E-commerce achievements, where do you want to be in 5 years?

Running any business, whether you’re just starting up or have been trading for years is a 24 hour, 7 days a week commitment.

You miss out on the family occasions, you miss out on some date nights here and there and often you can find yourself isolated and alone.

These are all part and parcel of what you have to accept to run a business, and I can assure you an online business is no different.

Targets — 5 years from now

E-commerce stores have seen a massive boom during the Covid-19 pandemic. Everything from buying a boat through to having your morning latte can now be delivered without you having to leave your home.

Would we have seen this surge in online shopping demand had we not had the Covid-19 pandemic? After all people were turning more and more to online shopping than they were to their local high street, Covid-19 merely exasperated the situation.

For your e-commerce business, have you considered where you want to be in a few years time? Do you have a 12 month plan? What about 3 years? 5 or even 10 years from now.

Planning and preparing for your businesses is future is vital and there has never been a better time to do it, than right now.

Spend sometime deciding on some targets, these can be financial, social or even as simple as having a certain line of product in your store before that of your competitors.

The only condition of your targets is they need to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time based). That said don’t be afraid to go wild with those financial numbers.

Do this for 5 years from now.

3 years from now

Ok so now you have an idea as to where you want your online store to be in 5 years, now do the same again for 3 years from now.

Bearing in mind you will now be over halfway through to reaching your 5 year goal or rather you should be.

So if your goal is to make £5 million in sales in year 5, but your target for year 3 is around £250k, something major will need to happen for you to leap into that kind of milestone.

Consider the staffing as well of the business, how many people, how much stock, do you need a bigger warehouse and so on.

Dive down to the nitty gritty of your goals for year 3, this will help you build a foundation for year 5 and also serve as a bench mark from year 1.

12 months from now

Ocotber 7th 2022, where are you? What are you doing? How’s the business performing? More importantly have you reached all the goals you set yourself from 12 months ago.

Decide on where you want to be in 12 months time, get it on the board in the office, get your team behind it and go and make it happen.

30 days from now

Each month, look at the progress you are, or are not making towards that 12 month goal.

Each month review with your team where, why and how things are going and look for signs of cracks, weaknesses or signs that you’re getting off track.

Remember your targets should be motivating your team to want to hit those numbers and breaking through onto the next level.