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How To Set Goals & Objectives For a Business Plan

When dealing with a brand new business, or even a new business year. It’s important to figure out what you want to achieve, planning long term, mid-term and short-term goals and objectives to achieve, in order to understand if you’re on the right track, and if not what you need to do to get there. 

If you’re unfamiliar with a marketing strategy or plan, adopting a goals and objective strategy might be the best first steps to understanding the need for strategy within business. Realistically, it’s all good having the best product and the best service, but if you can’t find ways to increase, improve and grow, then your business will likely fail.

Short Mid & Long Term

Planning the short term can be taking a look at what you want to achieve within the week

e.g.

This week I want to have all my products live on my website” or

This week I want to develop a new sale idea

Planning the mid- term can be taking a look at what you want to achieve within the next few months

”By next month, I want to have doubles my engagements on social media” or

”Within the next 3 months I want to see a 25% traffic increase to my website”

Planning the long term can be taking a look at what you want to achieve within the year.

This time next year, I want to have hired another 2 employees” or

”By this time next year, I hope to have a shop on the high-street”

It’s important that your goals, are reflected throughout every business objective you create. Meaning your business objectives are almost like ‘sub-tasks’ or ‘sub-goals’ which help you climb the ladder to achieving your goal.

Having a business objectives plan is a necessary requirement to ensure that you, and all other members of staff are working towards the same goals, with the same achievements in mind. This way all focuses are dedicated to the main target.

The first step in writing objectives for a business plan is to brainstorm a list of objectives that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Once you have your list of objectives, you can start to flesh out each one by writing a more detailed description. When writing objectives, be sure to keep the following in mind:

– Objectives should be specific and clearly defined
– Objectives should be measurable so you can track progress
– Objectives should be attainable and realistic
– Objectives should be relevant to your business goals
– Objectives should be time-bound so you can set a deadline for completion

Life Goal List Concept

1. Specific Objectives

Objectives should be no longer than a few sentences and should be specific enough that they are immediately understood with everyone involved in the business. It’s also helpful if every person within the business understands their contribution to the specific objective. Remember to inform your staff & yourself the following:

What are the overall goals of the business?
What needs to be accomplished in order to achieve those goals?
What are the timeframes for each objective?
Who is responsible for each objective
?


2. Making your objectives measurable

Measuring objectives is having a clear way to identify how your progressing through your set objective, and the required steps you need to take in order to complete the objective. 

Be sure to set a deadline for each objective Clear and concise objectives are essential for any business plan. They give direction to the company and provide guidance on what needs to be done to achieve specific goals. Without objectives, a business plan is little more than a dream.

Finding ways to track progress is necessary when looking at your objectives. Whether that’s using Google Analytics to track traffic objectives, or using a keyword ranking tool to track your high-volume keywords. 

If your business doesn’t have a website some great ways of measuring your objectives success are

1. How many calls have I had? 

2. How many visits have I had? 

3. How many Emails / Social Media Messages have I had? 

4. How has my online following increase? 

5. Has my review rating increased? 

  

Making Realistic & Achievable Goals

Step Plan

Your objectives should be realistic and achievable, but also challenging. Setting unrealistic goals such as;

5X Profits from Last Month

Obtaining an additional 100,000 followers on Social Media

Are completely unhelpful, and can actually be demotivating. Not meeting goals can lead to disappointment and lack of satisfaction within the business, set yourself a realistic goal, that poses some challenge, without demanding too much. 

On the other hand, setting goals that are too easy takes away any challenge from your objectives, and renders your deadlines useless if you know you’ll meet them before schedule, without doing any work. 

To conclude, your realistic goals need to have a hybrid attitude of challenging, to encourage and motivate continuous growth and expansion. But they should also be flexible enough to allow for some adjustments as your business develops and grows. Achieving your objectives is essential to the success of your business, but it’s also important to be realistic about what you can achieve. Trying to accomplish too much in a short period of time can set you up for failure. Prioritize your objectives and focus on those that are most important to your business.

Don’t be afraid to adjust your objectives as you go. As your business grows and changes, so too will your objectives. What works for you today might not work for you tomorrow. Be flexible and be willing to change your objectives as needed.

Set a deadline

Working Deadline


Finally, your objectives should be time-bound, meaning that they have a specific deadline for completion. This will help you to stay on track and reach your goals in a timely manner. 

e.g.

‘I will increase my new website traffic by 20% by June 20th’ or ‘I will double this months online followers by next month’

setting deadlines is also an important factor for team based businesses. If each member of the team has a unique deadline for which they complete their tasks, it motivates and encourages progression and a completion of duties.

Conclusion

Goal Consistency

Following these tips will help you write objectives, and stick by them. Remember to renew your objectives and goals every month.

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