40 Short-Term Business Goals Examples to Set in 2023

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  • 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.

Leader looking at graphic steps to success - weekdone short term business goals examples blog

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?

Set Confidence levels (High-Low) and Moonshot or Roofshot types in Weekdone OKR software

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 .

business plan short term goals examples

8 Short-Term Business Goals Examples

business plan short term 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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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.

business plan short term goals examples

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.)

Keith Speers

“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.

Marco Scanu

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

Business Goals Worksheet Template

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.

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2023 Business goals: Definition, Types, Examples and Guide

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The nature of, and the environment in which we work is dramatically changing – workplace culture trends are widespread and optimism post-covid is running high. Going into 2022, it is important to set business goals and be clear about what you’re trying to accomplish.

You may have heard of some of the more popular goal-setting strategies, such as SMART goals and OKRs – both these strategies are put in place to navigate the process of achieving goals.

A SMART goal is one that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-sensitive – by forming your business goals for 2022 around this structure, you will be able to gain perspective on the steps you must take to achieve it. The SMART goal formula avoids businesses setting unrealistic goals that will scarcely be achieved.

An OKR (Objectives and key results) goal is a framework that helps businesses define their goals and then track the outcome. The OKR structure aids businesses and employees to achieve change in days instead of months – first used in the 1970s, this goal-setting framework has been around for a long time and is proven in its effectiveness.

Types of goals

There are many categories of goals, such as financial, operational, and customer based. These categories are fairly self-explanatory - financial goals relate directly to your business bottom line and improve the overall profitability of the business, whilst operational goals may be associated with a production line or increasing the efficiency of back-end procedures, and customer-based goals can be exercised in the hopes of improving their experience and interactions with your business.

No matter the category that your goals fit into, they should all contribute to the advancement of the overall business.

Short term goals

Short term business goals are ones that can be achieved in a quarter or less. Whilst you may think that creating short term goals is easy, it can be incredibly challenging – often businesses ask too much of themselves when creating their goals for that quarter. The very nature of establishing set goals is to take a measured approach to improve some aspect of your business.Don’t overextend yourself and your business – set goals that you know you can meet and inspire your staff to progress towards those goals.

All that being said, shorter-term goals should be flexible, if something isn’t working you can augment your goals to fit the changing environment. Keep the end result the same, but feel free to change the processes you undertake to get there.

9 Short term business goals for your business

1. hire your first employee.

You may have just started your business, or you could be an established player in your community – regardless, hiring your first employee is a critical milestone in the future success of your endeavour. Hiring an employee represents growth and a step up in the business world to a multi-person business.

2. Improve productivity

Productivity can be measured by the amount of output from the level of input put in – your business is productive if your employees work hard, and their work is subsequently reflected in either more sales or higher profits. Improving business productivity can be done by setting goals to either reduce waste or sell more products. Businesses that are more productive will prosper and spend less time and resources on needless projects to help with growth. Challenge yourself and your employees to set goals to increase their productivity today! Products such as the Square POS system provide improved workflow and efficiency for your employees to ensure they spend most of their time doing the right things to grow your business!

3. Provide awesome customer service

Setting a goal to provide great customer service is one that should be constant throughout all quarters. Businesses that excel at customer interactions are more likely to retain those customers and extract more purchases from them. Leaving a smile on your customers face will help your business grow through word of mouth and organic reach. Steps such as greeting and farewelling customers can have an instrumental impact on their perception of your business and the friendliness of your staff. Try it out with your staff.

4. Acquiring customer feedback

Setting the goal of acquiring customer feedback is super important if you want to improve your business and exceed the expectations of your target audience. Square Customer Feedback is a tool that makes this possible – experience what your customers see and learn how to excel at providing the ultimate browsing experience. Businesses who take on board customer feedback are more likely to succeed as customers feel as if they are valued and heard – making them feel good about shopping with your business!

5. Team building

If you have 1 or more employees other than yourself then your business is a team, a team of people working together to get you more sales! The saying ‘ teamwork makes the dream work ’ is incredibly accurate in the way that it paints the power of teamwork. People who work together in harmony are likely to be more productive and achieve greater things for your business. Engaging in team-building exercises with your employees will make them feel valued and they will enjoy their job!

6. Increase website traffic

It’s common sense, the more visitors to your website, the more likely you will gain higher sales – as long as your conversion rate stays high then the aforementioned statement will be accurate. Having a fully functioning website is critical for business success as it provides legitimacy and confidence to potential buyers as they seek to browse your products online. Platforms such as Square Online help business owners build strong and fast websites that can facilitate the purchase and payment for products. Create a website with Square Online and see your sales grow as your business reach increases.

Square Online

Sell anything with a free online store.

7. Increase market share

This goal is based on your target customer. The purpose of increasing your market share is to sell more of your product to your primary customer, and in turn, boost your control over the market. For example, if you own a burger store then your goal should be to sell more burgers or open new locations to increase your market share. The more effort you make, the more perfect customers will flock to your business.

8. Maintain profits

Profit doesn’t last forever, and if your business doesn’t innovate and create new ways to turn a profit then it may negatively impact the future of your operations. Maintaining profits as a goal can look like retargeting campaigns and encouraging past customers to repurchase. Financial goals are often the ones that business owners strive most to meet as it directly affects their hip pocket. To effectively maintain profits, you must balance revenue with investments - not expanding too fast without having the previous sales to justify the expansion. Businesses that have healthy profits and a good cash flow are likely to get better investment deals and succeed overall.

9. Decrease debt

Decreasing your business debt can be both a short-term and a long-term strategy to increase the profitability of your business. Having too much debt can negatively impact an investor’s view of your business - paying down your debt at the earliest convenience will show the lender that you are a good borrower, this will be critical if you plan to take on debt to expand in the future.

Ultimately, business goals are critically important to ensure that your business does not become stagnant, but rather continue to flourish in an ever-changing environment. Owners who understand the importance of goals and setting them are likely to achieve their success milestones faster and with more precision.

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5 Examples of Short-Term Business Goals to Set Now

October 31, 2023, 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…

short-term goals for business

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

short-term business goals: strategy

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

short-term business goals

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

business plan short term goals examples

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

financial planning

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

short-term business goals examples

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

business planning

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

conclusions about business short-term goals

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

business plan short term goals examples

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.

business plan short term goals examples

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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Short-term vs. long-term business goals: comparison + examples

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 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 business success 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 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

How to set short- and long-term goals with 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.

A goal-setting framework like Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) bridges the gap between vision and strategy. It uses short-term targets to support medium- and long-term goals. 

If your long-term vision is to grow revenue, your quarterly OKRs may look like this:

Objective: Improve monthly sales revenue

  • KR1: Increase number of cold calls from 10 to 20 a day
  • KR2: Increase average purchase amount from $300 to $500 per person
  • KR3: Reduce customer churn from 40% to 15%

The process to turn goals into OKRs is simple:

  • Write down your goal
  • Pick up the best metrics and/or KPIs that have a high correlation to success
  • Set a target for improvements

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

business plan short term goals examples

Benefits of tracking your 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 goals help you maintain a sense of urgency and motivation while working towards a larger long-term objective. Long-term goals, on the other hand, help you maintain a clear vision and a sense of direction. Tracking both short and long-term goals helps you maintain a healthy balance between the two.

Limitations of spreadsheets for goal-tracking

Using spreadsheets to track progress can be limiting, as they do not provide a comprehensive view of your progress. Spreadsheets are static and require manual updating, making them prone to human error. It can also be difficult to extract meaningful insights from spreadsheets as they don't provide data visualization tools that can help you identify trends and patterns. Spreadsheets also have limited functionality, which makes them unsuitable for complex tracking needs.

Why should use a proper goal-tracking software

A good goal-tracking platform provide a more structured and organized approach to setting and tracking goals. It allows users to define specific objectives and key results, assign ownership, and track progress against each goal. This structured approach ensures that goals are aligned with business priorities and that progress is measured against specific metrics.

A good platform will allows users to track progress against key results, see trends and patterns, and get real-time updates on progress. This level of visibility enables users to make informed decisions and take corrective action when needed. This, in turn, can help organizations improve performance, foster a culture of transparency and accountability, and achieve their business objectives.

Simplify goal setting with Tability

Set, share and track goals without a hitch using user-friendly software like Tability . Tability's easy-to-use tools and check-in emails support team buy-in, making it easy for your business to adopt it. Give it a go with a free trial today.

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

  • Small Business
  • Business Planning & Strategy
  • Business Goals
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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
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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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Setting the Course for Success: 25 Examples of Effective Business Goals

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  4. How to Use Short Term and Long Term Goals to Achieve More

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  6. Writing a business plan.. Writing a business plan will help you…

    business plan short term goals examples

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  1. What Is the Definition of Educational Goals?

    Defining educational goals is a process which involves identifying objectives, selecting attainable short-term goals and formulating a plan for attaining these goals. Educational goals are different for each individual.

  2. What Is the Definition of a “medium-Term Goal”?

    Medium-term goals are set to be achieved somewhere between a person’s short-term goals and his long-term goals. SparkPeople notes that after a while, the daily tasks associated with achieving long-term goals might begin to seem boring.

  3. How to Make a Financial Plan for Your Business

    Preparing a financial plan for your business is important if you plan to pursue business finance options such as loans, according to Inc. Business finance companies look at the short-term viability as well as the long-term potential of a bu...

  4. 40 Short-Term Business Goals Examples to Set in 2023

    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:

  5. 8 Short-Term Business Goals Examples

    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

  6. Examples of Effective Short- to Long-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

  7. 2023 Business goals: Definition, Types, Examples and Guide

    9 Short term business goals for your business · 1. Hire your first employee · 2. Improve productivity · 3. Provide awesome customer service · 4.

  8. 5 Examples of Short-Term Business Goals to Set Now

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

  9. Short Term vs. Long Term Business Goals

    A short-term goal is a goal that has a time period from 2 weeks to 1 year - though, most short-term goals fall between

  10. What Are Business Goals? Definition, Steps and Examples

    Examples of short-term business goals · Increase product prices by 3% over the next three months. · Hire three new marketing employees over the

  11. How to Set and Achieve Short-Term Goals (+30 Examples)

    Examples of short-term goals for your business · Grow the business's Instagram following to 1,000 followers in one month. · Leave the job site at

  12. Short-term vs. long-term business goals: comparison + examples

    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

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

    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

  14. 25 Strategic Business Goal Examples to Drive Results

    Customer goals such as increasing conversions, improving loyalty, or boosting retention; Employee goals such as having employees learn new