While cold, wintry weather is blanketing much of the United States this season, wintertime can also present an opportunity for shed manufacturers and related businesses to take a brief breather.
The downtime can also be an ideal opportunity to reflect on your company’s achievements and challenges in 2025. Carefully examining the company’s recent performance is integral to setting realistic goals for the enterprise in 2026.
Setting unattainable goals can be detrimental to company culture and employee morale. Shed Business Journal spoke with four experts offering advice about the importance of managing expectations when determining realistic goals, as well as managing disappointment if the company’s 2026 objectives are not met.
EMPLOYEES ARE YOUR BUSINESS’S LIVELIHOOD, KEEP THEM HAPPY
“What you can have in your shed company that your competitor can’t have is your staff. Their loyalty. Their expertise. So, it is best to acknowledge that and behave properly. Put your people first. Put your last penny to your people,” says John Kolm, CEO of Team Results USA.
Kolm, who found himself disappointed with the state of team training in the corporate world, founded his company in 1996 to enhance workplace teamwork and leadership training.
According to Kolm, in addition to offering competitive wages and benefits to employees, a business owner would be wise to establish a positive company culture. By that, he means “what people say about you.”
He adds, “’culture’ is that first gut reaction when you hear the name” of a business.
Especially in small towns, where people tend to know one another or at least know each other’s business, what folks say about a company while yapping mindlessly at the grocery store with one another is a company’s culture.
Culture, says Kolm, is the created atmosphere in a work environment. That culture, or work climate, is then reflected by employees in their work performance, he says.
“So, if you want to culture where you meet your customers’ needs, you need to treat your employees well, first,” he says.
Company morale differs from the entity’s culture in that it “creates behaviors people talk about. Morales uphold culture,” notes Kolm.
In other words, employee performance is “the end result of culture and morale,” sums up Kolm.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR COMPANY’S CULTURE IS?
Since an entity’s work environment impacts the attitudes and output of employees, it is important to understand what a company’s culture is in the first place.
According to Kolm, there are several reasons a boss might not be aware of a company’s culture. They include:
- Failure to listen to employees and/or clients.
- Active listening defeated by a lack of follow-up.
- Not understanding the business they are in, so they can’t really hear.
FOCUS ON WHAT CAN BE CONTROLLED
The First Step in Alcoholics Anonymous focuses on admitting our powerlessness over nearly everything. Trying to control what is beyond our power is a negative waste of energy.
That’s why Eric Ritter, CEO of Digital Neighbor, a digital marketing agency in Florida, and an adjunct professor of digital media strategy at the University of South Florida, cautions business owners to “make sure you set expectations on matters you can control and not market conditions you can’t.”
Business considerations that can be controlled include:
- Quality of services provided. Are they consistent and good?
- Determining the staff’s capacity. Is each employee in the right role for their skills and qualifications?
- Are standard operating procedures (SOPs) being utilized? Examples include solid bookkeeping and calendaring systems.
“Everything else,” says Ritter, “is just noise.”
Certainly not an exhaustive list, but financial considerations that cannot be controlled include government tariffs and their potential impact on sales and the supply chain, and global AI disruptions.
FRAMEWORK FOR SETTING REALISTIC BUSINESS GOALS IN 2026
Ritter, whose business philosophy centers on “consistency over perfection,” specializes in assisting small businesses in setting clear and realistic data-driven goals by breaking complex digital growth strategies into simple, measurable steps.
“Set your goals in reality, not optimism,” he opines. “Real expectations account for what you can control, like staffing, accounts receivable, and sales,” he says.
His framework for establishing goals for 2026 includes:
- Review your company’s financial picture from 2025, including revenue, client retention, team stability, and accounts receivable.
- Set expectations that address actionable opportunities for improvement. Examples include considering whether the company experiences high employee turnover. Are more clients being lost than being retained? Are there other related services your entity can offer to increase sales?
Ritter suggests building goals for previous sore spots in the company’s performance that can enhance its bottom line.
An oft-forgotten element of setting realistic goals for a business is its accounts receivable. If you are not following how much clients and others owe you, “you are leaving money on the table,” says Ritter.
He calls tracking accounts receivable a “quick win. If you are not tracking it, you may not be aware how much money” your business is actually owed.
If the numbers are high enough, it might warrant investing in a collections system to get paid. When Ritter realized A/R was a weakness of his own enterprise, that’s the approach he took to tackle the problem.
TECHNOLOGICALLY SPEAKING
Peter Murphy Lewis is a storyteller and the founder and CEO of Strategic Pete, an entity offering fractional CMO services. According to Lewis, measuring various variables underlying a company’s success is an excellent method for setting realistic goals.
For example, measuring an entity’s social media output is a strong foundation for determining company goals for a new year. Metrics that can easily be monitored include the number of:
- Unique visitors the company website attracted.
- Followers on its various social media platforms.
- Posts published on social media channels.
- Responses to social media posts.
- Sales driven by or at least tangentially related to a social media post.
- Emails sent to prospective customers.
Lewis prefers to focus on three to 15 metrics, depending on how detail-oriented a business owner is. Tracking variables like these is useful for a company to better understand its weaknesses, so they can be corrected.
Lewis’s suggestions exemplify an Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). He urges business owners to review metrics, such as those for social media, on a weekly basis.
EOS is a business methodology created by Gino Wickman, a business advisor and entrepreneur. He authored the book Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business. Reading it is considered elementary for understanding and implementing an EOS.
“Any business owner should read (the book) and implement it one to two years after starting a business,” says Lewis.
To assist business owners seeking to implement an EOS, Lewis suggests they adopt an EOS Traction Scorecard. Doing so will assist in monitoring the variables a company owner wishes to focus on. For example, in the sales and marketing realm, variables could include the number of new, qualified leads a business created or received in the week, or the number of visitors to the entity’s website or social media platforms.
Another benefit of a well-designed EOS is its ability to “teach how to identify problems to solve them so you can get back to meeting your goals,” says Lewis. Such workplace solutions are defined however a company head decrees.
“A workplace solution is whatever you decide solves it,” he opines to CEOs and other business heads.
ATTITUDE BOOSTS THE ALTITUDE
Dr. Eric Frazer is a forensic psychologist and author of The Psychology of Top Talent: The Practical Scientifically Proven Method To Identify, Hire and Develop High Performers. He has a passion for understanding the behaviors and personality traits that result in a person’s success or failure.
According to Frazer, there are several personality characteristics considered highly desirable in company owners. Among them is confidence.
“You must have some degree of confidence to start your business. If you have confidence, then maintaining it is paramount,” says Frazer.
He suggests those lacking in confidence think about why that is. Focus on ways to improve. If certain employees suffer from poor communication skills with customers, their confidence is likely depleted, too. Consider ways to train your team so their communication skills improve, and their confidence soars.
To that end, Frazer has created an actual card deck, with each card suggesting a new personal goal for that cardholder. For example, if the card suggests the player practice their sales pitch while looking in the mirror every day for a week, the hope is they conquered a new skill by week’s end.
Frazer also counsels CEOs to delegate authority and responsibility to their employees. “You can’t do everything. That’s why you hire people,” he says.
However, for the delegation to be successful, “it must be effective. That means aligning someone in the business who has true skills or alignment to complete the task perfectly,” he says.
A boss must also maintain realistic expectations of their workers. “Arm employees with the skills they need to succeed,” Frazer opines.
Providing the support employees need to be successful means offering at least three absolutes, says Frazer. They include:
- Coaching.
- Clear communication.
- Technical instruction.
Top talent also generally displays grit and optimism, so be on the lookout for it, says Frazer. Someone with a positive outlook on life will usually bring that welcome attitude to work, too. He likens a person with grit as one who demonstrates a dedication to long-term goals.
“Listen to their storyline to see how and if the person overcame challenges to arrive at their achievement or not,” he says. Ask the job applicant to reveal how they overcame complicated situations. If they are unable to articulate how they resolved a complex challenge, they may not be a great fit for a small business relying on its few employees for every kind of help imaginable.
COPING WITH DISAPPOINTMENT IF GOALS ARE NOT REACHED
“It is unrealistic to never be disappointed. The goal is to get past the emotions (Let It Go) and learn from the experience,” says Frazer.
Dealing with disappointment in a mentally healthy way is a useful exercise most people don’t do, he says.
Conduct a “human performance audit” when results do not match expectations. Consider that somewhere along the way, performances slipped. Frazer suggests CEOs “study each element of the situation to break it down to get back on track with optimal performance. That helps identify areas for growth and improvement,” he says.
SUMMING IT UP
Kolm urges entrepreneurs to brainstorm about what they want to do with their company, their lives, and more.
“Don’t set realistic goals. Set crazy ones. Don’t censure yourself. Just write them down. People self-censure. Most people second-guess themselves,” says Kolm.
Next, apply rational thinking to your “lofty goal.” For example, rather than setting the unrealistic goal of monopolizing the U.S. shed market in a single calendar year, opt for a more realistic and attainable goal, like becoming the largest shed manufacturer in a specific city or state.
Be certain to properly capitalize your endeavor. And, suggests Kolm, “make sure you can survive between now and when your small business is big.”
