Company goals are essential for the success of any small business. Not only do they provide focus, but they also align your team with a shared vision. The benefits of having business goals are as follows:
- Goals clarify the direction of the business;
- They give focus to you and your team;
- They enable you to measure progress;
- And it keeps everyone accountable.
When starting a small business, your main aim is to get customers, pay the bills, and survive. But as your small enterprise develops, so do your business goals.
This article will inspire you to start or grow your small business through many business goal examples.
Let’s dive in!
What are Business Goals?
A business goal is a short- or long-term objective you want to achieve with the company that clarifies the direction for you and your team. Business goals range from developing products to increasing sales and improving employee satisfaction.
10 Business Goal Examples
There’s a difference between good and great business goals. The best company goals are crystal-clear, specific, and relevant. Everyone understands what you want to achieve and why it’s essential for the business. Such goals become a daily source of motivation.
We have already covered how to set powerful business goals. But for the business goal examples below, we will pay extra attention to the SMART framework. Here’s a summary of the abbreviation:
- Specific: Is the goal ultra-clear and distinct?
- Measurable: Can you measure its progress?
- Achievable: Does everyone believe that the goal is achievable?
- Relevant: Does everyone understand why the goal is important?
- Timely: Is there a fixed date for when you want to achieve it?
Now let’s dig into the business goal examples to motivate your team and skyrocket success.
#1: Develop a Business Plan
The first step in any startup is to develop a business plan. It outlines your short-term and long-term business goals, the overall strategy, and how you plan on achieving them. Think about elements like:
- Your mission statement;
- Who you seek to serve;
- How do you want to help them;
- And your growth strategy.
Even if you’ve got a business up and running, it’s good practice to reflect often and redefine your plan. Perhaps you want to expand into different markets or develop a new product line, for example.
Business goal examples:
- Create a business plan this quarter that includes the business goals, target audience, products and services to develop, and the growth strategy.
- Review the current business plan with the team in the next six months and clarify or redefine each topic.
#2: Develop and Launch a Product or Service
The next step to starting a business is to develop and launch a product or service. But existing businesses also benefit from adding additional products or services. So, how can you serve your audience even better? Alternatively, you can set business goals to improve your existing offers.
Business goal examples:
- Develop and launch a new product by the end of Q3.
- Improve and relaunch your flagship product or service this year.
- Provide a complimentary service that builds on an existing product or service within the next 6 months.
#3: Create a Marketing Plan
While having a great product or service is vital for success, you also must get the word out. And there are many ways to get that job done. To avoid indecisiveness and jumping from one marketing tactic to the next, you will benefit most from creating a clear marketing plan and sticking to it. What marketing strategies will you use, and how will you execute them?
Business goal examples:
- Increase brand awareness by 20% this year.
- Increase website traffic by 10% over the next 12 months.
- Improve social media engagement by 25% within 6 months.
- Reach 1.000 email subscribers by the end of this year.
- Gain more than 50 leads from referrals this month.
#4: Increase Sales
Sales are the lifeline of any business, and no one can survive without them. When starting a small business, sales may even be your primary concern. Fortunately, you can use many options to increase sales and various business goals you can use to motivate individuals and teams.
Business goal examples:
- Increase sales overall by 200% in the next 5 years.
- Increase the number of new customers by 10% each month.
- Boost the website’s conversion rate by 2% this quarter.
- Improve our sales team’s acquisition of new customers by 20% in the next quarter.
#5: Increase Profit
The ultimate goal of almost any business is not to make more sales but to make a profit. A profit allows you to expand and improve your small business venture. How much money is left when you subtract your costs from your revenue each year?
There are four ways to improve your bottom line:
- Increase offline or online store visits.
- Increase the conversion rate.
- Increase the average order value.
- Decrease expenses.
Business goal examples for each item:
- Increase offline store visits by 15% in the next 6 months.
- Double the online conversion rate in the next 3 years.
- Increase revenue by 20% through upsells this quarter.
- Negotiate a reduction in supply costs by 10% this year.
#6: Expand Market Share
When you’re in business long enough, you will counter difficult times in the market. For example, increasing sales during a recession is quite a challenge. Increasing your market share is often a more motivating goal in such environments. So, how can you get ahead of the competition?
Business goal examples:
- Increase market share by 5% in the next year.
- Become the market leader within category X within 3 years.
- Become the most searched-for brand in the next 18 months.
#7: Create an Online Presence
Recent times show the importance of having an online presence for businesses. But do you feel like it’s too late to expand online? While it’s true that yesterday was the best time to start, you’re certainly not too late. Because although the digital landscape has matured, we are still at its very beginning. And many exciting online advances are yet to come.
Business goal examples:
- Create and launch a website in the next 3 months.
- Increase the number of social media followers by 10% every month for the entire year.
- Post more than 1.000 times across Instagram, Linkedin, FaceBook, YouTube, and the blog within the next 12 months.
- Increase online sales by 10% this quarter.
- Increase the organic traffic by 15% in the next 6 months.
- Start an email newsletter and create an onboarding sequence with at least five emails this month.
#8: Improve Customer Satisfaction
Attracting new customers is not easy. And setting goals to get the most out of your existing customers is a brilliant idea. First, send a survey to understand their biggest challenges. Then, come up with an innovative idea to go the extra mile for them. Perhaps you can create a new product or service to serve your audience better!
Business goal examples:
- Create a customer survey and increase customer satisfaction scores by 10% over the next 12 months.
- Improve customer retention by 15% in the next 18 months.
- Reduce the number of customer complaints by 8% this year.
- Increase the number of positive online reviews by 5% in the next quarter.
- Reduce the customer churn rate by 2% this year.
#9: Improve Employee Satisfaction
Happy employees drive your small business’s success. And while it’s always crucial to maintain your employees’ well-being, that’s even more vital in tight job markets. That’s why dedicating a company goal to improving the overall well-being of your employees is a fantastic idea.
Business goal examples:
- Increase employee satisfaction scores by 5% this year.
- Reduce employee turnover by 10% in the next 18 months.
- Improve the employee engagement score by 10% this quarter.
- Set individual goals with each employee this month.
#10: Work with Great Clients
It is easier to make long-term growth decisions when you’re no longer bootstrapping for survival. An established business gives you options. For example, you can let go of customers that consume your team’s morale. That way, you can focus more energy on your best customers.
Business goal examples:
- Sort your customers by the amount of revenue they generate and the amount of energy they consume from your team this month.
- Stop contracts with the least profitable 20% of your customer base this year.
- Identify and pitch to 20 great prospecting clients this year.
How to Achieve Your Business Goals
Setting goals alone isn’t enough to achieve them. To motivate everyone (including yourself), they must know the objective and why it’s crucial for your business. Therefore, goals need to be clear, specific, and relevant to the bigger picture.
You can also get more buy-in from your team through incentives. If your business has a few employees, set individual and collective goals with special incentives. It will stimulate everyone to do better work. If your company consists of bigger teams, you can set team goals too.
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