We've all heard the question, "How do you eat an elephant?"  To learn how you eat a Business Elephant, read on.

The Power of Goals 

A goal reminds you where you are going; it also motivates you to get there.  In 1861, President John F. Kennedy set a goal to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. No one knew how to make it happen, but it was an exciting goal, clearly stated by a charismatic leader.  The statement motivated everyone involved, from NASA engineers, and scientists to astronauts.

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon; the goal was accomplished.  High goals are exciting; they encourage you to be the best.  Making that decision is almost as hard as making it happen, but once you commit to it you have  already made a great leap forward.

Goals help you stay focused and motivated, plus they force you to think things through, plan and calculate, and create a sense of urgency.

Business Example:   I am not going to ask you to put a man on the moon, but say you run a $7 million business and want to take your annual sales to $15 million in 5 years.  More than doubling your sales revenues may not be as motivating as placing a man on the moon, but at times it may be as challenging.

Question:  What percentage would you have to increase each year?

Answer (In French):  Dix Sept.  Why in French, because, hopefully, you don't speak French and will have to figure it out yourself.  When you figure it out on your own it takes on more meaning and gives you a better sense of proportion.

Challenge: Getting involved by trying to figure it out on your own will help you when you decide to do something similar in the future.  Stop reading here, and try to figure it out.

Ideally, you would want to come up with a doable growth progression that can lead to more detailed planning, first by years, then by months within the five-year target's first year. 

To make it easier for you, here is the progression:

Current year: Seven million

Year One: Eight million one hundred ninety thousand.

Year Two: Nine million five hundred eighty thousand

Year Three: Eleven million two hundred ten thousand

Year Four: Thirteen million one hundred seventy thousand

Year Five: Fifteen million five hundred thousand.

Still haven't calculated the annual growth percentage?

OK, enough numbers expressed in words (I just didn't want to make it too easy for you if you had tried to figure it out by yourself). 

Here is the answer in real numbers and, by the way, the percentage is 17.

1.       7,000,000   x 1.17 =   8,190,000  an increase of $1,190,000

2.       8,190,000   x 1.17 =   9,580,000  an increase of $1,390,000

3.       9,580,000   x 1.17 = 11,210,000  an increase of$1,630,000

4.     11,210,000   x1.17 =  13,170,000  an increase of$1,960,000

5.     13,170,000   x1.17 =  15,500,000  an increase of$2,330,000

Now, your goal for next year is to increase sales by $1,190,000.  At this point, you need to figure out how much does that represent on a monthly basis. 

• $8,190,000/12 months = $682,500 (it is unlikely that monthly sales would divide in even numbers, but for the sake of simplifying this example we will go along with it)
•  Assuming the current $7,000,000 year was also divided equally, the result would have been $583,333 per month.
•  Next year's monthly target $682,500, minus this year's actual average $583,333 = $99,167, the additional monthly amount needed to reach the annual total of $8,190,000.

The question now becomes, where is that additional $99,167 a month going to come from?

•  Assuming that you are in a business-to-business industry and provide especially designed manufactured solutions to your clients, it is possible that the average sale per client is about $30,000, which at $7,000,000 divided by $30,000 equals roughly 233 orders during the current year, or $583,333, which divided by $30,000, equals roughly 19 orders a month. 
•  In the first year of the 5 year goal, you will need $682,500 divided by $30,000 or roughly 23 orders a month, an increase of a little less than 4 more orders a month will get you on the road to that year's goal of $8,190,000

ONLY FOUR MORE ORDERS A MONTH!  That sure makes the goal more reachable.  To reach that goal, you now need to ask your team, "What small thing can we do every day that will help us get those four additional orders a month?"  This is the equivalent of a Kaizen approach to reaching seemingly unreachable goals.

Think big.  Set big goals.  Break them down into smaller parts then figure out what small thing done daily will make those big goals reachable.

"Nothing is particularly hard,
as long as you divide it into small jobs."  Henry Ford

Basically, we have just answered the famous question, "How do you eat an elephant?" Answer: "With small bites."  Think about it.

We Make Business Elephants Edible.

Large goals can be intimidating, but they are necessary.  When you don't think big, you are condemned to mediocrity.  At International Management Consulting Associates, IMCA, we help you make your business elephants edible by reducing intimidating awesomely large goals to simple, easier-to-achieve, smaller ones.   You will be amazed at the power of goals, and how much you can achieve when you simplify them.  Why not set a goal to contact us right now at (630) 420 2605, or at mykwyn@aol.com?  We will provide you with wonderful, easy-to-prepare, Edible Business Elephant Goal recipes.