Ah, the commencement of another New Year! Time to reflect back on the year past and establish goals for the new year ahead! Here’s a single, yet very powerful business goal to focus on in 2015.

Write down the amount of profit you would like your company to achieve in the new year. I’m talking about the bottom line: net profit before tax. That which is left over after everything—including your salary—has been accounted for. Forget focusing on total sales. Think about what you would like your company’s profit picture to look like at the end of 2015.

1) Establish your profit goal for 2015 = $______________. Write down your goal.

2) Next up – what are the three to six most valuable activities (MVAs) that will help you achieve that profit goal?

Setting a goal is the easy part. “We’ll make $30,000 in profit next year!” cried out the undisciplined entrepreneur. OK, how will you achieve that number, and is it realistic?

Goals are achieved (or not) based on the activities your company commits to performing. If your 2015 profit goal is significantly higher than last year’s, your company must improve or change the critical processes (activities) it performs each day.

• What are the MVAs that will guide your company to the profit zone?
• Will you focus on improving your field production processes?
• Will you work on better marketing the services you offer?
• Will you hire a salesperson or improve your own selling skills?
• Will you integrate technology into your daily business operations?
• Will you work on improving your financial processes?
• Will you work on hiring, training and retaining good people? People who are capable of performing the critical process of the business according to your plan?

3) Schedule the MVAs, and get busy implementing them!

Once you’ve determined the MVAs, the business needs to perform if it’s to achieve the profit goal, so get the activities scheduled! What gets scheduled has a chance of getting done. What gets talked about soon becomes lost in the daily dust cloud of activity and ignored.

If you truly want to achieve a profit goal for the new year, establish a realistic goal, determine the MVAs needed to achieve it, get those activities scheduled and then get to work executing those critical activities!

Learn more about John’s Ewing Education Services class, Money Matters: Achieving Sustainable Profitability in the Green Industry.