CHICAGO — December 14, 2006 — One-quarter of American small businesses (25 percent) will start
the New Year without having defined their 2007 business goals, according to a recent national survey by
SurePayroll.
Reflecting back on 2006 accomplishments, nearly three-quarters of business owners were not satisfied with
how their businesses fared against business objectives.
Just in time for New Year, SurePayroll surveyed hundreds of randomly selected U.S. small business owners
about how they set business goals. Key findings include:
Personal Goal Setting Encouraged
When it comes to defining goals, business owners are not just setting goals for themselves. The vast majority of
business owners (84 percent) indicated that they are actively encouraging their employees to set goals for the
upcoming year.
Who Needs Goals?
Surprisingly, some business owners never define business goals for the year. Many surveyed small business owners
(13 percent) say they operate without formal goals.
Get the Pen and Paper Out!
Research suggests that writing down your goals is an important first step towards achieving them. Small
business owners appear to agree wholeheartedly, with 86 percent noting that recording a goal in writing increases
the likelihood that it will be achieved.
Biggest Headache for 2007? Health Care Costs
The "Cost of Health Care" topped the list of business concerns for 2007. "Fair Competition" and "Tax Relief" took
second place, and third place went to the "War in Iraq."
Business Plans — Not Just for the Big Guys
Some people may believe that business plans are only for large companies, but the SurePayroll survey disproves
that myth. A surprising 60 percent of respondents who define business goals have formally-written business plans
in place. The remainder either write plans down informally (25 percent) or simply think about their goals but
don't write them down (15 percent).
"Our counsel to small business owners is that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail," said Michael Alter,
president of SurePayroll. "To assist America’s entrepreneurs, SurePayroll has created some simple suggestions to
help business owners plan for the upcoming year."
SurePayroll's tips for small business goal setting include the following:
- Don't set goals for the entire year. Instead, set goals for the first three months of the year.
In March, define your goals for the next three months and continue this process through the end of the year.
- Define metrics to measure your success — for all goals. If you can't measure it, you can't improve
it. Figure out where you are now, define metric goals and reevaluate your strategy in three months.
- Post goals on posters in the office. Goals that are sitting in a business plan on a hard drive or in a
filing cabinet are rarely achieved. Post goals in a public place and remind employees about the top-priority
business goals as often as possible.
- Set 3 different goals and reward for above-average growth. Don't set yourself up for failure by setting
unachievable goals, but don't sell your business short, either. To ensure you can feel good about achieving
base-line goals while shooting for the gold, define three goals — one that, if achieved, indicates
expected growth, one that indicates the business did very well and a stretch goal that indicates the business
did phenomenally. Attach rewards for all employees to each.
- Put in place a plan of action to achieve your goals. In business, many things conform to the old
expression "hard by the yard, cinch by the inch." To achieve a business goal, you must envision success and
then work backwards to determine what must happen to ensure success. By breaking a large task into smaller
component objectives, you can greatly increase your chance of success.
- Don't forget to resolve to simplify business administration. This time of year is the perfect time to
plan to increase efficiency. If you've been thinking about outsourcing payroll, for example, it's best to do
it now. If you wait until the middle of the year, you'll need to deal with more paperwork. Take the time
now to plan on outsourcing things that are not critical to your business success in 2007; that will free
up your time to achieve the goals that are truly important to you.
About SurePayroll:
Privately held SurePayroll is America's fifth largest payroll provider and the nation's largest online
payroll provider. Catering exclusively to the needs of small businesses, SurePayroll provides a simple,
reliable and economical way to process payroll in minutes via the Internet. In addition to providing
payroll services directly to small business, SurePayroll also provides a private-label payroll service
that allows SurePayroll's numerous partners to offer payroll processing to their small business clients.
Business partners include ABN AMRO, Pitney Bowes, and MasterCard.
SurePayroll will process nearly $3 billion in employee and contractor payroll payments in 2006.
For Media Inquiries Contact:
Ken Gaebler
Walker Sands Communications
www.walkersands.com
Phone: (312) 543-0654
Email: surepayroll-inquiries@walkersands.com
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