Developing Business Goals
Developing goals for a business you are going to start is akin to a brainstorming session that should involve all key stakeholders. The goals should be broad but still specific enough that they can be broken down into sub-goals or objectives to be achieved as the business grows.
Developing new goals for an existing business is a little more complicated process that will vary significantly based on the size of the business and will be the focus of the discussion here.
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Key employees and/or stakeholders
- Paper for taking notes
- Computer with a spreadsheet program (such as Excel) for organizing a complicated set of goals with many objectives
Instructions
-
-
1
The process of developing goals for small businesses of 15 employees or less is relatively straightforward. First, identify the key employees and stakeholders. Get them together in a meeting to share ideas about current problems and challenges, and develop a set of goals. Next, sit down with the top two or three managers and establish priority goals, and a set of achievable "sub-goals" or objectives for each goal. Finally, communicate the goals to the entire company, explaining how each employee has a role in the overall goal by accomplishing his/her individual objective.
-
2
The process of developing goals for mid-size businesses of 50 to 200 employees is similar to that of small businesses, but with the need for more upfront preparation in terms of identifying the problems and challenges that necessitate formulating the goals (perhaps a survey or series of departmental meetings).
The process of developing business goals is more complex for large companies of 200 or more employees just because of their size. To start with, most larger companies will already have management tasked with goal development and internal metrics, and a process in place to identify problem areas such as changing consumer trends, new products, new competitors, etc. Furthermore, large companies (at least the profitable ones) are almost always reassessing their goals and modifying them as necessary.
-
-
3
Whatever the size of the business, there are three keys to developing achievable goals:
Come up with the right goals. That is, goals that reflect real issues and priorities for the business and for the employees.
Make sure the goals are measurable and have a specific time element for when the goals must be accomplished.
Perhaps most important, convince the employees of the importance of the goals. This means not just honestly soliciting rank-and-file employees' input in the goal-development process, but structuring and communicating the goals so that all parties understand their importance and role in achieving the goals.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Try to keep organizational meetings focused as possible. The meetings do not have be short, but keep the discussion on the topics at hand.
References
- Photo Credit business colleagues image by Vladimir Melnik from Fotolia.com
