6 Reasons You’re Not Reaching Your Pharmacy Goals & How to Change Them

You took the time to research, define, outline and plan your new pharmacy goals. The whiteboard in the breakroom clearly displays your goals for everyone to see, you are proud. Six months later, the goals are mostly erased, and everyone has given up trying to re-write them. The excitement of striving for something has worn off somewhere between the 14-hour days and the consistent stress headache.

American writer, Napoleon Hill famously said, “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” In his book, Think and Grow Rich, he lays the foundation that every goal needs to be successful. The importance of goals goes beyond a feel good metric, goals drive results. Goals gave us the Pyramids in Egypt, the Hoover Dam, the locally-owned coffee shop around the corner, and even your community pharmacy.

If you consistently find yourself erasing your long-forgotten goals from the board, take a look at these six reasons you’re not reaching them:

You’re Not Flexible

You set a goal to increase non-prescriptionsales by 50% in the next six months with the help of a marketing campaign for a new product. You’ve organized plans and just before making the final push to introduce the product to your customers, your marketing director quits and leaves you hanging. Everything comes to a stop, and it doesn’t look like the product introduction is going to happen. You can wait to hire another marketing person, but if you do that, you won’t meet your goal.

On the other hand, you can tackle the situation yourself, delegate marketing responsibilities and empower your team to make sure the marketing program still runs as planned. An inflexible pharmacy owner would push off the goal and blame it on the person quitting. A flexible owner, on the other hand, would adapt and change course, doing what is needed to make sure the goal and deadlines are met.

You’re Practicing Weak Time Management

There never seems to be enough hours in the day! Your to-do list is filled with pharmacy operational responsibilities, running errands, picking up the kids from school, time at the gym, and date night with your spouse. With all these daily tasks, how is it possible to meet your goals and move your pharmacy forward? The fact is, everyone has the same 24 hours in each day and prioritizing those hours is what makes the difference. Can your pharmacy manager handle the errands? Can you fit your workout in during the morning hours? Finding the extra time in your day will help you schedule tasks that effectively help you achieve your goals. This is why time management is a vital skill for accomplishing even the smallest goals and helping to push your pharmacy toward success.

You’re a Habitual Procrastinator

Setting goals and putting ideas into motion is going to change the way you do things. Sometimes the added stress of your daily activities will make you want to postpone the progress necessary for reaching your goals. Procrastination is the enemy of completing your goals, but it must be conquered. Pick a start and end date to accomplish your goal, and then make sure to hold yourself and your team accountable to achieving it.

You’re Suffering from Poor Planning

Let’s say you set a goal to open a new pharmacy location by the end of the year. That’s great, but how are you going to accomplish that? You’re at point A. How do you get to point B? You must plan a strategy for how you’re going to accomplish your goal. Break it up into smaller goals and assign each one a deadline. Budget money for the new lease, hire a contractor for building renovations, apply for your permits, and hire staff. All of these are smaller goals that will help you accomplish the larger goal at hand. These smaller bite-size goals will keep you moving forward and keep you on top of your schedule.

You Have a Lack of Clarity

Setting a goal is fantastic, but for it to be effective, you must be clear with your intentions. Goals like, “I want to make more money,” “I want to learn a foreign language,” or “I want to open a new pharmacy location” are too vague. Not being specific inhibits you from breaking down your goal into steps. How much money do you want to make? Which foreign language do you want to learn? When and where do you want to open that new pharmacy? Once you have clearly defined those goals, you will be able to create an action plan for their implementation.

Your Drive & Motivation Are Slowing

You’re a pharmacy owner. You work long hours, and you lead a great team of employees. You’ve done a lot in your career, and you are fairly satisfied with your life. Is it possible that you are not driven enough for accomplishing your goal? The difference between wanting something and having enough drive to see plans through to completion is in the ability to sacrifice. Do you want to extend the south wall of your pharmacy to make room for additional aisle space but don’t have the capital to make that happen right now? How are you going to overcome that obstacle? You could take on investors, throw a paid health fair, or sell additional retail products. If you want something badly enough you’ll find ways to make it happen.

If you aren’t moving forward, you’re falling behind. The pharmacy industry is highly competitive and as an owner, you should be continually improving your brand, your team, and yourself. Setting goals is the first step in that direction, but it’s not enough. You need to formulate a plan and break down your goals piece by piece, so they are easily digestible. Remember, a goal without action is a dream. Don’t be just a dreamer. Be the pharmacy owner who overcomes obstacles, has a plan, manages time, and puts the wheels of success into motion. For additional resources on how you can effectively achieve your pharmacy goals, download this free ebook, The Pharmacy Owner’s Guide to Exceptionally Effective Implementation