Many of us may have made New Year’s resolutions recently, or at least thought of it.  It is the time of year where we look at our lives, decide what areas we’d like to improve and then put goals in place to make these changes.

The same principle should apply to businesses, and the beginning of the financial year is the best time to do this (if not more often).  Business owners and wider management should be looking at setting goals for the year ahead based on the direction they would like to see the business take.   Goals or targets should be focusing on the most important issues currently within the business.  Without goals or targets, it is unlikely the business’s path will change - it will just continue as it is.

With the targets established, we can then identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which we can measure and track to gauge the business’s performance in these areas.  KPIs can be both financial i.e. sales $ per month or non-financial i.e. number of website visits.  Regular tracking of these KPIs will help to achieve the goals or targets you have set.

Budgets are also a good way of planning the monetary direction of the financial year ahead.  With a budget in place, we can compare your income and expenses to this budget to assess how on track the business is.  Budgets are a key tool to improving business performance.

If you would like some advice on budgets or goal-setting, please get in touch with the AAF team and we can help you get started.