Examples of Business Financial Goals That Encourage Balance
You ask for examples of business financial goals and answers include monthly revenue, profit margins, percentage of growth, cost reductions and the usual money-focused answers.
And while these aren’t wrong, they don’t address the best decisions you can make for long-term balance and for a life of abundance. That question comes down to knowing the size of business that you want, and the income you need to sustain your lifestyle.
If you identify your end goal, or the end-of-year goal, then you can begin to approach these financial goals with more awareness and intention, avoiding the all too tempting, yet unfulfilling, materialistic milestones.
Examples of financial goals for small businesses
Find your bread-and-butter offer
For most businesses, there’s a foundational offer or service that creates most of the revenue. A business coach might offer one-on-one coaching, but make most of her income from an online group program. An organic sunscreen company sells 15 products, but they have one best-seller that they’ve perfected. Knowing the bread-and-butter offer of your business will help you identify where you need to spend more of your time
This technique is reflected in the Pareto Principle, the idea that 20% of your actions often produce 80% of your income. So imagine the impact to your business if you approached your services with more awareness and prioritized that 20%.
Understand your cost margins
Now that you’ve established an intentional balance between your offers, the next step is to understand the cost margins that come with them. What are the expenses you can’t cut out, and what are the expenses that could be trimmed down to increase that cost margin and enable balance? (Keep an eye on the monthly subscriptions that add up and cut into margins if you’re not careful.)
Invest marketing into proven sources
Identify where your clients or customers hear about you, and invest more of your marketing budget into those areas. A common mistake we’ve seen (and are guilty of too) is trying to perfect a marketing presence on every platform. But, that’s a sure and fast way to get overwhelmed, and end up sharing mediocre content that feels disconnected, mechanical, and doesn’t resonate with your community. (This doesn’t create results either.)
On the other hand, if you know that most of your clients find you through Facebook and word of mouth, then it is more productive to invest your time and effort there. Spend more time amplifying your Facebook reach, and perhaps create an affiliate program to reward referrals.
Start outsourcing the items that don’t fulfill you
As a business founder, it’s easy to keep every single to-do on your own plate. But we all know there are certain tasks that get in the way of a fulfilling entrepreneurial flow. Outsourcing what drains you will help you focus on what you do best (like refining that bread-and-butter offer you’re loved for, and that you personally love working on).
Understand the value of your time
This is perhaps the most nuanced, yet most influential financial goal for a small business — knowing the value of your time. Where are you adding value, and where are you wasting energy (and money)?
When you spend time in the areas that contribute to your core purposes, and bottom line, you pave the way for a business model that can prosper. If there is only one idea you internalize, let it be dedicating time in your schedule to just “be.”
As Richie Norton once shared, “A full calendar is an empty life.”
It’s in those spare moments, the blocks in your calendar that aren’t filled with meetings or to-dos, that you’ll find the time to step away, gain perspective and make mindful shifts as opposed to following the same humdrum cycle. Even New York, ”the city that never sleeps,” needs a Central Park — a center of peace and serenity to keep it all together. Without that, it would be too much.