Goal Planning and Tracking – Getting Started

In the pawn business, it is easy to get stuck in the “motions of the day.” Open up your store, write loans, make transactions, balance your cash drawers, clean up your shop, close up and do it all over again. How do you break that monotony while being productive? Set yourself some goals!  

Setting goals is an important thing to do when working in, running, or owning a pawn shop. When done correctly, goals can help you and your pawnshop bring in more business, grow, and become even more successful.

What goals should you set? How should you measure them? All great questions but it is important to differentiate between a goal, customer retention, and its effect, profits. We all want to be successful and have our profits grow, but that is not the goal, it is the effect. Remember this when deciding your goals.

Most important when setting goals is to set realistic ones. Think about goals that you can achieve and that are in your control. Doing otherwise is setting yourself and your team up for disaster. Remember to be S.M.A.R.T.:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time Bound

Now that you’ve set your attainable goal, write it down. Yes, seriously! Write your goal down on some paper. Post it on your wall. When you do this, it makes your goal a bit more tangible, a bit more real. It also brings in accountability.

Remember that counting, measuring, and tracking is NOT ABOUT THE RESULT. Measure to discover, to find out, to understand. Do this to see if you’re actually spending time on the things that are important to you. And don’t forget to be kind to yourself. Self-sabotage rears its ugly head with negative talk and low self esteem.  Heads up pawnbrokers, that’s how you keep your eye on the goal.