Goals of a Business: Setting Milestones for Franchisees

You’ve likely heard about the importance of setting business goals, but did you know that goal-setting actually works?

Take a recent study conducted by Michigan State University (MSU). This study involved two groups: one who wrote down their goals and one who didn’t. The results showed that 76% of people in the goal-setting group achieved their goals, and 43% of non-goal setters did not.

Setting goals is just as important as achieving them. In this post, you’ll learn how to set goals for your franchised business.

1. Choose Measurable Goals

It’s crucial to choose measurable goals after buying a franchise. Choosing measurable business goals lets you track the pursuits of your important objectives. Creating non-measurable goals is frustrating because you’re always guessing how your franchise performs.

Here are a few examples of measurable vs. non-measurable franchise goals:

• Non-measurable goal: Become a well-known brand in Florida.
• Measurable goal: Grow your customer base by 15% in Florida by 2025.
• Non-measurable goal: Offer superior customer satisfaction.
• Measurable goal: Achieve 80% or more satisfactory ratings on quarterly customer satisfaction surveys.

Using software to track franchise goals can make your life a lot easier. Popular programs such as ClickUp and Clockify are a few examples of goal-tracking tools.

2. Clearly Define Short and Long-Term Goals

At this point, you should have a list of measurable franchise goals. Now, it’s time to define your franchise’s short and long-term goals. Grouping goals into short and long-term objectives helps clear up any cluttered to-do list or business plan.

Knowing how to set short-term goals for your business lets everyone know what to focus on right now. As your franchise completes short-term goals, it clears up everyone’s collective workload to begin implementing the pursuit of long-term goals with total clarity.

Typically, a franchise’s long-term goals take more time and work to complete than short-term ones. So, work to create short-term goals that get your franchise closer to its long-term milestones.

Here are examples of short-term and long-term goals of a business.

• Short-term goal: Post job openings to social media three times per week.
• Short-term goal: Increase revenue by at least 7% this quarter.
• Short-term goal: Complete at least four new blog articles each month.
• Long-term goal: Become the largest franchise in your city.
• Long-term goal: Increase yearly revenue.
• Long-term goal: Gain more web traffic.

3. Involve Everyone

The most successful franchises operate smoothly, with everyone understanding their tasks, goals, and milestones. You can make this happen by involving every employee while pursuing your franchise’s goals.

The first step is to get everyone together for goal-related discussions. These meetings let you motivate your team to reach goals together, which can increase employee engagement. You might need to schedule a series of meetings to fully communicate upcoming goals.

During these meetings, ask your employees to help with the goal-creation process. Your employees could contribute new perspectives or insights you haven’t thought about.

4. Set Achievable Business Goals

Now, you need to ensure that your goals are achievable. Find a balance between goals that aren’t too easy or impossible to achieve. Choosing easy milestones won’t challenge your franchise team or help your growing business. Going after impossible goals sets you up for constant dejection.

5. Create Action Plans for Each Goal

At this point, your franchise should have a relatively clear set of goals to pursue. But then what? Prevent any confusion from your employees by creating action plans.

Action plans provide instructions, steps, or suggestions about what an employee or department needs to do next. These actions can be anything required to achieve your franchise’s goals. Your new action plans don’t have to be perfect. These plans will likely change or adjust, and that’s perfectly fine.

6. Give Everyone Clear Responsibilities

With your business goals and action plans ready, it’s time to assign responsibilities to you and your team of employees. When your employees and departments understand who’s responsible for what, it helps minimize confusion throughout your franchise.

Assigning responsibilities also lets you monitor which teams exceed their goals, meet them, or fall behind.

Learning how to set business goals can help bring any franchise immense success. If you want to pursue your dreams of becoming a business owner, the fast-growing home care franchise industry is a great place to start.

1Heart provides continuous support for our franchisees. You don’t need previous home care experience—1Heart’s training provides everything you need. Franchisees also have help anytime by reaching our support network. Learn more here.