We’ve smashed our targets for the year already. Now what?

Hey Aunty B,

Not that I am boasting, but we have smashed all our targets for the year already!

But I don’t want the team to sit down on their laurels.

I won’t change them for this year but how do entrepreneurs set plans in the future so I don’t find myself in this position?

Thanks,
Bruce

Dear Bruce,

You rest on your laurels, not squash them. Sorry to be narky but I am yet, I suspect like many of our readers, to reach such an envious position, so I am talking through gritted teeth which is making my jaw ache.

You have several targets. The biggest one is the “stretch targets” that are well and truly out of reach even if the market suddenly and miraculously goes nuts and demand soars sky-high.

The second is the (just) “achievable target”; if everyone works like crazy and your predictions on the state of the marketplace play out, then they will share in that success.

The other way is to simply not have targets. Plenty of entrepreneurs just tell their staff to go as hard as they can. They refuse to set targets. Why? Same reason. People reach the targets and spend the next six months patting each other on the back.

What does everyone else think?

And by the way, I see nothing wrong with changing your targets at this point. Just take them all out to lunch, tell them the goals have shifted and re-incentivise the team.

Aunty B

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