It’s time to set some SMART goals for 2019. If you’ve never heard of SMART goals before, the acronym stands for:
Specific. Measurable. Attainable. Relevant. Timely.
So, you want to set your goals around all those things.
Goals are Necessary for Your Business
Goals are so powerful, especially if they are SMART goals because they will help you meet your milestones throughout the year. We can all say we would like to do this or that. But, that’s just a wish. It becomes real when you put it down on paper, tag a timeline to it, and break things down into smart pieces and actionable steps that you can check throughout the year.
Pick One or Two Goals
Also, don’t have too many goals. Pick one or two. There’s a great book I can recommend called The One Thing by Gary Keller. The whole notion of this book is that you’ll be more successful if you pick that one thing to focus all your attention and energy and resources on. If you do that, it will change everything in your business.
Making your Goals SMART
A SMART goal is action-oriented and strategic. Here’s what you need to know when you’re setting business goals:
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- Specific: A vague goal will be hard to measure, and you won’t know when you’ve achieved it. Instead of saying you want to grow the number of doors you manage in 2019, make it a SMART goal by saying you want to grow by 10 doors per month in 2019.
- Measurable: You have to be able to collect data around your goal and analyze that data to see if you need to make adjustments or take different actions. Know your numbers, such as how many doors you want to grow by or how many employees you want to grow by. Track your financials if you’re setting a goal for a specific profit.
- Attainable. There’s nothing more defeatist than setting a goal that you have no power to attain. For example, you cannot set a goal to increase rents in 2019 because you don’t know what the market is going to look like in 2019. Maybe increasing rent will be impossible to achieve. A better SMART goal would be to retain 60 percent of your current tenants. You can do that with incentives, outstanding service, and modest, if any, rental increases.
- Relevant. Make sure the goal you’re setting matters to your business, your team, and your clients. Opening a new office in another location is a great goal, but is it relevant to what you’re doing right now?
- Timely. Set a timeline for your goal and stick to it. You should have action items and steps that you plan to take to get closer to achieving your goal, and each of those steps should have its own deadlines. Hold yourself accountable to these.
Get together with your employees and think about what your smart goals will be for 2019. If you have any trouble setting your goals or you need help brainstorming where your property management business can grow, please contact us at Landlord Source.
