short term goals for business plan

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.

Improve Your Goal-Setting With Real-Time Work Management in Smartsheet

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

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.

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

8 Short-Term Business Goals Examples

Have you set any short-term goals lately? If you’re like most entrepreneurs and business leaders, you have a long to-do list. But, it’s important to stop and think about the bigger picture.

Short-term business goals you set for yourself and your business that you hope to accomplish within a short period. This could be as short as a few weeks or up to a year. The reasons why short-term goals are important are many. These types of goals provide quick wins. This means that while you are seeking to accomplish your long-term and medium-term business goals , you have shorter goals that provide small victories along the way. 

Short-term goals can also serve as milestones toward your larger goals. If you have big ambitious goals for your business, you can take steps towards them by lining up smaller, shorter-term goals to accomplish.

Over the next few weeks, months, or even the next year, what do you hope to accomplish? If you’re not sure where to start, here are a few short-term business goals examples to think about.

Improve Operational Processes

Although it may seem that improving operational processes is a non-financial business goal , the way a business operates directly impacts its ability to make money. Especially when it comes to being profitable. Your operation process is how you and your business get stuff done. This means how you manage your website, develop your product, find leads, manage inventory, as well as many other things.

You may have an in-demand product or service, but if the way you operate the business behind the scenes is antiquated and disorganized, you could be wasting time and material resources.

A good short-term goal would be to improve operational processes this week, month, quarter, or year. You can start with the little things. For example, improve the way that you improve your product fulfillment process this week. Ask yourself “How long does it take to fulfill orders?” Then, seek a way to shorten that time.

Look for small improvements over the course of the year and you will eventually develop a smoother operational process that will help the business become more streamlined.

Increase Sales Revenue for This Quarter

Planning for your business to be profitable must be intentional. So, begin now by creating the goal of increasing sales revenue for this quarter. 

If you’re not sure how you will meet this goal, think about these questions:

• What products are customers buying now ? 
• What products aren’t they buying? 
• Are there seasonal trends impacting the business? 
• What are our competitors doing better than we are?

There are many other ways to increase revenue as well. You can increase the prices of your most popular offerings. You can also increase your advertising and marketing budget to drive revenue. Setting a short-term revenue goal will allow you to see the hidden potential your business has. Seeing what it takes to hit short-term financial goals will help you understand what is needed to help your business scale.

Hire “X” Amount of Employees This Year

Committing to hiring the right number of employees may help you achieve other goals for your business. Not having enough employees on board will only keep you from achieving your other business goals.

For example, if your goal is to sell X number of units – but you’re understaffed – your business will miss its production goal. Or, you will pay more to your current employees in overtime costs.

Ensure you’re placing the right person in each role. These new hires can be pivotal for creating a great culture , and ultimately, cultivating a great reputation for your company. Creating a referral program for your current employees to refer their friends is one easy way of finding great talent.

Expanding your team is a key startup business goal . However, every business that wants to have the right employees on staff should set short-term hiring goals.

Improve Customer Retention

It costs more to get a new customer than to keep an existing customer. The effort and time poured into marketing and other efforts make it costly. Smart companies know that they must not take their current customer base for granted.

How can you improve customer retention? Here are some strategies:

• Marketing Through a Customer Loyalty Program – Reward customers for repeat purchases.
• Discounts and Promo Codes- While many companies have done away with coupons, some customers still use them and would be enticed by a coupon or promo code to use on a future purchase.
• Outstanding Customer Service- When employees are rude to customers or they do not seem to care, a business will easily lose customers. Not every customer will complain. Some will just leave your business and never return. After all, there is plenty of competition ready to meet their wants and needs. 

Expand Online Presence by “X”

How would you describe your online strategy? Due to the importance and competitiveness of online marketing, expanding your online presence is an important first-year goal for any business .

If you’ve been doing it all yourself- then it might be time to hire an online expert. It may be time to make it a goal to expand your online presence.

Why should you make this a priority? There are several reasons. Expanding your online presence will allow you to target more customers, show more people who you are, and gain more sales.

This online presence will enhance your credibility. A basic level of trust, credibility, or familiarity must be established before many people will even purchase from you. After all, you wouldn’t just hand your money over to a stranger, would you? Customers need to know that they can trust your company. They want to know:

• Will I get what I ordered? 
• Are they just going to steal my credit card information? 
• If there’s a problem with my order, will they resolve it?

There are more reasons to enhance your online presence, such as:

• Reaching your target customers
• Making people aware that you’re hiring
• Reminding existing customers to come back and purchase from you again
• Converting ads to sales

Increase Employee Productivity This Month

Increasing employee productivity is another short-term goal you may set at some point. However, to ensure success in this area, make sure your employees have what they need to be successful at their jobs. Be sure your employees are familiar with any safety regulations that apply to their industry. Confirm that everyone has the tools needed to do their jobs.

Test New Product Idea the Year

Testing a new product idea is another short-term goal. If this goal is successful, it could eventually lead to the launching of a new product that could increase sales. You’ll want to test your idea thoroughly before launching it to the public.

You’ll want to think about the products you’re selling that have already been successful. What do customers already love? What similar products could you launch that would be similar? Are there products that you make – or that are made by a vendor/supplier – that could be sold as a pair to what you sell now?

Think about coffeemakers. The Keurig coffee maker has become extremely popular. But, in order to use it, you need the pods. The pods contain coffee. Is there anything you can sell that would be thought of as a pair? Think about ways that you can solve a problem or make life easier for your customers. If you can, then chances are, you may be able to create a new product that will be successful.

Diversify Revenue for the Year

If you’ve already increased your quarterly revenue, another goal to consider is diversifying that revenue. Diversifying revenue means that you are earning income from different sources. This can be done without launching a new product, however. Although that is certainly one way to do it. But what this truly means is diversifying how you make your money and where the money comes from.

One way to diversify is to simply find other places to generate money. If you have an ecommerce store you can diversify the revenue sources by also selling on marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, and eBay. You can also offer products within your niche. For example, if you have a clothing brand, you can also sell accessories to complement your line.

Diversifying revenue is important for all businesses. From restaurants to tech companies. Every entrepreneur should understand that one revenue source puts a business at risk of failure if that source is cut off. As a short-term goal, finding other sources can help minimize future financial risks.

Short-term business goals help entrepreneurs increase their chances of success. By setting short-term goals , leaders will envision what they want the near future to look like, and plan accordingly.

6 Types of Business Goals You Should Understand

8 Entrepreneurship Goals to Set For Yourself

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Team Writer: Erin Shelby is a writer and blogger based in Ohio. Follow her on Twitter @ByErinShelby

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40 Short-Term Business Goals Examples to Set in 2023

• OKR - Objectives & Key Results

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.

Short-term business goals should be a road map that shows where you want to go. Setting short-term goals for a business can get a bit trickier. As they must be very clear, practical, and easily understandable for employees. That is why we’ve compiled 40 + examples of short-term business goals and objectives in this article. Feel free to try them out in Weekdone for free.

What’s more, when setting business objectives you must always keep the long game in mind. Otherwise you might stray from the really impactful daily tasks.

How to Set Business Goals with OKRs

For setting business goals, you can use the popular Objectives and Key Results ( OKR ) method. This is an increasingly flexible methodology for increasing your own and your team’s productivity and focus. In simple terms, OKR is an easy process of setting company, team, and personal goals then connecting each goal with 3-5 measurable results.

Objectives should be qualitative and describe the desired outcome. Make it inspirational and understandable to those reading and working toward it! Key Results are the quantifiable measures that help explain how from reaching your Objective you are – adding metrics to Objectives.

Set OKR Goals in Weekdone

Use the popular OKR goal management framework in a dedicated OKR software with OKR examples to get teams on the right track from day one!

Examples of Short Term (Quarterly) OKRs

Here are some of the example business Objectives you can find also from our resource: okrexamples.co

Objective: Research and improve customer satisfaction. Key Result #1: Achieve Net Promoter Score (NPS) of over 8.0. Key Result #2: Get 1000 survey responses to annual satisfaction survey. Key Result #3: Conduct 50 phone interviews with top customers. Key Result #4: Conduct 15 phone interviews with recently churned customers. Key Result #5: Present an action plan of 10 improvements for next quarter. Sign up to add this goal to Weekdone

Objective: Improve internal employee engagement. Key Result #1: Conduct 3 monthly “Fun Friday” all-hands meetings with motivational speakers. Key Result #2: Interview 48 employees on their needs for improving our work culture. Key Result #3: Implement using OKRs and Weekdone software in all of our 23 teams. Key Result #4: Reach weekly employee satisfaction score of at least 4.7 points. Sign up to add this goal to Weekdone

Objective: Successfully launch version 3 of our main product. Key Result #1: Get over 10000 new signups. Key Result #2: Get published product reviews in over 15 publications. Key Result #3: Achieve sign-up to trial ratio of over 25%. Key Result #4: Achieve trial to paid ratio of over 50%. Sign up to add this goal to Weekdone

40 Examples of Short Term Business Goals

In the next 40 examples, we’ll consider the SMART goals criteria. Meaning a suitable goal will follow the SMART formula: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timed.

1. Gain X New Customers by the end of X month

Setting business goals in the short term is generally from 1-3 months time. Usually, setting a 3 month (quarterly) period is a good timeframe to satisfy the: achievable, realistic, and timed aspects of the SMART criteria. You’ll gain enough meaningful data to start making better decisions for your company as well.

With all that in mind, ask yourself, when do you want these customers? How many new customers do you want? How can teams set goals to drive this forward as well?

2. Increase Revenue by X Amount This Month

Another great short-term goal to have as a business is to increase your revenue. More revenue = more profits 💵

Set a realistic goal for the amount of revenue you believe you could make in a month.

Note: Before you set your goal, first look at what you’ve done in the past to ensure it really is realistic. If you do reach this goal, you can always make the next month’s goal more ambitious.

Related: Weekdone helps you define your ambitions when setting OKRs since you can set your Objective (goal) with a related confidence level and type! How confident are you that you’ll achieve this goal?

Moonshot: Otherwise known as “stretch goals”, are seemingly impossible to achieve. Forcing you to shoot for the moon (get it?!) and everyone contributing to the success of this goal out of their comfort zone. Aim for 70% achievement here!

Roofshot: These are your more “committed” goals. Maybe you’ve achieved this target before, but it’s been some time. You’re in your comfort zone, but still want to achieve 100%. That’s your drive!

Read more about the difference between aspirational and committed goals.

3. Successfully Host an Event

As a small business owner, a great way to market yourself is by setting business goals that center around hosting events.

While the above goal is a bit broad, you would have to take the event itself and center a more specific and actionable goal around the event.

To use an OKR example for this short term goal, we could frame it like this:

Objective: Host a successful golf tournament with at least 70% attendance Key Result #1: Distribute invitations to 100% of customers Key Result #2: Sign contracts with 12 industry partnerships/sponsors Key Result #3: Raise $50,000 for X charity associated with tournament Sign up to add this goal to Weekdone

Key Results help you to break down the Objective into more “bite-sized pieces”. Within each measurable Key Result, you will have various activities that help you make progress toward achieving those targeted outcomes! Using OKRs helps you keep weekly focus on your short term and long term goals.

4. Increase Employee Retention Through the End of the Fiscal Year

If you are a business that sees many employees come and go throughout the year, it’s a good idea to make one of your goals centered around employee retention to reduce turnover.

Whether you choose to put in an incentive program or go through the ropes to find something that makes employees happier like scheduling team-building activities or something else of the sort, setting a goal to keep your employees around is a great way to help the business grow!

5. Reduce Monthly Expenses this Quarter

If you notice that you are spending a lot of money each month, a great short-term goal is to reduce monthly expenses. Review your current expenses to see what you are spending money on, but once you do that, you should be able to eliminate some of the heftier expenses that you realize aren’t needed.

Thinking outside of the box to manage monthly expenses can benefit your business.

6. Create a Budget Tracker

If your business doesn’t have a budget tracker or dedicated accountant, this is a great short term goal! This is the only way to visualize how you’re spending is going and how you can allocate resources better for the next goal term, or quarter.

There are many programs you can use for budget tracking as well as simply using Excel. Just remember to document every single expense so you have access to historic data in order to make better accounting decision in the future

7. Research Various Market Opportunities

As a business, it’s always smart to consider growth and expansion. You’ll notice that this short-term goal only covers “research” – since looking into your possibilities is a big task. Focusing here can set you up for the trial/experimental phase in the next quarter.

If you’re a service provider, are there other parts of the market that you could expand into to offer more services? If you sell products, what other products are in your niche that you could offer to customers? See what opportunities come about as you do some competitor research!

8. Implement a Hybrid Work Model

This short term goal has potential to be carried out in a quarter (3 months) if done so efficiently with the leadership team completely on board!

With so many people working from home these days, hybrid work has proved its value. Happier employees with more flexibility, and offering companies the option to downsize and save on overhead costs.

Of course, in order to do this successfully, you’ll need to find a software solution to support your business goal management and satisfies employees as to keep momentum going rather than deplete it!

Use OKR Software

9. create a social media content plan.

Over 4 billion people use social media, so it shouldn’t go unnoticed as an opportunity to gain new customers or higher engagement levels!

One way to implement social media into your marketing technique is to put all of your energy and focus into one platform until you grow that one. Another way to go about this is to choose several to focus on.

To make sure you are giving social media the time of day, you could consider hiring an agency to do the work for you so you can focus on other parts of the business. Otherwise, it could be an employee’s part-time job to run the social media accounts and calendar.

Whatever you do in terms of who runs your social media, you should ensure that you are posting on your social media platforms a few times per week. The most important thing is to stay consistent. If you post once a week and it’s every Wednesday, keep doing that so customers know when to expect to hear or see something from you!

10. Improve Customer Service

When setting business goals, you have to also take into account who you are serving. This goal is specific to Customer Service Teams, if you find that your rate of engagement with customers is on a downward trend, can set the short term goal of making improvements!

When setting this goal, you have to take actionable steps within this goal to guarantee you are reaching it. How do you plan to improve customer service? What are the challenges you need to surpass in order to achieve the expected outcome?

Here are a few ideas: (if using OKR goals , these would be your Key Results )

• Increase our ratings on 10 review websites
• Create an “after purchase” email automation flow that receives a 2.5% open rate
• Complete 50 customer account checks weekly to reduce churn from 3.2% to 1.5%.

Each of these items will have various activities (or initiatives) that individual teammates work on during the timeline to drive the changes and see progress on a weekly basis!

11. Stay Up-to-Date With Marketing Trends

Since trends are constantly changing, you need to be looking out for the newer trends. Simply being behind the times can make you less successful than if you stayed on top of current trends.

So what types of trends should you be looking for?

As of 2022, marketing is trending toward short-form videos and social media. Most is digital rather than in paper form as well.

12. Develop a New Product

Is it time to create or make changes to your product to meet the demand of what people want?

For example, let’s say you make and sell soy candles. While reviewing sales from last quarter, and discussing customer requests with your Sales team, you learn that customers have been asking for a diffuser option! This is a great time to ramp up production on something new.

Having conversations with your teams is crucial to help find new areas of opportunity. The OKR goal setting methodology helps companies and teams adopt a collaborative process with goal-setting at the forefront!

Read why OKRs are so beneficial to teams

13. Create an Employee Incentive Program 

Employees love recognition. About 45% of workers in America leave their jobs – because they don’t feel recognized by their employers. It’s so important to create some type of employee incentive and recognition program.

As a business owner, it’s important to ensure that your employees feel recognized, motivated, and fulfilled, otherwise a new opportunity awaits them and they could end up leaving your company.

Something as simple as sending a weekly email to acknowledge a job well done, or something worth supporting will go a long way.

14. Create a Blog

Content creation is a huge marketing win and opportunity for people to find you online through organic search.

On the blog, you have to guarantee that you are posting simply about your niche. If you are a lawn care service company, you most likely don’t want to post about the best going-out clothes to wear around town.

Creating a blog is a great example of a short term goal for your marketing team. Here’s an OKR example to show how it would look:

Objective: Create a WordPress blog that stands out among competitors Key Result #1: Research 30 competitors in our niche and create 1 master competitor’s analysis spreadsheet Key Result #2: Create a content calendar and write 10 articles to promote Key Result #3: Research and test SEO tools, choose 1 to move forward with Sign up to add this goal to Weekdone

15. Go Paperless

Going paperless is a step closer to being more environmentally friendly as a business. With more and more customers (78% of customers to be exact) preferring to purchase from a green company, you will have a leg-up in the industry if you choose to go paperless.

This could mean a few different things, and doing even just one of these things to start will be working toward your goal.

• Eliminate paper checks for employees
• Eliminate flyers and mail marketing
• Change menus or services/products to online menus

This could be a goal that you set over a three-month period. From there, you could do one of these each month. Making the objective more attainable for a shorter term.

16. Make Company Meetings More Efficient

Teamwork makes the dreamwork, right? So, in order to come up with innovative solutions, create products, or solve problems meetings should give everyone a voice, in an efficient way!

Setting a short term business goal like this, proves to everyone that you:

• understand there is a problem with the current process,
• value individuals’ needs and time,
• are committed to making an improvement

17. Improve Company Data Analysis

It’s always great to implement goals and techniques, but without analyzing how it works, you may be left with more questions than answers.

Make a short-term business goal to improve your collection and analysis of data. This is a very general goal, but for example you could create reports for individual teams based on what they need to measure their success on short-term team goals.

18. Prepare an Investment Portfolio

Investing in your business is crucial for growth and opportunity. If you don’t already have a portfolio for investments, this is a great short-term business goal to implement!

Set yourself a timeline of 3 months (1 quarter) to review investment opportunities, meet with investors or a financial advisor, or whatever you need to make this goal achievable and lasting.

Of course, once you achieve this goal, you could consider an annual goal surrounded by the growth you hope to see within 1 year.

Read about annual vs. quarterly goals

19. Test OKR software for Better Goal Setting

There are so many goals you can have as a business owner, as well as individual team goals. But if you’re not using software to track everyone’s progress it can be frustrating trying to keep up with others, losing momentum all around!

So, it may be time to consider using software to help you track quarterly goals company-wide! At Weekdone, we fully believe in the benefits of the OKR methodology – OKRs not only help you break down your goals into measurable outcomes, but the framework brings focus back to what’s really important.

Read our extensive list of the best OKR software . It shares details about 24 goal management tools + their supporting features that help you make positive changes with lasting results!

20. Raise Brand Awareness on Social Media

As a brand, you should always consider how to grow your audience, whether through social media, blogs, or various email campaigns. For a short-term business goal about raising brand awareness, consider choosing one outlet – social media, or even further, Instagram! This removes the ambiguity and gets you that specificity!

What is your Objective? What is motivating you to raise awareness on social media this quarter? Maybe you saw a drop in traffic from this channel and would like to see more referrals coming in. Consider the “why” and surround your focus on this!

Marketing Short Term Business Goal Example (specific to raising brand awareness using OKRs )

Objective: Increase organic traffic from Instagram and raise brand awareness Key Result #1: Solidify 10 influencer partnerships within our niche Key Result #2: Create, run, and optimize 2 paid advertisement posts to drive organic traffic Key Result #3: Improve engagement from 50% to 90% Sign up to add this goal to Weekdone

Now, in order to reach your desired outcome for each Key Result, to drive your Objective forward, you’ll have to create some initiatives or larger projects to work on daily that keep you on track!

Initiative Examples connected to Key Result #3 Example #1: Prepare, Run, and Analyze results from an Instagram Giveaway Example #2: Share 50 relative accounts from ours in stories/reels Sign up to add this goal to Weekdone

Now, you have larger projects that help you stay focused on your goal! Using these, set yourself some weekly plans , and daily tasks to improve focus and motivation for yourself!

21. Test various hashtag methods

On social media, you also want to focus on getting your content seen! There is a method to all of the madness that is social media, and one of them is focusing on the hashtags you use when you post.

For instance, if you are a travel agency, you may use hashtags like:

• #travelagency
• #webooktravel
• #travelmore
• #travelandexplore

Expanding your reach on social media with hashtags is a great option and you could dedicate some time (possibly even shorter than 3 months) to analyzing and testing different options!

22. Start producing video content

Videos are an upward trend for marketing campaigns. Whether you post a short-form customer testimonial video on your website or create a reel on Instagram or TikTok, these are fast moving attractors!

With short playing times, they hold people’s attention a bit longer. Sometimes they are also played quickly, so people will watch them more than once (which, on social media helps you get more reach, and more reach means more customers!).

Short-form videos are trending on websites, blogs, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and even other platforms, too!

23. Improve Customer Feedback Channels

Having a short-term business goal related to customer feedback, allows you to think further into how you receive it, measure it, and what you do with it!

You can get more feedback from your customers through: anonymous customer satisfaction surveys, rewards for reviews, check-in calls or emails! However makes sense for your business.

24. Improve Employee Morale at Work

As a company, you want to ensure your team is connected, happy, and motivated. Some initiatives that could help drive this goal forward are:

• Plan and hold X company events this quarter
• Test and implement an employee engagement tool for the company
• Hold 1:1 weekly check-ins with employees

25. Go Green

Our society is making the push to go green, so your company should also make this a goal. While this is a large goal in itself, there are ways to chunk this “go green” goal into smaller goals.

For instance, as mentioned before, you could take three months to go paperless.

One month you could make the goal to hire a green cleaning company to use healthier cleaning products and fewer paper towels. The next month you could install energy-efficient hand dryers in the workplace.

Another month you could incentivize workers to walk or carpool to work.

Every month could be a different goal toward going green, but each month you grow closer to being as green as possible! The short-term goals help to lead you to your long-term goals.

26. Formulate your Company Mission Statement

Having a mission statement as a company is not only helpful for customers and others to see, but it also helps make the workplace more cohesive. Everyone knows the values and goals you have as a company.

To achieve this goal, it’s important to gather the leadership team for a brainstorming session. Only after this should you include individuals, maybe you could create an anonymous worksheet to help float ideas around and understand what the company means to your workers.

27. Promote a New Version of Your Product

After creating products, you also need to promote them to make sure they sell.

Just before the launch of your new product, start planning the next quarter to be your active promotion time. During this time, Marketing team prepares promotional materials, the Product team is fixing any reported bugs to ensure proper functioning, the Design team could be working on a new landing page on the website to share feature developments!

28. Organize Business Expenses

If you don’t have a way of tracking items that you can write-off for tax purposes, you may find yourself stressed when tax season rolls around since you have to get everything in order. Instead of waiting until the last minute – have a system in place to meet the goal of not being stressed once per year.

Your goal could be to track your business expenses every Monday. This is a short-term goal is more of an individual weekly goal that will help you with your business tracking and tax filing every single year.

29. Improve Internal Organizational Structure

As your company grows, responsibilities are dispersed among teams and you can easily lose sight of whats going on in the day to day, feeling overwhelmed and confused! That’s why it is important to have a system that works and can grow with you as you scale up.

We recommend finding a way to improve this internal struggle for yourself and your employees! There are plenty of tools out there to help you save the day, however we wholeheartedly recommend the OKR framework to help you turn that chaos into confidence! Building internal processes, structure and ultimately a more positive organizational culture through goal-setting and tracking!

30. Improve Company Communication

As a business, it can be difficult to keep track of what everyone is doing! And with so many tools available, where did you make that important note? Improving company communication is a great short term goal or initiative that you should start seeing positive changes immediately!

Some ideas to help you get started here are:

• Create a digital company calendar where everyone has access
• Use a digital communication tool like Slack or MS Teams so everyone stays connected
• If you choose to improve organizational structure and communication in one quarter – test out these OKR software with Slack integrations!

31. Hire consultant for X project

Say you have a new project coming up, but your current resources and employees cant handle the workload, or it’s outside of their wheelhouse – you’ll need to hire outside of your team.

This short term goal would begin with creating a job description, finding the right platforms to list it, interviewing consultants, negotiating contracts, and whatever else you may need.

32. Increase customer retention

If you’ve noticed that your customers are less active over time, or are churning quicker than before – retention is a great place to start. Begin with your Sales team and discuss numbers and try to place where the issue started based on collected customer feedback, product issues, and more. Then start setting yourself some targets related to retention. This helpful article shares 10 customer retention metrics you may want to consider using to help you achieve your outcome!

33. Improve New Market Knowledge

By setting the short term business goal of improving your knowledge and understanding of a new market, you’ll be more active in getting to know potential customers, competitors, and value you could bring to this new market.

This is a short term goal that you could set for yourself in 1 quarter; make sure you consider putting together your research in a report and comparing it against other markets down the line. Having this data will allow you to see how quickly things change and what you’ll need to do to adapt if you want to grow.

34. Participate in X Community Events

This short term marketing goal could be a part of a broader Company Objective to expand community outreach. However, with your Marketing Team aligned with that Objective you’ll be able to move things forward with actionable outcomes.

How many events can you realistically participate in during a 3 month period? Consider choosing, planning, and preparing – given your current available budget and resources.

35. Test New Messaging on X

If your business is going through a transition phase, this is a great short term goal to try out some new messaging. Before you change elements across all of your platforms, it’s important to see what sort of engagement and people this new message drives to your product.

The Marketing team could test and optimize the message, while your Sales Team analyzes the quality of those new leads. A collaborative short team goal that can provide valuable insights into the next quarter.

36. Improve the SEO on Your Website

Assuming you have a website and are creating content for your users, you need to go through and  improve the SEO  throughout.

There are plenty of ways to do this, but to get started:

• Ensure your website is mobile friendly (check Google Search Console )
• Sign up for a tool like SEMrush or Ahrefs to help analyze keywords and current positioning.
• Learn some SEO best practices and implement them, examples: strategic internal linking, best page structure, and optimizing images for search.

It’s important to note that SEO is a long term game, most results will show in 3-6 months time, but tracking and keeping up with it will improve your organic reach to bring in new customers!

37. Facilitate More Employee 1:1s

As a business owner or manager, it is crucial to have one-on-one time with employees to make sure they feel valued. This is also a time for them to voice their concerns as well.

Having a monthly meeting to check in with individuals’ progress, challenges, and general thoughts on their role and responsibilities helps employees improve in addition to you as a manager. Ask and give feedback regularly – make it your goal to be a better leader.

38. Complete a Course on X

Learning opportunities are always a great short term business goal to set. You should allow and encourage your employees to do the same. Whether you give them a quarterly stipend to enroll in a certification program, or take a course together as a team/company, you won’t regret it.

39. Encourage Monthly Self Care

To avoid burnout, you need to take care of yourself, and you also need to take care of your staff. But it’s not enough to tell everyone to take care of themselves! 

You have to encourage it in the short and long-term.

Here are a few ways to encourage self-care in the workplace:

• Allow employees the flexibility to work from home
• Give employees one half-day on a Friday each month
• Give a gym stipend to employees every month
• Create a contest that centers around self-care

40. Change Up the Office Space to Be More Trendy

Another goal of yours as a business owner could be to change up the office space. This could be to make it a space that people like to be in or to simply stay up with the times of more collaborative office spaces.

Instead of having individual offices, you could have an open space with tables, couches, and chairs for employees to hang out in and work.

Start with a budget and go from there.

Ready to Set Awesome Business Goals?

Without short term goals for your business, you’ll be overwhelmed by the long-term agenda.

There are so many examples of short-term goals to choose from that it can be easy to get distracted. Ultimately, you’ll want to use these examples as inspiration. In the end, remember the SMART formula for effective goal setting – S pecific, M easurable, A chievable, R ealistic, and T imed.

If you found our OKR examples interesting, read more about how to write and set good OKRs .

Try Weekdone to help you set more strategic goals with Objectives and Key Results and lead your company with confidence. Weekdone is your leading OKR software for status reporting, aligning team OKRs with business goals, and visualizing weekly and quarterly achievements. The fundamental concepts of appropriate alignment, structure, and connectivity are important to us. From the ground up, we can make your organization feel more connected by achieving business goals together. Sign up now .

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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Short-term Business Goals: A Roadmap to Success

Setting short-term business goals is essential for driving progress and achieving immediate results. Research indicates that 70% of successful small businesses consistently set short-term goals. This underscores the pivotal role of goal setting in the success of businesses.

Historically, renowned companies such as Microsoft have utilized short-term goals to drive innovation and growth. For example, in the 1980s, Microsoft set a short-term goal to dominate the operating system market. This led to the development of MS-DOS, which ultimately established Microsoft as a tech giant.

Setting short-term goals in business helps to focus efforts on achieving measurable results within a defined timeframe. This approach not only facilitates better resource allocation but also boosts employee motivation and accountability. According to the American Psychological Association, setting and achieving short-term goals enhances job satisfaction and overall performance.

In essence, setting short-term business goals is a proven strategy for driving immediate success and propelling long-term growth.

In this guide, we will explore the key steps to set short-term business goals effectively. This includes identifying the right goals, establishing success metrics, and aligning them with the organization’s broader strategic vision.

Table of Content:

What are the short-term business goals, how to set business short-term goals, what are the benefits of setting short-term goals for a business, how to evaluate short-term goals of a business.

Let’s dive in.

Definition: Short-term business goals focus on immediate objectives, typically achievable within a year. They often include improving cash flow, boosting sales, enhancing customer satisfaction , and optimizing operational efficiency. Your business may aim to launch new products or services, expand market reach, or strengthen online presence.

Short-term goals often contribute to the achievement of broader, long-term objectives, providing stepping stones for sustainable growth. These goals are flexible, allowing you to adapt to changing market conditions and capitalize on emerging opportunities. Overall, short-term goals provide a roadmap for navigating the immediate future and establishing a foundation for long-term success.

Business short-term goals act as stepping stones, guiding your journey toward long-term success. However, the process of defining and implementing short-term goals requires a thoughtful and systematic approach. Here is a step-by-step process to help you effectively set and manage short-term business goals.

Review Your Long-Term Objectives

Before getting started with short-term goals, it’s crucial to revisit and understand your long-term objectives. This provides context and ensures that your short-term goals align with the overarching vision for your business. Long-term objectives serve as the guiding stars, illuminating the path toward sustainable growth and success.

Identify Key Areas of Focus

Consider the key areas of your business that require attention in the short term. Such areas include improving operational efficiency, increasing sales , enhancing customer satisfaction, or launching a new product. Identifying these focal points is essential for goal-setting precision.

Make Goals Specific and Measurable

Short-term goals should be clear, specific, and measurable. Vague objectives can lead to ambiguity and hinder effective progress tracking . For instance, rather than setting a goal to “increase sales,” specify a time-specific target percentage increase. Measurable goals provide a tangible benchmark for success.

Set Realistic and Achievable Targets

Although ambition is praiseworthy, establishing unattainable goals may result in frustration and demotivation. Assess your business’s current capabilities, resources, and market conditions realistically. Establish targets that are challenging yet attainable, promoting a sense of accomplishment as each goal is met.

Establish a Time Frame

Every short-term goal should have a clearly defined time frame. This adds urgency and helps maintain focus. Whether it’s monthly, quarterly, or semi-annual, setting deadlines instills a sense of accountability and encourages timely action.

Prioritize Goals

Not all short-term goals are of equal importance. Arrange them in order of importance according to their influence on the broader business goals. This allows for more effective resource allocation and ensures that efforts are concentrated on the most critical areas.

Break Down Goals into Actionable Steps

Transform overarching goals into actionable steps. Break down each goal into smaller, manageable tasks that contribute to the larger objective. This approach makes the implementation process more digestible and facilitates a step-by-step approach to achieving success.

Allocate Resources

Identify the resources—financial, human, and technological—required to accomplish your short-term goals. Also, ensure your business has the necessary tools and capabilities to execute the action steps outlined for each goal.

Monitor and Measure Progress

Regularly monitor and measure progress toward your short-term goals. Use key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess success and identify areas that may need adjustment. This ongoing evaluation is critical for staying on course and data-driven decision-making .

Adjust Goals as Needed

Business landscapes are dynamic, and unforeseen challenges may arise. Be adaptable and open to modifying goals in response to evolving circumstances. This adaptability ensures your business remains agile and responsive to evolving market trends .

Communicate Goals to Your Team

Effective communication is vital for goal alignment within your organization. Communicate short-term goals to your team to ensure everyone understands their role in achieving these objectives. This shared understanding fosters a collaborative environment geared toward success.

Celebrate Achievements

Acknowledge and celebrate the accomplishment of short-term goals. Recognition not only boosts morale but also reinforces a culture of achievement within your organization. Take the time to reflect on milestones, learn from successes, and carry that momentum forward.

Short-term goals of a business, though seemingly modest, play a pivotal role in steering it toward long-term objectives. Let’s uncover the manifold benefits that setting short-term goals brings to your business.

• Focus and direction: Short-term goals provide a roadmap, offering a clear direction for day-to-day operations. Breaking down long-term objectives into manageable tasks helps to channel efforts toward achieving specific milestones. This, as a result, ensures a focused and purposeful journey.
• Motivation and morale: Attaining short-term goals creates a sense of accomplishment, boosting motivation and morale among employees. Recognizing progress, even in small increments, instills a positive work environment. Consequently, it fosters a culture of success and encourages individuals to strive for excellence.
• Quick adaptability: In a rapidly changing business environment, the ability to adapt swiftly is paramount. Short-term goals allow organizations to respond promptly to market shifts or unforeseen challenges, enhancing their resilience and agility.
• Improved performance management: Setting short-term goals facilitates a more efficient performance management system. Clearly defined objectives enable you to assess employee performance against specific benchmarks. From this, you can provide constructive feedback and encourage continuous improvement.
• Resource optimization: Allocating resources based on short-term goals helps to optimize financial, human, and technological resources. This targeted allocation ensures that efforts and investments align with immediate objectives, maximizing efficiency and effectiveness.
• Risk identification and mitigation: Short-term goals illuminate potential risks and challenges in the early stages. This proactive approach allows you to identify and mitigate risks promptly. This prevents them from escalating into larger issues that could jeopardize long-term success.
• Enhanced decision-making: The clarity provided by short-term goals enhances decision-making processes. With a well-defined roadmap, you can navigate uncertainties with a greater understanding of the potential impact on immediate objectives.
• Customer satisfaction and retention: Focusing on short-term goals often involves improving products or services to meet customer needs more effectively. This customer-centric approach enhances satisfaction and contributes to customer retention , laying the foundation for long-term loyalty.
• Increased productivity: Clear short-term goals contribute to a more productive work environment. Employees can prioritize tasks, set deadlines, and work with purpose, leading to increased efficiency and output. This heightened productivity positively impacts the overall performance of your organization.
• Measurable progress: Short-term goals are inherently measurable, providing tangible benchmarks for progress. This quantifiable measurement allows you to track your business’s advancement, identify areas for improvement, and celebrate successes. Consequently, it fosters a culture of continuous improvement.
• Adaptive strategy development: Setting short-term goals allows you to test and refine strategies quickly. Through iterative processes, you can adapt and fine-tune your approaches based on real-time feedback. This ensures that strategies remain effective in a constantly evolving market.
• Competitive advantage: Businesses that effectively set and achieve short-term goals gain a competitive advantage. Agile responses to market changes, meeting customer demand, and goal delivery position you as an industry leader.

Navigating through the vast sea of data can feel like finding a needle in a haystack. The key to unlocking its secrets lies in data analysis , a challenging yet rewarding endeavor.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and in data analysis, this couldn’t be truer. Data visualization plays a pivotal role in making sense of complex datasets. It enables us to spot trends, patterns, and outliers with ease.

Excel is a powerful tool for data analysis. However, it falls short when it comes to creating visually appealing and insightful charts and graphs .

This is where ChartExpo comes into play.

ChartExpo bridges the gap and revolutionizes the way we visualize and interpret data.

Now, let’s delve into the art of evaluating short-term goals for a business with ChartExpo.

How to Install ChartExpo in Excel?

• Open your Excel application.
• Open the worksheet and click the “ Insert ” menu.
• You’ll see the “ My Apps ” option.
• In the office Add-ins window, click “ Store ” and search for ChartExpo on my Apps Store.
• Click the “ Add ” button to install ChartExpo in your Excel.

ChartExpo charts are available both in Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Please use the following CTA’s to install the tool of your choice and create beautiful visualizations in a few clicks in your favorite tool.

The sample data below contains the short-term goals of a business.

Let’s visualize this data in Excel with ChartExpo and glean valuable insights.

• To get started with ChartExpo, install  ChartExpo in Excel .
• Now Click on My Apps from the INSERT menu.

• Choose ChartExpo from My Apps , then click Insert.

• Once it loads, scroll through the charts list to locate and choose the “Multi-Axis Spider Chart” .

• Click the “ Create Chart From Selection ” button after selecting the data from the sheet, as shown.

• ChartExpo will generate the visualization below for you.

• If you want to add anything to the chart, click the Edit Chart button:
• Click the pencil icon next to the Chart Header to change the title.
• It will open the properties dialog. Under the Text section, you can add a heading in Line 1 and enable Show .
• Give the appropriate title of your chart and click the Apply button.

• Add the percentage sign with the Expand Market Reach values.

• Click the “Save Changes” button to persist the changes made to the chart.

• Your final Multi Axis Spider Chart will look like the one below.

• Customer retention is Sales’ primary focus, with a high score of 90%.
• Marketing emphasizes market reach (85%) and cost efficiency (90%).
• Customer service excels in customer retention (95%) and sales (90%).
• Product quality excels in cost efficiency (95%) but lags in innovation (70%).
• Cost efficiency is a notable strength across all departments.

What is a short-term plan in business?

A short-term plan in business outlines specific actions to achieve immediate objectives. Typically spanning weeks to a year, it provides a roadmap for tasks, resources, and milestones. It focuses on tactical steps, addressing immediate challenges and opportunities in the business environment.

What is a good short-term goal?

A good short-term goal is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). It should align with broader objectives and be realistically attainable within weeks to months. Moreover, it should provide a clear, tangible outcome that contributes to overall business success or personal development.

How to set business short-term goals?

• Review long-term objectives.
• Identify key focus areas.
• Make goals specific and measurable.
• Set realistic targets.
• Establish time frames.
• Break down goals into actionable steps.
• Allocate resources.
• Monitor progress.
• Adjust as needed.
• Communicate goals.

Setting short-term business goals is a strategic imperative, providing a roadmap for success in the ever-changing business landscape. Aligning these goals with long-term objectives provides focus and direction.

The process involves a meticulous approach—identifying key areas, making goals specific, and establishing realistic targets. Moreover, time frames and prioritization enhance efficiency, ensuring tasks align with immediate objectives.

That’s not all.

Breaking down goals into actionable steps facilitates implementation, while resource allocation optimizes efficiency. Regular monitoring allows for adaptability, identifying and mitigating risks promptly.

Enhanced decision-making and customer satisfaction are byproducts of this structured approach.

The benefits are far-reaching—motivating teams, increasing productivity, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. The ability to measure progress tangibly reinforces a sense of accomplishment. Moreover, short-term business goals contribute to adaptive strategy development, allowing you to stay agile in dynamic markets.

Furthermore, the competitive advantage gained by those who effectively set and achieve short-term goals cannot be overstated. Communication and celebration play pivotal roles in sustaining momentum and fostering a positive work environment.

ChartExpo stands out as a versatile tool for goal-oriented data visualization. Its features empower you to present data effectively, make informed decisions, and achieve short-term business goals with precision.

Do not hesitate.

Get started with ChartExpo today to fuel your pursuit of business success.

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Short Term Business Goals Examples: Boost Your Success Instantly

Setting short-term business goals is like plotting waypoints on your journey to success. These goals keep you focused, ensure your team is aligned, and help you measure progress in real, tangible ways. Whether you’re looking to boost sales, improve customer satisfaction, or simply get more organized, setting the right goals can make all the difference.

But where do you start? With so many potential objectives, choosing the best short-term goals for your business might seem daunting. Don’t worry, though. We’ve got you covered with examples that not only inspire but are also achievable. Let’s dive in and explore some powerful short-term business goals that can set your company on the path to achieving its long-term ambitions.

Key Takeaways

Increase sales.

Boosting your sales is one of those short-term business goals that’s not only vital but highly achievable with the right strategies. Remember, every big win starts with making that first sale, and from there, it’s all about scaling up. Here’s how you can set your sights on increasing your sales, leveraging your entrepreneurial spirit and passion for success.

1. Understand Your Customers: The foundation of increasing sales is to truly understand who your customers are and what they need. Dive deep into their demographics, interests, and buying behaviors. This insight allows you to tailor your marketing strategies and products to meet their needs more effectively.

2. Optimize Your Online Presence: In today’s digital age, having a strong online presence isn’t optional, it’s essential. Ensure your website is user-friendly and your social media channels are engaging. Online businesses thrive by staying visible and attractive to their target audience.

3. Utilize Email Marketing: Email marketing remains one of the most cost-effective ways to boost sales. It allows you to directly communicate with your customers, offering them personalized deals and updates about your products or services. Remember, personalization is key.

4. Implement Limited-Time Offers: Creating urgency through limited-time offers can significantly increase sales. Customers are more inclined to make a purchase if they believe they’re getting a special deal that won’t last long.

5. Focus on Customer Service: Exceptional customer service can be your biggest differentiator, especially in competitive markets. Happy customers are more likely to make repeat purchases and recommend your business to others.

By setting a short-term goal to increase sales, you’re not just aiming for immediate gains. You’re building the momentum needed to achieve your long-term business ambitions. Whether it’s through understanding your customers better, enhancing your online presence, or providing unbeatable customer service, every step you take towards increasing sales is a step towards your ultimate success.

Improve Customer Satisfaction

In your journey as an entrepreneur, you’ve likely learned that the heart of any business, whether it’s an online empire or a local store, is customer satisfaction. It’s not just about selling a product or service; it’s about creating a memorable experience that keeps your customers coming back for more. Setting a short-term goal to enhance customer satisfaction isn’t just advisable, it’s essential for sustaining growth and building a positive brand reputation.

First off, consider implementing customer feedback channels if you haven’t already. This could be as simple as an online survey or a suggestion box on your website. Encourage your customers to share their experiences, both good and bad. Feedback is gold in the entrepreneurial world; it’s a direct line to understanding what you’re doing right and where you can improve.

Another strategy is to personalize customer interactions. In a digital age, personal touches make a big difference. This doesn’t mean you have to pen a handwritten note for every purchase (though that’s not a bad idea!), but even automated emails can be customized to make your customers feel valued. Use their name, recommend products based on past purchases, or provide exclusive offers. Small gestures can lead to significant improvements in customer satisfaction.

Investing in your customer service team is also a smart move. Ensure they have the training and resources needed to solve problems efficiently and with empathy. Sometimes, a customer’s interaction with your support team can transform a potentially negative experience into a positive one, fostering loyalty and trust.

Remember, improving customer satisfaction is a goal that feeds into the greater vision of any successful business. It’s about building a community around your brand, one satisfied customer at a time. Keep pushing the boundaries of what you can offer, listen to your customers, and adapt – that’s the hallmark of a business built to last.

Enhance Productivity and Efficiency

In your journey as an entrepreneur, understanding that time is as valuable as your capital is pivotal. Every moment counts, and enhancing your team’s productivity and efficiency is a game-changer for meeting those short-term business goals which pave the way to long-term success. Look, I’ve been there. Starting from my first online venture to the myriad of side-hustles I’ve dabbled in, the lesson was clear: Optimize, streamline, and automate wherever possible.

First off, let’s talk about setting clear, achievable targets. Break down your main objectives into smaller, daily tasks. This not only makes them seem more manageable but also provides your team with a clear direction. Remember, a team that knows exactly what’s expected of them is far more likely to perform efficiently.

Technology is your friend here. There are countless tools and apps designed to enhance productivity. From project management software like Asana or Trello to time tracking tools such as Toggle or RescueTime, these can help you and your team stay on track. Implementing these tools can often mean the difference between meeting your goals and falling behind.

Streamlining communication is another area where many businesses find they can make significant gains. Adopt communication platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams. They reduce the need for lengthy email chains and meetings that can often sidetrack your team from their core tasks. Plus, these platforms support integration with other productivity tools, keeping everything you need in one place.

Investing in your team’s skills and well-being is equally crucial. Consider workshops or courses that can enhance their abilities. Not only does this boost their productivity, but it also increases job satisfaction, leading to a more motivated and committed team. And remember, a happy team is a productive team.

Always be on the lookout for areas within your business operations where efficiency can be improved. It’s an ongoing process, but one that will significantly contribute to reaching your business milestones faster.

Strengthen Team Collaboration

If you’re diving deep into the entrepreneurial journey, you know that a well-oiled machine runs on more than just individual brilliance; it thrives on team collaboration . In the world of startups and online businesses, where agility and quick decision-making are key, fostering a strong team spirit isn’t just a good idea; it’s vital. So, setting short-term goals to strengthen team collaboration should be on your radar.

First off, consider plantin regular team building activities into your schedule. These aren’t just fun and games; they’re strategic moves to weave strong ties among team members. Whether it’s a weekly brainstorming session over coffee or a monthly day out, the goal is to create a comfortable space where ideas flow freely and everyone feels valued.

Next, invest in tools that enhance collaborative efforts. In this digital age, there are a plethora of apps and platforms designed to keep your team in sync. From project management tools like Asana or Trello to communication platforms like Slack, integrating these tools into your daily operations can streamline workflows and keep everyone on the same page.

It’s also important to set clear, collaborative goals. This means ensuring that everyone understands their role in the big picture and how their efforts contribute to the larger mission. Regular check-ins and updates keep the momentum going and reinforce the sense of purpose.

Lastly, cultivate an environment of open communication. Encourage feedback, discussions, and even debates. It’s through these exchanges that ideas polish, flourish, and turn into actionable strategies. Remember, a team that communicates effectively is more likely to navigate challenges with agility and emerge stronger.

By setting short-term goals focused on strengthening team collaboration, you’re not just enhancing productivity; you’re building a community of thinkers and doers who are all invested in the success of your venture. As someone who’s navigated the highs and lows of online businesses and side hustles, I can’t stress enough how essential it is to keep your team engaged, connected, and collaborative.

Develop and Execute Marketing Campaigns

In your journey as an entrepreneur or business owner, you’ve likely come to understand that marketing is the lifeblood of any successful venture . Whether you’re just kicking off or aiming to scale, developing and executing effective marketing campaigns should rank high on your list of short-term goals.

The first step is pinpointing what makes your product or service stand out. Ask yourself, what unique value do you bring to your customers? This unique selling proposition (USP) should be the cornerstone of your marketing efforts. Once identified, craft a message that resonates with your target audience. Remember, the more specific you can be about who your audience is, the more tailored and impactful your messaging will be.

Next, choose the right channels. Not all platforms are created equal, and where your audience hangs out may vary widely. If you’re in the B2B space, LinkedIn might be your go-to. Selling directly to consumers? Instagram or Facebook could offer better engagement. Dive into analytics and do some A/B testing to see where your efforts gain the most traction.

Let’s talk about execution. Setting a timeline and budget is crucial. Marketing campaigns aren’t just about throwing ideas into the wind and seeing what sticks. They require planning, resources, and sometimes, a bit of trial and error. Allocate a budget that allows for some experimentation but keeps your ROI in mind.

Lastly, measure your success. Use tools and metrics relevant to your chosen platforms to track performance. Whether it’s website traffic, conversion rates, or social media engagement, keeping a close eye on the numbers will help you understand what’s working and what’s not. This information is gold when it comes to refining future campaigns.

By setting a short-term goal to develop and execute a marketing campaign, you’re not just aiming for immediate wins. You’re building a foundation for sustained growth and establishing a direct line of communication with your customers.

Setting short-term business goals is like laying bricks for your company’s future. It’s about keeping your eyes on the prize while ensuring each step you take is deliberate and impactful. Remember it’s not just about the immediate wins. Every goal you achieve builds momentum propelling you towards your long-term vision. Whether it’s boosting sales, enhancing customer satisfaction, improving productivity, fostering team collaboration, or executing a killer marketing campaign, these goals are your roadmap to success. So take a moment to reflect on the strategies we’ve discussed and start setting those goals. Your future self will thank you for the foresight and effort you put in today. Let’s make those business dreams a reality one goal at a time!

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the benefits of setting short-term business goals.

Short-term business goals help keep a team focused and aligned, allowing for effective measurement of progress. They can also pave the way for achieving long-term ambitions by maintaining momentum.

How can setting the right short-term goals be overwhelming?

Choosing the best short-term goals can be daunting because it requires a balance between achieving achievable results and inspiring team members towards long-term success.

How can a business increase its sales through short-term goals?

Businesses can increase sales by understanding customer needs, optimizing their online presence, utilizing email marketing, offering limited-time deals, and focusing on superior customer service.

Why is improving customer satisfaction an important short-term goal?

Improving customer satisfaction is crucial as it builds trust and loyalty, which are essential for long-term success. Strategies include implementing feedback channels, personalizing interactions, and investing in a skilled customer service team.

What strategies can enhance productivity and efficiency in the short term?

Enhancing productivity involves breaking down objectives into daily tasks, using productivity tools, streamlining communication, investing in team skills, and continuously seeking operational improvements.

How does setting short-term goals benefit team collaboration?

Short-term goals strengthen team collaboration by encouraging regular team building activities, investing in collaborative tools, setting clear objectives, and fostering an environment of open communication.

What are key elements in developing and executing a marketing campaign as a short-term goal?

Developing a marketing campaign involves identifying a product’s unique value, tailoring messages for the target audience, choosing appropriate channels, setting a timeline and budget, and measuring success through relevant metrics. This establishes direct customer communication and supports sustained growth.

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Ryan Kingsley

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How to Set and Achieve Short-Term Goals in Your Business (+30 Examples)

Discover how to set and track short-term goals for your business that you can actually achieve, plus 30 short-term goal examples to inspire you.

Do you have a big vision for your company that seems unattainable?

That’s a long-term goal that can seem pretty overwhelming at first glance.

Fortunately, setting manageable, short-term goals for yourself and your team can help ensure that you not only achieve your long-term vision but also reach optimal levels of productivity along the way.

But what exactly are short-term goals, and how are they different from long-term goals? And how do you strategically set them?

In this article, we’ll look at short-term goals and how they can help your employees and business achieve success. We’ll also show you how to set and measure short-term goals and give you a list of 30 examples to use as inspiration.

What are short-term goals?

Short-term goals are specific objectives you want to achieve in the near future or in a relatively short period of time.

In the context of running your business, short-term goals focus on helping your business succeed in several areas, including finances, client satisfaction, and output.

Setting short-term goals (that take a few days, weeks, or months to complete) and breaking them down into bite-sized tasks will give your team the direction they need to finish larger projects on time and deliver top quality.

What’s the difference between goals and aspirations?

While goals and aspirations may seem very similar and are often used synonymously, there are some key differences that make goals more useful than aspirations.

‎The main differences between goals and aspirations are as follows:

• Goals are more specific than aspirations  and often have numbers linked to them. For example, whereas a goal would look something like, “We want to host an online summit for 2,000 attendees by the end of March,” an aspiration would be, “We want to host a summit.”
• Goals are backed by action  and have detailed tasks to attain them. Aspirations, on the other hand, are often thought of as dreams or wishful thinking since they don’t involve a plan for reaching them.
• Goals have a specific time frame  and are often bound to a particular date. That way, the person knows precisely how much time they have to reach the deadline. By contrast, aspirations don’t have to be achieved in a specific period.

What’s the difference between short- and long-term goals?

Like aspirations, there are differences between short and long-term goals . Here are a few of them:

• Time frame:  A short-term goal is an objective you want to achieve relatively soon, perhaps in a few days, a week, a month, or a year. A long-term goal is a larger objective you want to achieve in the distant future, usually in the next 5 to 10 years. Long-term goals require more planning and patience due to their longer time frames.
• Flexibility:  Due to their specificity, short-term goals are less flexible than long-term goals. This is because smaller goals have more precise tasks and urgent deadlines. Long-term goals have broader timelines, and specific aspects of your life or business can quickly impact them — making them more flexible.
• The number of goals:  You can have several short-term goals simultaneously. Most long-term goals consist of various short-term goals that make the process of reaching the long-term objective easier. By contrast, you will likely only have a minimal number of long-term goals since they’re more significant and far more daunting.
• Difficulty:  It’s far easier to achieve short-term goals since it’s easier to track their progress and gain prompt feedback on them. Long-term goals are more difficult to reach since they take longer, their success often only measurable in years. This makes it more likely for people to give up on them along the way.

Why are short-term goals crucial to business success?

Unfortunately, around  80%  of people never set goals. Yet, setting goals can mean the difference between success and failure — for individuals and businesses alike.

Here are some of the primary advantages of setting short-term goals for you and your team to reach deadlines and satisfy clients:

1. Gives you and your team greater focus

Setting short-term goals will give your employees greater focus and direction. They’ll know what needs to be done and by when since they’ll have a clear plan in place with actionable steps to follow.

This will increase their motivation and make it less likely that they will become overwhelmed or confused. They’ll also be able to organize their days more efficiently since they’ll know which tasks to prioritize and when.

2. Pushes employees to overcome procrastination

Studies find that  20%  of adult men and women worldwide are chronic procrastinators. This means that a fifth of your employees are likely to procrastinate when they don’t have a clear plan of action.

‎You can help  stop your employees from procrastinating  by giving them a specific and time-bound goal so that they know what tasks need to be taken care of and by when.

3. Helps manage time effectively

Defined deadlines will give your employees a clear indication of the duties that need to be completed during different phases of a project so it can progress to the next stage.

If they know a project needs to be completed by a specific date, they can use that deadline to determine when each subtask needs to be done.

This will help them manage their time better so that they don’t end up damaging their work-life balance . Instead, they’ll have enough time to complete their work and home life responsibilities.

Discover  12 effective time management strategies  you can use in your business.

4. Gives quick feedback

Short-term goals give you the ability to get instant and insightful feedback instead of having to bank on the success of a long-term goal that could take years to reach.

These smaller milestones provide consistent updates on how your project is going and can help bring to light any obstacles or risks that could prevent you from reaching your long-term objective.

You’ll be able to see the gains you’re making toward your bigger vision — which will build the confidence of all employees involved.

5. Creates productive behavior patterns

Having a clear plan of action will not only help your employees overcome procrastination, but it’ll also make them more productive. There’s  clear research that shows that the “way” a goal is pursued directly affects how effectively behavioral change takes root.

With clear and well-articulated short term goals, individuals are likely to be more efficient and complete an optimal number of tasks, which then reinforces that behavior. Eventually, their output will align with their and the company’s expectations.

‎In some cases, more productivity can even lead to higher employee satisfaction since they feel like they’re making a difference and doing a good job.

Examples of short-term goals for your business

Now that you understand the importance of short-term goals for your business, you’re probably wondering what these goals should look like.

Here are 23 examples of short-term business goals:

• Grow the business’s Instagram following to 1,000 followers in one month.
• Leave the job site at 6 pm every day for two weeks for a better work-life balance.
• Publish eight blog posts in one month to increase web traffic.
• Increase service prices by 3% over the next six months.
• Increase quarterly sales revenue by 5%.
• Make sure staff capacity remains at 120% for the summer season.
• Plan and begin an employee rewards program by the end of April.
• Enhance customer satisfaction over the next quarter.
• Hire three new employees over the next three months.
• Run a weekly giveaway campaign on Facebook for one month to increase brand awareness.
• Offer a training program for outbound sales associates to increase conversions by 10%.
• Implement an “Employee of the Month” program by June 30.
• Create a LinkedIn business page, and post on it thrice weekly over the next three months.
• Get your business site on the first page of Google within the next year.
• Launch a new product or service within six months.
• Get 50 customer reviews in three months.
• Host a team-building weekend at the end of November.
• Automate 40% of payroll duties by implementing AI accounting software by August 31.
• Decrease the costs of goods by 10% this quarter.
• Allocate 15% of the human resources budget to communication and leadership training.
• Increase the first reply time by 3% by the end of this month.
• Increase the number of cold calls from five to 20 per day.
• Give 2% of the company’s monthly income to charity for a year.

You can also set  professional development goals  to become a better leader, which could positively affect your employee attrition rate. According to Statista,  34%  of employees leave their jobs due to uninspiring leaders.

‎So being a good manager or team leader could inspire your employees to work harder and stay with your company.

Examples of professional development goals include the following:

• Take a three-month advanced management course to develop your skills.
• Attend four additional staff meetings per month.
• Increase the level of productivity through time management strategies.
• Earn a new certificate within one year.
• Build your network with 20 professionals in three months.
• Read one business or personal development book per week for three months.
• Speed up your morning routine and get to work 20 minutes early every day for two weeks.

Luckily, you can manage both your individual and team goals with  Motion . Motion allows you to sync your personal and team goals so you can have all your tasks in one place.

This makes keeping track of your work and personal tasks easy with the click of a few buttons. You’ll never feel overwhelmed or confused again.

How to set short-term business goals

Follow the four steps below to set strategic and achievable short-term goals for your business.

1. Determine key focus areas for your business

Look at areas of your company that need improvement or in which you’d like to succeed. It’s best to consider areas with quantifiable results so that you can measure performance metrics throughout the process.

Make sure you focus on something that affects your business’s growth and success, such as its profitability, market share, or customer satisfaction. These types of goals will have KPIs that you can track, such as CLV (customer lifetime value), NPS (net promoter score), and ETR (employee turnover rate), to name a few.

Areas that make the best candidates for immediate improvement are ones that directly impact revenue.

For example, you may consider creating a training overhaul or implementing new sales training. While it costs money to do this, it has a direct, quantifiable impact to bottom-line revenue because offering training programs to sales employees means they’re better able to convert leads into sales.

And this increases the business’s overall profitability as a result.

2. Visualize the end result

Now that you’ve identified the area you want to focus on, you’ll need to set a short-term goal. The first step in creating such a goal is to know what you’d like to achieve by the end of it.

Keep in mind that short-term goals are often linked to more important long-term goals. Thus, you’ll be able to use your long-term goal as the guiding light.

3. Reverse-engineer the goal

Once you have an endgame (or long-term goal) in mind, you can work your way backward to determine which steps you need to implement to achieve it.

Do this by breaking your long-term goal into short-term goals and then breaking those goals into manageable tasks.

For example, if your long-term goal is to expand your company to 500 employees within the next 5 years, you’ll need to set short-term goals, such as hiring 100 new employees per year, creating employee awards programs for higher retention, and adjusting infrastructure and operations to support this growth.

Then, based on these three "short-term goals, you can formulate smaller, actionable tasks by quarter, month, and even week. This type of visibility will also help you understand the key stakeholders you can delegate tasks to and provide clear benchmarks for success.

4. Use the SMART formula and the OKR framework

Making your short-term goals as specific as possible is essential because, as mentioned earlier, a goal that isn’t specific and doesn’t have a timeline isn’t a goal but an aspiration.

Making sure your goal has a focus and can be measured will ultimately determine its success since you’ll have a clear path toward reaching it and a way of measuring results.

This is where the SMART goal method comes into play.

The SMART framework is a popular goal-setting technique that people have adopted worldwide.

‎With this framework, you can ensure your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

You can also use the objectives and key results (OKR) strategy, which allows you to create actionable stepping stones that’ll serve as a “roadmap” to attaining your goals.

In the OKR framework:

• The  objective  is the short-term goal you want to achieve.
• The  key results  are the smaller action steps (or tasks) that you must take to achieve the goal.

‎By thinking of the actions that’ll need to be taken to achieve each short-term goal, you’ll be able to provide your employees with a detailed action plan for every project.

How to track your goals so you can achieve them

All goals need to be tracked.

This is especially essential for businesses with employees in the field who need to meet specific deadlines or a certain amount of sales.

For example, construction companies may set a short-term goal for their workers to lay the foundation of a building. To achieve this goal, the construction workers will need to track their tasks, such as excavation and footing installation, to ensure that they can get to the next part of the process on time.

Helping employees track their progress will directly impact your company’s performance since your employees will know exactly what’s expected of them.

Here are three excellent strategies you can use to track your goals:

• Communicate progress:  Make sure your employees communicate with management and vice versa so there’s no confusion about the status of the goal and who’s contributing to it.
• Create project milestones, and celebrate hitting them:  As your team progresses, it’s important to celebrate each milestone that’s hit. This will motivate your employees and help ensure that the larger objectives are reached.
• Use software to manage your goals:  You can  use Motion to manage your goals  by connecting your team’s work in one place. This way, your entire team will fully understand the project’s status. With Motion, you can set daily or weekly goals and even set the urgency of each task so workers know when they need to work faster to stay on track.

Ready to create achievable short-term goals?

Short-term goals pave the way to success in your professional life and business.

By following the steps and strategies outlined above, you can create short-term goals that are both measurable and achievable. Furthermore, if you’re a manager, you can set goals for both yourself and your employees to get projects done more efficiently.

Are you or your employees struggling to achieve short-term goals because you simply don’t have enough time to finish the work? Discover  how Motion users complete their work two hours faster every day .

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11 Short-Term Business Goals: Set Smarter and More Effective Goals

Written by Jacques Skuteeki

Jacques Skuteeki, Business Innovation Strategist, transforms success through comprehensive strategies. Our team excels in market research, audience targeting, needs assessment, and competitive analysis. Experience the impact of our content strategy, delivering quality, engaging, problem-solving content. Trust Jacques Skuteeki for innovative business guidance. Stay tuned for more insights on our holistic approach.

So you have started your business. Congratulations! But the simple, ugly truth is that your business might fail before it reaches its second anniversary. I don’t mean to be blunt, but it is just the truth.

You might be wondering why. The reason why most businesses might fail before they reach their second anniversary is because of a lack of goals.

One of the most important things you can do for your business is to set goals, no matter how old your business is, how profitable it is, where you are located, or even what you sell. Goals help you keep track of your business and prevent it from becoming stagnant.

The misconception a lot of people have about business goals is that they are something we set at the start of every business year. However, it shouldn’t be that way. You should be setting goals multiple times a year, tracking your progress, and modifying the strategies you are following in order to achieve a prosperous business.

You can create a successful small business if you set smart, attainable, short-term goals. Whether you want to expand your business into a new market, make new hires, or acquire new leads, short-term goals will help you sustain momentum over the long run.

It might seem simple, but setting goals for a business is always difficult. Setting short-term goals for a company is also challenging, because they must be practical, clear, and easily understandable to employees.

To help you get started with your business goals, here is a list of 11 short-term goals that have the potential to turn your business around.

Tip: Pick some goals that are good for your business, turn them into SMART GOALS, and create a great plan to achieve them one by one.

You may have noticed that I highlighted “SMART GOALS.” That is because it is important to turn your short-term goals into smart goals.

So what exactly are SMART GOALS?

Every business has a goal. However, it is important to know that providing a good description of this goal will help you achieve the goal more quickly. This is where SMART GOALS come in. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Acceptable, Realistic, and Time-Bound. It is a method used to achieve every goal successfully; it gives a sense of direction to the goals you want to achieve.

Still, don’t understand the concept of SMART GOALS? Don’t worry – you will after you read the explanation of each of the letters in S-M-A-R-T.

S – SPECIFIC

Every business needs a specific goal, not random goals. Let me explain. For instance, you want to increase your business’s sales, because your current sales situation is not satisfactory. However, “increasing sales” is not a specific goal, so it is unclear how to achieve this goal. SMART goals should be formulated so that this goal is achievable.

The goal must describe an observable result, behavior, or action. So by answering the WH- questions, the goal will become more clear, specific, and achievable:

• What do we want to achieve? (Increase sales by 40%)
• Who is involved? (The marketing department and sales department)
• When is it going to happen? (From April 1st to November 30th)
• What parts of the goals are important? (Advertising should be used actively, and the sales department must work harder)
• Why is this goal important? (Competition is increasing, and to survive in the market, you have to become a key market player)

M – MEASURABLE

Every SMART goal should have a starting point and a finishing point. These points are indications of the effort that must be made to achieve your business goal. So it is advisable that you have a benchmark of the situation. Using the same goal example, “increase sales,” we can measure the benchmark answering these questions:

• How much sales did you make in the past year? (5 million in 2018)
• How can you calculate if the goal has been achieved? (40% of 5 million is 2 million, which means your goal is achieved if you make 7 million)
• What efforts do you have to put in place? (A great advertising campaign has to be put in place with consistent follow-up actions from the sales department)
• How can you measure your goals? (Your goals can be measured by comparing the monthly sales with the figures from the past year. If it is greater, you are achieving your goals; if otherwise, you need to step up your game)

A – ACCEPTABLE

You can’t just set goals because you think they will work; you have to set goals because they are acceptable. Your goals have to be acceptable by you and your department or group. Only then does that goal stand a chance of succeeding. When your employees accept a goal and actively work on it with you, that goal stands a chance of succeeding. For instance, if increasing your sales by 40% is too ambitious, then you can adjust the percentage to about 20% (something that would be acceptable).

R – REALISTIC

A goal can be specific, measurable, or acceptable, but not realistic. In order for your business goal to be realistic, you have to consider the practical situation and the work that everyone is involved in. Let’s face it: it is not possible that everyone will be committed to the same goal all the time. The goal must be important to those who are going to work on it. It also must be ensured that the entire team in charge of working on the goal has the time and manpower to focus on that goal for the specified period of time.

Most importantly, the goal must be challenging enough to motivate the entire team in charge of working on it. Otherwise, it will have a demotivating effect on the entire team, and the goal won’t be achieved.

So the concept “Realistic” in SMART has to do with the feasibility of the goals.

If you are going to stick to short-term goals, it is best they are SMART. Although the T in SMART doesn’t always work for long-term goals, it is very important for short-term goals.

Most people confuse Time for Measureable, but they aren’t the same. Time is the period allocated to reach or achieve the goals. A SMART goal should have a start and end time.

Using the same example, “increase sales,” instead of giving a random time, you can narrow it to a specific time by answering the question, “When is it going to happen?” For this example, the answer is from the 1st of April to the 30th of November. So you are anticipating to make two million extra sales within the given dates.

Since we have talked about the concept of “SMART,” let’s dive back into the main discussion of short-term business goals.

How can you set short-term business goals?

In order to figure out which goals you need to reach within the next six or twelve months, you need to answer these questions:

• Is my service or product evergreen or will it go out of trend? For instance, if you have a  clothing line  that creates clothes based on certain trends, you need to consider creating a new line as soon as another trend hits the market.
• In what other areas is my business presently active? In what other areas will it be active in about three years from now? Being able to answer all these questions will help you plan your short-term or long-term goals and their allocated budget.
• In what areas does my business have to improve? Who do I have to network with to stay aligned with my goal? If you have a clothing line and create trendy clothes, your short-term goal may be to network with top-notch designers. You could come up with a trendy clothing line for the next fall or summer.

11 SHORT-TERM BUSINESS GOALS

1.grow faster.

If your business is facing some real competition, it is best to add at least one fresh product to your inventory as needed. For instance, you run a clothing business, so obviously, there are lots of competitors. To grow faster and be ahead of your game, you have to add at least one new collection as needed. However, not just any collection will do. You have to make sure it is a trendy collection that will draw customers in – think outside of the box.

Regardless of your type of business, the new product should be something you can price high and then bundle with a less popular product to trigger interest, which will help to boost sales and create massive brand recognition.

2.Up Your Online Game

This is 2019, not 1960… Everything is done online, from making inquiries to making orders. You name it… everything. So getting your online visibility to its peak is one of the major goals you should pursue.

You might decide to start a social media campaign and a website all by yourself, which is fine. But do you have the time to learn about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), website analysis, online sales, and all the other stuff that have to do with online visibility? If your answer is no, then your goal should be to hire a social media manager to manage your social media accounts, and a website consultant to work on your site, boost its SEO, and improve its efficiency.

If you want to grow faster and make more money, you should make sure you are visible online.

3.Build Awareness

If you are a startup business, one of your short-term goals should be to build awareness for your business. Building awareness is measured in terms of percentages. For instance, your goal for the first three months might be to achieve a  brand-awareness  level of 5% of all businesses and customers in the area.

You can build awareness for your business solely through advertising and calculate the results through marketing research surveys.

4.Establish a Customer Base

Once you have succeeded in building awareness for your business, your next goal should be to establish a customer base. One way to establish your customer base is by getting as many people to buy your services or products. You can also distribute coupons or fliers, offer special deals on various services or products, or place ads in newspapers.

Another tested way to establish your customer base is by introducing products at a low price. Here is the deal: people will flock to your business if you offer a product that is high in demand at a low price (everyone loves low prices).

The major key to establishing a customer base is  REPEAT SALES . When a customer likes your product, he/she will come back and purchase more products. So your goal is to retain customers! You can maintain a database of customers to keep track of how much your customer base grows.

5.Establish Good Relationships with Agencies and Suppliers

Although you might be wondering why this is even a short-term goal, it is a goal that you should work towards achieving. Once you develop a good relationship with your suppliers, they will be more apt to meet your shipping requirements, which is good for your business. That’s not all; you might also receive special deals on shipments due to your good relationship with them.

If you are working with agencies like the marketing and advertising agencies, you have to make sure you establish a good relationship with them.

6.Make a Profit

One of your short-term business goals should be making a profit as soon as possible. Without profits, you won’t be able to expand your inventory or advertising, which means you might not attract customers. Without profits, it will be very difficult to pay your bills. So making a profit should be one of your major short-term business goals. The best way to make a profit is by  increasing your sales  and keeping your expenses within their allocated budget. You have to make sure the amount you spend on advertising, hiring, and rent doesn’t exceed the profit you are making.

7.Cut the Use of Paper and Go Paperless

You might be wondering why “going paperless” is a short-term goal, but it is a goal. Cutting the amount of paper you use in your business can help reduce expenses and improve productivity. However, you need to keep in mind that going paperless is not for every business. Find out if going paperless will work for your type of business. If it does, we advise you go paperless; if it doesn’t, you can just stick to the paper.

8.Collaborate With Your Team to Brainstorm New Ideas

It doesn’t matter if your team members are located in the same office or not; you should make sure you collaborate with your team often. Collaboration will help increase productivity, efficiency, and will strengthen the team’s bond.

Make sure you set aside time every week or every month (whichever works better for your team) to brainstorm new ideas to solve problems, create new opportunities, and improve your product.

9.Promoting a New Service or Product

This short-term goal is not mandatory; it just happens organically. You only get to promote a new service or product when you have something new to promote. If you have got nothing to promote, then don’t worry about this business goal.

Promoting a new service or product is something that gives most business owners the chills. If you want to launch a new product, it is very important to have a specific objective in mind. This objective could mean selling a specific amount of the product or service within the first month of launch. It could also be hosting an event to introduce the product or service to your customers.

Your objective solely depends on you and your type of business. Once you have determined your objective, then you will have something to work on.

10.Revitalize Your Market Analysis

What you are trying to achieve is finding new ways to market to your niche.

You can offer some of your clients or customers a discount or free product in exchange for interviewing them. You can ask generic questions about how they feel about the market and how they spend time with others just like them. The purpose of all the interviews is for you to get to know your customers more. It will help you narrow down your target audience so you know specifically what they want, what they like, what they do, and even how they behave.

11.Manage Cash Flow

Managing cash flow is an essential short-term business financial goal. A lot of people confuse cash flow with profit, but they are two different things.

Cash flow is all about the money going out of your business and coming into your business in terms of payments. If the amount coming into your business is higher than the amount leaving your business, then you are in cash flow positive.

There are so many things that take money from a business, including paying suppliers, buying and managing inventory, and paying employee salaries. If you can’t manage cash flow, then you are sure to run into losses before the third year of business.

Every business must ensure that inventory management is in place, that receivables against invoices are expedited, and that payments are made close to the due dates.

All of this boils down to cutting costs wherever possible and managing cash flow to make sure your business doesn’t run into loss.

Choosing your short-term goals will not be the same for every business as every business is different. However, when you are deciding on your short-term goals, be sure to also keep your long-term goals in mind.

Your marketing strategy and short-term goals should help you boost your business and take it to the level you want it to be. But you should always think of your overall marketing plan when you are choosing any goal, be it long term or short term, or you stand the risk of wasting all of your time and money.

So here are 11 short-term business goals that will help you decide on goals for your business.

Content By: Ethan Perkins | May 4, 2019 | Read More Here

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Dividends Diversify

5 Examples of Short-Term Business Goals to Set Now

January 17, 2024, best short-term goals for a new business or old.

Let’s talk about short-term goals for business today. Because I have 5 examples of short-term business goals you must have for your company right now.

We will also review how to set your business goals. And how to measure the daily activities leading to the achievement of those goals.

That is what we are going to cover. So, let’s not delay. And get on with short-term goals for your business today…

Disclosure: At no cost to you, I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Examples Of Short-Term Business Goals

Here are my 5 best short-term goals for businesses:

• Define your value proposition
• Analyze your target market
• Develop a business plan
• Increase profits this year
• Make smart investments for future years

First, this group represents great short-term goals for a new business. Or, an old business you are trying to revitalize.

And be sure to understand that this…

Your short-term business goals should be achieved in the next 12 months. While medium-term business goals are 1-5 years out. And, long-term goals span more than 5 years .

Finally, you might be surprised. That long-term thinking is required. When setting these 5 short-term business goals examples .

Here is what I mean. Starting with short-term business goal #1…

Short-Term Business Goal Example #1: Define Your Value Proposition

Clearly define your value proposition. Because if you don’t identify your customers. And deliver value to them.

You don’t have a business.

So, think long and hard about who your customers are. And what they desire from your product or service. In addition to the customer service level they require.

Furthermore, your value proposition should be closely tied to your business strategy. And you should know there are 3 generic business strategies…

1. Cost leadership strategy.

This strategy relies on being a low-cost producer . It is usually best for a commodity-type product or service. But it can be of benefit to other types of businesses too.

2. Differentiation-focused strategy.

Where delivering a unique product to your customer is valued over all else.

Branding, design, and innovation. They are several elements that make this strategy a success.

3. Niche strategy.

Here, both cost and differentiation take a back seat. To a narrow focus on a target market or target customer. And their highly specific needs.

Maybe you have heard the expression. “The riches are in the niches”.

Finally, one of these 3 strategies should be dominant. Because it is very difficult to be good at more than 1.

So take a step back. And do some deep thinking about goals at an early stage in your business. And, the right business strategy to deliver on those goals.

Ask yourself. What value do you want your business to offer? And how does that value relate to the business strategy you want to adopt.

Because a business value proposition. And business strategy should be tightly linked.

And, they should be supported by our second short-term business goal example…

Short-Term Goals For A Business Example #2: Analyze The Market

There is no sense in defining your value proposition. And determining your business strategy. Without knowledge of the market. That your business pursues.

Market analysis involves, at a minimum, knowing the market opportunity. Or, the revenue potential.

Allow me to give you an absurd example to drive home the point…

Let’s say you are going to start a niche retail clothing store in Southern Florida. The store’s focus will be selling heavy winter coats.

Well, I doubt there is much of a market for the products from a store like this in Southern Florida. So, I predict this business will fail.

In theory, the business may have a great value proposition. And a sound strategy.

But, it won’t be successful in Florida. I suggest relocating the business to a city like Minneapolis.

So, complete enough research to suggest that if successful. The market opportunity will support your business.

In addition, there are many other important aspects to market analysis. Beyond market size. For example, pricing and competition are also important things to understand.

What if the market size, pricing, and level of competition do not support your value proposition and business strategy?

Then go back to short-term business goal #1. And reassess.

Once, you have short-term objectives examples for business numbers 1 and 2 working together. It’s time for our 3 rd example of short-term business goals every successful company must have…

Business Short-Term Goals Example #3: Develop A Business Plan

After you have a value proposition. Linked with a business strategy. And supported by a market assessment.

Then you are on your way to having a business plan. But, I suggest you make your business plan more comprehensive.

Because every business should have a plan. No matter how big or small the business happens to be.

Think about and document how you intend to market and sell your product…

Will you use advertising? Develop a social media strategy? Sell through a website? Or have a salesforce?

How will you produce your product or service? Do it yourself out of your home? Secure a facility and hire employees? Or, contract out the production process to a 3 rd party?

Finally, you should complete a financial planning exercise.  Specifically, prepare budgeted financial statements.

Do this to project the financial success of your business. And any outside funding it will require.

If you need help. Outsource your financial management.

Then put all of these pieces together. With an executive summary at the beginning.

And you have the makings of a business plan short-term goal to complete. Get it done in the next six months. Or, twelve months at the very latest.

Because a business plan is your road map.

A perfect tool for pitching your business to partners and investors. It is a key ingredient for setting additional short-term goals for a small business owner .

Okay. Let’s pause for a moment and reflect.

Reflecting On Short Term Business Goals #1-#3:

The first 3 short-term business goals examples must be done immediately. Certainly in the first 12 months of starting a new business. Or, trying to pump new life into an old one.

They require long-term planning and thinking. Even though they are the short-term goals of a business.

So, think long-term. But get these goals done in the short term.

Because your business is more than the side hustle you were running. To improve your finances in your 20s .

Then you are ready for the 4 th short-term business goal…

Short-Term Business Goals Example #4: Increase Profits

Profits, and the cash flow they generate, are the lifeblood of your business. So set a short-term goal to increase your business profits in the next 12 months.

This is one of many standard financial business goals . That every company should have.

There are 3 ways to go about increasing business profits in the short term.

3 Examples Of Short-Term Business Goals For Improving Financial Performance

1. Raise prices.

Increasing prices can be the fastest way to boost profit. Because price increases fall right to the bottom line profits of a business.

But make sure your pricing strategy aligns with your business strategy.

For example, if you sell a commodity.  Raising prices may not be one of the best financial goals .

Because your customers will switch to a lower-cost supplier. Since there are other products like yours in the market.

On the other hand, a differentiation-focused business strategy. Is usually better suited for price increases.

2. Sell more.

As long as your product or service is profitable. Increase market share by selling more.

So, put some sales and marketing muscle behind your business. And sell more to make more money.

3. Reduce costs.

Finally, and especially for executing a cost leadership strategy. Look for ways to reduce expenses.

Go through every expense line on your income statement. Look for ways to reduce costs. And become more productive. To benefit from higher cash flows .

Here’s another suggestion to reduce costs. ..

Do you make purchases online? Then save money on everything you buy with Rakuten. 

Rakuten offers electronic cash rebates for buying things you need anyway!  So, it is money in your business’s pocket!

You can learn about Rakuten here . And it works fine for any personal purchases you make too.

Okay. It’s time for our 5 th and final short-term business goal example. And we are going back to long-term thinking again…

Short-Term Goals For Business Example #5: Make Smart Investments For The Future

Identify investments to make in your business . During the next 12 months.

That will increase profits. Not only in the following year. But for many years in the future.

Only you can decide what is a smart investment for your business. Some examples include:

• Outsourcing a business process
• Adding a new employee
• Buying a new piece of machinery
• Implementing business software
• Expanding facilities
• Developing a new product
• Moving to a business-friendly state

The possible investments come down to a simple formula. Will the money spent today bring more money back in profits in the future?

Once again. It takes long-term thinking. To set short-term goals in a business.

And remember. Your business investments must support your value proposition and business strategy. And they should be included in the cash flow of your business plan .

Finally, making an investment for the future is much easier. When your business makes money today. So, don’t forget about short-term business goal #4: increase profits.

However, some investments will require outside funds. So, you may need financing.

Consider a small business loan. Look for a lender who is easy to work with. And offers very competitive rates.

I hope you are starting to see it. Specifically, how these short-term goals for business inter-relate. And need to fit within your business strategy.

Okay. It’s transition time as I promised at the beginning of this article. To discuss business goal setting…

Make Your Short-Term Goals For Business SMART

You can learn much more about setting SMART goals . But allow me to give you a brief overview.

SMART goals have 5 main ingredients. They are…

Define precisely what you want to accomplish. Because a goal is the desired outcome.

Document your short-term business goals. And include as many details as possible.

Next, determine how you will measure your success. Success is when the desired outcome is achieved.

Each of the 5 short-term business goals examples we discussed today is easy to measure. For example, take the goal “increase business profits this year”.

The goal should state exactly how much profit increases. Will meet the desired outcome.

It’s okay to set aggressive business goals . But, make them achievable.

Is increasing profits by $100,000 this year your goal?. Well, it may sound like a good goal. But perhaps only $50,000 is achievable.

Business goals must be realistic too. This is closely related to achievability. But, slightly different.

For example, increasing revenue by $200,000 may be achievable. Especially if you have done your market research. And fine-tuned your value proposition.

But if it requires 5 new people on the sales team. And you haven’t hired 1 yet. Perhaps this is not a realistic goal in the next 12 months.

A better goal might be hiring and training the 5 salespeople. Then setting a medium-term goal to increase revenue by $200,000.

Finally, give yourself a date to accomplish the goal. We are talking about short-term goals for business today. So the completion date must fall within the next 12 months.

Okay. One more topic. And then I will wrap up.

You now have 5 examples of short-term goals for a business. They represent both financial goals. And non-financial business goals too.

Furthermore, you know the characteristics of SMART short-term goals for a small business. Or, a larger business you are trying to refocus and revitalize.

Then here is our final topic. That is measuring the daily activities required. To achieve the business goals you have set forth.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) To Support Each Of These Short-Term Business Goals Examples

KPIs are daily, weekly, and monthly performance indicators. They measure the activities required to achieve your business’s short-term goals.

Underlying them are the employee activities that drive business outcomes you desire. So companies set and measure KPIs. To achieve their business goals.

Thus, a KPI is a measurable activity. That drives the result. That result is the achievement of a business goal.

For example, let’s say the short-term business goal is to increase revenue by $200,000. And you feel you have the resources in place to do just that.

Then what is the activity that will drive the achievement of the goal? That’s for you to decide depending on the type of business you are in.

But let’s say you determine increasing sales by $200,000 is realistic and achievable. But only if each salesperson calls on 5 potential new accounts each week.

Then there is your KPI. 5 new sales calls by each salesperson each week. Because you believe this activity will result in achieving the increased sales goal.

This assumes the products or services your sales staff is promoting. Are tightly aligned with your business strategy and value proposition.

Finally, as your business meets with more success. I think it is wise to keep your personal finances separate from the finances of your business.

I use Personal Capital to pull all of my non-business expenses and investments together in one place. And keep them separate from my business.

Best of all, Personal Capital is free to sign up and use. You can learn more about Personal Capital here .

Let’s summarize to wrap this article up…

Summary: Short-Term Goals For A Business

First of all, understand that long-term thinking is required. When setting and achieving short-term goals .

Then we have the goals…

Short-Term Goals Examples For Business

List of short-term goals for business examples:

Short-Term Goals Of A Business Should Be SMART

Furthermore, make your business goals SMART. Whether they are short-term, medium-term business goals , or long-term business goals.

SMART is an acronym that stands for:

Short-Term Goals Business KPIs

Finally, set key performance indicators (KPIs). They are the daily activities required. To meet each of these short-term business goals examples we have discussed today.

That’s all for now. Good luck to the small business owners in the audience. And the big business owners too.

Now it’s time to get to work on the 5 examples of short-term goals for businesses.

More Reading About Setting And Achieving Goals

• Our money management library of articles
• Make financial plans in your 30s and beyond

Excellent Resources To Jump-Start Your Business Goals

I mentioned several resources throughout the article. They are useful for attaining both your individual financial goals. And your business goals.

Here is a summary…

• Get cash back on your online purchases with Rakuten
• Manage all your money with Personal Capital

Author Bio : Tom Scott founded the consulting and coaching firm Dividends Diversify, LLC. He leverages his expertise and decades of experience in goal setting, relocation assistance, and investing for long-term wealth to help clients reach their full potential.

Short-Term Goals For Business

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• The importance of setting short-term go ...

The importance of setting short-term goals (with examples)

Goals help you take action on larger ideas or visions. Short-term goals specifically help you to plan and take action on tasks that can be completed in the near future. In this article, get two strategies to help you create short-term goals more effectively. Then, check out some examples of short-term goals, plus how to track and use them so they have the highest impact.

Whether it’s launching a new product with your team, building your dream house, or achieving your big hairy audacious goals (BHAGs) , it's easy to feel overwhelmed when your goal is a large, ambiguous idea. Setting short-term goals can help you reach larger objectives and make progress towards your desired outcome.

What is a short-term goal?

A short-term goal is a goal that you want to complete in the near future, such as within the next week or the next month. These are often stepping stones towards larger goals, though not always. You can also use short-term goals to take action on smaller projects or ideas. As a result, short-term goals tend to be easier to achieve. 

20 examples of short-term goals

10 short-term professional goals examples:

Manage the next quarterly project from start to finish in Q3.

Get certified in a project management tool by EOY.

Increase net promoter score by five points this quarter.

Build social reach with five LinkedIn posts a day for the next 30 days.

Schedule three networking lunches this month.

Call 50 new prospects this quarter.

Log off at 6:00 PM every day this week.

Reduce creative requests backlog by 10% in Q1.

Publish six new blog posts in the next 60 days.

Update portfolio with new designs by end of next month.

10 personal short-term goals examples:

Put 5% of your monthly income into a savings account starting next month.

Eat meat-free dinners one day a week starting today.

Read two books this month.

Reduce screen time daily average by 15 minutes this week.

Track spending for 30 days.

Call a friend every Saturday morning this month.

Walk for 15 minutes every day starting next week.

Practice daily deep breathing for the next 60 days.

Journal for 20 minutes every Sunday starting next month.

Play with your kids for 30 minutes every night starting today.

Notice that ‌these goals all have a specific time frame assigned to them. This makes your goal more actionable by connecting those actions to a specific amount of time.

What are the benefits of setting short term goals?

Short-term goals can be used to break down larger, more general goals. They don’t replace these big, overarching goals, but rather give you a path to achieve them.

Setting and working on short-term goals helps you:

Realize what you can accomplish today and take action

Get quick feedback

Get started faster

Define deadlines

Manage and prioritize tasks 

The difference between short-term goals and long-term goals

A long-term goal is your North Star. It’s the bigger objective that you want to achieve. Short-term goals are different. They focus on a smaller portion of work in a shorter time frame. By breaking a larger, long-term goal into many short-term goals, you can prevent procrastination and stay focused on the task at hand. 

Let's look at an example of a long-term goal that has smaller short-term goals built into the action plan .

Long term goal: A sales team is looking to close $500,000 in new sales in the next year. 

Short term goal: The small- and medium-sized sales team wants to close $50,000 in new sales in Q1.

You could then break the short-term goal down into even smaller, more specific goals assigned to each sales representative. For example, Areej will aim to close $8,000 in new sales during each month of the quarter.

Strategies for setting short-term goals

Being strategic about how you set your goals can help focus them—which will ultimately make it more likely that your goals pay off. Try these strategies to get more specific, actionable short-term goals:

SMART Goals

SMART goals are a common goal setting technique. SMART is an acronym that stands for:

Ensuring that your goals contain every facet of a SMART goal can help you get clear on what you want to accomplish, how you’re going to do it, and when it needs to be done.

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)

When setting short-term goals, it's important to connect specific actions to your goals. By creating actionable stepping stones, you can set up a strong roadmap towards achieving your goals—both short-term and long-term ones.

You can see this approach in action with OKRs, or objectives and key results . The objective is the goal you want to achieve. The key results are the metrics by which you'll measure progress towards those goals.

Goals can be used in conjunction with OKRs to help you make progress on key results. Think about what actions you need to take to achieve the desired key results and use those to set your goals. 

Example of how to set short-term goals

Let’s say your social media team's OKR is to increase your social media following by 400% this fiscal year. 

There's no clear plan for how to get to that 400%, so the team gets together to brainstorm actionable steps they can take to increase their social media following. One team member suggests hosting giveaways twice a quarter to increase follower counts. Another team member suggests using paid ads to increase awareness. Another suggests working with different influencers every week to promote their brand. 

All three of these ideas are good options, and all of them can be set as short-term goals to achieve the main OKR. Here's what those three goals would look like written out:

Host a giveaway two times a quarter.

Gain 250 followers through paid advertisements every quarter.

Promote each account through an influencer channel once a week.

Each of these shorter goals focuses specifically on a task that contributes to a longer-term company goal. Aligning tasks with smaller team goals, and bigger company objectives is a central aspect of building a pyramid of clarity. With the pyramid of clarity, you can connect your day-to-day work to your short-term goals. That way, your entire team is working towards the same objective, bringing your organization closer to achieving it.

Tracking goal progress

Whether it’s a long-term career goal or a short-term personal one, goal tracking is essential to ensure that you’re making progress. 

According to a recent survey by Asana , only 26% of knowledge workers have a very clear understanding of how their work contributes to company goals. If your team members don’t know what goals they're contributing to, they might not be producing work that impacts those big picture company goals.

Goal tracking helps you see if the work your team is doing contributes towards a bigger goal. But how do you ensure that your team is regularly working towards those goals? Here are a few strategies:

Communicate progress clearly: When everybody sees how work is progressing, there's no confusion as to whether or not the work is contributing to the goal. 

Create (and celebrate!) project milestones : As your team progresses, it's important to celebrate incremental progress so they don't get discouraged halfway through or lose focus.

Manage goals with software: Connect your team's work with your company's goals all in one place. By using work management software like Asana , your team will have one source of truth for all work. 

One of the major benefits of goal tracking is that it gives you visibility into whether your strategies are working. If you're actively monitoring your key results and not seeing the desired outcomes, you can dig further to discover what’s missing. Does one of your team members have too much on their plate? Is one of your strategies not as effective as you thought it would be?

Monitoring your goals gives you the opportunity to pivot your strategy when things aren’t going according to plan. 

Using short-term goals for professional development

You might not be able to control everything about your professional life, but setting goals helps you take advantage of those you can control. Whether it’s prepping for a review six months away, taking an online course, or a complete career change, these short-term goals will help you zero in on how to move the needle in your professional life.

Managing team goals to become an effective manager

As a manager, it could be challenging to create your own personal goals without first looking at your team’s individual goals. Great managers help unblock contributors so that goal-achieving tasks can get done. 

Before setting personal goals as a manager, look at your team’s goals. Base your goals on the work your team is contributing to so that everyone is aligned and making progress. 

Monitoring personal professional development with short-term goals

In addition to using short-term career goals to monitor your team’s or company's progress, you can monitor short-term goals to track your own—or a team member’s—personal development. If you’re developing new skills or taking on new responsibilities, track how those skills are helping you achieve your goals. 

Let’s look at an example.

Taylor is a sales development representative at a SaaS company. They don’t particularly enjoy spending time on sales calls, but they’ve found several tools to help them create an automated email flow to reach out to their prospects. 

Taylor’s manager notices that they are not making the recommended number of sales calls, but they’re still hitting their sales goals because of how well their prospect emails convert.

Taylor’s manager sees this as an opportunity for growth, and asks Taylor if they would like to transition to a role that allows them to further create email marketing opportunities for other SDRs on the team. By monitoring how Taylor was progressing towards their goals, Taylor’s manager was able to create an opportunity for them to grow into a position that was a strong fit for their skillset. 

Setting goals for your own personal development

Goals can be used to help your personal development as well. If you have long-term life goals, you can set up short-term personal goals as you would professional ones. Set measurable goals to serve as small stepping stones for your progress. 

You can use short-term personal goals for a variety of different aspirations. For example, you can set up short-term financial goals to hit a bigger goal of reducing credit card debt. Or, maybe you use weekly goals to develop a fitness or morning routine. These shorter, targeted goals can have a big impact on your daily life.

Here’s an example of how you can break down a personal goal:

Long-term personal goal: Run a half marathon within 6 months 

Short-term goals :

Be able to run a mile without stopping by end of week 2

Run a 5K by the end of month 1 in under 35 minutes

Run a 10K by the end of month 2 in under an hour

As you can see, the short-term goals are incremental, but they all work together to achieve the big goal at the end—running a marathon.

Track short-term goals more effectively

Looking for a way to effectively track your goals, both short-term and long-term? Tracking your goals using work management software like Asana can help you break your goals into actionable tasks.

Related resources

Unmanaged business goals don’t work. Here’s what does.

How Asana uses work management to effectively manage goals

Beat thrash for good: 4 organizational planning challenges and solutions

Use critical success factors to support your strategic plan

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June 29, 2022

Short-term vs. long-term business goals: Comparison + 30 examples

Monika Gudova

Content Writer and Editor

Table of contents

Not unlike the recipe for your mum’s famous chocolate cake, the recipe for business success calls for various ingredients and steps plus time and patience. It requires short-term work (baking) to yield long-term results (happy tummies). 

In business, short- and long-term goals are used tactically to help a business move forward. But what are they? And how are they set? We’ll define and compare short-term and long-term goals and show you 15 examples of what they look like in business.

What is a long-term business goal?

It’s all in the name — long-term outcomes are what your company wants to achieve in the long term. They’re high-level goals or strategies you want to accomplish in the coming years, driving you closer to your vision. Good long-term goals should be adaptable to technological, political and other environmental changes.

No exact period defines long-term goals, but most organisations think of them as goals you aim to achieve in the next one to ten years. While ambitious, they inform short-term goals and day-to-day business flow and vice versa. Knowing a general direction is essential, but keeping a bottom-up approach that supports adaptability, creativity and more input into decision-making is still crucial.

What is a short-term business goal?

The term ‘short’ is key in describing short-term goals. They define business goals you want to achieve in the near future, which can span from a week to a year, depending on the project and organisational preferences. They focus on the present, promoting productivity and good time management.

Short-term business goals are clear, easily actionable and geared toward individual or team efforts rather than overall strategy. That being said, short-term goals should still be set with long-term strategy in mind — to set short-term goals, you need to know generally where your business is heading. In simpler terms, short-term goals are the steps you need to take to get where you want to be and a tool to check you’re heading in the right direction.

Short-term vs long-term goals

Short-term and long-term goals may differ, but it’s not quite David and Goliath. Below we’ve listed three key factors that set short- and long-term goals apart.

The biggest difference between short-term goals and long-term goals is their purpose. Long-term goals are strategic — they’re a plan for the future of the business. Short-term goals contribute to the success of a business but have more to do with your current performance.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to defining what’s considered short-term or long-term, but generally speaking, short-term goals are more likely to be measured by weeks or months and long-term goals by years. Long-term business strategies require many short-term goals to meet.

Flexibility

Short-term goals and long-term organisational goals are also different in adaptability. Short-term goals are typically more clearly defined and actionable, whereas long-term goals are flexible to changes in strategy.

Examples of both short- and long-term goals in business

Looking for some real-world examples to help you write business goals? Using the SMART methodology — which requires goals to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound — we’ve compiled some examples of long- and short-term business goals that are easily adaptable.

Short-term vs long-term marketing goal examples

A long-term marketing goal might sound like this:

• Drive more traffic to the shop tab on the website

And the short-term business goals that support this long-term strategy might look like this:

• Develop a social media strategy that boosts posting from 3 times a week to daily
• Plan an email campaign that achieves an average click rate of 10% before new product launch  

Short-term vs long-term finance goal examples

The following might be a long-term finance goal:

•  Reduce operating costs

And to support the long-term strategy, short-term finance goals may look like this:

• Automate 50% of payroll duties by adopting accounting software by June 30
• Reduce cost of goods sold (COGS) expenses by 20% this quarter

Short-term vs long-term HR goal examples

Long-term HR goals would include:

• Improve employee retention rate

Whereas the short-term HR goals for the long-term strategy may look like this:

• Allocate 10% of HR budget to personal development training
• Implement one feedback form a month for more visibility across company issues

Short-term vs long-term sales goal examples

A typical goal for long-term sales growth may look like this:

• Increase total sales revenue

In contrast, the short-term goals for sales might be as follows:

• Generate 50% of sales from clients X and Y by the end of June
• Make $30,000 in new deals by the end of the quarter

Short-term vs long-term customer service goal examples

An example of a long-term customer service goal might be:

• Increase customer satisfaction

Whereas customer service short-term goals are more likely to be specific:

• Increase the first-contact resolution rate by 10% by the end of quarter
• Improve first reply time by 5% overall by the end of the month

Other examples of short-term and long-term goals for business

Content marketing.

• Short-term: Increase blog traffic by 25% in the next three months by optimizing existing content for SEO and publishing weekly articles on trending topics.
• Long-term: Establish the company as a thought leader in its industry within two years, by consistently producing high-quality, research-backed content that addresses key challenges and trends.

Email Marketing

• Short-term: Improve email open rates by 10% over the next quarter through A/B testing of subject lines and personalized content.
• Long-term: Double the email subscriber list size within the next 18 months by leveraging lead magnets and optimizing signup forms across all digital platforms.
• Short-term: Redesign the company homepage to improve visual appeal and user engagement within the next two months.
• Long-term: Establish a cohesive brand identity across all products and marketing materials within two years, enhancing brand recognition and consistency.

User Experience (UX)

• Short-term: Decrease website bounce rate by 20% in the next six months through improved navigation and faster page load times.
• Long-term: Achieve top-tier customer satisfaction scores for the digital experience within the next three years by continuously refining and personalizing the user journey.
• Short-term: Reduce deployment time by 30% within the next quarter through the implementation of automated deployment pipelines.
• Long-term: Achieve a 99.9% uptime for all critical systems within the next two years by enhancing monitoring, scalability, and disaster recovery strategies.

Software Development

• Short-term: Complete the development of a new mobile application feature within the next three months to meet market demand.
• Long-term: Transition the entire software portfolio to a microservices architecture within the next five years to improve scalability and maintainability.

Project Managers

• Short-term: Improve project completion rates by 15% over the next six months by adopting agile project management methodologies.
• Long-term: Implement a company-wide project management software solution within the next year to enhance collaboration, tracking, and reporting capabilities.

How to turn short term business goals into OKRs

Whether you’re 20 years into trading or in the early stages of business, getting past the ‘vision’ part of goal setting is not always easy. You may know where you want to be, but getting there is the hard part.

The OKR acronym stands for Objectives and Key Results. It's a goal setting framework that bridges the gap between vision and strategy and introduces a simple shared language to write down the focus of the different teams in your organisation.

Turning your goals into OKRs can be done in 3 simple steps:

1. Define your objectives

First you need to define your overall objective. If you're setting quarterly goals, then you need a statement that clearly explain what you expect to get at the end of the quarter.

For instance a Customer Success team could have:

• Significantly improve user satisfaction

2. Select your metrics

Now that you have an objective, the next step is to pick the Customer Success KPIs that will best map to that objective. That could be:

• Average response time

These metrics will become your key results in the next step.

3. Use the SMART formula to turn your metrics into Key results

Finally, all we need to do is to transform our KPIs into SMART professional goals to make them measurable and time-bound.

You end up with quarterly OKRs that look like the following:

Objective: Significantly improve customer satisfaction

• KR1: Increase NPS from 20 to 50
• KR2: Reduce average response time from 2h to 30min
• KR3: Improve CSAT by 15%

Of course, there's a bit more subtleties to master, but there are some guides that can help you turn a vision into a simple set of OKRs .

How to track short and long term goals

Benefits of tracking your business goals

Setting goals is only the first step you take to achieve success. Without goals, it's difficult to determine what you want to accomplish and how to reach your destination.

But, tracking your progress towards your goals is equally important. This is what helps you stay focused and motivated. By tracking your short-term and long-term goals, you can keep yourself accountable and on track towards achieving your objectives.

Short-term business goals help you maintain a sense of urgency and motivation while working towards a larger long-term objective. You can see them as a way to ensure business productivity.

Long-term goals, on the other hand, help you maintain a clear long term vision and a sense of direction. Unlike short term business goals, the long term objectives will help you steer the company by looking many years forward.

Tracking both short and long-term goals helps you maintain a healthy balance between the two.

Optimising business goal-tracking: choosing between spreadsheets and specialised platforms

The role of spreadsheets for goal-tracking.

Spreadsheets are a familiar tool for many businesses, known for their flexibility and ease of use in a variety of tasks. They offer a simple way to organise data and track the progress of your business goals. However, when it comes to effectively monitoring your achievements and assessing detailed progress, spreadsheets might not be the all-in-one solution you need.

While spreadsheets are incredibly versatile, allowing for the customisation and calculation of data, they fall short in providing a dynamic, holistic view of your business goals. One of the key challenges with spreadsheets is their static nature—they require regular, manual updates, which not only consumes valuable time but also increases the risk of errors. This manual process can lead to inaccuracies in your data, impacting your ability to make informed decisions.

Moreover, spreadsheets lack advanced data visualisation capabilities, making it harder to spot trends, forecast future performance, and make strategic adjustments. Without the ability to easily visualise your progress, identifying areas of improvement or success becomes costly.

Specialised goal-tracking software will save you hours at work

Opting for a dedicated goal-tracking platform , such as Tability, will simplify the way businesses approach their goal management strategies. Such platforms offer a structured and organised approach for setting, tracking, and achieving business objectives.

Unlike spreadsheets, a platform like Tability will have a multitude of OKR dashboards ready to-go, each designed to answer very specific questions in a timely manner.

The other advantage of such platform is that they'll often have the ability to connect to other tools, such as your project management platforms, to allow you to map the relevant strategic projects to your objectives .

Get the right balance

Wrapping up, the journey to achieving business success, much like perfecting a beloved recipe, is about mixing the right ingredients with precision, timing, and a bit of patience. Establishing a balanced blend of short- and long-term goals is essential, serving as the roadmap that guides your business forward. While short-term goals keep the engine running day to day, long-term goals ensure you're headed in the right direction, steering towards that bigger picture with confidence and clarity.

The combination of well-defined goals and the right tracking tools, like Tability , becomes the secret ingredient to not just reaching but surpassing your business aspirations.

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Curating OKR, planning, remote and work culture tips from the brightest minds around the world. New articles every week.

Copyright © 2024 Tability Inc.

Work Life is Atlassian’s flagship publication dedicated to unleashing the potential of every team through real-life advice, inspiring stories, and thoughtful perspectives from leaders around the world.

Contributing Writer

Work Futurist

Senior Quantitative Researcher, People Insights

Principal Writer

Don’t underestimate the outsized impact of short-term goals

If long-term goals are the destination, short-term goals are the roadmap.

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Whether you realize it or not, you probably already set quite a few short-term goals for yourself.

You want to sort your to-do list before your morning meeting. You want to go for a walk over lunch at least three days this week. You want to land five speaking opportunities this quarter. 

Throughout your day, week, month, or year, you set small-in-scope, attainable finish lines that give you a little boost of forward momentum. Those are short-term goals. But what exactly makes these bite-sized objectives so helpful? 

Let’s explore the power behind short-term goal-setting – and how you can hack these goals to boost your own motivation and sense of satisfaction.

What is a short-term goal?

A short-term goal is exactly what it sounds like: it’s something that you want to accomplish in the relatively near future. 

Simple enough, but it’s worth digging a little further into the mechanics of this type of goal. A short-term goal:

• Can be accomplished in a short timeframe (most experts say within a year or less)
• Details a specific action to take or target to accomplish
• Supports a broader vision for your career or life

Here are a few short-term goals – both personal and professional – to get your own wheels turning: 

Short-term career goal examples

• Complete company’s three-month leadership training program
• Lead a cross-functional project this quarter
• Provide praise and positive feedback to at least one employee per week this month

Short-term personal goal examples

• Stretch every day this week
• Read two books this month
• Pay off car loan by the end of the year

Long-term goals vs. short-term goals: What’s the difference? 

So how do short-term goals stack up against long-term counterparts? It’s easy to think about them in terms of duration – short-term goals impact the near future and long-term goals look further out. But to get a more nuanced handle on the difference between short-term and long-term goals, it’s better to think about their intent :

• Long-term goals reflect your overall values, beliefs, and desires.
• Short-term goals are the specific actions you take to pursue those broader ambitions.

If your short-term goal is to complete your company’s leadership training program, that might feed your long-term goal of moving into a management position. Or your short-term goal might be to pay off your car loan because your long-term goal is to be debt-free.

Why bother setting short-term goals?

If you have your sights set on a faraway finish line anyway (whether that’s a promotion, financial independence, or something else), what’s the point of making pit stops along the way? Short-term goal setting is beneficial for a few important reasons. 

1. Short-term goals are more motivating

Use motivation theory to inspire your team’s best work

Anybody who’s ever set a New Year’s resolution (and then kissed it goodbye come February) will admit that it’s tough to muster the gumption to actually achieve a goal. Fortunately, short-term ambitions can give your motivation a much-needed boost.

You can thank the neurotransmitter dopamine for that. While it’s typically thought of as the feel-good brain chemical that’s released in response to a reward, research shows that it’s actually closely tied to motivation too. Dopamine is what pushes us to seek the reward in the first place.

Your brain knows that it feels good to accomplish things – it wants to cross that finish line. So, you’ll not only get a dopamine spike when you set the goal, but also when you’re close to achieving it . 

Basically, your brain would much prefer an immediate celebration over delayed gratification, and short-term goals offer a more instant reward. 

2. Short-term goals make the process feel more manageable

What feels easier? Going for a 30-minute walk today or training for an entire marathon? Even elite runners will likely admit that the walk requires a lot less sweat (both literally and figuratively).

Pursuing our goals often requires changing our behavior , whether that’s in big or small ways. And even on a good day, altering our habits, attitudes, and actions is tough. Short-term goals make it all feel a little more doable, not by changing your lofty and intimidating goals, but by dividing them into more attainable guideposts. 

3. Short-term goals give you an action plan

It’s easy to figure out where you want to go – getting there is the hard part. While setting a long-term goal pinpoints the target, it doesn’t actually fuel your journey.

That’s why you need short-term goals too. They detail the smaller behaviors and actions you need to take to move toward your long-term objectives. 

If long-term goals are the destination, short-term goals are the roadmap. 

4. Short-term goals allow for regular reflection and adjustments

Much like your desires and values, your goals will change over time. In addition to short-term goals serving as milestones when you can celebrate your progress, they also provide an opportunity for reflection.

How do you feel accomplishing this goal? Is it as rewarding as you thought it would be? Why or why not? Does it still align with your overarching vision?  

That’s not to say you need to sit yourself down for in-depth self-analysis every time you check something off your list. Sometimes it’s just a gut check that occurs naturally. 

If you finish that leadership program and feel drained rather than energized? That’s an indicator that you should reevaluate if you want to move into a management position at all, or if perhaps your aspirations have shifted somewhere along the way.

Better to change course now than when you’re at the end of the road.

How to set motivating short-term goals

How to write SMART goals

Short-term goals are more action-oriented than your longer-term objectives. But then what separates them from all of the tasks that you frantically scribble on your daily to-do list? Short-term goal setting requires a little more thought and intentionality than jotting down every task you need to check off that day. One of the best ways to ensure you’re investing the right amount of planning is by using the SMART goal framework .

In case you haven’t heard of SMART before, it’s an acronym to help you remember that your goals should be: 

• Specific: Be clear about what exactly needs to be accomplished. In the case of short-term goals, this should be an explicit action you want to take.
• Measurable: Include a quantifiable benchmark so you’ll know when you’re successful.
• Achievable: Especially since your short-term goals don’t stretch on forever, you need to confirm that they’re realistically attainable in a shorter time frame.
• Relevant: Remember that your short-term goals are intended to support something bigger, so they need to be relevant to your overall vision.
• Time-bound: Every goal needs a deadline—and that’s especially true for short-term goals. What’s the end date for when you need to take that action?

Most of the short-term goal examples we listed above already incorporate elements of the SMART framework, but we can expand on them further to provide more helpful details. Here’s what that could look like: 

SMART short-term career goal examples

• Complete company’s three-month leadership training program this May
• Kick off a cross-functional project involving at least three teams by the end of the quarter
• Provide praise and positive feedback in-person or in writing to at least one employee per week this month

SMART short-term personal goal examples

• Stretch for at least 10 minutes every day this week
• Read two books (one fiction and one non-fiction) by the end of the month
• Pay off remaining $4,000 balance on car loan by the end of the year

Short-term goals might not look years down the line, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worthy of some careful thought and planning. The SMART goal framework will help you set meaningful targets, rather than hollow or trivial to-dos. 

Short-term goals: So much more than quick wins

Yes, short-term goals are objectives you set for the near future – but they’re so much more than low-hanging fruit you can grab for some instant gratification and a quick hit of dopamine.

Short-term goals give you a detailed action plan to realize your bigger ambitions and values. And they give you plenty of opportunities to reflect on whether the path you’re on is the one you actually want to stay on. 

That’s a pretty big impact for a supposedly small goal.

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Examples of Long- & Short-Term Goals for a Business

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• Examples of Business Goals & Objectives
• New Revenue Ideas for Small Newspapers

Growing a business requires setting short- and long-term goals. Often the short-term goals are the steps necessary to achieve the longer-term goals. You can choose related areas such as advertising and revenue, and base short- and long-term goals within these categories.

An example of a short-term goal is to increase your advertising budget each month for the next three months. An example of a long-term business goal that the short-term goal helps achieve is to double business revenue by the end of the fiscal year.

Revenue Goals and Supporting Goals

If your long-term revenue goal is to double revenue by the end of the current fiscal year, another example of a supporting short-term goal is to contract an advertising consultant for one month to help you analyze and capitalize on your customer's buying trends. Another short-term goal example is to spend the next month learning your primary competition and brainstorming on what you offer that they don't. You can us this research and design a new advertising campaign that highlights the unique points about your business or products.

Customer Service Goals

One long-term goal for customer service would be achieving at least 95 percent positive customer feedback. An example of a supporting short-term goal is to redesign the customer service research process to include new questionnaires and incentives, such as monthly drawings for free products or discounts on future purchases for customers who take the time to respond.

Employee Appreciation Goals

Some businesses establish a long-term employee appreciation goal of awarding an employee of the year award to the employee who provides the most creative input during the year in terms of practical ideas to improve the company. Supporting short-term goals are to award employee of the month designations each month throughout the year to mark the progression of creative input, and to include more employees in the reward process than is possible with a single annual award.

Community Outreach Goals

Building the company's name recognition within the community through community outreach projects is a popular long-term goal for businesses. Examples of short-term supporting goals are to reward employees who volunteer with designated community programs with additional time off, bonuses or gift cards. Another short-term supporting goal is to choose one or two high-profile annual charity events to sponsor.

Website Traffic Goals

A long-term goal regarding web traffic is to increase traffic to your company's site by at least 50 percent by the end of the current fiscal year. Supporting short-term goals are to research and purchase web traffic analysis software to better pinpoint current traffic trends, to hire a web consultant for one month to propose and implement programming changes to make the site appeal to a broader audience than your traffic trend research suggests currently exist.

Another example of a short-term goal is to select a medium for advertising your site other than the Web, such as a bus campaign where you advertise your site address on the side of city buses for one month, or billboards, where you lease a billboard in a conspicuous place in town for one month.

• Reference for Business: Capacity Planning
• Flying Solo: Setting Big Hairy Long and Short Term Business Goals
• Morebusiness: Setting Short Term Business Goals

An attorney for more than 18 years, Jennifer Williams has served the Florida Judiciary as supervising attorney for research and drafting, and as appointed special master. Williams has a Bachelor of Arts in communications from Jacksonville University, law degree from NSU's Shepard-Broad Law Center and certificates in environmental law and Native American rights from Tulsa University Law.

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Goal setting vs. goal planning: Crafting a blueprint for lasting business success

Goal setting is important for every business. However, employees don’t always feel like they have a complete understanding of company objectives . As these goal-planning decisions are often left for management to implement, the process can leave your team in the dark. When employees lack a list of goals to work toward, it can create a barrier between them and the company. How do you combat this strain on productivity?

The clearest way is for employers to create a shared understanding of performance goals for their team and across the company. At the personal level, employees also need to know what their monthly goals are. By having a transparent goal setting and management process that your team has access to, you can ensure that everyone will be on the same page.

Clarity isn’t only good for your employees—it’s good for business. When your team understands how they contribute to the company, they feel more connected and motivated. Collaboration between workers and managers builds trust and creates a reasonable understanding of performance expectations. When you can accurately measure performance, it helps guide future planning, which reduces risk and increases flexibility.

Having solid goals in place can also motivate your employees and give them a sense of accomplishment. Finding the right balance is key. When an employee meets or exceeds their monthly goals, it builds confidence and can and overall satisfaction in their role. A team that continuously exceeds expectations, both personally and professionally, will help achieve a high-performance organization and create a lasting impact on your business.

Practice makes perfect

The art of goal setting requires time, some patience, and a little practice. It won’t be accomplished in a single meeting, and it needs periodic updating and management. When done right, creating a strong list of goals, and sticking to them can strengthen employee efficiency, which can improve every aspect of your business.

Through effective goal setting, every organization has the potential to grow and thrive. Explore how goal setting works, view some best practices, and find out how you can revolutionize the workplace and inspire your team to achieve new heights of productivity.

Goal setting vs goal planning

While these terms may seem interchangeable, there is a difference between goal setting and goal planning. Think of them as two broad steps:

The first step is goal setting . You and your team will determine what your business wants to achieve. During this process, you’ll also be examining why your suggested goals will improve business. These can remain as specific or as vague as you want. The key here is that, as a team, you’re creating a list of goals that everyone can agree on that have purpose and bring value to your organization.

Goal planning comes next . Once you know what your business goals are, you will determine how your team will achieve them. At this stage, you’ll work with your committee to break down the specifics of each goal. One of the most efficient methods of creating strong goals is by making them SMART.

Write SMART goals

Take your list of goals and break them down into simple components. Each goal should have the following characteristics:

• Specific . Vague or overall lofty ideas don’t make for strong Drill down to determine exactly what you’re trying to achieve. What is the goal of your project?
• Measurable . Every goal must have a way to evaluate success. This component is usually numerical, monetary, or a percentage. It needs to be something you can keep track of over a set amount of time.
• Attainable . If the measurable goal is too lofty, it sets your team up for failure. Create benchmarks that are within reason. Use previous data related to your goal to set the bar at the appropriate level.
• Relevant . This piece closely aligns with attainability. The goals you set must be realistic for your employees. Spending several hours each day on
• Time-bound . Every good goal needs a deadline, otherwise it lacks urgency and is most likely not a priority. Work with your team to find measurable and achievable milestones.

SMART goals can give your employees a clear idea of what they need to do and how they can accomplish them. It also makes it easier for management to track and report progress. 

Create a list of goals for business planning

As you and your team brainstorm ideas, make sure to write everything down. At this early stage in the process, there are no bad ideas. Think about what your organization does well, where there might be challenges, and create a list of achievable goals that will provide value for your business. Collaborating on these goals will improve their quality and ensure everyone is on the same page.

After some deliberation, you’ll begin to see patterns emerge. It might be helpful to group similar ideas together into a larger, more general goal. Look at your list. Determine how much time each goal will need and split the list into two groups:

• Long-term goals are achieved over many months or even years. These are the big-picture plans and will have many moving parts.
• Short-term goals can be achieved in days, weeks, or months, and will fit into completing one or more long-terms goal over time.

With this list, you’ll want to figure out which goals take priority over others. Simpler tasks will take precedence over more challenging ones. Rank your goals in order of importance and determine how your team will accomplish them in the most efficient way possible. Using tools like burndown charts can make the process easier to manage. It might take some time, but all this pre-planning will create a blueprint for a lasting business impact.

Develop monthly performance goals

Now that your team has put together a grand plan for your business, it’s time to develop clear, actionable performance goals. These milestones will give your employees a better understanding of expectations and allow them to organize their workday.

Say your business is starting a new marketing campaign. Leadership will meet with project managers to establish goals, develop the project scope, and compile a list of deliverables. Having a shareable document to track progress helps avoid confusion and keeps everyone on the same page.

Don’t feel like you need to start from nothing. There are a wide variety of project planning templates available, and collaborative tools like Microsoft OneNote can keep your team organized. Here’s an example of a content calendar:

Leading up to launch, there will be key milestones your team will need to reach. Meet with your team to set expectations and establish due dates. Share the calendar with them so they can track their own progress. It is also helpful to assess if any potential risks could arise and create a contingency plan. Hope for the best and create new goals to counter anything unexpected.

Meetings should be kept to a minimum, but it’s important to check in from time to time. You can also assign tasks for employees to report on their assignments without having to schedule unnecessary meetings. There are plenty of ways to communicate without sacrificing productivity. Find the channel that works best for you and your team.

As the project progresses, take the time to address key milestones. Celebrate the wins. Address any challenges that may come up. These check-ins can be brief and will make sure everyone remains in alignment with project goals. It also reminds employees that their work is contributing to achieving a high-performing organization, which can offer a sense of self-accomplishment and boost their motivation.

Five tips to keep your business goals on track

When you’re ready to get started on goal setting for your organization, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Keep it simple—but not too simple . When you have large, complex goals, it’s better to split them up into smaller goals so you don’t risk oversimplifying the entire project.
• Don’t be afraid to dream big . In the planning phase, anything goes. It’s important to set up short-term milestones, but these little steps can and should lead toward greater goals further down the line.
• Build your path to the top . A flight of stairs has many steps with several landings between floors. Think of objectives as your steps, and your project’s milestones are the landings. Take things one step at a time.
• Let creativity flourish . Don’t set goals that are too rigid. Allowing room for experimentation can inspire some interesting ideas you might not have considered.
• Assess and adjust goals as needed . As things progress, check in with your team. If an issue arises, you want to know about it sooner than later. Make changes to keep the project on course.

Start goal setting today

Any business can set goals. To build a more successful business, take time to carefully consider what you want to achieve and lay the groundwork for accomplishing your goals. Collaboration is also important. Include your employees in the planning process so they can provide input for realistic expectations. Having clear, actionable goals can inspire professional growth and create a lasting impact across your organization.

Don’t forget that goal setting isn’t a one-time event. Review your company’s completed goals with your team and break down how things went. Were there unseen obstacles? Did it feel too easy to accomplish? Document wins and challenges so that you can plan more efficient goals in the future.

The goal setting process is an art that takes some effort, but the value your organization can receive when doing it right is limitless. As you plan and develop goals, remember that it doesn’t have to be a painstaking process. Take advantage of cloud-based tools like Microsoft OneNote to help you organize every meeting and keep your team connected.

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