This Podcast Is Episode Number 426, And It's About Construction Business Mid-Year Reminder For Setting And Reviewing Goals How are you and your construction business? Have you considered what you'd like to achieve in the coming twelve to eighteen months? Or maybe your set of priorities for the next half of 2021?   Contractors like you are typically highly creative and optimistic; thus, you often have difficulty narrowing down your ideas from among all the exciting possibilities, whether it's an opportunity to expand to a new market or choose a better time management strategy.    While some of you love planning, others feel overwhelmed by the process. So how do you decide on just a handful of goals that take priority, with so many moving parts that make up a construction business?   1. Set SMART Goals Focus your efforts and increase your chances of achieving your goals by the SMART guideline: Specific, Measurable, Achievable (Attainable), Realistic, and Time-Bound. Start by defining your top three business goals for the next four quarters. Then, with those in mind, do some research to help you decide on the best way to achieve those three goals – and a reasonable timeline for meeting specific targets.  2. Redefine Your Brand Is the elevator pitch you used a year ago – even six months ago – still accurate? Unless you are crystal clear on who you are as a construction company, whom you're here to serve, and what you hope to achieve in the next one to three years, it's going to be hard to come up with meaningful goals. Getting leads and doing the work is only part of the answer. Not answering them and acting on the knowledge is one reason why so many contractors' companies wither and die. They focus on the wrong areas to innovate or improve. They focus on the wrong enemy and threat. As a result, they miss what they could be doing to succeed and prosper over time. Take a look at your company vision, mission statement, and core values. Next, define the contracting you offer and who your competition is. It may not be the same form, structure, and category that you operate. For example, Home Depot does not see itself as competing in the building supply business but for a share of the home and commercial remodel and repair market. Instead, be that homeowner doing a weekend project, Handyman Contractors, Remodel Contractors, Trade Contractors, and other contractors and House Builders. If your brand needs tweaking to reflect where your construction business is today and where you want it to go, start there. Then you can move on to setting some beneficial long and short-term goals. 3. Big Picture Planning Construction business owners dream big—and they should! Thinking big can lead to groundbreaking products and services that become the foundation of innovative, successful companies. When it comes to goal-setting, thinking big is great, too. But to make those big ideas like "increasing market share" or "growing profits" happen, you need to break them down into smaller, specific goals and strategies tied to a budget and timeline. For instance, while your overarching objective may be to "grow profits by 50% by December 31", your smaller goals might include: Launching a social media campaign the first week of March to attract 2,500 new prospects by months' end; or Increasing total sales by 40% by establishing an online presence (Business Website) by August 1.  Again, the key is to define goals that are measurable and achievable. 4. Define Smaller Goals Thinking through how you'll achieve your broader objectives can be a fun exercise – one you can turn into a group activity, including your entire team. First, sit down and discuss what you know about your customers. Next, review your historical sales data and look over your current budget and forecasting.  With all the relevant information at hand and everyone at the table, you can develop strategies that align with your construction company...