Often times new entrepreneurs are afraid of setting goals for their business. They usually are not clear what their goals should be, so they either don’t set any goals or they set vague and wishy-washy goals. Jay B. Barney and Ricky Griffin, authors of “Managing Organizations: Strategy, Structure, and Behavior,” state that organizational goals serve four basic functions as follows:

1. Provide guidance and direction

2. Facilitate planning

3. Motivate and inspire employees, and help organizations evaluate and control performance

4. Inform employees where the organization is going and how it plans to get the job done

Having goals gives you a direction, clarifies your ideas and forces you to come up with a plan to achieve it. If your goal is to have a volume of $5 million in 3 years, there are different strategies you need to take then if your goal is $500,000 in 3 years. It also requires more money, so by knowing your goal you can arrange for your financing. You know how the old saying goes, “Fail to plan, plan to fail.”

Planning your business is one of the most important activities an emerging fashion brand needs to take in order to ensure success. Research shows that specific and difficult goals lead to better task performance than vague or easy goals.

It is so easy to be distracted and want to do everything but setting goals forces you to be focused and use your time and resources productively. If an activity doesn’t help you reach your goals, don’t spend time on it.

Your goals should be- classified into three groups: short-term, mid-term, and long-term. This helps you to see if you are achieving your bench marks that will indicate the likelihood of reaching your long-term goals. If you aren’t achieving your short-term goals, you can course correct before it is too late. Dream a little, then plan out your goals for your brand and make sure they are s.m.a.r.t., which means:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Achievable

• Relevant

• Time sensitive

Maria Pesin is the Launch Your Collection Sales and Marketing Director and works with our clients on the following package (click the package link for more information):

• Sales Rep Placement

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