.
The Revenue Goal. By increasing the overall revenue this fall, you will have a great impact on your resulting net profit for the year-end. It is related to throughput above, but in this case, we are talking about total dollars. Identify the divisions where budgets and sales goals can be beaten, and set new goals for both sales and implementation of work.
The Delegation Goal. The surest way to expand your business is by hiring new high-performing people or by delegating tasks to free up current high performers. Fall is a great time to do either/both, it is a short season where new people and new roles can be tested.
Your Challenge:
To do a good reset, celebrate what you have achieved so far, make sure your people took a good break (should already have happened this summer and Labor Day), and then get everyone on board to year-end goals, and sprint towards the finish line.
Here is my wish for you: Where some business owners see only a challenge, you can see the potential and the opportunity to adapt and excel. Go for it!
I wish you godspeed in these final months!
