How to Set Short-Term & Long-Term Goals for a Business
Setting goals for a business can be a great way to ensure a successful future. However, you must be reasonable when categorizing these goals. Short-term goals should be any goal that will be completed in the near future, like in the current business year. Long-term goals will be any goal that will take longer than a year or so to complete. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Make a list of all the goals you have for your business, regardless of what category they fall into. If you want to expand into a new location, write this down. If you want to increase revenue 30 percent in the second quarter of the fiscal year, write this down. Write down anything that you've wanted to do to increase your business so you can keep track of it.
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Go through your list and find any goals that are time-sensitive. These are all "short-term" goals. Increasing revenue by 30 percent in the second quarter of the fiscal year is time-sensitive because it must be completed within a specific time-frame. Likewise, things that reasonably can be completed within the calendar year would fall into the short-term goal category.
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Mark any items on your list that have no estimated completion date, or that will take longer than a year to finish. These are "long-term" goals for your business. This includes "expand the number of retail locations from 10 to 20," "file for an initial public offering" and things of that nature. Another example of a viable long-term goal would be to increase the number of people on a staff, as interviewing applicants, hiring and training them takes a long time.
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