Before I was a bookkeeper I worked for a large company that had you set objectives each year. All fine and dandy until you were told that they had to be “stretch” objectives which, when you dug through the politics, roughly translated to “having an objective to continue as you are because you’re happy with your current situation is not good enough”. Well I’m here to tell my old job, screw you! It is perfectly acceptable to be in a position that you are content with and just want to maintain. Setting targets for your business doesn’t always mean you are looking for ways to expand your customer base or increase your sales. It could be to continue with your current level of sales or to maintain your hours worked.

Staying as you are still requires work unfortunately! You need to analyse where you currently are and what you’re currently doing to know how to maintain those levels. I’ve put together a little list of things for you to look into below:

• How many sales are you currently making?
• How much are you spending on items to make your products?
• How much profit are you making?
• What additional costs are there?
• How often do you release new products?
• Are your customers new or repeat buyers?
• Where are they buying your products?
• Is there a particular demographic that your products appeal to most?
• When and how often are you posting on social media?
• How many hours are you currently working?
• Do you work best at a particular time of day?

All of these things and more need to be considered so you understand exactly how you have got to this sweet spot and, more importantly, how you can stay there. Good luck!