business goals in business plan example

How To Set Business Goals (+ Examples for Inspiration)

Updated: March 11, 2024

Published: October 24, 2023

You’re a business owner — the captain of your own ship. But how do you ensure you’re steering your company in the right direction? 

Without clear-cut goals and a plan to reach them, you risk setting your sails on the course of dangerous icebergs. 

The best way to steer clear of wreckage is to map out exactly where you want your business to go. This is what makes setting business goals so important. If you’re not already using them to guide your ship, then now’s a great time to start.

Table of contents:

• What are business goals?

Why business goals are important

How to set business goals, tips to achieve business goals, business goals examples, what are business goals .

Business goals are the desired outcomes that an organization aims to achieve within a specific time frame. These goals help define the purpose and direction of the company, guiding decision-making and resource allocation. They can be short-term or long-term objectives , aligned with the company’s mission and vision.

Operating a business using your gut and feelings will only get you so far. If you’re looking to build a sustainable company, then you need to set goals in advance and follow through with them. 

Here’s what goal setting can do to make your business a success:

• Give your business direction. Business goals align everyone toward a common purpose and ensure all efforts and resources are directed toward achieving specific outcomes.
• Keep everyone motivated to keep pushing forward. Goals provide employees with a sense of purpose and motivation. According to research from BiWorldwide, goal setting makes employees 14.2x more inspired at work and 3.6x more likely to be committed to the organization.
• Create benchmarks to work toward (and above). Goals provide a basis for measuring and evaluating the performance of the organization. They serve as benchmarks to assess progress, identify areas of improvement, and make informed decisions about resource allocation and strategy adjustments .
• Prioritize activities and allocate resources effectively. Goals help you identify the most important initiatives, ensuring that time, money, and effort are invested in activities that align with the overall objectives.
• Make continuous organizational improvements. Goals drive continuous improvement by setting targets for growth and progress. They encourage businesses to constantly evaluate their performance, identify areas for refinement, and implement strategies to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.

Nothing creates solidarity among teams and departments like shared goals. So be sure to get everyone involved to boost camaraderie. 

Setting business goals requires careful consideration and planning. By defining specific and measurable targets, you can track progress and make necessary adjustments along the way.

Here are the steps to effectively set business goals.

Step 1: Identify key areas to improve in your business

Start by assessing the current state of your organization. Identify areas that require improvement or growth. This could include increasing revenue, expanding your customer base, improving employee satisfaction, or enhancing product offerings.

Step 2: Choose specific and measurable goals 

Setting clear and specific goals is essential. Use the SMART goal framework to ensure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For example, instead of setting a vague goal like “increase revenue,” set a specific goal like “increase revenue by 15% in the next quarter.”

Step 3: Prioritize which goals to tackle first

Not all goals are equally important or urgent. Evaluate the impact and feasibility of each goal and prioritize them accordingly. By ranking your goals, you can focus your efforts and resources on the most critical objectives.

Step 4: Break down your goals into smaller milestones

Breaking down each goal into smaller, manageable tasks makes them more attainable. Assign responsibilities and set deadlines for each step. This approach helps track progress and ensures accountability.

Step 5: Decide what your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will be

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are metrics used to measure progress toward your goals. Set realistic and relevant KPIs that align with your objectives. For example, if your goal is to increase customer acquisition, a relevant KPI could be the number of new customers acquired per month.

Now that you have set your business goals, it’s time to take action and work toward achieving them. Here are some tips to help you stay on track:

1. Write down your action plan 

Develop a detailed plan of action for each goal. Identify the necessary resources, strategies, and milestones to achieve them. A well-defined action plan provides a road map for success.

2. Foster a culture that’s goal-oriented

Encourage your employees to embrace and contribute to your goals. Foster a culture that values goal setting and achievement. Recognize and reward individuals or teams that make significant progress toward the goals.

3. Regularly track and evaluate progress

Monitor the progress toward each goal and make adjustments as needed. Use project management tools or software to track and visualize progress. Regularly review and evaluate your performance to ensure you’re on the right track.

4. Seek feedback and adapt

Gather feedback from employees, customers, and stakeholders. Their insights can provide valuable perspectives and help you refine your goals and strategies. Adapt your approach based on feedback to increase your chances of success.

5. Stay focused and motivated (even when you fail)

Staying motivated to achieve goals is difficult, especially when you come up short or fail. But don’t let this set you back. Continue pushing forward with your goals or readjust the direction as needed. Then do whatever you can to avoid distractions so you stay committed to your action plan.

Also, remember to celebrate small wins and milestones along the way to keep your team motivated and engaged.

To provide inspiration, here are some examples of common business goals:

1. Revenue growth

Revenue growth is a business goal that focuses on increasing the overall income generated by the company. Setting a specific target percentage increase in revenue can create a measurable goal to work toward.

Strategies for achieving revenue growth may include:

• Expanding the customer base through targeted marketing campaigns
• Improving customer retention and loyalty
• Upselling or cross-selling to existing customers
• Increasing the average order value by offering premium products or services

Example: A retail company sets a goal to increase its revenue by 10% in the next fiscal year. To achieve this, it implements several strategies, including launching a digital marketing campaign to attract new customers, offering personalized discounts and promotions to encourage repeat purchases, and introducing a premium product line to increase the average order value.

2. Customer acquisition

Customer acquisition focuses on expanding the customer base by attracting new customers to the business. Setting a specific goal for the number of new customers helps businesses track their progress and measure the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.

Strategies for customer acquisition may include:

• Running targeted advertising campaigns
• Implementing referral programs to incentivize existing customers to refer new ones
• Forming strategic partnerships with complementary businesses to reach a wider audience

Example: A software-as-a-service (SaaS) company aims to acquire 1k new customers in the next quarter. To achieve this, it launches a social media marketing campaign targeting its ideal customer profile, offers a referral program where existing customers receive a discount for referring new customers, and forms partnerships with industry influencers to promote its product.

3. Employee development

Employee development goals focus on enhancing the skills and knowledge of employees to improve their performance and contribute to the organization’s growth. By setting goals for employee training and skill development, businesses can create a culture of continuous learning and provide opportunities for career advancement.

Strategies for employee development may include:

• Offering training programs
• Providing mentorship opportunities
• Sponsoring professional certifications
• Creating a career development plan for each employee

Example: A technology company aims to have 80% of its employees complete at least one professional certification within the next year. To achieve this, it offers financial support and study materials for employees interested in obtaining certifications, provides dedicated study time during working hours, and celebrates employees’ achievements upon certification completion.

4. Product development

Product development goals focus on creating and improving products or services to meet customer needs and stay competitive in the market. Setting goals for product development can prioritize your efforts and so you can allocate resources effectively.

Strategies for product development may include:

• Conducting market research to identify customer preferences and trends
• Gathering customer feedback through surveys or focus groups
• Investing in research and development to create new products or enhance existing ones
• Collaborating with customers or industry experts to co-create innovative solutions

Example: An electronics company sets a goal to launch three new product lines within the next year. To achieve this, it conducts market research to identify emerging trends and customer demands, gathers feedback from its target audience through surveys and usability testing, allocates resources to research and development teams for product innovation, and collaborates with external design agencies to create visually appealing and user-friendly products.

5. Social responsibility

Social responsibility goals focus on making a positive impact on society or the environment. These goals go beyond financial success and emphasize the importance of ethical and sustainable business practices. Setting goals for social responsibility allows businesses to align their values with their actions and contribute to causes that resonate with their stakeholders.

Strategies for social responsibility may include: 

• Implementing sustainable practices to reduce environmental impact
• Donating a percentage of profits to charitable organizations
• Supporting local communities through volunteer programs
• Promoting diversity and inclusion within the organization

Example: A clothing retailer aims to reduce its carbon footprint by 20% in the next two years. To achieve this, it implements sustainable practices, such as using eco-friendly materials, optimizing packaging to minimize waste, and partnering with ethical manufacturers. It also donates a percentage of its profits to an environmental conservation organization.

Setting and achieving goals is what it takes to be successful in business. By following the steps outlined in this article and incorporating the tips provided, you can effectively set and work toward your goals. Remember to regularly evaluate progress, adapt as necessary, and celebrate milestones along the way.

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41 Business Goals Examples to Set in 2024 and Beyond

• Goal Management

What Are Business Goals?

4 goal frameworks with examples, manage business goals in weekdone.

For more than 10 years Weekdone has provided tens of thousands of teams from startups to Fortune 500 with world leading goal-setting software called Weekdone . These are our lessons learned.

Organizations invest time and resources in determining where to target their collective efforts. Whether your business goals and objectives center on strategic planning, expansion, or sustainability, they are a pivotal point in the expansion of any organization. They assist in several ways, from enhancing customer service to boosting revenues. In the end, they contribute to establishing the company’s main goal.

You may have come across many long-term and short-term goal-setting methodologies or frameworks in the business sector, such as Objectives and Key Results (OKR) , Balanced Scorecard (BSC), SMART goals, and so on. 

• OKRs – Objectives and Key Results – as implemented in products like Weekdone are today’s de-facto standard for goal-setting in teams and companies
• SMART goals can help you handle the bumps on the road. 
• Business model and vision statement provide a big picture view of your firm and what you want to achieve, 
• Short-term and long-term business objectives describe the exact techniques you’ll employ to get there.

It’s time to advance with a proactive, strategic strategy that prioritizes pressing problems and helps us avoid making snap judgments in the future. Let’s go through the ultimate strategies for setting great business goals for 2024 and beyond.

Business goals are the aims that a company expects to achieve within a specific time frame. You may define business goals for your entire organization as well as specific departments, staff, management, and/or clientele.

Goals often indicate the wider purpose of a firm and seek to set an ultimate goal for staff to strive toward. The time period you set your goal for will determine whether it’s considered short-term or long term.

Short term goals are usually those which can be achieved in one or two working quarters (3-6 months) sometimes maybe a year, depending on how committed the organization is.

Further, when thinking of a long term goal – it’s typically one set with a date to accomplish within one year or more.

📚 What’s the difference between goals and objectives ?

A goal framework is a systematic way of defining goals. Although these frameworks vary in terms of precise rules and methods, they are all intended to simplify the goal management process to maximize the probability of achievement. This generally entails breaking down larger and more complicated goals into smaller steps and activities that should be completed within a specific period.

The 4 goal-setting frameworks listed below are among the most widely used and successful frameworks available today.

Objectives and Key Results (OKR)

OKR stands for “ Objectives and Key Results .” This popular goal management framework focuses on development and progress by setting proper quarterly goals – leveraging the ability of your teams to achieve results. Weekdone is a tool to implement OKRs in your team.

Using OKRs is critical for attaining collaborative success and fulfilling the organization’s bigger vision. This framework helps businesses to keep alignment and engagement on the quantifiable metrics that actually matter!

OKR methodology entails defining objectives, involving individuals in the goal-setting exercise, and fostering an open and transparent culture. Maintaining this culture requires persistent and regular OKR check-ins to keep you on track and ensure you never lose sight of your priorities. OKRs have been embraced by many big corporations and charitable groups, including Netflix and Code for America.

Learn more about the best practices for tracking OKRs , why it is important, and how to use OKRs effectively throughout the company.

Get 14-day trial of Weekdone . Invite your teams and set better business goals with OKRs. Try it now .

How to Write Good OKRs

Writing OKRs at the Company or Team level lets you clearly view your core challenges and improvement possibilities and separate them from day-to-day activities. Good objectives bring teams together, foster long-term growth habits, and propel you to success. If you start using Weekdone , you can take advantage of the OKR examples in the software .

To create OKRs, you must first understand how to do them correctly. OKRs are composed of one main goal at the top and 3-5 accompanying key results. They may be expressed in the form of a statement.

Crafting Company Objectives

To begin, you need to create a corporate objective. The corporate goal should be wide enough to allow all teams to develop the most successful team goals. On the other hand, it should be detailed, so everyone understands the company’s direction.

Ultimately, the company objective helps to establish a quarterly focus for the entire organization. Team objectives are then developed based on this high-level focus.

Developing Team Objectives

Once the company’s Objective(s) is established, individual teams should work together to discuss their relative objectives. These motivating goals should be consistent with the general direction of the firm. They should create focus, a sense of urgency, and a sense of collective purpose. Furthermore, they are intended to represent challenges to be solved or possibilities for progress to be pursued during the quarter.

Pro Tip: In Weekdone , we recommend linking your team objectives to the company objective – creating the company OKR. This goal alignment tactic ensures that everything is moving as one cohesive organism.

Creating Key Results for Your Objectives

Objectives on all levels are subdivided into quantifiable key results used to track your success and progress toward the “O”. As a result, key results they must be time-bound, detailed, attainable, and quantifiable. While the goal is to fix or enhance the problem, crucial findings indicate whether the problem was successfully solved.

Keep in mind: Efficient Key results are lofty but attainable metrics -they are not KPIs or projects. KR’s are always tied to both the quarter and the objectives.

OKR Examples

By identifying some OKR examples to model and practice with, it will be much simpler to adopt the framework in your business effectively. Here are some example Objectives and their Key Results for different business departments:

Sales & Marketing Departmental OKR Examples

Example okr #1:.

Objective: Improve our overall sales performance. Key Result 1: Maintain a sales pipeline of quality leads worth at least $400K each quarter. Key Result 2: Increase the closure rate from 20% to 23%. Key Result 3: Increase the number of planned calls per sales rep from three to six per week. Key Result 4: Increase the average contract size from $12,000 to $124,000.

Example OKR #2:

Objective: Build a netbook of business recurring revenue to stabilize the firm. Key Result 1: Achieve $300,000 in monthly recurring revenue ($MRR) before the end of Q1. Key Result 2: Increase the proportion of subscription services sold against one-time contracts to 60%. Key Result 3: Increase the average paid subscription value to at least $400. Key Result 4: Increase the percentage of yearly renewals to 70%.

Example OKR #3:

Objective: Bring in as many high-quality leads to assist the sales team. Key Result 1: Develop three new case studies aimed at new consumer categories. Key Result 2:  Update the normal sales deck and discussion track with new products/offers. Key Result 3:  Try to double the number of online form leads. Key Result 4:  Organize two sales training sessions.

Example OKR #4:

Objective: Improve the quality of our outbound sales strategy. Key Result 1: Ensure that at least 75% of prospective parties are contacted directly within three working days. Key Result 2:   Consult with productive team members to determine what works in the sales process and develop a sales cheat sheet. Key Result 3: Publish a best practices sales process document with the lowest permitted service levels

Example OKR #5:

Objective: Generate sales leads of greater quality. Key Result 1: Create a set of lead metrics and prepare queries for CRM collection. Key Result 2:   Ensure that at least 75% of leads performed mandatory questions/answers. Key Result 3: Streamline the gathering of data from our database to CRM. Key Result 4: Redesign the user interaction form by adding three additional mandatory structured questionnaires.

Example OKR #6:

Objective : Extend our reach and brand recognition beyond our present geographic boundaries. Key Result 1:  Improve signups from transformational change leadership articles by 3% Key Result 2:  Boost publication subscriptions by 300 Key Result 3: Enhance web traffic from additional target areas by 12%.

Example OKR #7

Objective : Improve our SEO. Key Result 1: Get 20 fresh backlinks from relevant sites each quarter if your domain score exceeds 50. Key Result 2: Optimize our on-page optimization and improve ten pages every quarter. Key Result 3:  Increase the speed of our website to improve our speed score. Key Result 4:   Write one new blog article weekly optimized for our list of targeted search terms.

Example OKR #8

Objective : Foster a sense of community among our clients. Key Result 1:  Develop a best-practices-based customer community approach. Key Result 2:  During the first half of the year, produce 20 articles showing client satisfaction. Key Result 3:  We get 25% of our clients to engage in the community using discount opportunities. Key Result 4:  Earn five favorable PR mentions for our consumers this quarter.

Example OKR #9

Objective : Increase brand exposure and reputation. Key Result 1:  Roll out a new weekly magazine with valuable material and thought leadership. Key Result 2: Deliver five new value-added posts with over 250 words of content every month. Key Result 3: This quarter, obtain two favorable media exposure PR spots in our community. Key Result 4: Amass 10 reviews with five stars on Google and Yelp this quarter.

Example OKR #10

Objective : Deliberately and consistently enhance the competencies of our staff. Key Result 1:   Every member of the team has a personal growth plan. Key Result 2:  All workers have received 360-degree feedback. Key Result 3: Every manager has a one-on-one at least every other week. Key Result 4: Create a strategy for effective intervention opportunities to address capacity shortfalls.

SMART Goals for Business

SMART business goals give you the blueprint to make your overarching business aspirations a reality.

James Cunningham, Arthur Miller, and George Doran initially presented this method for defining goals in 1981. Setting SMART goals allows you to articulate your thoughts, organize your efforts, use your time and resources better, and enhance the odds of reaching your goal. Questions to ask when setting SMART goals:

• What exactly do you want to accomplish?
• What are your numeric priorities or restrictions regarding effort, expense, and time?
• How realistic is it? See committed or aspirational goals
• Does the goal apply to you and your company?
• What are your timeframes, deadlines, and quantifiable constraints?

SMART goals do not have a certain cadence or use case; they are suggestions and a descriptive set of criteria to use while considering what you want to accomplish. You may establish them for certain periods, departments, individuals, or tasks.

How to Write SMART Goals

Consider using the SMART steps to help you reach your goals:

• Specify your goal.
• Create a measurable goal.
• Set attainable goals.
• Ensure that it is relevant.
• Develop a time-bound plan.

SMART goals can be implemented in any section of a business. If you’re unsure whether it’s worthwhile to plan it out for your organization, consider using free online goal-setting tools.

SMART Business Goals Examples

1. i want to boost my revenue.

• Specific: I plan to boost revenue while decreasing spending. Shifting to a more affordable location, which would reduce my rent by 7%, will lower my operational expenditures.
• Measurable: I plan to increase sales over the following five months by signing up three additional potential clients.
• Attainable: I plan to strengthen my current client connections and develop the company through recommendations, networking, and social media. This will assist me in generating more leads, resulting in a rise in income for the company.
• Relevant: Moving to a less expensive location will lower my company’s operational costs, allowing for profit growth.
• Time-bound: By the end of the next three months, I will have doubled my profit.

2. Set Up a Virtual Sales Communication Link

• Specific: Our remote sales crew should have connectivity across the board and be fully functional.
• Measurable: The mission is fully functional when running the routing protocol, and our remote employees can start working.
• Achievable: This goal may be lofty, but we may bring it to the top of the list of priorities and briefly divert assets from longer-term initiatives to finish it.
• Relevant: Even if there is no epidemic, remote work is an excellent option. Remote networking assists people in being productive and organizations in achieving goals in a post-COVID environment.
• Time-bound: This objective has a time constraint of seven days.

3. I Want To Improve My Business Operations Efficiency

• Specific: I’ll strengthen the effectiveness of my daily operations by putting pressure on my sales team to raise their closing ratio from 30% to at least 40%.
• Measurable: Salespeople are expected to enhance their closing ratio from 30% to 40%, and delivery time is expected to be reduced from 72 hours to 12 hours.
• Attainable: I’ll run a poll to determine what the notion means to both clients and the sales staff. I’ll put it in place as soon as the concept is approved.
• Relevant: expanding the number of motorcycles and pickup trucks that will provide delivery services for us will aid the strategy’s success.
• Time-bound: This should take place within a year.

4. I Want To Expand My Business Operations

• Specific: During the next three years, open three additional branches around the country
• Measurable: The goal is to boost the company’s operations and revenue. This, in turn, will encourage the establishment of three additional branches.
• Attainable: More manufacturing will increase my present selling space by 25%. This will allow me to save for the projected expansion to four branches around the country.
• Relevant: Growing production, operations, and income will result in a larger customer base; therefore, opening new branches will not waste time.
• Time-bound: The establishment of the branches should take place during the next three years.

5. My goal is to increase employee retention

• Specific: In 90 days, I will reduce staff turnover by 25% by training new workers to let them understand what is expected of them and a strategy to assist them in becoming acquainted with the operational processes.
• Measurable: the increase in staff turnover is expected to be roughly 25% and should occur within 90 days.
• Attainable: training courses and one-on-one sessions will guarantee that personnel are ready for what is required of them when they start working in production.
• Relevant: exceptional personnel will be considered for a reward scheme. There will be motivational training for individuals who are having difficulty.
• Time-bound: Within 90 days, staff turnover will have improved.

OKR Goals vs. SMART Goals

OKRs and SMART goals may appear to be very comparable on the surface. However, they have entirely different use cases. OKR is regarded as a more advanced method for creating corporate-wide goals.

OKRs are intended to propel firms to growth and long-term progress. They operate best with a quarterly goal-setting cycle and regular weekly check-ins to keep track of progress and stay on target. SMART goals are one-time objectives created for smaller initiatives without a direct or established link to higher-level objectives.

Management by Objectives (MBO)

Management by Objectives, abbreviated “MBO,” is a management concept created by Peter Drucker in the late 1960s as he began to propose better methods for managing skilled workers over agricultural and industrial employees who came before them.

Staff objectives are set using the main business goals, with this framework. MBO enables everyone in the firm to evaluate what they have done concerning the company’s key objectives and priorities while completing duties. This demonstrates how action and outcome are linked and how they may significantly boost productivity.

MBO Examples

MBO can be used and possibly benefit a variety of sectors. Here are some real-world applications for MBO:

Human Resources: MBO may improve employee happiness, hold workplace events, and increase staff participation.

Company Performance: Using MBO to boost gross margins, minimize carbon footprints, enhance sales, and so on.

Marketing: MBO may help you reach goals like boosting email subscriptions, expanding social media followers, and tripling online traffic.

Customer Service: Minimizing incident rates, boosting associate accessibility to assist in customer disagreements, and speeding up a dispute resolution.

Sales: Reduce the sales cycle from six to three months, boost average revenues to $10,000, and acquire 15 new clients over a certain period.

In reality, a clear objective setting in areas where the organization may now fall short may assist all facets of a company, from human resources to marketing to sales to information technology and everything in between.

OKR vs. MBO 

The most notable difference between these two frameworks is that OKR is about outcomes, rather than outputs. OKR has been known to foster more important cross-departmental and team discussions to get to the greater problem or big picture ideas. Management by Objectives has been linked to performance management and is driven by outputs – both of which are very different from the Objectives and Key Results goal management framework.

Read more on the difference between OKR and MBO . 

Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG)

BHAG stands for ‘big, hairy, audacious goals’ and refers to lofty ambitions that may appear impossible in the short term but give a crucial feeling of aspiration and emotional energy to propel the business to the top.

The concept, coined by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, often defines long-term strategies tied to your company’s fundamental beliefs and ideals. BHAGs are long-term in nature, with a time frame of 10 to 25 years optimal. They should be based on the goal and guiding principles of your company.

Tips for Developing Your BHAG

Here are some helpful hints for developing a BHAG for your company:

• Employees are inspired to strive for the final objective since it is so large and inspirational;
• The BHAG may be broken down into sub-goals, which is a huge motivator;
• Your objective is specific;
• Don’t forget to set a time limit.

BHAG Examples

• Make your eatery the go-to choice for royalty and international leaders when they need catering.
• Establish a nonprofit organization to find a treatment for a serious illness like Parkinson’s or arthritis.
• Make your business more than just a producer of mobility aids by creating the first all-terrain wheelchair that improves the lives of millions of people.
• Surpass Starbucks and McDonald’s in brand recognition. It can also work in other industries by modifying it to become as recognizable a name as McDonald’s in your chosen field.
• Make your art gallery the most well-known in the world. One in which all the greatest artists compete to have their work showcased.
• Become a billion-dollar corporation in two decades. Some of the world’s top corporations began on kitchen tables with a BHAG.

More Business Goals Examples

Without rhyme or reason, implementing a new framework or not – you can always begin with some statement areas for improvement. We’ve created a list of example goals you can work with immediately in your organization. These are great to get started in your free Weekdone trial .

1. Increase Market Share

This goal is customer driven. The idea is to sell more of your product to your target consumers, thus, increasing overall market share for your product for investors. For example, if you operate a B2B company, your goal should be to reach out to more company heads or HR departments. If you operate a small business that focuses on building computers, you’ll want more of the local population to come to you for your services.

2. Increase Community Outreach

Becoming part of the community is a fantastic way to connect from the B2C side. Whether you are a large company contributing to community efforts through sponsorship or a small company that volunteers to help for Little League Baseball, community outreach is an excellent goal for new and established organizations alike. Increasing community outreach is especially important if your company or organization doesn’t have a good reputation with a particular group (I.E.: environmentalists).

Likewise, community outreach is essential if you are providing human necessities. For example, if you run a small scale grocery store, community outreach is what’s gonna keep you above water when competing with larger corporations. 

3. Maintain Profits

Financial goals are one of the most useful top-level objectives you can have. By nature, they are both aspirational and measurable, which equally makes financial-driven objectives essential for getting the goal setting process started for young businesses.

Maintaining profits (as opposed to increasing revenue) calls for a balance between profitability and investments. Investments are necessary to test out changes in the market and expand the business, so by establishing a balanced goal, you can reason how much money can go into growth and new projects/tools/campaigns while still reaching a paired profit goal. 

4. Reduce Energy or Decrease Unnecessary Use of Resources

This is a double-sided issue. If you are providing a service or product that requires being PHYSICALLY, cutting back on using that energy to save money means you can put that money to things that are more useful and productive (such as expanding or improving the product). This can be as minimal as cutting down on electricity. 

If your product isn’t physical, this goal equally applies to cutting out company tools by trying to find software or systems that maximize your company’s alignment and productivity. Aiming for 1-2 communication tools, for example, cuts out company miscommunication by having conversations spread out over several apps, messaging programs, and document sharing platforms. 

5. Grow Shareholder Value

Increasing shareholder value is an extension of increasing profit for consumers. Increasing the overall value of your organization can refer to reputation, profit, or any other classification of “value.” The most important aspect of this goal is to specify what that value is and structure your Key Results, projects, KPIs, etc. around this. 

6. Increase Percentage of Sales Made with New Product Features

When developing new products or features, promoting them so sales can close more deals/sell more of the new product should be one of your main priorities for increasing profit. This justifies the expenses from investing in the new product or feature in the first place and aims to ensure that the investment was worth it and will turn a profit. 

7. Invest in Quality Management

Total Quality Management (TQM) is all about continuing to reduce manufacturing error and streamlining a supply chain with physical products. It equally applies to both when dealing with improving customer experience and training staff. Improving quality across a wide variety of areas is a great company level goal that’s easy to align since each team or department can be held accountable for their own work. 

8. Focus on Leadership Skills for Team Members

Training employees is one thing, making them comfortable so they can speak for themselves and encouraging creative, out-of-the box behavior is another. If your company wants more input from lower levels, then this is important.

Implementing employee goals will increase their independence and confidence in the workplace. We have a post to explain how this works.

9. Maintain or Decrease Debt

Easily measurable, this category falls under finances as well. Maintaining a certain amount of financial debt is important… especially for businesses that are just getting started and may not have the profits to cover debt costs.

10. Balance Budget for X Period

Balancing a budget is a great top level goal for non-profits. Likewise, this goal is a great for teams who may get a set amount to invest in campaigns or projects quarterly or annually. 

11. Calculate and Create the Best Value of Product for Cost

This is on marketing and sales, so is a better team goal example than a company goal. The idea is to focus on selling customers that they are getting the best deal. Whether you’re selling something top of the line for high cost or a cheap, low-cost alternative that doesn’t have the polish of a different brand, you need to highlight to your customers why your product balances value and cost.

12. Make Product More Reliable/Create a Reliable Product

Making your product more reliable is a great way to gain customers while maintaining pre existing ones. This short term goal can be worked on quarter after quarter – split up the tasks by first reviewing existing value points, competitors and current positioning – then continue forward as you learn and explore more to prepare for development.

13. Cross-Sell to Long Term Customers

So, you have people buying a product of yours. A good goal for sales is to sell them on more products. This builds brand loyalty.

14. Best Customer Service

Dealing with the external face of your company, offering the best customer service means that consumers are happier with the overall experience of buying or using your product.

15. Team Building/Diversity Training Goals

A classic in HR teams, team building and diversity training focuses on employee satisfaction to prevent turnover and allow environments where everyone is comfortable enough to share their ideas.

It’s now time to sign up for your free Weekdone trial and get going.

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Business Goals Examples, Definition & Importance | Full Guide 2024

Published: 02 January, 2024

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Transformation

Table of Contents

Business Goals are simple: make enough money to run the business, expand as necessary, and provide for the people who own and operate the organization. Like a living organism, a business’s main goal is to survive and thrive.

But how do we achieve that? The broader goal of surviving is built upon smaller and more specific Business Goals that direct your strategy over a period of time as part of the strategic planning process .

Business goals are of paramount importance for several reasons, as they serve as a guiding force that directs an organization’s efforts, decisions, and strategies. We at Digital Leadership provide Business Model Strategy services and Digital Strategy Consulting to help you align with your business goals , ensuring that your path to success is well-defined and your strategies are optimized for achieving those objectives.

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Corporate training, innovation consulting and much more.

In this article, we discuss the variety of Business Goals you might choose to target to help secure your business’s survival and growth as part of the strategic planning process . You should be able to identify some goals that are specifically helpful for your business and begin the process of developing strategies to reach them as part of the strategic planning process

What are Business Goals

A Business Goal Definition is a target an organization wants to hit either in the short-term or long term business goal. You can think of a Business Goal as an endpoint or accomplishment the organization sets for itself in a given timeframe.

As we’ll see throughout this article, most Business Goals focus on advances like revenue, market penetration, growth, or shareholder value creation. But every business will have its own specific business goals.

They are written to be aspirational, without any indication of the specific strategies that the company will enact. Those plans are called Business Strategies and are developed after the company chooses its larger goals.

Business Strategy —the actual activities that an organization undertakes to meet its goals—is the topic of another Digital Leadership article that you might find helpful.

Our comprehensive book, ‘ How to Create Innovation ,’ offers in-depth guidance on developing a strategic business plan that is primed for innovation and geared towards achieving exponential growth. It provides valuable insights into how to leverage the Business Model Canvas to optimize your business model, enhance your value proposition , and drive exponential growth.

The Only Book On Innovation You’ll Ever Need

+FREE access to 50+ complimentary download packages covering the details with plenty of helpful background information

Business Goals Examples

As we said previously, Business Goals will always be specific to the organization’s priorities, situation, and business model. There are some examples of common Goals that we can review, however, because it’s productive to review what successful businesses have done in the past.

Below, we provide a short description of each Business Goal example , as well as some thoughts on how it would look in practice for your business.

In each description, we mention how the goal is most likely to be positioned within your organization.

(1) Improve Your Company and Brand Reputation

Typically a long-term goal, improving your standing in the marketplace requires a qualitative approach to collecting responses from your customers and potential customers to understand their feelings toward your organization.

(2) Develop a Business Plan

This a short-term Goal that should be addressed early in your business’s lifespan.

(3) Improve Product or Service Quality

This is most likely a goal that will have short- and long-term steps on the way toward an overall improvement.

There is an aspect of qualitative data in this business goal, obviously, but you should try to quantify the improvement in quality as much as possible by comparing customer responses over time to track growth and highlight where there’s work still to be done.

(4) Achieve Higher On-Time Delivery

For this goal, you’ll need to decide a time frame based on your specific needs. Perhaps, for example, you want to improve delivery during the holiday season. That would be a short-term Business Goal.

If you’re looking to improve delivery over time, your goal might be focused on Outcomes, hitting certain percentage benchmarks.

(5) Increase Customer Satisfaction

Another example of a Business Goal that requires the collection of qualitative data, is you can choose to make a short or long term goal depending on your business’s needs.

We tend to think that customer satisfaction should always have a role in what you measure to track business success.

(6) Improve Customer Retention

A mid to long-term Business Goal is usually measured through Outcomes, hitting certain metrics of returning customers or converting them into long-term contracts.

(7) Increase Sales Volumes

Another mid- to long-term Business Goal , increasing sales values uses quantitative measurements to determine if the business hit target Outcomes goals.

Instead of overall Sales Volumes, some businesses measure overall profit or average profit margins of goods and services sold.

(8) Optimize Product and Service Pricing

This long-term business goa l requires consistent monitoring of your profit margins and your customer’s perception of the value you’re providing, along with a review of competitive pricing.

(9) Increase Market Share

This is clearly a mid to long-term quantitative business goal.

Our experience tells us that the more targeted you can be here, the more productive improvements can be. Select a specific segment or product type and focus your efforts there.

(10) Improve Profit Margins

Another finance-based Business Goal, increasing profit margins is long-term business goal, with several targeted earlier deadlines used to measure and promote success.

Improving margins may be a long-term goal that uses several of the other goals listed in this article to help achieve success.

(11) Increase Profits

Increase sales, increase margins, reach into new markets—ultimately, many of these goals are driving a move toward increased profits.

Many businesses make sustainably increasing profits a long-term goal . The exact metrics used to measure this, as well as the target benchmarks they need to reach to be successful, vary greatly from one organization to the next.

(12) Develop New Customers

Measure how many new customers you acquire over a given time. This is likely a mid to long-term goal that requires close measurement of who is buying your product or service.

(13) Expand Into a New Geographic Market

Expansion is a long-term Process-based Business Goal. This goal is clearly very specific to your business because it’s dependent upon so many different factors, including current location, desired expansion, and Business Model.

(14) Market Through a New Channel

Like all Business Goals focused on expansion, finding new channels is a Process-Oriented goal.

The wording of this goal is easily changed to move from Process to Outcome once you advance from merely wanting to market through a new channel to actually quantitatively measuring your sales.

(15) Develop A New Product or Service

A mid to long-term goal of developing a new product or service is Outcome-Oriented, but there will be a number of smaller Process-Oriented goals along the way, most likely.

You’re also likely to transition to other quantitative goals that measure the success of your new products and services. They need to exist first, of course!

(16) Implement an Employee Development Program

A simple development program might be implemented fairly quickly, but a rigorous program that tracks how your employees progress is a long-term goal that requires a lot of effort. We believe a development program pays dividends in the long run by making it easier to retain quality employees and grow a pipeline to senior management

(17) Increase Employee Satisfaction

This is a goal that can span any timeframe, depending on the business’s needs but is more likely to focus on mid- to long-term qualitative measuring. This goal’s metrics can slide into the quantitative when you collect data about employee longevity and retention.

(18) Decrease Expenses

An Outcome-Oriented goal, decreasing expenses can occur over any amount of time you choose. You may consider being more targeted and aim to decrease certain expenses by a given date.

(19) Implement Productivity Improvements

For this goal, you’ll need to select quantitative metrics for productivity. Since every business is different, you’ll decide what measurements work for you.

For example, you may be holding your productivity to a very high standard. LEGO , for instance, has famously rigorous quality standards.

Productivity improvements are usually long-term goals, with several medium- and short-term goals used to motivate and track changes.

(20) Migrate To a New Technology Platform

The adoption of new technology can be a challenging, frustrating goal because so many departments with different priorities are involved. In order to successfully reach this goal, you’ll rely on a combination of qualitative and quantitative metrics.

A deadline will be important, along with the functionality of the new technology. In some instances, the aesthetics of the technology will play an important role in the measuring of success.

Is a partial roll-out all right? A soft opening? Do you need complete functionality on day one? How compatible must the new technology be with the previous tech?

These are all important elements that should be articulated as part of your overall Business Goal.

(21) Make Investments for the Future

How big will your investments be? What will they look like? How far into the future are you aiming for?

We see investment as a mid-to-long-term goal. Consider if you’re collecting cash to have on hand, acquiring the latest equipment, or performing routine maintenance on your building. These activities, and far more, would count as sensible investments for the future.

(22) Increase Shareholder Value

Publicly traded companies are required to grow their shareholder value. Privately held companies may still have stockholders in other capacities, so improving their standing is always a long-term goal.

Outcome-oriented, the goal of increasing shareholder value should have a benchmark target with a clearly articulated deadline. How much increase, and by when?

– Short-Term Business Goals Examples

• Develop a Business Plan
• Improve Product or Service Quality
• Market Through a New Channel
• Implement an Employee Development Program

– Long-Term Business Goals Examples

• Increase Shareholder Value
• Make Investments for the Future
• Migrate To a New Technology Platform
• Decrease Expenses

– Performance-Based Goals Examples

• Develop A New Product or Service
• Increase Profits
• Increase Sales Volumes
• Improve Customer Retention

– Qualitative Goals Examples

• Increase Employee Satisfaction
• Increase Customer Satisfaction

– Quantitative Goals Examples

• Achieve Higher On-Time Delivery

Types of Business Goals

Depending on where your business is currently, and where you want it to be heading, you will choose your Business Goals from a set of four types.

Each type of Business Goal has its own advantages, and some of each of their characteristics overlap. Each of these types of goals can also vary in scope quite a lot—how you choose to articulate them will, again, depend on the specifics of your business’s current situation.

(1) Time-Based Goals

Every goal needs an endpoint. Deadlines focus the work your organization is doing and make reaching the goal much more likely. We believe that every Business Goal needs a target date, articulated within the context of the goal itself.

For a Time-Based Goal, the deadline takes centre stage. Often, the accomplishment set forth in your goal has a deadline impressed upon it by outside forces: some presentation, governmental requirement, or new product roll-out, for example. The length of time you’re given to complete the goal determines what sort of specific Time-Based goal you’ve built.

– Short-Term Business Goals

Short-term goals are often used in conjunction with longer-term goals. They give the opportunity to celebrate reaching the endpoint more frequently, which makes short-term goals an excellent tool for motivation.

– Long-Term Business Goals

Long-term goals let you tackle large projects. These goals can last months, or even years, which is why short-term goals remain useful. Don’t lose sight of the finish line with these long-term business goals. Find an opportunity to celebrate success incrementally.

(2) Goals Based on Performance

Goals based on performance are short-term targets identified as important for ongoing success.

Key to Performance-Based goals are reachable targets within appropriate timeframes. The metrics being used must also be clearly defined and easy to evaluate.

(3) Quantitative & Qualitative Goals

The difference between a Qualitative and a Quantitative goal is the type of data you’re collecting when you measure your success.

Quantitative Goals require collecting factual data. Typically, we think of quantitative data as originating in numbers or statistics, but all data can be used in statistics eventually. You can think of quantitative data as provable measurements, often very tangible.

On the other hand, Qualitative Goals are built around impressions and degrees, usually how someone feels about something or how they might describe an experience. Because these measurements can be harder to collect and the goals harder to define, managers must be careful with using them to determine employee evaluation results.

We recommend focusing on quantitative goals with a small dash of qualitative to help gauge consumer response and team member attitudes.

(4) Outcome & Process-Oriented Goals

The success of Outcome-Oriented Goals is determined by how and when your team reaches a certain goal. Outcome Goals are a pass/fail situation. Either you reach the desired outcome, or you don’t.

The success of a Process-Oriented Outcome is less specific. Instead of a desired targeted endpoint, a Process-Oriented goal requires the completion of a set of steps regardless of the outcome.

One way to think about the differences here is the classic line “It’s the journey, not the destination that matters.” A Process-Oriented goal favors the journey. For an Outcome-Oriented goal, the destination is everything.

Business Goals and Objectives

Understanding how experts differentiate Business Goals from Business Objectives will be helpful as you define your business strategy.

A Business Goal is a long-range outcome that your teams use to help define strategies. A Business Objective is a short-term action you’ll take to help reach an overall goal.

Goals and Objectives combine to form your overall Business Strategy, or in other words, the map of what your company will do in the future in the hopes of achieving success in the priorities you’ve identified.

Many times, Business Goals and Business Objectives are terms used simultaneously and interchangeably. Understanding the distinction makes it easier to visualize the entirety of your business strategy.

Why Setting Business Goals is Important to Every Company?

Strong Goals are an important element of the overall package of documents that direct a company’s activities and priorities. Other pieces of that package include a Business Strategy , a Mission Statement and Vision, and the company’s Massively Transformational Purpose .

Goals give your organization a target. They articulate priorities and motivate employees. Business Goals make your company’s purpose clear.

Let’s look a little more closely at the power of Business Goals in motion.

(1) Business Goals Give your Business a Direction

Getting Goals onto the page or screen gives your organization a sense of direction. It facilitates the entire operation pulling for the same goals.

Coupled with a clear Business Strategy , Business Goals let every member of your organization know their role in the business’s overall purpose.

(2) Business Goals Give you a Way to Track and Measure Progress

Goals give defined metrics that you can track so you can measure your success and progress. They allow you to recognize failure so you can fail fast; a major element of innovation is making many iterations quickly so you increase the odds of success.

Related:  How to measure Innovation? Innovation Metrics for Companies

Because your Business Goals give clear, measurable touchstones, the entire organization, at every level, knows how their efforts are contributing to the business’s purpose.

(3) Business Goals Help you Stay Motivated

Who runs a race without a finish line? Business Goals are that finish line. It’s much easier to stay motivated when you know what you’re working toward. Since a business works as one unified organism, the goals work the same way for the combined organization.

Incidentally, this is why a series of smaller goals can be more effective than one larger goal. The energy we feel in reaching a goal powers us toward the next.

(4) Business Goals Help You Achieve Quicker Growth

Business goal help you achieve quicker growth because they focus your efforts. Our experience indicates that commitment is an indicator of success. Since articulating Goals encourages deeper commitment, it follows that businesses making use of them would experience more positive outcomes.

Goals keep your team accountable. They force consideration of priorities and practices, which in turn help achieve quicker growth.

How do you Choose your Business Goals?

When it comes to setting business goals , having a structured approach is crucial to ensure that your goals are realistic, in line with your overall strategy, and can be measured to track progress. The balanced scorecard is a strategic management tool that can assist in achieving these objectives.

Your download is now available!

You can now access the complete Balanced Scorecard Package, including a full presentation, related models and instructions for use.

The Balanced Scorecard

The balanced scorecard connects different aspects of a company’s strategy in a cause-and-effect relationship. This approach enables businesses to ensure that their goals are consistent with their overall strategy and that they are measuring the right elements to achieve success.

Using the balanced scorecard to determine business goals involves several key considerations:

• Use the s.m.a.r.t business goals Framework: The SMART acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Using this framework ensures that your goals are well-defined, easily measured, achievable, relevant to your business model and purpose, and have a specific deadline.

S – Each goal must be as SPECIFIC as possible

M – Each goal must be MEASURABLE , even if you’re aiming for qualitative targets

A – Each goal must be realistically ACHIEVABLE

R – Each goal must be RELEVANT to your overall business model

T – Each goal must be TIME BOUND to a realistic deadline

The SMART Goals Framework prevents the selection of goals that are counter-productive, wasteful, or impossible to achieve. Choosing the wrong goals is worse than having no goals at all: improper goals suck time, motivation, and resources from the areas of the business where they could be better utilized.

• Ensure Goals are Measurable: Each goal should have a method for collecting data that proves progress or lack thereof. Even if the goal is qualitative, there must be a means of measuring progress towards achieving it.
• Ensure Goals are Attainable: Choosing goals that are impossible to achieve is counterproductive. This is especially true for businesses whose organizational strategy makes certain goals challenging to reach. Ensure all the components of your business are working together towards a shared objective.
• Complement your Business Purpose and Model: Select goals that align with your overall business model and vision. Don’t compromise your vision for the sake of creating a list of goals.

Once you have established your business goals using the balanced scorecard, it becomes easier to track progress and make informed decisions about how to allocate resources and improve performance. By using the SMART framework in conjunction with the balanced scorecard, businesses can establish specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals that are both attainable and consistent with their overall business strategy.

How do you Reach your Business Goals?

There’s no one-size-fits-all guaranteed plan for reaching your business goals, but our experts agree the following strategies give you the best odds for success.

• Commit to your Goals: Don’t let minor setbacks force you to deviate from your well-researched goals.
• Regularly Check Progress: Be on top of your metrics, and automate the measuring process as much as you can so you keep an up-to-date view of your progress.
• Maintain Accountability: Make sure everyone knows who is responsible for which elements of your goals.
• Celebrate Milestones & Achievements: It’s important to identify smaller goals that you can recognize and celebrate.

Connecting The Dots With Business Model Canvas

In the modern business environment of modern business, setting clear and strategic business goals is a fundamental step toward success. Whether it’s increasing revenue, expanding market reach, enhancing customer satisfaction, or improving operational efficiency, these goals serve as the guiding stars that illuminate an organization’s path forward. The Business Model Canvas , a widely acclaimed strategic tool, comes into play. It serves as a versatile and visual platform for organizations to not only define their business strategies but also to align these strategies meticulously with their overarching goals.

You can now access the complete Business Model Canvas Package, including a full presentation, related models and instructions for use.

The UNITE Business Model Canvas

• Alignment with Goals and Strategy: Goals provide direction, and the Business Model Canvas aligns them with strategy, ensuring coherence in the organization’s purpose and growth plans.
• Customer-Centric Approach: Goals related to customer satisfaction and growth link to the business model canvas Customer Segments and Value Proposition , forming the basis for business purpose and growth.
• Financial Targets and Strategy: Financial goals tie into the business model canvas Revenue Streams and Cost Structure , crucial for both strategy and financial planning.
• Market Expansion and Reach: The BMC distribution channels and Customer Relationships support the goals of market expansion and customer engagement, vital for strategic planning and business growth.
• Resource Allocation and Execution: Achieving goals often requires resource allocation, reflected in the Key Resources and Key Activities sections, influencing strategy and execution.
• Partnerships and Efficiency: Goals focused on cost efficiency relate to business model canvas Partnerships and Cost Structure , impacting strategy and efficiency.
• Innovation and Improvement: Goals involving innovation align with the business model canvas Key Partnerships, Key Activities, and Key Resources, reflecting a commitment to improvement in strategy and growth.
• Measuring Success Holistically: The Business Model Canvas aids in measuring progress across goals, informing decisions for business strategy , planning, and overarching business purpose

Frequently Asked Questions

1- what are business goals examples.

Some common goals include Developing a Business Plan, improving product or Service Quality, Market Through a New Channel, Achieve Higher On-Time Delivery, and Increase Shareholder Value.

2- What is the most important goal of a company?

The most important goal of a business is to sustainably provide value to its customers in a way that secures the business’s long-term future.

3- What are SMART business goals?

SMART is an acronym for choosing quality goals . It means Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound

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Setting Business Goals & Objectives: 4 Considerations

• 31 Oct 2023

Setting business goals and objectives is important to your company’s success. They create a roadmap to help you identify and manage risk , gain employee buy-in, boost team performance , and execute strategy . They’re also an excellent marker to measure your business’s performance.

Yet, meeting those goals can be difficult. According to an Economist study , 90 percent of senior executives from companies with annual revenues of one billion dollars or more admitted they failed to reach all their strategic goals because of poor implementation. In order to execute strategy, it’s important to first understand what’s attainable when developing organizational goals and objectives.

If you’re struggling to establish realistic benchmarks for your business, here’s an overview of what business goals and objectives are, how to set them, and what you should consider during the process.

Access your free e-book today.

What Are Business Goals and Objectives?

Business objectives dictate how your company plans to achieve its goals and address the business’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. While your business goals may shift, your objectives won’t until there’s an organizational change .

Business goals describe where your company wants to end up and define your business strategy’s expected achievements.

According to the Harvard Business School Online course Strategy Execution , there are different types of strategic goals . Some may even push you and your team out of your comfort zone, yet are important to implement.

For example, David Rodriguez, global chief human resources officer at Marriott, describes in Strategy Execution the importance of stretch goals and “pushing people to not accept today's level of success as a final destination but as a starting point for what might be possible in the future.”

It’s important to strike a balance between bold and unrealistic, however. To do this, you must understand how to responsibly set your business goals and objectives.

Related: A Manager’s Guide To Successful Strategy Implementation

How to Set Business Goals and Objectives

While setting your company’s business goals and objectives might seem like a simple task, it’s important to remember that these goals shouldn’t be based solely on what you hope to achieve. There should be a correlation between your company’s key performance indicators (KPIs)—quantifiable success measures—and your business strategy to justify why the goal should, and needs to, be achieved.

This is often illustrated through a strategy map —an illustration of the cause-and-effect relationships that underpin your strategy. This valuable tool can help you identify and align your business goals and objectives.

“A strategy map gives everyone in your business a road map to understand the relationship between goals and measures and how they build on each other to create value,” says HBS Professor Robert Simons in Strategy Execution .

While this roadmap can be incredibly helpful in creating the right business goals and objectives, a balanced scorecard —a tool to help you track and assess non-financial measures—ensures they’re achievable through your current business strategy.

“Ask yourself, if I picked up a scorecard and examined the measures on that scorecard, could I infer what the business's strategy was,” Simon says. “If you've designed measures well, the answer should be yes.”

According to Strategy Execution , these measures are necessary to ensure your performance goals are achieved. When used in tandem, a balanced scorecard and strategy map can also tell you whether your goals and objectives will create value for you and your customers.

“The balanced scorecard combines the traditional financial perspective with additional perspectives that focus on customers, internal business processes, and learning and development,” Simons says.

These four perspectives are key considerations when setting your business goals and objectives. Here’s an overview of what those perspectives are and how they can help you set the right goals for your business.

4 Things to Consider When Setting Business Goals and Objectives

1. financial measures.

It’s important to ensure your plans and processes lead to desired levels of economic value. Therefore, some of your business goals and objectives should be financial.

Some examples of financial performance goals include:

• Cutting costs
• Increasing revenue
• Improving cash flow management

“Businesses set financial goals by building profit plans—one of the primary diagnostic control systems managers use to execute strategy,” Simons says in Strategy Execution . “They’re budgets drawn up for business units that have both revenues and expenses, and summarize the anticipated revenue inflows and expense outflows for a specified accounting period.”

Profit plans are essential when setting your business goals and objectives because they provide a critical link between your business strategy and economic value creation.

According to Simons, it’s important to ask three questions when profit planning:

• Does my business strategy generate enough profit to cover costs and reinvest in the business?
• Does my business generate enough cash to remain solvent through the year?
• Does my business create sufficient financial returns for investors?

By mapping out monetary value, you can weigh the cost of different strategies and how likely it is you’ll meet your company and investors’ financial expectations.

2. Customer Satisfaction

To ensure your business goals and objectives aid in your company’s long-term success, you need to think critically about your customers’ satisfaction. This is especially important in a world where customer reviews and testimonials are crucial to your organization’s success.

“Everything that's important to the business, we have a KPI and we measure it,” says Tom Siebel, founder, chairman, and CEO of C3.ai, in Strategy Execution . “And what could be more important than customer satisfaction?”

Unlike your company’s reputation, measuring customer satisfaction has a far more personal touch in identifying what customers love and how to capitalize on it through future strategic initiatives .

“We do anonymous customer satisfaction surveys every quarter to see how we're measuring up to our customer expectations,” Siebel says.

While this is one example, your customer satisfaction measures should reflect your desired market position and focus on creating additional value for your audience.

Related: 3 Effective Methods for Assessing Customer Needs

3. Internal Business Processes

Internal business processes is another perspective that should factor into your goal setting. It refers to several aspects of your business that aren’t directly affected by outside forces. Since many goals and objectives are driven by factors such as business competition and market shifts, considering internal processes can create a balanced business strategy.

“Our goals are balanced to make sure we’re holistically managing the business from a financial performance, quality assurance, innovation, and human talent perspective,” says Tom Polen, CEO and president of Becton Dickinson, in Strategy Execution .

According to Strategy Execution , internal business operations are broken down into the following processes:

• Operations management
• Customer management

While improvements to internal processes aren’t driven by economic value, these types of goals can still reap a positive return on investment.

“We end up spending much more time on internal business process goals versus financial goals,” Polen says. “Because if we take care of them, the financial goals will follow at the end of the day.”

4. Learning and Growth Opportunities

Another consideration while setting business goals and objectives is learning and growth opportunities for your team. These are designed to increase employee satisfaction and productivity.

According to Strategy Execution , learning and growth opportunities touch on three types of capital:

• Human: Your employees and the skills and knowledge required for them to meet your company’s goals
• Information: The databases, networks, and IT systems needed to support your long-term growth
• Organization: Ensuring your company’s leadership and culture provide people with purpose and clear objectives

Employee development is a common focus for learning and growth goals. Through professional development opportunities , your team will build valuable business skills and feel empowered to take more risks and innovate.

To create a culture of innovation , it’s important to ensure there’s a safe space for your team to make mistakes—and even fail.

“We ask that people learn from their mistakes,” Rodriguez says in Strategy Execution . “It's really important to us that people feel it’s safe to try new things. And all we ask is people extract their learnings and apply it to the next situation.”

Achieve Your Business Goals

Business goals aren’t all about your organization’s possible successes. It’s also about your potential failures.

“When we set goals, we like to imagine a bright future with our business succeeding,” Simons says in Strategy Execution . “But to identify your critical performance variables, you need to engage in an uncomfortable exercise and consider what can cause your strategy to fail.”

Anticipating potential failures isn’t easy. Enrolling in an online course—like HBS Online’s Strategy Execution —can immerse you in real-world case studies of past strategy successes and failures to help you better understand where these companies went wrong and how to avoid it in your business.

Do you need help setting your business goals and objectives? Explore Strategy Execution —one of our online strategy courses —and download our free strategy e-book to gain the insights to create a successful strategy.

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Examples of Effective Short-Term, Mid-Term, and Long-Term Business Goals

By Kate Eby | September 7, 2023

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Setting effective goals is vital to your business’s success. Good goals help organizations move forward and keep employees on track. We’ve talked with experts and gathered examples of solid short-term, mid-term, and long-term business goals.

Included on this page, you’ll find examples of long-term , mid-term , and short-term business goals and how they work together. Plus, check out an easy-to-read chart on which framework is best for setting time-based goals and a free, downloadable goal-setting worksheet that can help your team create your goals.

Common Time Ranges for Different Business Goals

Companies set large overarching goals to achieve in two to five years. To attain long-term goals, set goals with shorter time frames that work toward the long-term objective. Depending on the type of goal, some experts might refer to it as a strategy or an objective . However, there is a difference between a goal, an objective , and a strategy. 

Examples of Long-Term Business Goals

Long-term goals focus on the big-picture vision for the future of the organization, generally covering two years or longer. They typically don’t cover more than five years, since the business and technology environment can change drastically after that time frame.

Long-term goals are more aspirational and might not have the specificity of short-term and mid-term goals. “These goals ought to be aligned with the overall vision of the company,” says Izzy Galicia, President and CEO of global professional services firm the Incito Consulting Group and an expert in Lean enterprise transformation.

The long-term goals also must be realistic. “We know from the literature and practical experience that you want goals that are challenging, but they're also achievable. You don't want to have a goal that people don't buy into at all, or it's just so outrageous that you can't possibly achieve it,” explains Lee Frederiksen, managing partner of Virginia-based Hinge Marketing and former Director for Strategy and Organizational Development at Ernst & Young.

Here are four examples of long-term business goals:

• Increase Sales: A common long-term goal is to increase sales significantly. A company might establish a long-term goal of increasing total sales by 40 percent in three years.
• Become Niche Leader: Another company might have its sights on becoming dominant in its industry. It would set a long-term goal of becoming the leader in its market niche in four years.
• Expand Company Locations: Adding storefronts over the next few years is also a common long-term goal. A company with that aim would set a long-term goal of expanding its one restaurant location to four locations in four years.
• Create and Develop a Non-Profit Entity: An organization or group of people can also establish a long-term goal of establishing a successful nonprofit organization focused on environmental conservation.

Examples of Mid-Term Business Goals

Mid-term goals help an organization meet a long-term goal. They can take an organization six months to two years or so to reach. 

Here are examples of mid-term goals that will help a company reach a specific long-term goal: 

A company’s long-term goal is to open three more restaurants in the next four years. These examples are some of the mid-term goals they would need to achieve first:

• Systematize Standard Operating Procedures for Running the Restaurant: The mid-term goal would be to document and systematize its standard operating procedures to efficiently operate its original restaurant within a year.
• Develop a Hiring Process That Attracts Talented Employees: The company sets a goal of developing and implementing a hiring process to attract committed employees in the next 14 months. 
• Research and Evaluate the Best Locations to Open the New Restaurants: The company would set a goal of continually scouting and evaluating possible locations for new restaurants over the next two years.

A group of people have the goal of creating a successful nonprofit organization in five years. Here are some examples of mid-term goals they would set and meet first:

• Establish Partnerships with Local Environmental Organizations: The group of people would like to start a nonprofit focused on environmental conservation. A mid-term goal would be to develop and establish partnerships with key local environmental organizations within the next two years.
• Develop and Implement a Solid Fundraising Strategy: The nonprofit needs funding to be successful. The organization would set a mid-term goal of developing an effective fundraising strategy within the next 18 months.
• Build a Dedicated Team of Volunteers: To help it reach its long-term goal of establishing a successful nonprofit focused on environmental conservation, the organization would set a goal of building a system to attract and retain volunteers for the organization within the next year.

Examples of Short-Term Business Goals

Short-term business goals encompass work that helps an organization reach its mid-term goals. These goals are often meant to be reached in a month or a quarter. Some might take six months or so to accomplish. Only one department — or even only one worker — might work on some short-term goals.

Some experts call short-term goals objectives. They might call the shortest short-term goals tactics . (Learn more about the differences between business goals vs. business objectives and strategies vs. tactics.)

“If one of my goals is to develop a content strategy — so that more people are aware of my company — I can't jump into Year Three and say, ‘I have a content strategy,’” shares Keith Speers, CEO of Consulting Without Limits , which provides business consulting, leadership coaching, fractional leadership, and other consulting services. “Part of that one- to three-year plan is developing my audience, curating them, creating content, and establishing myself as someone who's a thought leader in a specific field. All of that requires establishing short-term goals or objectives.”

The short-term goals or objectives are “more about the measurable steps or actions to take in order to reach that (mid- or long-term) goal,” states Marco Scanu, a business coach and CEO of Miami-based Visa Business Plans , a consulting firm providing attorneys and investors with business planning services.

Here are examples of short-term goals to build toward achieving the mid-term goals associated with expanding a company’s restaurant count from one to four: 

• Assemble a Team to Develop a Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Document for Current and Future Locations: To help reach the goal of systematizing its SOP for running its original restaurant, the company would set a short-term goal of developing a SOP document for the company’s original and future locations by the end of the next quarter.
• Work With an HR Consultant to Attract and Retain Qualified Staff: To reach the mid-term goal of developing a hiring process that attracts talented workers who will stay with the company, the business would set a goal of hiring and working with a human resources consultant to find ways to attract and retain employees within the next month.
• Create an Internal Team to Improve Compensation and Increase Retention: To reach the goal of developing a prosperous hiring process, the company would set a short-term goal of forming an internal team to assess ways to improve employee compensation and retention within the next two months.
• Research Demographic/Economic Trends in the Metro Area: To achieve the goal of researching and evaluating the best locations for new restaurants, the company would set a short-term goal of researching demographic and economic trends within neighborhoods where they want to add new restaurants.
• Work With a Real Estate Agency to Find Potential Buildings: To complete the mid-term goal of researching and evaluating the best locations for new restaurants, the company would set a goal of hiring and working with a real estate agency within the next two weeks. The real estate agent would continually search for good locations for possible new restaurants.

Here are examples of short-term goals necessary for a group of people to create a successful environmental conservation nonprofit:

• Research and Identify Potential Partner Organizations and Establish Connections: To reach the mid-term goal of establishing partnerships with local environmental organizations, the founding group would set a goal of identifying specific organizations that might be good partners and connecting with their representatives in the next six weeks.
• Research Grant Applications, Methods for Individual Donations, and Fundraising Events: To reach the goal of developing a solid fundraising strategy, the organization would set a short-term goal of researching the elements of  a fundraising plan that includes grant applications, individual donations, and fundraising events.
• Identify and Collect Contact Details of Potential Volunteers: To build a dedicated team of volunteers, the organization would set a goal of meeting and collecting contact details of potential volunteers over the next four months.

Examples of Short- and Mid-Term Business Goals Contributing to Long-Term Goals

These examples break down how to strategically set short- and mid-term goals to achieve a company’s long-term more visionary goals. “I think of short-term and mid-term goals as stepping stones to your long-term goals, things you have to accomplish to be able to get to the next goal,” Frederiksen explains.

• Short-Term Goal: Use customer relationship management (CRM) software to gather better information about potential and existing customers.
• Short-Term Goal: Increase production of website content.
• Short-Term Goal: Create and implement a new Google ad strategy.
• Short-Term Goal: Establish an engineering and product team to tweak product features.
• Short-Term Goal: Hire a new vice president of sales. 
• Short-Term Goal: Add three new members to the overseas sales team.
• Short-Term Goal: Hire a rebranding consultant.
• Short-Term Goal: Hire a contractor to lead the website redesign.
• Short-Term Goal: Find more opportunities for the new CEO to speak at industry events.
• Short-Term Goal: Become a key sponsor of an annual industry conference.
• Short-Term Goal: Empower the marketing vice president to pursue other sponsorship opportunities.

Business Goal-Setting Frameworks

When setting goals, it helps to use an established framework. Experts point out that, in setting business goals, people most often use one of five goal frameworks . Those frameworks are SMART, management by objectives (MBO), objectives and key results (OKR), key results areas (KRA) , or big hairy audacious goals (BHAG). Here are details on each of these business goal-setting frameworks and which goal length they work best for:

Which Business Goal-Setting Framework to Use

Learn more about goal-setting frameworks and use goal-setting and goal-tracking templates to get started working on your goals.

Business Goals Worksheet Template for Excel

Download the Business Goals Worksheet Template for Excel

Use this free template to guide your team in setting long-, mid-, and short-term business goals. Identify long-term goals, and then the mid-term and short-term goals that serve them. You have room to add any tasks and actions that must be completed to reach those goals. The downloadable worksheet is fully customizable.

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The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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How to Set Small Business Goals

8 min. read

Updated January 4, 2024

How happy are you with your business’s performance? Are you patting yourself on the back, having nailed every goal? 

If the answer is no, you’re like many business owners who struggle to hit business targets. You know exactly what you want—a bigger business, larger per-customer sales, more leads, higher profits—but you struggle to meet your goals.

In this article, we’ll show you how to set clear and actionable business goals to help you reach your full potential as an entrepreneur. 

How to set achievable business goals

There is always so much to do when you’re a business owner. You need to find new clients, keep your existing clients happy, manage your finances, streamline your processes, and motivate your employees—all at the same time. Here’s how you sort through all that clutter and set goals to move the needle.

1. Clarify the goals you’ll prioritize

To ensure you don’t waste time and money—you must know your top priorities when setting company goals for the year. These should be clear opportunities or issues that show the most significant potential to grow your business.

So, how do you identify them?

A SWOT analysis provides a simple but effective framework. You’ll look at your business and competitors to identify potential advantages and shortcomings that can set you apart. 

If you’re an up-and-running business, you’ll find additional value by reviewing your financial statements and forecasts . 

• Where did you over or underperform?
• Is your cash on hand what you expected?
• Are you overspending in any areas?

Answering questions like these will help you understand your current financial position. From there, you can dig deeper into specific departments, initiatives, line items, etc., and uncover what opportunities are worth tackling in the next year.  

Example: You run a local salon, and during your review, there was an immediate red flag—revenue is down. Exploring a bit further, you found that the average order value of each customer had decreased and that the number of new customers was far lower than the previous year. 

Considering those issues, you develop the following business goals:

• Introduce new product offerings and add-ons to increase revenue from existing clients.
• Increase client base by targeting local office workers.

Please note: These aren’t goals yet! They are your key areas to focus on. After you’ve discussed them with your team—which we’ll cover next—you’ll turn them into SMART goals (specific, measurable goals) to ensure that you’ll take action on them.

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2. Review these goals with your team

Your team is out there every day, working on your products or talking to clients. They are the people who can tell you what’s working and what’s not, what’s holding your business back, and where you should be focusing your efforts and setting your business goals for the year ahead.

So, once you’ve selected what you think should be the top goals for your business, sit down with your employees, and get their feedback. They may agree or have valuable insights that you haven’t considered.

By involving your employees in the goal-setting process, you make them feel valued and engaged while at the same time ensuring your goals are realistic and achievable.

Dig deeper: How to set team goals that actually work

3. Make your goals SMART

You have two to three business goals. Now, it’s time to make them actionable. While you can use several different goal-setting frameworks to do this, we recommend SMART goals:

• Specific: What exactly are you going to do?
• Measurable: How will you know if you are succeeding?
• Achievable: How will you implement the goal?
• Relevant: Does the goal connect to your overall objectives?
• Timely: When will you achieve the goal by?

Let’s take one of our business goals and turn it into a SMART goal.

Original idea: Increase client base by targeting local office workers.

• Specific: Gain 20 new customers from the surrounding office buildings.
• Measurable: Measure progress by tracking the number of new customers won and profits made while maintaining our existing customer base.
• Achievable: We will create a customized sales promotion, which we will publicize via leaflets and flyers in the office building.
• Relevant: This will help us increase the number of new customers, thus growing the salon business and profits.
• Timely: We will achieve this by the end of Q2 2024.

Dig deeper: How to set SMART business goals

4. Set key performance indicators (KPIs)

The SMART goal format should give you an idea of your timeline and what it will take to achieve your goal. However, you need to establish how you’ll measure your progress. One of the most common ways to do this is by adopting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) .

These numerical values, like the number of new clients from a specific campaign or monthly sales targets, indicate whether the goal is within reach. While creating SMART goals, you’ll define relevant KPIs, ensuring they align with company and individual objectives. 

For example, a salon might have overall KPIs related to customer acquisition from a campaign, while a stylist might focus on customer satisfaction and spending KPIs.

Dig deeper: 12 tips for choosing effective KPIs

5. Set a structure to review and revise

If you want to make something happen, you need to create a schedule and build good habits around it.

If you want to get healthier, you need to add exercise to your schedule, plan time to cook healthy meals, and so on. You should treat your business goals the same way. You need to schedule the actions you’ll take to reach your KPIs.

It’s a great idea to put regular (possibly monthly) business plan review meetings on your company calendar now This will help you set, revisit and revise specific short-and-long-term business goals and objectives.

To make these meetings less overwhelming, try and automate as much as possible. Use a calendar for both you and your staff, and add reminders and online task management software to organize tasks, set deadlines, and prompt you for repeat actions. 

Dig deeper: How to develop a strategic action plan

• The importance of setting business goals

Why are goals important? Here are a few reasons:

Goals provide clarity

There are plenty of things that you want to accomplish as a business owner. But what tasks are most important? How do you know if you’re making progress? 

Setting well-structured goals will help you prioritize work, establish a direction, and provide a framework to measure success. No more random assignments or distractions—just a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you’ll get there.

Goals motivate and align your team

Aimlessly taking on work does not lead to success. Without a set goal, there’s no shining beacon ahead that you’re trying to reach. And no milestones on the way there to celebrate and keep you going.

Having company and team goals provides greater motivation. It also makes it far easier to set individual goals that connect each employee’s work to that larger objective. 

Goals provide a structure to measure success 

Setting goals requires you to consider what metrics you’ll use to measure success. Doing this upfront makes tracking your progress much more manageable and lets you know if you’re still on track.

Skipping the goal-setting process means your ideas of success will remain vague and aimless. You’ll be more likely to run down unproductive rabbit holes and may never actually realize your aspirations.

Goals help your business grow

Much like writing a business plan increases your chances of successfully launching a business —setting goals increases your chances of achieving regular business growth. You’ll have well-structured ideas of where you want to go, how to get there, and if you’re progressing. 

And by continuing to set, review, and revise your goals—you’ll speed up the process and avoid costly mistakes.  

• Types of business goals

The goal-setting process in this article focused primarily on long-term business performance goals—the kind you’ll set once a year. These broader goals may focus on any of the following:

Financial goals

Whether it’s achieving a specific net profit margin or finding ways to cut back on certain expenses—these goals focus on growing or maintaining financial health.

Customer-related goals

These goals are all about better serving your target customer. This may include improving customer service, increasing repeat purchases, or expanding your clientele.

Operational goals

Sometimes, you’ll find savings by optimizing current workflows. This could mean reducing product production times, eliminating error rates, or streamlining your supply chain.

Marketing and sales goals

Marketing and sales goals can be broad, like boosting brand awareness, or very specific, like improving specific channel sales or launching a new marketing campaign.

Employee and team goals

These are goals focused on reducing employee turnover, boosting team spirit, or furthering education to keep everyone at the top of their game.

Sustainability and social responsibility goals

These are goals that may not directly impact your bottom line. Instead, they focus on accomplishing an altruistic mission such as shrinking your carbon footprint or giving back to the community.

Innovation and development goals

Far more opportunistic and research-based goals that could include launching a new product, embracing the latest tech, or venturing into new markets.

Compliance and risk management goals

Goals to ensure your operations meet all legal requirements and have strategies in place to dodge financial and operational pitfalls.

• Choosing the right goals is a process

Selecting goals and creating a plan to reach them takes time. Even by following the steps in this article, there’s no guarantee that you’ll select the best opportunity and be able to efficiently pursue it. 

That’s why the review process is so crucial. Rather than pursuing a goal that won’t make an impact, you can quickly pivot if you realize something isn’t working. 

Goal setting is just the start, and plenty of other ways to better manage and grow your business. 

• Create a business strategy
• Manage during a crisis
• Selling your business

See why 1.2 million entrepreneurs have written their business plans with LivePlan

Kody Wirth is a content writer and SEO specialist for Palo Alto Software—the creator's of Bplans and LivePlan. He has 3+ years experience covering small business topics and runs a part-time content writing service in his spare time.

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Business Plan Goals and Examples for Success

Written by Dave Lavinsky

A well-crafted business plan serves as a roadmap for entrepreneurs and businesses to achieve their objectives. One crucial aspect of a business plan is outlining clear and measurable goals. Business plan goals are the specific targets and milestones that a company aims to achieve within a defined timeframe. They provide a direction and purpose for the business, guiding decision-making, resource allocation, and strategic planning. In this article, we will explore the importance of setting business plan goals and provide examples of common goals.

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Why are Business Plan Goals Important?

Business plan goals are essential for several reasons:

• Strategic Focus : Goals help businesses define their strategic direction and focus their efforts on what matters most. They align the company’s efforts and resources towards achieving specific objectives, ensuring that everyone is working towards a common purpose.
• Measurable Outcomes : Goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). By setting SMART goals, businesses can track progress, measure success, and identify areas for improvement.
• Motivation and Accountability : Goals provide motivation and drive for entrepreneurs and employees. They create a sense of purpose and urgency, encouraging individuals to work towards achieving the desired outcomes. Goals also establish accountability, as progress is monitored and reviewed regularly.
• Decision-Making : Goals serve as a reference point for decision-making. They help businesses prioritize initiatives, allocate resources, and evaluate opportunities based on their alignment with the established goals.

Examples of Business Plan Goals

Business plan goals can vary depending on the nature, size, and stage of the business. Here are some common examples of business plan goals:

Financial Goals:

• Achieve a specific revenue target within a defined timeframe.
• Increase profitability by a certain percentage or dollar amount.
• Reduce costs or increase efficiency in a particular area of the business.
• Secure funding or investment to support business growth.

Market Penetration Goals:

• Expand market share in a specific geographic region or target market.
• Increase brand awareness and recognition among the target audience.
• Launch new products or services in the market.
• Increase customer retention or loyalty.

Operational Goals:

• Improve production or service delivery processes to enhance quality or reduce lead times.
• Enhance supply chain management to optimize inventory levels or reduce costs.
• Implement new technologies or systems to streamline operations or improve customer experience.
• Achieve certifications or industry standards to improve credibility and competitiveness.

Human Resources Goals:

• Hire and retain top talent to support business growth.
• Provide training and development opportunities for employees to enhance their skills and performance.
• Improve employee engagement and satisfaction levels.
• Establish a diverse and inclusive workforce.

Social Responsibility Goals:

• Implement environmentally sustainable practices in the business operations.
• Contribute to the local community through philanthropic initiatives or social impact programs.
• Promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within the organization.
• Establish ethical and responsible business practices.

Business Plan Goals Conclusion

Business plan goals are critical for defining the direction and purpose of a business. They provide measurable outcomes, motivation, and accountability, guiding decision-making and resource allocation. Examples of business plan goals can include financial, market penetration, operational, human resources, and social responsibility objectives. When setting business plan goals, it’s essential to make them SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound – to increase their effectiveness in driving business success. Regular monitoring and review of progress towards these goals can help businesses stay on track and adapt their strategies as needed to achieve their desired outcomes.

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12 Examples of Small Business Goals, Plus How to Achieve Your Own

• Business Growth & Management

Setting business goals is one of those concepts that all business owners and managers know they should work on, but very few actually do.

The problem isn’t seeing the value of setting goals — we can all agree on that — but, rather, understanding how to get started and what to do next.

In this article, the experts at Sling discuss some of the more common business goals and how to go about setting — and achieving — your own.

Table of contents

Common small business goals, how to achieve your own business goals, reach your business goals the smart way.

1) Cut costs

Every business can benefit from spending less. But not every business will go about it in the same way.

Common cost-cutting business goals include:

• Renegotiating supplier contracts
• Improving vendor management
• Paying off debt to reduce interest payments
• Investing in technology to streamline operations
• Managing inventory more effectively
• Optimizing fleet management
• Maximizing human capital

Your business may benefit from striving for one or two — or all — of these business goals, but you won’t know unless you take a good, hard look at the way your company operates.

We’ll discuss that concept a bit further in point one of the How To Set Your Own Business Goals section later on in this article.

2) Improve productivity

Like the cost-cutting business goal, improving productivity takes many forms and is often unique to your operation.

Your business may find more productivity from large-scale operational changes while, at the same time, benefit from more personal, individualized “tweaks” such as:

• Harnessing the power of software
• Working on challenging tasks in the morning when energy levels are highest
• Making time for personal reflection
• Taking breaks throughout the day
• Focusing on things that matter
• Avoiding multitasking
• Planning the workweek before it starts

For more suggestions on how you can improve the productivity of your teams, check out this article from the Sling blog: How To Be Productive At Work And Home.

3) Hire high-potential employees

Hiring high-potential — and high-performing — employees can mean the difference between reaching your other business goals and coasting along without improvement.

Identifying high-potential employees is a priority that all HR departments should strive for, and consists of asking such questions as:

• Are they autonomous?
• Are they adaptable?
• Are they persistent?
• Are they self-aware?

Once you’ve identified — and hired — a high-potential employee, be sure to do everything you can to keep them working for your team.

That brings us to our next business goal.

4) Reduce employee turnover

It costs a lot to find and hire a new employee. Your business is better served by working to reduce employee turnover in order to keep the employees it’s got.

There are many ways to reach this business goal, including:

• Providing the right benefits
• Giving employees the recognition they deserve
• Conducting regular performance appraisals
• Encouraging teamwork

Find a combination of strategies that work to reduce turnover, and your HR department can turn their attention to other, more beneficial tasks .

5) Prevent employee burnout

Employee burnout — or just burnout for short — is mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion that leads to a lack of enthusiasm, decreased motivation , and a general sense of displeasure with the job.

Preventing such brain drain is often high on most managers’ list of business goals, but few ever get around to addressing it.

Start by watching out for the signs of burnout, including:

• Disengagement
• Blunted emotions
• Feelings of helplessness
• Decreased motivation

Then, once you’ve identified an at-risk employee, take steps to alleviate the burden and prevent full-scale burnout.

6) Increase profitability

Profitability is the cornerstone — and the ultimate goal — of most businesses, but many managers may struggle with reaching the profitability they need to be successful.

Why? Because they might leave it up to chance rather than setting a business goal and focusing on the changes they need to make to get there.

There are many ways to try to increase profitability, including:

• Cutting costs
• Improving productivity
• Reducing employee turnover
• Expanding market share
• Eliminating nonessential processes
• Lowering business taxes
• Decreasing waste
• Sticking to a budget
• Reducing overhead

The list goes on and on, but even with so many options, it may still take some time to reach the profitability numbers you’d like.

Don’t let that deter you. Make a plan, be patient, and keep working toward the goal.

7) Improve customer service

Customer service can often be one of those components that fly under the business radar because it lacks the flash and immediate impact of some of the other goals on this list.

But don’t let that fool you. Improving customer service may be one of the best ways to improve the overall operation of your business.

A strong customer service program can help your business maintain a stable income level through customer loyalty and the addition of new clientele.

With a stable income base to work from — and a good reputation for treating your customers right — reaching your other business might come just a bit easier.

8) Create core values

Your company’s core values are embodied and described in its mission statement and vision statement. At first glance, a mission statement and a vision statement may sound like the same thing. And, while they’re closely related, they explain different parts of your business.

A vision statement is the where of your business — where you want the company to be and where you want your customers, your community, and your world to be as a result of your product or service.

The mission statement, on the other hand, is the who, what, and why of your business. Think of your mission statement as a roadmap or action plan for making your vision statement a reality.

For more information on how to write a mission statement and express your core values, check out this article from the Sling blog: How To Write Your Ideal Restaurant Mission Statement + 15 Inspiring Examples.

9) Grow the business

Growing the business is often at the top of most owners’ and managers’ lists. And why wouldn’t it be? It’s one of the pillars of success.

If a part of your company isn’t growing in some way — even very slightly — the entire organization may run the risk of sliding backward.

When you set this as one of your business goals, don’t restrict yourself to external factors like growing your customer base (though this is certainly important).

Instead, think about growing your business from within as well by analyzing and improving aspects like:

• Resource allocation
• Financial control
• Personnel development
• Recordkeeping
• Process management

If you focus on both the internal and external aspects of your business, you might find even more ways to make it grow.

10) Find financing opportunities

While you’re in the midst of running your operation, it can be hard to focus outward and identify the financing opportunities your business needs to grow.

In many cases, the first step toward gaining the financing you need is making a commitment and setting a goal to seek it out.

Once you’ve got the goal in mind, it serves as a framework for your actions and a motivation to keep searching, pushing, and stretching for the financing sources you need to take your business to the next level.

11) Achieve marketing milestones

Marketing is a big part of what makes your business successful, so setting a goal to achieve certain milestones is well worth your time.

Whether you’re focusing on traditional marketing (e.g., print, radio, and television), social media marketing, or even guerilla marketing, putting in the time and energy to dial in your advertising can often pay off in the long run.

For ideas and advice to help you reach your marketing and business goals, take a few minutes to read these articles from the Sling blog:

• 7 Must-Know Hospitality Marketing Trends For Business Owners
• Restaurant Social Media Marketing: Everything You Need To Know
• 23 Restaurant Marketing Tips To Win Your Market

12) Become more eco-friendly

Becoming more eco-friendly is a lofty goal that all businesses should strive for, and even small steps can make a huge difference for the environment.

Implementing and executing eco-friendly policies, procedures, and practices is not only fulfilling for your employees — which is a great morale booster — but it’s also great for your brand image.

Because there are so many similar products on the market these days, customers often make the decision to purchase one over the other based on variables like where the product is made and how much recycled material the business uses.

If you’re struggling for ways to meet this business goal, consider one or all of these options to get you started:

• Go paperless
• Organize a carpool program
• Offer incentives if employees use mass transit to get to work
• Install motion detectors to control lighting in less-traveled areas of the office
• Switch from paper towels to hand dryers
• Reduce food waste

Don’t feel like you have to go full-bore right away. Make the changes that feel right to you, and then look for additional ways to create an eco-friendly organization.

1) Examine your business

The first step in setting business goals is to perform a thorough examination of the way your company works.

Investigate all levels of operation including:

• Organizational

Get familiar enough with the active processes and procedures at each level that you can see ways to adjust and modify how things work for the better.

2) Identify what you want to accomplish

With a full understanding of your business, you can now identify what you want to accomplish.

If, for example, you discover that there are issues with the C-suite structure and function, you can set a goal to revise and streamline the way these employees work.

Or, if you see room for improvement in the way your front-line employees operate, you can set your sights on refining the way they work.

3) Create measurable business goals

Sometimes, it’s tempting to set general goals, such as “provide better customer service” or “have more fun with the team.” Those are excellent business goals, but they’re too subjective to be of any real use.

How do you know if your team is providing better customer service? How do you know if they’re having more fun?

The best way to set goals that work is to make them measurable. Once you know how you want to quantify them, you can assign a target number so it will be more objective and less up to interpretation.

For example, you might set a goal to reach a 30% increase in customer satisfaction through the last six months of the year.

With a measurable target like this, you can quickly and easily see whether your business has achieved its goals or not.

4) Put together a strategic plan

Once you’ve created your specific business goals , it’s time to compose a strategic plan to get you there. Start by creating a written document that details the steps and processes your business needs to reach the goals you’ve set.

Be as detailed as possible, but also be willing to go back and change the plan if you see that something isn’t working or if someone has a better idea.

5) Allocate resources

After you’ve composed your strategic plan, use that information to allocate any and all resources necessary to reach the business goal.

Don’t overlook such variables as:

All of these resources can have a dramatic effect on the success of your plans.

6) Gather your team and go to work

With your plans set and your resources dedicated to the task at hand, it’s time to assemble your team and go to work.

Assign individual tasks and set deadlines to adhere to the timeline you’ve established in your strategic plan. Once you’ve made the necessary changes to head in the right direction, get everyone involved.

While only a few individuals may be working toward a specific business goal, success depends on getting everyone in your business engaged and working toward the same end result.

Often, the most efficient and effective way to reach your business goals may be by using the SMART framework.

It doesn’t matter what type of business you run, the size of the organization, the number of employees, or the industry in which you operate, the SMART system can be a powerful tool.

SMART is an acronym for:

Here’s how each one contributes to the success of the whole.

When setting business goals, make sure they’re specific. Making goals as specific as possible will help clarify everything that comes next and give you insight into which steps you need to take to reach your objective.

To test whether or not your goal is specific enough, ask yourself these questions:

• What exactly do you want to achieve?
• Why is the goal important to your business?
• When will you start and finish?
• Who will contribute to helping you achieve the goal?
• Where will you work on this goal?
• Which resources will you need?

There’s no way to know if you’re moving toward your goal or away from it — or even if you’ve reached it already — unless you establish some way of measuring progress.

That’s where the M in SMART comes in. Before putting your goal into action, create a set of metrics you can use as parameters for success and failure. These metrics should allow you to quantify your progress toward achieving the goal you’ve set.

The A in SMART stands for attainable or, sometimes, achievable.

Whichever word you use, it means that it must be possible for you or your team to reach the goal in the time period that you set.

If your team lacks the support, the resources, the finances, the skills, or any of several other variables, their ability to achieve the goal can be seriously reduced.

Take the time to ensure that the objective is attainable by redirecting the necessary resources where they need to go to get the job done.

When setting your business goals and plotting the path to success, make sure the objective is relevant (or realistic). Building a relevant goal means that it’s not overly ambitious but is worth the time it’s going to take to get there.

If you set your sights too high, it can demotivate your team because they won’t see and experience the necessary progress to keep them motivated and on track.

That said, you can create an ambitious goal and keep your team engaged in the process by setting smaller goals — milestones — along the way that give your employees a sense of accomplishment and the drive to continue.

In terms of motivation, achievement, and success, an open-ended goal with no end date is just as demotivating as an overly-ambitious, irrelevant goal.

When planning the goals you want to reach, always abide by the T in SMART: timely, time-bound, time-based, or time-sensitive (choose your favorite).

Regardless of the term you use, it’s essential to set a deadline for your team’s activities. Establish a reasonable deadline — one that’s not too close but not too far away — and make sure everyone involved is aware of the date.

If you make the turnaround time too tight, you’ll likely put undue stress on those who are doing the most work.

On the other hand, if you make the turnaround time too broad, your team can lose sight of the overall progress against the background of their other day-to-day activities.

Conquer business goals with scheduling

A significant part of conquering your business goals in a timely manner is assigning tasks to specific sub-teams or individual employees.

As the business owner or project manager, you’re going to need to coordinate the long-term activities of your team as well as their day-to-day work.

Without the ability to schedule effectively, you leave everything up to chance. That’s why tools like Sling are so important.

The Sling suite of cloud-based tools streamlines the scheduling process and helps you keep track of both the business goals you’ve set and the steps your team needs to take to reach those goals.

Try Sling for free and discover just how easy it is to streamline your operations and keep your business on the road to success.

For more resources to help you manage your business better, organize and schedule your team, and track and calculate labor costs, visit GetSling.com today.

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Disclaimer: This content is provided for informational purposes only and is not legal, accounting, tax, HR, or other professional advice. Contact your attorney or other relevant advisor for advice specific to your circumstances.

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How to Write a Business Plan

Five examples of business goals and how to set them

What are five examples of business goals

Financial goals, growth goals, customer goals, employee development goals, social goals.

Moving forward in business is like planning a great trip: You know where you want to end up, but the road there isn’t always straightforward.

Smart business goals help you navigate the twists and turns along the way. While a business plan and vision statement offer a “big picture” perspective about your company and what you want to accomplish, short-term and long-term goals define the specific strategies you’ll use to get there.

However, not all business goals are created equal. In order to be effective, goals must involve specific, actionable items with a clear time frame and responsible parties.

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Here are five examples of smart goals for small business owners and how you can set them.

Financial goals help you focus on driving more revenue, cutting costs to raise profitability and sustain cash flow, and setting new financial targets for future growth.

To create and accomplish financial goals, you have to collaborate with different departments. Each department can help to identify strategies that trim costs, such as supplies or facility expenses. Your team’s expertise may also extend to implementing ideas that accomplish revenue and profitability goals.

When developing financial goals, project the total increase in profits over a long period like a year. Then break that amount down into quarterly financial targets. Make financial goals as specific as possible — for example, “increase production by x percent over three months.”

To develop growth goals, you need a clear vision statement that you can segment into achievable steps. Whether it’s reaching new markets, launching new products, increasing your customer base, or raising brand recognition, it’s important to establish a realistic number of goals, actionable tasks, and a team to complete those growth goals.

Start with a market analysis to ensure the approach makes sense. As you implement growth goals, you may need to change their priority or adapt them so you aren’t counteracting other business goals.

For example, growing a customer base may involve promotions that don’t necessarily improve your bottom line at the start. So you’ll need to make assessments along the way to gauge if and when you’ll achieve the financial goal connected to this growth goal.

Improving relationships with your target audience doesn’t just solve problems for individual customers. Enhanced customer service also helps your company develop respect among all stakeholders, which promotes additional business growth.

To set goals for customers, identify roadblocks that inhibit exceptional customer experiences. Roadblocks might include a complicated phone menu, significant response lag, or slow checkout time.

With these roadblocks in mind, develop customer goals to solve them, such as

• Simplify call-in customer support options
• Add other customer support channels like an online help desk or a chat option
• Streamline the online/in-store checkout process with new technology

Motivated, engaged employees offer many benefits for a company, such as increased productivity, deeper loyalty, and more creativity. This talent is an essential ingredient in a company’s recipe for success. That’s why it’s critical to design and execute goals that help employees develop skills and knowledge as well as challenge them enough to stay interested in their work.

To set employee development goals, collect regular feedback from team members about the types of incentives they want. Include these goals in performance reviews by aligning development actions like training and ongoing learning opportunities with business objectives like increasing engagement or converting new customers.

As your business grows, you’ll establish a place in the community you serve. To nurture this position, develop philanthropy and social programs that benefit local and global communities.

Not only does this feel good, but it also boosts your reputation as a socially conscious company. In addition, these social goals prove to the team that the company isn’t just about making money. Instead, it seeks to do good for everyone.

Your social goals don’t have to be financial. In-kind donations of products, services, or your thought leadership often make more of a positive impression than charitable donations. For example, if your small business isn’t yet in the position to donate a certain percentage of the profits from each sale, you can focus on having the team volunteer for a community project or donate products to those in need.

Specific and visible business goals

Studies show people are more likely to accomplish goals that are specific, challenging, and written down.

When creating the types of business goals detailed above, focus on adding a quantitative measure, where relevant, in terms of percentage of improvement or resource savings, growth or productivity improvements, or a deadline to achieve the goal. Also, keeping goals visible helps employees stay focused on business success. They have a way to benchmark their progress. And seeing what’s been achieved can be a prime motivator to continue working toward achieving your goals and tackling new ones in the future.

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NOV.05, 2023

Every business needs a clear vision of what it wants to achieve and how it plans to get there. A business plan is a document that outlines the goals and objectives of a business, as well as the strategies and actions to achieve them. A well-written business plan from business plan specialists can help a business attract investors, secure funding, and guide its growth.

Understanding Business Objectives

Business objectives are S pecific, M easurable, A chievable, R elevant, and T ime-bound (SMART) statements that describe what a business wants to accomplish in a given period. They are derived from the overall vision and mission of the business, and they support its strategic direction.

Business plan objectives can be categorized into different types, depending on their purpose and scope. Some common types of business objectives are:

• Financial objectives
• Operational objectives
• Marketing objectives
• Social objectives

For example, a sample of business goals and objectives for a business plan for a bakery could be:

• To increase its annual revenue by 20% in the next year.
• To reduce its production costs by 10% in the next six months.
• To launch a new product line of gluten-free cakes in the next quarter.
• To improve its customer satisfaction rating by 15% in the next month.

The Significance of Business Objectives

Business objectives are important for several reasons. They help to:

• Clarify and direct the company and stakeholders
• Align the company’s efforts and resources to a common goal
• Motivate and inspire employees to perform better
• Measure and evaluate the company’s progress and performance
• Communicate the company’s value and advantage to customers and the market

For example, by setting a revenue objective, a bakery can focus on increasing its sales and marketing efforts, monitor its sales data and customer feedback, motivate its staff to deliver quality products and service, communicate its unique selling points and benefits to its customers, and adjust its pricing and product mix according to market demand.

Advantages of Outlining Business Objectives

Outlining business objectives is a crucial step in creating a business plan. It serves as a roadmap for the company’s growth and development. Outlining business objectives has several advantages, such as:

• Clarifies the company’s vision, direction, scope, and boundaries
• Break down the company’s goals into smaller tasks and milestones
• Assigns roles and responsibilities and delegates tasks
• Establishes standards and criteria for success and performance
• Anticipates risks and challenges and devises contingency plans

For example, by outlining its business objective for increasing the average revenue per customer in its business plan, a bakery can:

• Attract investors with its viable business plan for investors
• Secure funding from banks or others with its realistic financial plan
• Partner with businesses or organizations that complement or enhance its products or services
• Choose the best marketing, pricing, product, staff, location, etc. for its target market and customers

Setting Goals and Objectives for a Business Plan

Setting goals and objectives for a business plan is not a one-time task. It requires careful planning, research, analysis, and evaluation. To set effective goals and objectives for a business plan, one should follow some best practices, such as:

OPTION 1: Use the SMART framework. A SMART goal or objective is clear, quantifiable, realistic, aligned with the company’s mission and vision, and has a deadline. SMART stands for:

• Specific – The goal or objective should be clear, concise, and well-defined.
• Measurable – The goal or objective should be quantifiable or verifiable.
• Achievable – The goal or objective should be realistic and attainable.
• Relevant – The goal or objective should be aligned with the company’s vision, mission, and values.
• Time-bound – The goal or objective should have a deadline or timeframe.

For example, using the SMART criteria, a bakery can refine its business objective for increasing the average revenue per customer as follows:

• Specific – Increase revenue with new products and services from $5 to $5.50.
• Measurable – Track customer revenue monthly with sales reports.
• Achievable – Research the market, develop new products and services, and train staff to upsell and cross-sell.
• Relevant – Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, profitability and cash flow, and market competitiveness.
• Time-bound – Achieve this objective in six months, from January 1st to June 30th.

OPTION 2: Use the OKR framework. OKR stands for O bjectives and K ey R esults. An OKR is a goal-setting technique that links the company’s objectives with measurable outcomes. An objective is a qualitative statement of what the company wants to achieve. A key result is a quantitative metric that shows how the objective will be achieved.

OPTION 3: Use the SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for S trengths, W eaknesses, O pportunities, and T hreats. A SWOT analysis is a strategic tool that helps the company assess the internal and external factors that affect its goals and objectives.

• Strengths – Internal factors that give the company an advantage over others. 
• Weaknesses – Internal factors that limit the company’s performance or growth. 
• Opportunities – External factors that allow the company to improve or expand. 
• Threats – External factors that pose a risk or challenge to the company.

For example, using these frameworks, a bakery might set the following goals and objectives for its SBA business plan :

Objective – To launch a new product line of gluten-free cakes in the next quarter.

Key Results:

• Research gluten-free cake market demand and preferences by month-end.
• Create and test 10 gluten-free cake recipes by next month-end.
• Make and sell 100 gluten-free cakes weekly online or in-store by quarter-end.

SWOT Analysis:

• Expertise and experience in baking and cake decorating.
• Loyal and satisfied customer base.
• Strong online presence and reputation.

Weaknesses:

• Limited production capacity and equipment.
• High production costs and low-profit margins.
• Lack of knowledge and skills in gluten-free baking.

Opportunities:

• Growing demand and awareness for gluten-free products.
• Competitive advantage and differentiation in the market.
• Potential partnerships and collaborations with health-conscious customers and organizations.
• Increasing competition from other bakeries and gluten-free brands.
• Changing customer tastes and preferences.
• Regulatory and legal issues related to gluten-free labeling and certification.

Examples of Business Goals and Objectives

To illustrate how to write business goals and objectives for a business plan, let’s use a hypothetical example of a bakery business called Sweet Treats. Sweet Treats is a small bakery specializing in custom-made cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and other baked goods for various occasions.

Here are some examples of possible startup business goals and objectives for Sweet Treats:

Earning and Preserving Profitability

Profitability is the ability of a company to generate more revenue than expenses. It indicates the financial health and performance of the company. Profitability is essential for a business to sustain its operations, grow its market share, and reward its stakeholders.

Some possible objectives for earning and preserving profitability for Sweet Treats are:

• To increase the gross profit margin by 5% in the next quarter by reducing the cost of goods sold
• To achieve a net income of $100,000 in the current fiscal year by increasing sales and reducing overhead costs

Ensuring Consistent Cash Flow

Cash flow is the amount of money that flows in and out of a company. A company needs to have enough cash to cover its operating expenses, pay its debts, invest in its growth, and reward its shareholders.

Some possible objectives for ensuring consistent cash flow for Sweet Treats are:

• Increase monthly operating cash inflow by 15% by the end of the year by improving the efficiency and productivity of the business processes
• Increase the cash flow from investing activities by selling or disposing of non-performing or obsolete assets

Creating and Maintaining Efficiency

Efficiency is the ratio of output to input. It measures how well a company uses its resources to produce its products or services. Efficiency can help a business improve its quality, productivity, customer satisfaction, and profitability.

Some possible objectives for creating and maintaining efficiency for Sweet Treats are:

• To reduce the production time by 10% in the next month by implementing lean manufacturing techniques
• To increase the customer service response rate by 20% in the next week by using chatbots or automated systems

Winning and Keeping Clients

Clients are the people or organizations that buy or use the products or services of a company. They are the source of revenue and growth for a company. Therefore, winning and keeping clients is vital to generating steady revenue, increasing customer loyalty, and enhancing word-of-mouth marketing.

Some possible objectives for winning and keeping clients for Sweet Treats are:

• To acquire 100 new clients in the next quarter by launching a referral program or a promotional campaign
• To retain 90% of existing clients in the current year by offering loyalty rewards or satisfaction guarantees

Building a Recognizable Brand

A brand is the name, logo, design, or other features distinguishing a company from its competitors. It represents the identity, reputation, and value proposition of a company. Building a recognizable brand is crucial for attracting and retaining clients and creating a loyal fan base.

Some possible objectives for building a recognizable brand for Sweet Treats are:

• To increase brand awareness by 50% in the next six months by creating and distributing engaging content on social media platforms
• To improve brand image by 30% in the next year by participating in social causes or sponsoring events that align with the company’s values

Expanding and Nurturing an Audience with Marketing

An audience is a group of people interested in or following a company’s products or services. They can be potential or existing clients, fans, influencers, or partners. Expanding and nurturing an audience with marketing is essential for increasing a company’s visibility, reach, and engagement.

Some possible objectives for expanding and nurturing an audience with marketing for Sweet Treats are:

• To grow the email list by 1,000 subscribers in the next month by offering a free ebook or a webinar
• To nurture leads by sending them relevant and valuable information through email newsletters or blog posts

Strategizing for Expansion

Expansion is the process of increasing a company’s size, scope, or scale. It can involve entering new markets, launching new products or services, opening new locations, or forming new alliances. Strategizing for expansion is important for diversifying revenue streams, reaching new audiences, and gaining competitive advantages.

Some possible objectives for strategizing for expansion for Sweet Treats are:

• To launch a new product or service line by developing and testing prototypes
• To open a new branch or franchise by securing funding and hiring staff

Template for Business Objectives

A template for writing business objectives is a format or structure that can be used as a guide or reference for creating your objectives. A template for writing business objectives can help you to ensure that your objectives are SMART, clear, concise, and consistent.

To use this template, fill in the blanks with your information. Here is an example of how you can use this template:

Example of Business Objectives

Our business is a _____________ (type of business) that provides _____________ (products or services) to _____________ (target market). Our vision is to _____________ (vision statement) and our mission is to _____________ (mission statement).

Our long-term business goals and objectives for the next _____________ (time period) are:

S pecific: We want to _____________ (specific goal) by _____________ (specific action).

M easurable: We will measure our progress by _____________ (quantifiable indicator).

A chievable: We have _____________ (resources, capabilities, constraints) that will enable us to achieve this goal.

R elevant: This goal supports our vision and mission by _____________ (benefit or impact).

T ime-bound: We will complete this goal by _____________ (deadline).

Repeat this process for each goal and objective for your business plan.

How to Monitor Your Business Objectives?

After setting goals and objectives for your business plan, you should check them regularly to see if you are achieving them. Monitoring your business objectives can help you to:

• Track your progress and performance
• Identify and overcome any challenges
• Adjust your actions and strategies as needed

Some of the tools and methods that you can use to monitor your business objectives are:

• Dashboards – Show key data and metrics for your objectives with tools like Google Data Studio, Databox, or DashThis.
• Reports – Get detailed information and analysis for your objectives with tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, or SEMrush.
• Feedback – Learn from your customers and their needs and expectations with tools like SurveyMonkey, Typeform, or Google Forms.

Strategies for Realizing Business Objectives

To achieve your business objectives, you need more than setting and monitoring them. You need strategies and actions that support them. Strategies are the general methods to reach your objectives. Actions are the specific steps to implement your strategies.

Different objectives require different strategies and actions. Some common types are:

• Marketing strategies
• Operational strategies
• Financial strategies
• Human resource strategies
• Growth strategies

To implement effective strategies and actions, consider these factors:

• Alignment – They should match your vision, mission, values, goals, and objectives
• Feasibility – They should be possible with your capabilities, resources, and constraints
• Suitability – They should fit the context and needs of your business

How OGSCapital Can Help You Achieve Your Business Objectives?

We at OGSCapital can help you with your business plan and related documents. We have over 15 years of experience writing high-quality business plans for various industries and regions. We have a team of business plan experts who can assist you with market research, financial analysis, strategy formulation, and presentation design. We can customize your business plan to suit your needs and objectives, whether you need funding, launching, expanding, or entering a new market. We can also help you with pitch decks, executive summaries, feasibility studies, and grant proposals. Contact us today for a free quote and start working on your business plan.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the goals and objectives in business.

Goals and objectives in a business plan are the desired outcomes that a company works toward. To describe company goals and objectives for a business plan, start with your mission statement and then identify your strategic and operational objectives. To write company objectives, you must brainstorm, organize, prioritize, assign, track, and review them using the SMART framework and KPIs.

What are the examples of goals and objectives in a business plan?

Examples of goals and objectives in a business plan are: Goal: To increase revenue by 10% each year for the next five years. Objective: To launch a new product line and create a marketing campaign to reach new customers.

What are the 4 main objectives of a business?

The 4 main objectives of a business are economic, social, human, and organic. Economic objectives deal with financial performance, social objectives deal with social responsibility, human objectives deal with employee welfare, and organic objectives deal with business growth and development.

What are goals and objectives examples?

Setting goals and objectives for a business plan describes what a business or a team wants to achieve and how they will do it. For example: Goal: To provide excellent customer service. Objective: To increase customer satisfaction scores by 20% by the end of the quarter. 

At OGSCapital, our business planning services offer expert guidance and support to create a realistic and actionable plan that aligns with your vision and mission. Get in touch to discuss further!

OGSCapital’s team has assisted thousands of entrepreneurs with top-rate business plan development, consultancy and analysis. They’ve helped thousands of SME owners secure more than $1.5 billion in funding, and they can do the same for you.

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20 Business Goals Examples & How to Set Them

Last Updated – Jan 22, 2024 @ 10:42 am

Any successful entrepreneur will tell you the importance of goal setting to maximize your business’ potential.

Whether your business has been up and running for years or you’re dealing with a startup , you need to deliberately plan your business goals. 

Not sure where to start? We’ll explain everything you need to know about business goals below.

What are Business Goals?

Business goals refer to the specific articulations of all the things you want your business to achieve within a specific period. These goals fall under your business plan. 

One example of a business goal is your mission statement, which is more general and highlights what your business strives towards.

You can also set specific business goals that are more measurable and trackable. Having a clear time-bound business goal helps your company to be oriented in the right direction as it grows. 

The Importance of Business Goals

Starting and running a business is no walk in the park, and the truth is, not a lot of businesses make it.

One of the most common reasons this happens is because many businesses fail to set goals. Here are some of the benefits you’ll reap when you set clear business goals. 

It allows you to focus on the important things

When companies set goals, it allows everyone in the organization to re-focus their priorities. The main purpose of business goals is to let employees know what they should put more effort into the upcoming period.

This enables them to align their tasks more efficiently. For managers and other high-ranking staff, it allows them to decide the major projects to prioritize.

It helps people stay motivated

Even if you love your business or industry, there will still be instances when you just don’t feel motivated to work.

One of the importance of goal setting in businesses is it allows everyone to stay motivated especially in times when they don’t want to put in work.

Although someone may feel like they can’t give their 100%, they will still move forward because they can visualize the end results.

It defines what success is

Every business owner wants to know whether or not their business is successful .

How can you do this?

Clearly outlining your business goals will give you a picture of what success is. When you set goals, you will push the capabilities of your team.  

It enables you to track your progress

Another reason why it’s integral to set business goals is because it is a way to track your progress.

By sitting down and looking at how close you are to hitting your targets, or how many business goals you have achieved, you are able to see the areas of your business that need more work.

You will also know which of your actions are paying off.

It helps you stay accountable

Every responsible business owner will tell you the importance of holding yourself accountable. If you decide you want to achieve something for your business, you need to take all the necessary steps to hit your goal.

If you are constantly falling behind, you know that you have to work harder and see which of your actions you need to change. 

Types of Business Goals

Not all business goals are the same. To help you find out what type of goals you should set in place, study the types of business goals listed below.  

1. Personal & Professional Business Goals

When you think of business goals, the first things on your list may be hitting your first million, or doubling your number of clients. While these can definitely be goals, these should not paint the entire picture.

To help you find out the best goals to set, remember why you started your business in the first place. These things prove that it’s not all about money. Instead of thinking of your sales as the end-all-be-all, think outside the box.

For instance, your business goal may be to only work for specific days each week or hire more staff so you can be more present for your kids. 

2. Short-term & Long-term Business Goals

When it comes to growing a business, you need to set both short-term and long-term goals.

Short-term business goals are ones that you want to hit in a period of weeks or months. For example, a short-term goal can be to reduce your utility bills in your physical store in the next month or get more interactions on your Instagram campaign. 

On the other hand, long-term business goals are those that you want your company to achieve in the distant future. These goals are harder to hit and require you to be strategic in breaking down the steps involved in them.

This can include reaching a specific income, opening up new stores, or completely overhauling your existing equipment. 

3. Process-based & Outcome-based Business Goals

The reason why you are making business goals is that you want to see results. 

Outcome-based business goals are directly related to the results you want. But unlike process-based goals, you have no control over whether you will achieve them or not.

To hit this business goal, you need to have process-based goals which are based on specific tasks and actions that you complete.

Setting process-based goals involves identifying all the things you need to do to achieve a larger goal. 

4. Qualitative & Quantitative Business Goals

If you want to ensure your goals have a higher chance of becoming successful, it needs to be specific enough to track.

When you have a vague goal such as “increasing your social media followers,” you’ll end up getting confused on whether you’ve hit your goal or not. 

Qualitative goals are more focused on your financial targets and metrics, but you also need to have goals that concern the more nuanced aspects of your business.

These are called qualitative goals. It can include increasing your workplace morale or improving the brand loyalty of your customers. 

The secret to creating business goals is to be as specific as possible, especially when defining how much more you want to increase something. Then, don’t forget to set a time period so you can assess your progress better.  

Business Goals vs. Business Objectives

A lot of businesses use the terms “objectives” and “goals” interchangeably. However, the two are not the same. Understanding their differences is key if you want to avoid confusion.

To put it simply, a business goal is an aim that you establish to start your business planning process. For example, increasing your Instagram followers by 100% in 6 months is a business goal.

Meanwhile, a business objective refers to milestones that you reach on the way to achieving your goal. This can include creating more relatable content to increase shares and visibility. 

Considering this definition, goals are more broad and long-term. These are mostly used to make annual strategies to be executed by different departments in your business. 

Related: Business Development 101

20 Best Business Goals Examples for Filipino Entrepreneurs

To help cement your idea of what business goals are, here are some concrete examples that you can apply to your business. 

1. Cost reduction

Whether you have a huge corporation or a small business, it may benefit you to reduce your costs to maximize your cash flow.

However, make sure to be specific about what costs you want to target . For example, you can invest in technology to improve business efficiency and increase productivity. This, in turn, reduces your costs. 

2. Hiring your first employee

Being a small business owner is hard because you need to wear many hats. If you want to ease your burden, you can set a goal to hire your first employee.

Part of hiring an employee includes defining a clear set of responsibilities. This way, you can have a laser focus on candidates that have the right experience. 

Recommended: Hiring Tips for Filipino Entrepreneurs

3. Improve operational efficiency

Improving your operational efficiency is not just one initiative. It is a collective effort that involves people, processes, technology, and financials.

This way, your business can become a well-oiled machine, and deliver quality services even with fewer resources.

4. Minimize tools & energy required for operation

More processes and staff doesn’t always mean more productivity. As an entrepreneur, remember that technology is on your side.

As much as you can, leverage resources to save money, and give you more consistent services and results. This may include automating repeatable work, especially in your administrative processes. 

5. Increase online presence

Whatever industry you belong in, you can benefit from having a strong online presence. Considering more people spend hours each day online, building your online presence has become a no-brainer.

By doing this, more people can discover your business, and you can be seen as a more legitimate enterprise. Having an online presence also means having the luxury to guide your customers in their buyer journey. 

6. Update your business plan

The first business plan you made when you first started your business may be outdated. Updating your business plan is vital if you want to keep your information up to date.

This will also help you gain more opportunities in analyzing competition, seeking more financing options, and starting a new financial period in your business. 

7. Go paperless

Every entrepreneur faces the pressure to improve their company efficiency and decrease costs. One of the ways you can do this is by going paperless.

Technology has made this easier, and while this can be intimidating for some, it can give you tons of benefits such as improved collaboration, security, and access. It’s also more eco-friendly. 

8. Reach out & help the local community

Without question, the people close to your business are more likely to become your customer base. Because of this, you have to cater to their needs.

Reaching out to people in your local community will increase brand trust since more will catch wind about your business with little effort towards advertising. 

9. Improve the company’s brand & image

Your company has a unique personality. While you serve the same needs as your competition, you need to make an effort so customers won’t confuse you with other brands.

After all, no one confuses McDonald’s for Jollibee. So how can you improve your brand image, especially online? The best way to do this is to communicate your brand voice and values clearly in your collateral, as well as your service. 

10. Leverage social media marketing

Social media marketing refers to using social media networks such as Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook to market your products and services.

The moment you prioritize this, you can ramp up your customer engagement, and reach new people in an inexpensive way.

More than that, social media also has built-in analytics so it will be easier for you to measure the success of your efforts. 

11. Increase market share

Market share refers to the percentage of a market your company earns. It involves your total sales in relation to the overall industry sales.

If your goal is to hold more market share, it means increasing your customer base, as well as improving your reputation.

You will also enjoy increased bargaining power, as well as an upper hand in negotiating with your suppliers.  

12. Business expense reduction

In today’s uncertain market condition, every peso counts. Even the smallest revenue increase can impact your profitability.

Aside from expanding your sales , one way you can do this is by reducing your expenses. This can include your production costs, supply expenses, insurance policies, and even marketing efforts, among many others. 

13. Perform a marketing audit

The marketing landscape and needs of your customers change constantly. Because of this, you need to conduct a marketing audit every once in a while.

This involves assessing the strategies and targets of all your marketing activities . After doing this, you can identify your areas of weakness, and have an overview of the tools at your disposal that can improve your future outcomes. 

14. Make a better & more cost-effective product

Whether you already have a huge market share or not, you will surely benefit from making more cost-effective products.

This arduous process involves studying cost trade-offs of various concept designs, as well as evaluating tons of design and supplier alternatives so you can come up with the lowest cost without sacrificing quality. 

15. Enhance customer service

Customer service involves giving your customer what they want in the best way possible. This will give you a greater chance of increasing your customer base and raking in favorable word of mouth.

When this is included in your business goals, you can also seek feedback from your customers, streamline your processes, and strengthen your team. 

16. Run a leadership development program for managers

Implementing a leadership program for your business is required if you want to keep up with the current climate.

All your staff needs reliable and strong leaders whom they can turn to for support and guidance, and a leadership development program will do wonders to increase the competency of managers and give employees the opportunity to build the necessary skills to move up. 

17. Increasing production

For many businesses, increasing production is the ingredient needed for them to grow. Providing more services and products to your customers can translate to better profits.

As production increases, your company can also pay stakeholders faster, as well as retain a larger cash flow to be used for future expansion.

18. Launch a new product

If you’ve had the same products and services for years, chances are, your customers want something new. Change things up by studying the current market and trying to fill a current gap.

If launching a new product is something you can’t afford to do, try marketing your old product in a new light. 

19. Open a new branch

Despite the success of eCommerce , brick and mortar shops still continue to do well since it provides customers with a tactile shopping experience.

If your company is ready, maybe it’s time to open a second location to expand your footprint and cater to more customer demand.  

20. Open the brand for franchising

Want to enjoy the benefits of a bigger company without all the work? If so, open your company for franchising .

When you’re finally ready to take this plunge, you need to set aside time and effort to manage and guide your franchisees. This way, you can help them grow their business while keeping your brand image strong. 

7 Tips for Successfully Setting Business Goals

Successful businesses set goals to reach milestones, irrespective of their industry. Here are some tips to keep in mind when setting your business goals.  

1. Use the S.M.A.R.T. system

When you spend effort and time visualizing and specifying your goals, you’ll have a higher chance of achieving them. However, being as descriptive as possible does not come easy for many entrepreneurs.

To make this simpler, use the SMART system to guide you. This means:

Specific – What exactly do you want to accomplish? Specify the Who, When, What, Where, and Why.  Measurable – How will you measure your progress against your specific goal?  Achievable – Can you achieve your goal with your current skills and resources? What do you need to change to achieve it?   Relevant – Are your business goals in line with how you see your business in the next few years?  Time-bound – When is the realistic deadline you want to set for yourself to achieve this goal? 

2. Study & research companies in the same field

As you make an effort to increase your market share, developing a better strategy becomes more crucial. Considering this, studying and researching your competition is an important step you should not miss.

If you forego your competition, you won’t have a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses of other businesses, and how they are attracting potential customers and retaining old ones.

When you take time to research other companies in the industry, you can learn from their failures and successes and apply these things to your business goals. 

3. Use the O.K.R. framework

Broad business goals can be extremely useful, but if you want your company to adapt more, you need to break this down into smaller steps. One way you can do this is by following the OKR goal-setting framework. 

OKR means Objectives and Key Results . This goal-setting methodology was pioneered by Andrew Grove, former CEO of Intel. 

This framework involves two basic parts. First is the Objective, which is qualitative and tells you what areas you want to improve.

The next is Key Results, which is quantitative, and defines how you will find out if you’ve achieved your objective. 

You can look at it this way:

(Company name) will (objective) as measured by (Key Results)

Two techniques that make this framework unique are weekly check-ins and initiatives. The former helps you track your accomplishments and other plans, while the latter includes the plans and projects that will enable you to achieve your objectives. 

4. Be specific

Do not be afraid to go into the nitty-gritty details of each goal. Define each peso. Outline each percentage. List the duration you need to achieve it. Examine who can help you achieve your goal. Be as specific as you can.

Doing so will make it easier to track your performance and progress. Having a specific goal will also bring you more clarity, as well as avoid confusion. 

5. Track & measure your progress consistently

Failing to measure business performance will give you a skewed picture of your standing in relation to your business goal. 

Whether you want to do this weekly, bi-monthly, monthly, or quarterly, you have to look at relevant business metrics and other performance indicators to know the progress of your goals.

Consistently and regularly monitoring your progress will also protect you from financial and organizational problems . 

6. Break down long term goals into actionable steps

Long-term goals can take a long time to reach, and it can be easy to lose track of your end goal and lose your motivation because you’re not seeing any results.

After all, long-term goals have been proven to be psychologically taxing, not to mention very intimidating. Think about it this way – your long-term business goal should serve as your North Star.

For example, no one expects you to hold 50% of the market share in one go. Instead, every marketing effort increases your market share until you reach your goal.

Breaking down your large goals into more manageable chunks will make them seem easier and more realistic. It also provides you with a clearer action plan that won’t make you feel overwhelmed. 

7. Identify the resources you’ll need to hit your goals

If your goal is to improve your customer service, do you have everything you need to do so? Is your customer service team ready? Do you have the right software to handle customer queries? Do you have the budget to hire more staff in your physical store? 

Answering all these questions in advance will make your journey more seamless. Perhaps your customer service team is already drowning with work. Calculate how much effort you can expect from all your identified resources before you let them know what you expect of them. 

In every business goal, knowing the people and work required to achieve it is part of the bid. When you know this key information, you can start looking at the resources required and break it down into a clear project plan.

This will enable you to identify tasks that need to be ticked off and give you an idea about the software, business skills , and tools required to complete specific tasks.

Read Next: 50+ Business Tips for Filipino Entrepreneurs

About MJ de Castro

MJ de Castro is the lead personal finance columnist at Grit PH.

MJ started her career as a writer for her local government’s City Information Office. Later on, she became a news anchor on PTV Davao del Norte.

Wanting to break free from the shackles of her 9-to-5 career to live by the beach, she pursued remote work. Over the years, she has developed a wide specialization on health, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, branding, and travel.

Now, she juggles writing professionally, her business centering on women’s menstrual health, and surfing.

Education: Ateneo de Davao University (AB Mass Communication) Focus: Personal Finance, Personal Development, Entrepreneurship, & Marketing

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Strategic Plans for Long-Term Growth: Examples and Strategies

This is a comprehensive guide on strategic planning for small to midsize companies.

If you want to:

• Move your organization in the direction you intend for long-term success,
• Implement your plan smoothly for greater growth,
• Use a better platform for developing a truly effective strategic plan,

… then you’ll love this guide. Let’s get started.

What’s Covered in This Guide

Click on each to jump to that section.

What is Strategic Planning?

What does strategic planning mean, what is the goal of strategic planning.

• What is Strategic Leadership?

4 Strategic Planning Strategies

The strategic planning process [11 steps], what does strategic planning involve.

• How to Implement Your Strategic Plan

Examples of Strategic Plans

Get your strategic planning done on ninety.

Strategic planning is the process you use to:

• Establish and document a clear direction for your organization.
• Identify business goals and set priorities that create growth for your company.
• Formulate a long-term plan of action designed to achieve these objectives.
• Determine an internal system tracking and evaluating performance.

When organizations want to, they use a strategic plan to:

• Strengthen their operation.
• Focus on collective energy and resources.
• Enable leaders, teams, and other stakeholders to work toward common goals.
• Make agreements around desired results.
• Refresh direction and prevail over a changing or challenging environment.

Thinking strategically helps companies take the right action for more success and better outcomes. Some even call it an art.

Strategic planning is one of three essential ways to pursue important objectives for your company. When tackling challenges and determining action plans, you can think strategically, tactically, or operationally. These three thought processes often work in concert to help you create a framework that achieves your desired objectives.

• Strategic plans are designed for multilevel involvement throughout the entire organization. Leaders will look ahead to where they want to be in three, five, and ten years and develop a mission.
• Tactical plans support strategic plans. They outline the specific responsibilities and functionalities at the department level so employees know how to do their part to make the strategic plan successful.
• Operational plans focus on the highly detailed procedures, processes, and routine tasks that frontline employees must accomplish to achieve desired outcomes.

The goal of your strategic plan is to determine:

• Where your company stands in relation to the current business environment. Understand how your business operates, how you create value, and how you differentiate from your competitors.
• Where you want to take the business based on long-term objectives such as your company’s vision, mission, culture, values, and goals. Envision how you see the company five or ten years from now.
• What you need to do to get there. You come away from your planning sessions with a roadmap that helps deliver on your strategic objectives. Determine better ways to enable and implement change, schedule deadlines, and structure goals, so they’re achievable.

The main purpose of your strategic plan is to create clearly defined goals for achieving the growth and success of your organization. These goals are connected to your organization’s mission and long-term vision.

What is Strategic Leadership? 

Strategic leadership is how you create, implement, and sustain your strategic plan, so your organization moves in the direction you intend for long-term success. This usually involves establishing ongoing practices and benchmarks, allocating resources, and providing leadership that supports your strategic mission and vision statement.

Strategic leadership, also known as strategy execution, can employ two different approaches:

• A prescriptive approach is analytical and focuses on how strategies are created to account for risks and opportunities.
• A descriptive approach is principle-driven and focuses on how strategies are implemented to account for risks and opportunities.

Most people agree that a strategic plan is only as good as the company’s ability to research, create, implement, evaluate, and adjust when needed. The benefits can be great when:

• Your entire organization supports the plan.
• Your business is set up to succeed.
• Your employees are more likely to stay on track without being distracted or derailed.
• You make better decisions based on metrics that facilitate course correction.
• Everyone in your company is involved and invested in better outcomes.
• Departments and teams are aligned across your company.
• People are committed to learning and training.
• Productivity increases, and performance improves.
• Creativity is encouraged and rewarded.

What are the four main points of strategic planning? You engage in strategic thinking so you can create effective company goals that are:

Purpose-driven

Align your strategic plan with the company’s purpose and values as you understand them.

Actionable strategic goals are worth spending your time and resources on to reach organizational objectives.

It’s critical for you to track your strategy's progress and success, enabling your teams to take action and meet the goals more effectively.

Focused Long-term

A long-term focus distinguishes a strategic plan from operational goals, which involve daily activities and milestones required for success. When planning strategically, you’re looking ahead to the company’s future.

A strategic plan isn’t written in a day. Critical thinking evolves over several months. Those involved in the strategic planning are usually a team of leaders and employees from your company and possibly other stakeholders.

When should strategic planning be done?

You should plan strategically for start-ups and newer organizations from the start. But even if your company is more established, it’s not too late to start working on strategy.

Flexible timing that’s tailored to the needs of your organization is smart. Although the frequency of strategy sessions is up to you, many leaders use these milestones as a guide:

• When the economy, your market, and industry trends change, or a global event occurs (like the onset of a pandemic).
• Following a change in senior leadership.
• Before a product launch or when a new division is added to your business.
• After your company merges with another organization.
• During a convenient time frame such as a quarterly and annual review.

Many organizations opt to schedule regular strategic reviews such as quarterly or annually. Especially when crafting a plan, your strategic planning team should meet regularly. They will often follow predetermined steps in the development of your long-term plan.

What are the 11 steps of strategic planning?

Identify your company’s strategic position in the marketplace. .

Gather market data and research information from both internal and external sources. You may want to conduct a comprehensive SWOT analysis to determine your company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats against success. Your strengths and weaknesses are directly related to your current competitive advantage within your industry. They are what you use to balance challenges to your success. They also influence the likelihood of increased market share in the future.

Define your unique vision and mission. 

What would success look like for you in three years? Five years? Ten years? Articulate that in a vision statement. How do you intend to realize your vision? That’s articulated in your mission statement. Formulating purpose-driven strategic goals articulates why your company does what it does. Your organizational values inform your mission and vision and connect them to specific objectives.

Determine your company’s value.

Many companies use financial forecasting for this purpose. A forecast can assign anticipated measurable results, return on investment (ROI), or profits and cost of investment.

Set your organizational direction.

Defining the impact you want to have and the time frame for achieving helps focus a too-broad or over-ambitious first draft. This way, your plan will have objectives that will have the most impact. 

Create specific strategic objectives.

Your strategic objectives identify the conditions for your success. For instance, they may cover:

• Value: Increasing revenue and shareholder value, budgeting cost, allocating resources aligned with the strategic plan, forecasting profitability, and ensuring financial stability. 
• Customer Experience: Identifying target audiences, solution-based products and services, value for the cost, better service, and increased market share.
• Operational Efficiency: Streamlining internal processes, investing in research and development, total quality and performance priorities, reducing cost, and improving workplace safety.
• Learning and Growth: Training leaders and teams to address change and sustain growth, improving employee productivity and retention, and building high-performing teams.

Set specific strategic initiatives.

Strategic initiatives are your company's actions to reach your strategic objectives, such as raising brand awareness, a commitment to product development, purpose-driven employee training, and more.

Develop cascading goals.

Cascading goals are like cascading messages : They filter your strategy throughout the company from top to bottom. The highest-level goals align with mid-level goals to individual goals employees must accomplish to achieve overall outcomes. This helps everyone see how their performance will influence overall success, which improves engagement and productivity.

Create alignment across the entire company.

The success of your strategy is directly impacted by your commitment to inform and engage your entire workforce in strategy implementation. This involves ensuring everyone is connected and working together to achieve your goals. Overall decision-making becomes easier and more aligned.

Consider strategy mapping.

A strategy map is an easy-to-understand diagram, graphic, or illustration that shows the logical, cause-and-effect relationship among various strategic objectives. They are used to quickly communicate how your organization creates value. It will help you communicate the details of your strategic plan better to people by tapping into their visual learning abilities.

Use metrics to measure performance.

When your strategy informs the creation of SMART organizational goals , benchmarks can be established and metrics can be assigned to evaluate performance within time frames. Key performance indicators (KPIs) align performance and productivity with long-term strategic objectives. 

Evaluate the performance of your plan regularly.

You write a strategic plan to improve your company’s overall performance. Evaluating your progress at regular intervals will tell you whether you’re on your way to achieving your objectives or whether your plan needs an adjustment.

Effective strategic planning involves creating a company culture of good communication and accountability. It involves creating and embracing the opportunity for positive change.

Consider these statistics:

• In many companies, only 42% of leaders and 27% of employees have access to a strategic plan.
• Even if they have access, 95% of employees do not understand their organization's strategy.
• 5.2% of a strategy’s potential is lost to poor communication.
• What leaders care about makes up at least 80% of the content of their communications. But those messages do not tap into around 80% of their employees’ primary motivators for putting extra energy into a change program.
• 28% of leaders say one of the main reasons strategic initiatives succeed is the ability to attract skilled personnel; 25% say it’s good communication; 25% say it’s the ability to manage organizational change.

Here’s what you can do to embrace a culture of good communication and accountability:

Make your strategic plan visible. Talk about what's working and what isn't. People want to know where and how they fit into the organization and why their contribution is valuable. Even if they don't understand every element of the plan.

Build accountability. If you've agreed on a plan with clear objectives and priorities, your leaders have to take responsibility for what's in it. They must own the objectives and activities in your plan.

Create an environment for change. It’s much more difficult to implement a strategy if you think there will be no support or collaboration from your coworkers. Addressing their concerns will help build a culture that understands how to champion change.

Implementing Your Strategic Plan

• 98% of leaders think strategy implementation takes more time than strategy formulation.
• 61% of leaders acknowledge that their organizations often struggle to bridge the gap between strategy formulation and its day-to-day implementation.
• 45% of leaders say ensuring employees take different actions or demonstrate different behaviors is the toughest implementation challenge; 37% of leaders say it’s gaining support across the whole organization.
• 39% of leaders say one of the main reasons strategic plans succeed is skilled implementation.

The reality for so many is that it’s harder to implement a strategic plan than to craft one. Great strategic ideas and a clear direction are key to success, no matter what. But so is:

• Turning strategic ideas into an easy-to-implement framework that enables meaningful managing, tracking, and adapting.  
• Getting everyone in the organization on the same strategic page, from creation to execution.

When your plan is structured to support implementation, you're more likely to get it done.

What are examples of good strategic planning? There are lots of templates out there to help you create a plan document with pen and paper.

But Ninety has a better way.

The Vision planner is essentially a strategic planning template on Ninety’s cloud-based platform that allows you to:

• Set goals, establish how you will meet them, and share them with those who need to know.
• Gain visibility around your company values.
• Create core values, a niche, and long-term goals that are accessible to everyone in your company.
• Create a vision of the future that lets you know what needs to happen now.
• Streamline and organize your processes.
• Easily update and track changes.
• Bring alignment to your entire organization.

And you can do all this with only two digitized pages.

In your Vision tool inside Ninety, you can easily access all the things that make strategic plans effective:

• Executive Summary
• Elevator Pitch
• Mission Statement
• Vision Statement
• SWOT Analysis
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Industry Analysis
• Marketing Plan
• Operations Plan
• Financial Projections

Vision + Goals is also completely integrated with all other features on Ninety, such as Scorecards, 90-Day Goals, To-Dos, Issues, Roles & Responsibilities Chart, Meetings, One-on-Ones, and more:

• Create a clear vision for each team.
• Determine one- and three-year goals.
• Reference past versions in a Vision archive.
• Share your Vision with all teams, or keep it private.

Now that you’ve learned how to grow your company using strategic planning, it’s time to put your knowledge into practice:

Build your strategic plan on Ninety now.

Do you want more step-by-step guides on strategy, strategic planning, and creating actionable strategic plans?  Subscribe to our blog!

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How to Write the Strategy Plan Timeline (+ Examples)

• March 21, 2024
• Business Plan , How to Write

Creating a strategic plan timeline is crucial, especially if you are preparing a business plan for your business. This comprehensive guide simplifies the process, offering a step-by-step guide to crafting a clear, actionable strategy plan timeline tailored for business owners.

Whether you’re launching a new startup or scaling an existing business, you’ll find essential tips to best map out your business’s milestones and objectives. Let’s dive in!

What is a strategy plan timeline?

A strategy plan timeline in a business plan is a comprehensive schedule that outlines the sequence of actions, key milestones, and deadlines required to achieve the business’s strategic objectives.

It serves as a roadmap, detailing how the business will transition from its current state to its desired future state over a specified period.

This timeline is crucial for ensuring that strategic goals are met within realistic timeframes, allowing for efficient resource allocation and enabling stakeholders to monitor progress.

The strategy plan timeline can include some or all of the elements below:

• Objectives: The specific, measurable goals the business aims to achieve, aligned with its overall vision and mission.
• Milestones: Significant achievements or checkpoints that indicate progress toward the objectives. These are often quantifiable and serve as interim targets.
• Actions: The steps or initiatives that need to be undertaken to reach each milestone and, ultimately, achieve the objectives. These are typically assigned to specific teams or individuals.
• Deadlines: The timeframes by which milestones and objectives should be met to keep the plan on track. Deadlines help prioritize tasks and ensure timely progress.
• Resources: An outline of the financial, human, and material resources allocated to each action or milestone, ensuring that the plan is realistic and feasible.
• Review Points: Scheduled assessments of the plan’s progress, allowing for adjustments based on performance, external changes, or unforeseen challenges.

Incorporating a strategy plan timeline into a business plan provides a clear path for growth, operational improvements, or other strategic shifts.

It is essential for aligning team efforts, managing stakeholder expectations, and securing investment, as it demonstrates a thoughtful, actionable approach to achieving business success.

How to create a strategy plan timeline: 6 steps

When crafting a strategy plan timeline for a business plan, the goal is to map out a clear, structured path that will guide the business from its current state to achieving its long-term objectives.

This involves setting specific, measurable goals, identifying key milestones, and allocating resources effectively. Here’s a simplified approach to creating a strategy plan timeline that can be tailored to fit the unique needs of different businesses:

1. Define Your Objectives

Start by clearly defining the long-term goals and objectives of your business. What do you want to achieve in the next three to five years? Objectives should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

2. Conduct a SWOT Analysis

Perform a SWOT analysis to identify your business’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This will help you understand the internal and external factors that could impact your ability to achieve your objectives.

3. Set Short-term Goals

Break down your long-term objectives into smaller, actionable short-term goals. These should act as stepping stones toward your larger objectives and be achievable within a year.

4. Identify Key Actions and Milestones

For each short-term goal, list out the key actions or steps needed to achieve it. Then, identify significant milestones within these actions, which will serve as markers of progress.

5. Allocate Resources

Determine what resources (financial, human, technological) are needed to accomplish each action and milestone. Allocate these resources accordingly, ensuring that constraints are considered and managed.

6. Establish a Timeline

Assign realistic timeframes to each action and milestone. Your timeline should reflect the urgency and priority of each goal, balancing ambition with feasibility.

Strategy plan timeline: 2 examples

Here are 2 examples you can use as an inspiration to create yours. These are taken from our coffee shop business plan and hair salon business plan templates.

Coffee Shop Example

Hair Salon Example

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7 steps to small business success: a guide for entrepreneurs

In today's world, small businesses play a crucial role in the economy, driving innovation, creating jobs, and contributing to societal development. However, successfully managing a small business can be a challenge for entrepreneurs. In this article, we present seven key steps to help your small business achieve success.

1. Define goals and mission

Before starting a business , define what you want to achieve. Clearly articulate your goals and mission. Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART). Your business's mission should reflect its values and objectives.

• Establish Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) goals.
• Clearly articulate the mission of your business, reflecting its values and objectives.

2. Research the market and competitors

Conduct thorough market research to understand your target audience, trends, and customer needs. Study your competitors, their strengths, and weaknesses. This will help you develop a strategy to stand out in the market.

• Conduct thorough market research to understand target audience demographics, preferences, and behavior.
• Analyze industry trends and identify potential opportunities and threats.
• Study competitors to assess their strengths, weaknesses, and market positioning.

3. Develop a business plan

A business plan is the roadmap for your business. Include information about your target audience, competitors, marketing strategy, operational processes, financial forecasts, etc. A business plan will help you assess your capabilities and make informed decisions.

• Outline your target audience and market segmentation strategies.
• Website development
• Blog creation and content strategy
• Social media marketing tactics
• Partner platforms and collaborations
• Advertising campaigns
• Branding and identity design

4. Build a team

Hire talented and motivated employees who share your mission and values. Build an effective team capable of working together efficiently and achieving set goals.

• Recruit skilled and motivated employees who align with your business's mission and culture.
• Foster teamwork and collaboration within your team.
• Provide ongoing training and development opportunities to enhance employee skills and productivity.

5. Invest in marketing

Marketing plays a crucial role in the success of any business. Develop a marketing strategy to attract new customers and retain existing ones. Utilize various marketing tools such as social media, content marketing, advertising, and PR.

• Develop a comprehensive marketing strategy tailored to your target audience and business objectives.
• Social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.)
• Content marketing ( blog posts , videos, infographics, etc.)
• Email marketing campaigns
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
• Influencer partnerships
• Public relations efforts

6. Be ready for changes

Business is a dynamic field, so you need to be prepared for changes. Be flexible and adapt to new market conditions and technological trends. Don't be afraid to experiment and learn from your mistakes.

• Stay informed about market trends, technological advancements, and changes in consumer behavior.
• Remain flexible and adaptable to evolving business environments.
• Embrace innovation and continuously seek opportunities for improvement.

7. Focus on quality and customer service

Quality of product or service and customer service should be your priorities. Pay attention to customer feedback and constantly improve your product or service. Satisfied customers will be your best advocates and help your business grow.

• Prioritize delivering high-quality products or services that meet or exceed customer expectations.
• Establish effective customer service processes to address inquiries, concerns, and feedback promptly.
• Cultivate strong relationships with customers to foster loyalty and advocacy.

By following these seven steps, you can create a successful small business that thrives in the market and brings you satisfaction from achieving goals and success.

Copyright © 2024 SCORE Association, SCORE.org

Funded, in part, through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.

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• Project management |
• What is a risk register: a project mana ...

What is a risk register: a project manager’s guide (and example)

Looking for tools to set your team up for success? A risk register can do just that.

A risk register is shared with project stakeholders to ensure information is stored in one accessible place. Since it’s usually up to project managers (we’re talking about you!), it’s a good idea to learn how and when to use a risk register so you’re prepared for your next project. 

What is a risk register?

A risk register is a document that is used as a risk management tool to identify potential setbacks within a project. This process aims to collectively identify, analyze, and solve risks before they become problems. While usually centered around projects, other circumstances where risk management is helpful include product launches and manufacturing. 

A risk register document, otherwise known as a risk register log, tracks potential risks specifically within a project. It also includes information about the priority of the risk and the likelihood of it happening. 

A project risk register should not only identify and analyze risks, but also provide tangible mitigation measures. This way, if the risk becomes a larger threat, your team is prepared with solutions and empowered to solve the issues. 

When should you use a risk register?

There are many instances when a risk register comes in handy. Ideally, it should be used—or available for use when needed—for every project. It can be used for both small and large projects, though your risk log may look different depending on the scope and complexity of your initiative. 

While a small project may only include basic information about the risk such as likelihood, priority, and solutions, a more complicated project may require around 10 different document fields. 

While some companies employ risk management professionals to manage a risk log, it often falls on the project manager or team lead to oversee it. If your team doesn’t already use a risk management or incident management process, it may be helpful to know common risk scenarios to decide whether a risk register is right for you and your team. 

Some risk scenarios ranked by priority could include:

Low priority: Risks such as lack of communication and scheduling errors can leave projects open to scope creep and missed deliverables. 

Medium priority: Risks such as unplanned or additional work can cause teams to struggle with productivity and create unclear objectives. 

High priority: Risks such as data security and theft can leave your company open to revenue loss and should be prioritized. 

Once you know when to use a risk register, you can properly define high priority risks when you come across them. 

Common risk scenarios

Multiple risks could arise during a new project. Anything from data security to unplanned work can risk projects going over budget and scope. Nobody wants to imagine the consequences of missed due dates, which is why it’s important to identify potential risks before they happen.

It’s a good idea to include common risk categories in your risk register log so you’re prepared when they occur. Learn a little more about these risks and determine which ones could apply to your team. 

Data security 

If you’re working on projects that could affect data security, it’s extremely important to track and mitigate potential risks. Unmanaged risks could result in:

Information being stolen: Without proper mitigation, your business could become vulnerable to private information being stolen. This is especially harmful if it’s customer information being stolen.

Credit card fraud: This is dangerous for a number of reasons, but could result in a loss of revenue and potentially require legal action. 

Data security is a top risk and should be prioritized accordingly in order to prevent long-term security issues.  

Communication issues

Communication issues can arise no matter the size of your project and team. While a risk register can help identify where communication areas live, it can be helpful to also implement work management software to streamline communication at work .

Here are some risks that could arise from lack of communication:

Project inconsistencies: Without proper communication, inconsistencies in deliverables can cause confusion. 

Missed deadlines: No one wants to miss a deadline but without clear communication, your team may not be aware of due dates for deliverables. 

Creating a proper communication plan can also help prevent risks from surfacing in the first place. 

Scheduling delays

If scheduling errors and delays go unnoticed, they can become a big problem when deadlines are missed. Tools such as timelines and team calendar software can help prevent scheduling errors in the first place. 

Project scheduling delays could result in:

Rushed deliverables: There’s nothing worse than a project that hasn’t been properly executed, which can cause goals to be missed and work to appear sloppy.

Confusion: Teams can become overwhelmed and confused without a proper schedule in place. 

Implementing a schedule can help keep deliverables on track for both daily tasks and one-off projects. 

Unplanned work

We’ve all been in a situation where a project goes over scope. It’s a common risk that can be fairly easy to mitigate if tracked properly. Catching unplanned work early on allows you to properly delegate it to the project lead. 

Without a proper risk register, you could experience:

Missed deliverables: If work slips through the cracks, you may be at risk of missing a deadline altogether. 

Employee burnout: Overscheduling your team members with unplanned work can create tension and even cause overwork and burnout. That’s why it’s important to scope projects correctly. 

If you do run into issues with unplanned work, implementing a change control process can help communicate additional work to your team members.  

Theft of materials

While hopefully uncommon, businesses that have a large inventory of products could run the risk of theft or reporting errors. By tracking inventory consistently and frequently, you can catch risks early on to determine the cause.  

Theft can leave your business open to:

Loss of revenue: Whether products are being stolen or there are errors in reporting, theft will have a negative impact on revenue. 

Uncertainty: When theft happens, employee and business uncertainty can cause internal stress. 

Misuse of time: Along with theft of tangible goods, there’s a risk of time theft. In a remote working environment, it can be more difficult to track where your team is spending their time. 

Similar to data security, theft is a high-priority risk that should be handled as quickly as possible. 

What’s included in a risk register?

A risk register is made of a list of risks and tracking fields. Your team’s risk log will most likely look different than others as you’ll have unique risks associated with your projects. 

No matter the differences, most risk registers are made up of a few essential parts, including risk identification, risk likelihood, and risk mitigation. These parts work to create a fluid log of information on potential risks. These logs are also helpful to look back on when working on new projects that could face similar risks. 

Additional fields that are good to include are details like risk identification, description, and priority. The more specific you get, the more likely you’ll be prepared to mitigate whatever risks come your way. 

A great rule of thumb to keep in mind is the more complicated the project is, the more intricate your risk register is likely to be. That means it’s a good idea to be as specific as possible within your log for large projects that span multiple months and have a number of different stakeholders. 

Here are some of the most important fields to include in your project risk management plan. 

1. Risk identification  

One of the first entries included in a risk register is the identification of the risk. This is usually in the form of a risk name or identification number. A risk identification field should include:

The risk name

The identification date

A subtitle if needed

You don’t need to get super creative when naming your risks, a simple summary will do. On the other hand, if you want to get creative, you can craft personas for each type of risk. For example, using the persona “Daniela” as your data security risk name to help team members understand how to quickly identify risks. 

Along with a name, you may also choose to include a short subtitle and the date of the risk identification. This will help track how long mitigation methods are taking and allow you to identify which risks are taking the longest to resolve. 

2. Risk description

After the identification is complete, a short description should be added to your log. A risk description should include:

A short, high-level overview of the risk

Why the risk is a potential issue

How long you choose to make your descriptions is up to how detailed you want your log to be, but the average length is typically 80 to 100 characters.

More importantly than the length, a description should include the key points of the risk and why it’s a potential issue. The main takeaway is that a description should accurately describe the risk without getting in the weeds so it can be easily identified. 

3. Risk category

There are a number of risk categories that help quickly identify the potential risk. Quickly identifying the risk makes it easier to assign to the correct team—especially when working on a complicated project with multiple risks. A risk category could be any of the following:

Operations 

Information 

Project plan

To determine the category type, you’ll first need to evaluate where the risk is coming from and who can help solve it. You may need to work with department heads if the solution isn’t obvious. 

4. Risk likelihood

If risks are caught early enough, it’s possible the team will be able to sort them out before any real action is needed. So it’s possible that risks that are flagged on your risk register won’t actually become problems. 

The likelihood of a risk can be documented with a simple selection of: 

Not likely 

Very likely 

Categorizing your risks by likelihood can help identify which risks to tackle first and which you should wait on. 

5. Risk analysis

A risk analysis gauges the potential impact the risk could have on your project. This helps to quickly identify the most important risks to tackle. This is not to be confused with priority, which takes into account both likelihood and analysis. 

While teams document risk levels differently, you can start with this simple five-point scale:

If you’re struggling to identify the risk level, you may want to get a second opinion by working with a department head. This way you can accurately gauge how high the impact might be. 

6. Risk mitigation

A mitigation plan, also called a risk response plan, is one of the most important parts of a risk register. After all, the point of a risk management plan is to identify and mitigate possible risks. Basically, it’s an action plan. A risk mitigation plan should include:

A step-by-step solution on how to lessen the risk

A brief description of the intended outcome

How the plan will affect the impact 

While small risk assessments may be easy to mitigate, some risks are much more complex and don’t have obvious solutions. In this case, the mitigation plan will need a bit of teamwork to solve. This usually happens beyond the actual risk register document, such as during a meeting or team huddle. 

However you choose to conduct your mitigation plan, you should document a high-level description within the log for reference and clear communication. This will not only ensure everyone on the project team understands the response plans, but it will also help you visualize the solution. 

7. Risk priority 

While the impact of a risk will help determine priority, it’s good to also include this entry on your log. Priority should take into account both the likelihood of the risk and the risk analysis. Both of these aspects will make it clear which risks are likely to have harmful consequences on the project. 

Priority can be documented by a simple number scale:

If you’re looking to make your risk register more visually appealing, you may want to document priority by using a color-coded scale instead. This can be used in place of or alongside the three options. Love organizing by color? Then color-coding your log is the perfect option for you! 

8. Risk ownership

Once the risk has been identified, reviewed, and prioritized, it’s time to assign the mitigation deliverables to be implemented. Risk ownership should include:

The person assigned to oversee the implementation of deliverables

Any additional team members, if applicable

The risk ownership field can help quickly determine which department the risk should be handled by. It can also help visualize which team members have ownership of specific risks. 

9. Risk status

The last field to include in your risk register is the status of the risk. This helps communicate whether a risk has been successfully mitigated or not. A risk status field should be filled out with one of the following:

In progress

If you want to get more granular with your status options, you may choose a more specific list such as active, not started, hold, ongoing, and complete. 

Additional risk register fields

While there are a handful of main entries that every risk register should include, there are additional optional items you can include as well. It’s always better to over-prepare than be caught off guard when the time comes, so take a look at these additional fields to decide if you need them. 

Risk trigger: Adding a risk trigger entry can help you evaluate why the risk happened in order to prevent future risks. 

Response type: While many risks will be on the negative end of the spectrum, there is a possibility for a positive outcome. In this case, you can add a field for a positive or negative response. 

Timeline: You can also include the schedule or timeline of the mitigation plan within the log in order to keep information in one place. Timeline software is a great tool to help with this. 

How to create a risk register (with example)

A risk register contains a lot of information and can be challenging to create for the first time. While you may know what information you need to include, getting started can be difficult. That’s why we put together an example to help you get started on your own risk management plan. 

Here’s what your risk register log might look like:

The key objective of a risk register is to log the information of potential risks, so don’t get too caught up in the details. You should choose the fields necessary to communicate potential risks to your team members. 

Some teams may only need a simple risk register with few fields, while others may need something more complex. It may be helpful to start simple and work your way up to a more complex log if needed.

Here’s an example of a risk register entry to get you started on your own risk log. 

Risk name: Design delay

Risk description: Design team is overbooked with work, which could result in a timeline delay. 

Risk category: Schedule

Risk likelihood: Likely

Risk analysis: Medium

Risk mitigation: Hire a freelancer to create project graphics. Move meetings from Kabir’s calendar during the week of 7/12 to free up time to edit graphics and send to Kat for final approval. 

Risk priority: 2

Risk ownership: Kat Mooney

Risk status: In progress

Once you get the hang of filling out your risk register, you can work to continuously improve and perfect your data log for future projects.   

Don’t risk your risk management plan

Identifying risks is a large part of any successful risk management strategy. While identifying and mitigating new risks isn’t always easy, it’s essential in order to keep your business on track for success. Once you nail down your risk register, project risks won’t seem as hard to manage. Plus, your team will have more time to spend on important things, like delivering impact. 

If you’re looking for additional resources on risk management, check out how to create a contingency plan to prevent business risks. 

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