reaching your financial goals means getting clear on your business objectives.

Here are 3 Steps for Setting + Reaching Your Business Objectives,
no matter where you are in the life of your business:

• Set the “right” Business Objectives

  If you’re concerned about setting the right objectives for your business, think back to when you launched.
  
  What did you set out to create?
  What did you dream your business would become?
  
  If that’s still a viable goal for your business or your brand, keep at it and set the business objectives that will support your progress in reaching those goals!
  
  If you weren’t really sure what you set out to create with your business, or what you wanted to achieve, spend some time to create a vision for your business that excites you.
  
  Looking at your financials can be helpful in determining the most viable options for your business and can help shape your goals and objectives.
  

• Get detailed about the strategies and tactics you’ll implement to reach your objectives.

  Once you’ve got your objectives, get detailed in breaking down how you are going to reach them. 
  
  Businesses that don’t get this detailed and don’t track their progress over time are more likely to lose focus, and hop around from tactic to tactic, chasing short-term wins rather than a clear path to long-term business success. 

Following the chart above, take these steps… 

1. State your business goal  

2. Set 1-3 measurable Business Objectives that will help you reach your goal. 

3. Drill down from your objectives to identify 1-3 strategies for reaching each of your objectives

4. Then determine the actions you + your team will take and/or the tools you’ll implement to successfully execute those strategies. 

•  Track Your Progress to Ensure Your Success

Once you’ve got your objectives, strategies and tactics identified, it’s important to track your progress.  

You can do this within your Profit Plan or create a KPI dashboard (aka spreadsheet). 

Be sure to document where your business is now, as well as your target. 

Determine how often you’ll track outcomes - daily, weekly or monthly - this will vary among tactics and strategies. 

And then stay consistent. 

If you’d like support in this process, or in achieving your objectives I invite you to visit our website to view the multiple levels of services we provide to assist you in setting + Achieving your business objectives.

Visit our website to learn more. 

AND OF COURSE, THE PROFITABLE FOOD BUSINESS COMMUNITY IS ALWAYS OPEN! 

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About the Author: Sarah Delevan is a Food Business Financial Coach and Consultant with over 7 years of working in the food industry. She received her MBA from Rollins College and In 2017 she founded Sarah Delevan Consulting based in Los Angeles, CA and serving clients across the United States. She is the creator of the Financial Success Formula and the founder of the Profitable Food Business program. She is also the host of the Good Food CFO Podcast. To learn more about Sarah and opportunities to grow a more profitable food business Click Here.

Do you find yourself feeling overwhelmed in your business sometimes? Pulled in many directions and unsure where to focus your attention?

If you answered yes, odds are that you’ve either lost sight of your business objectives, or you don’t have one.  

It’s possible Covid-19 played a role in this, but its also possible that you started a passion project and now that it’s off the ground you need to figure out where you want to take it and how you want it to grow. 

Knowing your business objective(s) is key to:

• Identifying the right goals for your business

• Creating a clear plan of action for yourself + your team

• Focusing your time + attention where it will have the most impact, and 

• Ensuring that you are spending your money wisely

Hello, clarity + focus! 

When we think about how clear business objectives help us spend our money wisely, the list is nearly endless.  From the tools + services you choose to invest in, to the marketing strategies you implement, if and how you grow your team, etc. 

So, what IS a business objective? 

Simply put, it’s a specific target or group of targets you want to achieve within a stated time frame.  

Some examples of business objectives include:

• Increase Wholesale Revenue by 25% this year

• Improve Overall Profitability 10% within 6 months

• Capture 5% of market share by quarter 3

• Double our return customer rate this quarter

With your objectives identified, you can get to work on identifying HOW you will go about achieving them - the strategies + tactics you will implement in your business. 

And when you stay focused on your objectives and track your progress, focusing your time and making key financial decisions becomes easier. 

Need help identifying + achieving your Business Objectives?

If you need help identifying the right business objectives to build a financially sustainable + profitable food business the “Know Your Numbers” template can help you see your business and the areas to focus on to improve financially.  

The template is available in our toolkit, workshop + online program. Click here to find out which resource is right for you!

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About the Author: Sarah Delevan is a Food Business Financial Coach and Consultant with over 7 years of working in the food industry. She received her MBA from Rollins College and In 2017 she founded Sarah Delevan Consulting based in Los Angeles, CA and serving clients across the United States. She is the creator of the Financial Success Formula and the founder of the Profitable Food Business program. To learn more about Sarah and opportunities to grow a more profitable food business Click Here.

Are you considering taking on debt in your food business?

want some advice on whether taking on debt is a good idea?

I often get asked if taking on debt is bad for food businesses, and like so many things in business… IT DEPENDS. 

Every business is unique, and business situations are unique. 

But there is a universal checklist that all business owners can use to help you make the right decision.

If your goal is to create a sustainable business that minimizes risk and grows profitability, and you’re considering taking on debt to make a purchase, or opening a line of credit, this checklist is designed just for you!

#1 Determine if the debt you’ll be taking on is considered to be “Good Debt” or “Bad Debt”

Good Debt is considered to be an investment in your business future, and typically is an investment that will retain or increase in value over time. 

Bad Debt is investing in something you don't NEED, doesn't help you build your business, and loses value over time. 

For some decisions the answer will be cut + dry.
Others (like purchasing a vehicle) are more nuanced. 

To dive a bit deeper into Good Debt vs. Bad Debt, check out this blog post from CPA Melissa Houston. 

If your reason for taking on debt falls into the Good Debt category, by definition move on to #2

#2 Remember Your Business Objectives

Is your food business objective to Increase Sustainability or Profitability? Increase Efficiency? Grow Sales in a Particular Business Line?  

Getting clear on what you want or need to achieve in your business to be successful allows you to identify the right goals to focus your attention on, as well as the actions, activities and efforts that will help you achieve your objectives, and the ones won’t.  

Remembering your business objectives and top 3 goals often makes decisions that seem “big” or difficult quite easy to make. 

#3 Determine if the Debt will move you closer to your business objectives

ASk yourself: WILL this purchase, or will access to this line of credit be used to purchase, things that will move me closer to achieving my food business objectives?

When answering this question it is important that you are honest with yourself and that you do the work to identify real problems that must be solved, rather than symptoms of problems. 

For example, If your business objective is to improve profitability, you must get to the ROOT of why the symptom of low profitability is showing up in your business.  Are your sales too low? Are your costs too high? If the true cause is low sales numbers, why are sales low? Is it Lack of repeat business? Lack of audience? Incorrect message? 

Investing in hiring a sales person or team, or ramping up social media + marketing for a product with the wrong message won’t get you the results you desire. 

When you identify the real problems in your business you can ensure that you are investing in real solutions. 

IF you’ve determined that the purchase or line of credit will solve a true problem in your business and move you toward your business objectives, move on to the last step.

#4 Consider the 2nd order consequences of your decision, financially and otherwise for the business 

We can control the decision that we make, but we can’t control what happens after our decision is made.

This step is an incredibly important exercise in considering the possibility of things not turning out exactly as you plan.

It is the step that most business owners fail to consider (including yours truly) that results in financial loss.  

Ask yourself the following questions…

1. What is the up side? 

2. What is the downside? (What could go wrong?)  

3. Can I live with the downside? 

I recommend talking through #2 with someone else, and remind you to consider the monthly + long-term financial impact it will have on your business, particularly if things don’t work out as planned, as well as who and what it will affect within your business + how.  

Weigh the positives and negatives and make a decision based on the information you’ve laid out.  Determine if you can live with (and afford) the downside. 

Decisions like this often feel like they need to be made quickly. 

But I promise you that thinking through this debt decision checklist and taking your time in the decision making process will produce a better long-term result. 

The less emotion and time play into your decision, the better. 

Having a Profit Plan is also helpful in this process and allows you to run various financial scenarios related to your decision.

Visit our website to learn more. 

AND OF COURSE, THE PROFITABLE FOOD BUSINESS COMMUNITY IS ALWAYS OPEN! 

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About the Author: Sarah Delevan is a Food Business Financial Coach and Consultant with over 7 years of working in the food industry. She received her MBA from Rollins College and In 2017 she founded Sarah Delevan Consulting based in Los Angeles, CA and serving clients across the United States. She is the creator of the Financial Success Formula and the founder of the Profitable Food Business program. To learn more about Sarah and opportunities to grow a more profitable food business Click Here.