When was the last time you did a thorough assessment of your business goals?  Not just the goal of growing, or making more money, but a thorough, detailed review of what you want to achieve in your business, and why.  Several years ago, we had lunch with an industry colleague and discussed with him our desire to grow our agency to a certain size. What stopped us mid-bite was when he asked us why.  We really didn’t have a good answer.  He went on to explain that his agency has grown quite large and now, instead of focusing on the creative aspects of public relations that he enjoys, his time is mostly occupied with human resources issues, review of the finances and other less glamorous aspects of the business.

This input allowed us to really think about our business goals.  How big did we want to be and why?  What are the types of accounts on which we want to work?  How will we grow while maintaining the life balance that is important to us?

In order to determine your own goals, think about SAM - Specific, Attainable and Measurable.

Specific - The more specific you can be about your goals, the easier it is to determine the resources and steps needed.  If you want to become a well-known expert in your field or a recognizable household brand, then you know you should be utilizing public relations to be perceived as such in a credible and timely fashion.

Attainable - It’s good to be ambitious, but if you want to have a multi-million dollar business in two years and have yet to do a business plan for your company, that might not be realistic. Perhaps your first goal could be to complete a comprehensive business plan and industry analysis. Same rule applies when looking at your media goals. Oprah may be the holy grail, but sometimes your local press is the easiest and best place for you to pitch your story.

Measurable - Goals should be associated with some kind of measurement.  For each goal, determine a set of criteria that will mean success.  Using the example of wanting to be a well-known expert again, the measurement for success could be securing media coverage of your company in certain industry magazines that you pre-determine before beginning your campaign.

Tags: goal setting, Jet set tips, pr takeoff, Regina Novickis, Stacey Johnes, Takeoff Tips

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 7:58 pm and is filed under Jet Set Tips, public relations, publicity. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.