Are You a SMART MSP? 5 SMART goals for MSPs

View January’s Soar to Success article here

Happy New Year! 

Another year has passed and I’m now in my 37^th year in business.

WOW, hard to believe!

I’ve learned a few things about how to be successful over the years, and one of those things is setting goals.  I love to follow the SMART goals method as a formula for success.  If you’ve ever heard of it, you know it’s great!  I always sit down and work through this method at the beginning of the year, and I would love to share it with you.

SMART goals stand for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound.  Here is a little more detail on how this method works:

1. Be specific.  Get crystal clear about what you want to achieve.  Vague goals like “sell more” or “increase revenue” will not cut it.  You need to be more specific with wording such as, “Increase monthly recurring revenue by $25,000.” 
2. Your SMART goals must be quantifiable, and you need to get specific here as well.  Let’s say you want to increase your monthly recurring revenue by $25,000. In that case, your measurable goal might be something like this: “Run two Marketing Campaigns per month, one for current customers and one for prospects”.  You can easily see if you reached this goal or not at the end of the month, making it effectively measurable.
3. Your SMART goals have to be achievable and realistic.   If it is too far out of reach, you will become frustrated; if it is too easy, you will not grow.  Let’s say you want to increase your monthly recurring revenue by $25,000 and you are at $0: that is probably not attainable. Setting your goal to $10,000 is lofty, but certainly still attainable if you work at it correctly.
4. Your SMART goals need to align with your company’s aims and industry trends.  For example, if your goal is to increase recurring revenue, ask yourself if running two marketing campaigns per month will increase sales?  The answer will usually be yes, but if not, you should focus your efforts elsewhere. 
5. Time-bound. The final step is to decide on a time frame in which to achieve your goal.  Don’t set a deadline too far in the future for a simple task, or too short for a larger goal. Be realistic: you and your team members will only grow more stressed out with unrealistic deadline expectations.

Once you have your SMART goals defined, the next step is for you and your team to commit.  Have a launch party to discuss your goals, and don’t forget to make it fun and exciting!  You’ll see a big difference.

If you are interested in learning more about increasing your recurring revenue, check out how we grew our MSP to over 7 figures with Cloud at www.CloudServicesForMSPs.com or give me a call.