A business without any objective is bound to fail soon. It is possible for one to keep on moving in vicious circles without any direction. To move in the right direction, one should have a set of parameters or targets that can be defined to achieve the set business goals.

This is why setting SMART goals is important to the growth of your business as an importer.

What are SMART goals? 

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely goals.

The essence of setting SMART goals for your importation business is to make sure that your importation business grows according to your business plan. 

To set SMART goals for your importation business, you must ask yourself these questions:

• What goal do I want to achieve in my importation business?
• When do I need to achieve this goal for my importation business?
• How much will it cost me to achieve this goal for my importation business?
• How will I measure my goal after is it attained?
• What time do I have to achieve this goal?

Let’s dive into each acronym to help you understand how to set SMART goals for your importation business.

S- SPECIFIC:

What this simply means is that you should be precise in your approach when setting a goal for your business. You have to be clear about the objectives you want to achieve. Specific goals for your importation business mean detailing how you are going to set about achieving our goals. It could also translate into a mission statement for your business. 

Example of a specific goal: ”My goal is to get a monthly sales of 1 million naira. This means I have to sell 100 pieces of my bags to earn this amount which will require that I make more video contents of my bags on social media channels to get more customers”

The statement above is a specific goal statement that has the actions to achieve that goal in it. It shows an explicit goal to make more profit.

M-MEASURABLE:

A goal can be said to be measurable if it shows how you will know whether you have reached the set goal. Using the example above, you will see that we included a profit mark of 1Million naira. This means that the only way to measure this goal is if we hit that profit mark in our bank account.

R-RELEVANT:

 Is this goal relevant to your business? Is it worthwhile? You need to answer these questions to know that you are on the right path to make your business grow. For instance, assuming that you just opened your first store and you are still learning your environment and establishing your brand awareness in that vicinity. This may not be the right time to want to set a goal to open another store. An honest question is to ask yourself whether your goal is relevant to your importation business at this time. Of course, using this scenario, your priority should be to get more in-store visits and sales, not to open a new store.

T-TIMELY:

By what time do you expect to reach this goal? In simple terms, this is where you give your goal a duration or timeline. For instance, from what time to what time do you want to hit your profit margin?

Using the example above, you can say, “from next week 18th of September until 18th of March, I want to make a profit of 1 Million.

Furthermore, as you go about setting SMART goals for your business, you must remember that you have to take it one goal at a time. Setting too many goals or complicated goals may affect your business especially if you don’t have the resources for it. Set them by priority and do the work towards reaching your goal.

You may also read: How to grow your importation business online in 2021

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