Take a S.M.A.R.T. Approach to Setting Goals

It has come to that time again. The start of a new year and a new opportunity to take your business to the next level.

Each year we see people setting their new year’s resolutions for the coming months. I bet that you have also done some of this yourself. How many did you actually achieve? The reason that so many fail in these goals is that they do not set clear expectations to reach them. The best way to do this is to use the S.M.A.R.T. method when laying them out. This is a basic framework for setting goals and making them achievable. Let’s break this down.

The S stands for Specific. This means that you need to get deeper into it than “I want to make more sales this year.” You need to use the five W’s and the H to get this right. You have all heard this in school. Who, What, Where, Why, When, and How. So, using this methodology, the better goal to set would be as follows:

I want to increase my net sales in my store by $100,000 in 2026.

I want to make $25,000 in each quarter by increasing my car count by X and my store TA by Y.

This gives you a clear goal to work towards hitting, and you have it broken down into quarters, allowing you to increase or decrease the next quarter based on how you are doing.

The M stands for Measurable. This one is self-explanatory in that you cannot achieve what you cannot measure. As the example I laid out above. Is my goal specific? Yes, I want to hit $100,000 in additional sales in 2026. Is it measurable? Yes, I can track my gains or losses toward this goal daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly.

The A stands for Attainable. Now this is where you must be realistic and make sure that what you set can be achieved. If your $100,000 goal is doubling what you currently do, then this is not a goal that can be easily reached. If you are in a million-dollar store location, that is an increase of 10%. So, we will use that as the benchmark for my set goal above. If I want to increase my location by that amount in a year, I need to generate an additional $8,333 a month or $334 per day on an average monthly opening period. I can achieve this by increasing my car count by two or three cars a day, or through a combination of cars and a ticket average increase.

The R stands for Relevant. Is this goal something that will benefit you, others, or your business in general? That’s what you need to ask yourself when you get to this section. Why am I setting this goal? In our case, we want to increase our sales. By doing this, I can increase my revenue, my ability to hire and put more people on the floor and operate at a higher profit.

The T stands for Time-Based. You want to set goals that are based on a period to achieve the desired effect. I could say that I want all my team at 100% computer-based training levels, but if I never put a date on which to do this, it would not be measurable. You need to set clear times so that you can mark gains and losses. In our goal, we set a period of one year, with quarterly checks for progress. Our goal is in line with the method.

Now this is how you look at each goal that you want to set. You can set them weekly, monthly, or yearly. The idea is that you can answer each of the five steps and have a clear path. If you hit a letter and you cannot tie it back to the goal, then adjust the goal until you are able to meet all five sections for S.M.A.R.T. By doing so, you will find that you will start hitting a lot more of these and be less like the new year’s resolution person who quits a few months in.