Every business was started for one reason: profit. After all, is it not the bottom line that drives every business decision ever made?
Well, perhaps not.
While there’s no doubt that business goals and objectives are largely centered around the bottom line, it turns out that itself is not the end-all and be-all of every decision that is made.
In this article, we’re going to teach you all you need to know about business goals and objectives. So if you’re a new business owner and need to think through goal-setting for your organization, then you’re in the right place.
Identify What’s Important
The first thing that needs to happen when you’re thinking through business goals and objectives is identifying what exactly is important to you from an organizational standpoint beyond just improving your bottom line.
Profit margins are going to be important to every business leader, but what else are you passionate about.
Do you want to create a welcoming workspace for your employees? Do you want to be environmentally friendly? Is involvement in social causes important to you?
Identify what are those general passions that are close to your heart and important for you as you conduct business, and then they will in turn drive the specific goals and objectives that you set up.
It’s often helpful to break up those interests and passions into bite-sized chunks. If you want to be socially conscious, which particular causes are you interested in? If the environment is top of mind, in what ways do you want to lead and set the trend for the industry?
Create SMART Goals
Whenever you’re crafting business plan goals and objectives, it’s crucial that you create SMART goals. SMART is an acronym that stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.
Specific means that the goals should be very specific. You should use numbers, data, and the like to quantify results.
Measurable means that the goal should be trackable. You should be able to know exactly where you are in the overall attainment of the goal that you’ve set for yourself.
Attainable means that the goal should be achievable. It should not be so lofty that you’re never going to be able to achieve the goal, as such goals only end up being demoralizing when your team never hits them.
Relevant refers to your goal being related to the passions that you identified in the piece.
Last but not least, your goals and objectives need to be time-based. There should be a deadline or some kind of timeline associated with the goal so that you know when you’re going to hit it.
Business coaches can shed more light on structuring SMART goals — check out this article for more info.
Understand Your Business Goals and Objectives
There you have it. Equipped with this guide to building business goals and objectives, you should now be far better able to identify, plan for, and achieve the targets that will move the needle for your organization.
For more business advice, be sure to check out the rest of the articles available to read on the website before you leave!
