If someone were to ask you how your home business is doing, would you be able to answer, truthfully, and accurately? The honest answer to this question (for most people) would undoubtedly be in the negative. An extremely effective business management system is a simple process called "MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES." In the business world, managers need to know how well their employees and subordinates are doing their jobs, and whether they are completing tasks within an agreed time frame. During a discussion, the manager sets his subordinate a list of "objectives" also known as goals or targets, to be completed by agreed dates.

During regular follow-up discussions progress towards completion of these objectives is measured, those completed are signed off while new targets are discussed and set.

The individual home business owner's reaction might understandably be to question the need for anything like this in a one-person home business. However, the sound reasons for setting and managing objectives apply equally to any business, no matter how large or small. The logic is simply that this process (MBO) is a means of planning for a business, keeping a record of targets attained, and equally of keeping track of those (not) attained.

First of all, the discipline of thinking through your plans for your business is an excellent exercise in itself. It's a way of listing important items to be completed and ticking them off when done. It's a very good habit to aim for a reasonable "do-by" date for each, as well. If delays are encountered there's no problem, simply re-set the date to something reasonable.

We're all human, and one of man's greatest weaknesses is procrastination. It's too easy to put off those less enjoyable items for another day. Not everyone has a razor-sharp memory and long delayed items can eventually be forgotten. This can be disastrous, if a vital date like filing your tax-return is forgotten!

The suggestion is to set up a little document, with say four columns:

Date Set; Objective; Importance (1-3); Do-by Date;

You should have no more than about 6 items at any one time, and it's vital to keep this as a living document, that should be reviewed about weekly. You can keep it on paper, or in your computer. There's a certain satisfaction in clicking Delete when a tiresome task is complete and out of the way.

Make some of your goals short-term, (e.g. Open folders for filing incoming e-mails) and some longer term (e.g. Learn some HTML to make small changes to my Web-site.)

I'm sure that you will derive the benefits of sticking to this little exercise, and it's especially valuable to you in ensuring that your business doesn't stagnate. As time goes on, you will become aware of new items that will grow your business into the next level of top home businesses - upgrading software to make your business more effective, a new method of attracting more visitors to your site, or a new marketing campaign.

This keeps you aware of developmental opportunities and allows you to plan accordingly, both in terms of timing and resources.

I trust that this discussion will have been of interest to those of you who've not come across MBO or one of its many counterparts. Above all - keep it simple and keep it alive.

In our next article we'll discuss the importance of Budgeting for your business.

I look forward to your company soon.