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What is the target revenue for this financial year? Why you need to know : You should always try to know what your business's target revenue for the year is and how the business is going to meet it. Performance against revenue targets is a key indicator of whether the business is meeting its goals and keeping track of this will naturally help you understand how the business is doing. Truly understanding both how your business is performing against its revenue targets and what is influencing the performance will help you to be proactive about your ideas and position them properly. It can also help you to be sure that you are not making silly suggestions, such as spending money if the business is struggling or cutting costs if the business is doing better than expected. Of course, some organisations don't have revenue targets (such as government departments or not-for-profit institutions), but there will be other key performance indicators and the same approach should be taken. Whether your business is doing better or worse than expected throughout the year is something you should discuss with your clients, as it could have an impact on other issues such as recruitment or retention and the speed at which initiatives are introduced. Revenue target information will be included in the management information for your business and so is relatively easy to discover. Talk to people in finance or the heads of the revenue-producing departments of the business. Read any regular internal management accounting reports so that you have a proper understanding of how the business is performing. It's also important to understand not just whether your business is doing better or worse than expected, but also why. Look at the general economic trends, at how individual departments are performing against their targets. Try to discover what's underneath the figures and what is affecting them both internally and externally. Is something affecting your key clients or customers businesses? What are the market trends? Is there a particularly aggressive competitor in the market? Any of these factors could affect the revenue of your business, but understanding them will help you to be strategic and proactive about how HR can help your business overcome any difficult factors. Jan Hills Director, HR with Guts
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