Business Goals....

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Sharpie

Senior Member
Location
PA
As my business is growing, I need to evaluate short and long term goals. I want to consider who my target customers should be, what my specialties are, If I want to advertise to a particular need or group of people..... the list of questions I'm considering goes on.

My questions to all of you: Did you have to consider these things in the growing stages of your business? What are some of your goals or specialties? What was particularly important as you laid your foundation to get to where you are (or are headed)?

Thanks
 
Rewire

Rewire

Senior Member
Location
Lake of the Ozarks
If you do not have a business plan then you need to write one and then follow it.You should review that plan as you grow to see were you are at a business plan can change and is not meant to be rigid.We looked at our market and found many were focused on custom homes ,condos and larger commercial projects but few were in the service market several advertised 24hr service but when called you got an answering machine.
 
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jimmyglen

Senior Member
Location
St. Louis, Missouri
to me you really need to know where you want to be in order for you to get there

you have to have a goal and an idea of what your company will look like


I have learned 90 percent of what I know from watching and listening to others

this forum is worth its weight in gold


by asking the question - this shows you have the right idea

you already know the answer to your question now get to work!
 
MarkyMarkNC

MarkyMarkNC

Senior Member
Location
Raleigh NC
I like what you've done there. Well thought out and detailed. Pretty lofty 1 and 5 year goals, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with thinking BIG. I wrote some goals down at the start of the year myself, but now you've motivated me to put my long term goals to paper as well.

Here's my 2009 goals.

Company Planning - Goals 2009
  • Year 1 sales goal $150,000
  • Set good customer base - 80 / 20 rule
  • Website - figure out how to leverage as a selling tool
  • Business Cards - Post EVERYWHERE!!!
  • NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK!!!!!!!! - Anyone who knows anyone
  • Don?t be afraid of hard work!!
  • Don?t fear to fail!!
  • Don?t be afraid to ask for help!!!
  • Always listen to the customer
  • Lean and Mean - ALWAYS LOW OVERHEAD - cost justify all purchases
 
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macmikeman

Senior Member
Location
Planet macmikeman
100 million is old stuff. Inflation has set in, 100 million is not what it used to be way back about 6 months ago. Now any decent self respecting bonus -bailout receiver wants at least a billion. And that is just to get the talk started.
 
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emahler

Senior Member
macmikeman said:
100 million is old stuff. Inflation has set in, 100 million is not what it used to be way back about 6 months ago. Now any decent self respecting bonus -bailout receiver wants at least a billion. And that is just to get the talk started.
Click to expand...

hey, i'm an electrician not a plumber...i can't possibly ask for that much money...
 
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Sharpie

Senior Member
Location
PA
A1cbr had a question on the 80/20 rule. I've heard that before, but I can't remember what that is. Can anybody explain?
 
Mule

Mule

Senior Member
Location
Oklahoma
For us, I spent alot of years working commercial and industrial maintenance. So those skills sets work well for us. I wired alot of homes years ago but, Im getting older and hate attics and crawl spaces of residential type jobs. I also hate long projects as it reminds me of working as an employee, so we like shorter projects 1-3 days, is just right....With that said, we purposely structure our quotes and rates so we will skew our business away from residential work and long projects. So far its working well as our customers like it, and so do we.

Identify your customer, Identify the local market prices, Indentify your total overhead cost, Study about what makes a happy customer, and be stubborn about your quality and safety....and above all be honest...Throttle your tatics toward what you want and GO FOR IT...Its America
 
MarkyMarkNC

MarkyMarkNC

Senior Member
Location
Raleigh NC
80 / 20 rule

80 / 20 rule

80 % of your business comes from 20 % of your customers. Also known as the Pareto Principle. It is often applied to other things as well, such as -

-80% of the world's wealth is concentrated in the top 20% of the population
-You wear 20% of your wardrobe 80% of the time
-In computer programming, fixing the top 20% of the bugs fixes 80% of crashes

It's also used heavily in logistics operations and in manufacturing quality control. As it applies to service business, the goal is to concentrate more time on your 20% customers, or to finding new customers that may wind up being your top 20%, rather than spending time on the non-profitable 80%. I think most people do this naturally anyway, but I figure it can't hurt to keep this principle in mind.
 
Rewire

Rewire

Senior Member
Location
Lake of the Ozarks
Greg Swartz said:
Ok, really, see the attachment below for Swartz Electric 2009 Goals.

BTW... MHE does not like Word 2007... docx file confuses it... :wink:
Click to expand...

One thing I would do is look at hireing an office person sooner.We did about the start of the third quarter last year and it made such a big difference.Billing improved ,cash flow improved,It freed more time for me to focus on building clients and many more things improved.The office is now run by someone who knows how to run an office and not ran by an electrician.We got our office manager through a temp service we paid them directly for 90 days then we could hire.Best move I ever made.
 
360Youth

360Youth

Senior Member
Location
Newport, NC
This about sums it up. :D

Ironiclly, my boss and I were talking about this very thing riding back from a military job for for an upcomong project at Camp Lejeune. My business goals are to make money at what I like doing. I have never been savy on business operations (one of the main reasons I have never ventured on my own) but I and I and the company I work with are trying to be better at it. The older I get the more the goals change because in the future I see and hope for more of an overseeing aspect that a field aspect because the reality is that I will never be able to do it like I used to when it comes to field work. I want to be able to hire and train people to make money at what they like to do also. I have my preferences as to the type of work that I do as an elctrician, but good business is about being able to provide what your customer is looking for, whether it be residential, commercial, generators, pumps, motors, whatever. I joked earlier about "wanting it all" and I do what financial security and the oppurtunity to enjoy the world with my wife, but when I want it all, I want the skills to back up the license.
 
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