One of the more challenging aspects of business ownership and management is motivating your team through goal setting.

Goal setting lets you focus on what needs to be achieved, what needs to be measured and what needs to be mastered to achieve your salon’s business objectives.

If your goals are not documented - that is, they exist in your head - you are only focussed on what is to be achieved.  You can’t measure the outcomes and achievements if they aren’t written down.

Consider the impact of writing down you goals from the following study:

A Harvard study found that only 3% of students set goals and wrote them down.  Another 13% set goals, but didn’t write them down.  

The study followed up with the group of students ten years later, finding that the 13% that had set goals but didn’t write them down, were earning twice the income of those students that set no goals.  However, the 3% that had documented their goals, were earning ten times the income of the non-goal group.

Your salon’s goals should be the second most important business management document you have, next to your business plan.  The goals will fall out from the business plan, identifying the path of who and how the business objectives will be achieved.

While as a salon owner, your goals will be documented within the form of your business plan, but I also urge my coaching clients to have their team goals documented.  In doing so, you will help your team understand what your expectations are for them.  

By having long term goals broken into short term goals, it also helps salon staff track their own performance.

Through having your salon’s goals written down for your team, they will have a clear understanding of:

• What is to be achieved

• Any challenge they may face in working to achieve it

• The commitment required to achieve it

Most importantly, they will have the opportunity to provide and receive feedback, giving them autonomy in their role which in turn will help motivate your team.