Want a list of business goals to help you get started? Looking for the most effective business goals and objectives examples to help you succeed?
What are smart business goals and objectives, and why do you need them?
We’ll answer that question and provide examples below. If you own a business, goals, and objectives are vital to your success.
They give your business goals, give direction, and purpose and help you stay focused on the essential things.
We’ll cover types of business goals, and then we’ll discuss 10 business goals and objectives examples to help you get started setting your own. And read on if you don’t know the difference between goals and objectives.
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Types of Business Goals
There are many different types of business goals to consider, so read through these to help you develop appropriate goals for your situation.
#1. Startup Business Objectives Examples
A startup business will have different-term goals and objectives than established companies. For example, a startup company will need to set goals regarding finding investors and taking on debt to open. The objectives for reaching those goals will involve speaking to financial advisors and developing plans to acquire investor funding.
#2. Personal Business Goals Examples
It’s essential to have general business goals, but you also need to have personal goals related to your business. For example, maybe you’ve realized you’re not a good communicator.
You can have a goal setting for yourself to become better at talking to others, and your objectives may include working with a mentor. You could also join a Toastmasters group to learn and practice your communication skills.
If you’d like to set a goal for saving for retirement, make objectives for how much money you want to put away each month.
You can set term goals like short-term or long-term to meet your unique needs and business model, use a specific business strategy, or improve profit margins. But then, you’ll need to develop objectives to help you reach those goals.
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#3. 5-Year Business Goals Examples
Sometimes, it’s easy to focus on quarterly goals and forget longer-term goals. Instead, make sure you spend some time focusing on where you want to be in five years and how you’re going to get there.
For example, you might want your business to double profits or shareholder value in five years. Then, you can set objectives to grow each month in a structured way to reach that long-term business goal.
Another example of a five-year business goal is to become debt-free. Once again, when you set big, long-term goals, you want to break them down into step-by-step goals and objectives. You want to make sure the data matches and this is a reasonable goal.
#4. Examples of Short- and Long-Term Goals for a Business
Short-term goals should fit into your long-term goals. Short-term goals should be the stair steps to reaching the top.
For example, increasing your market share might be a long-term goal, while reaching five new customers may be a short-term related goal.
Business Goals and Objectives Examples
One of the most important ways to become successful in business is to know where you’re going. Making a list of smart business goals forces you to be specific about success, and objectives give you the method of reaching those goals. But how do you write business goals and objectives?
The first step is to brainstorm and narrow down your ideas to align with your business plan. Next, write those goals out, develop objectives to reach them, and then share those goals with your team leaders.
What are some examples of business objectives? While your goals and objectives will vary to meet your business plan, we’ll share 10 business goals and objectives examples that are general enough for anyone to consider using.
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Goal #1. Improve Employee Retention
Onboarding a new employee costs a lot of money. You have to pay for training time, including the time from both the trainer and the new employee.
Getting a new employee to independent productivity can take up to two months, and they won’t reach their prime performance until a couple of months after that.
If you can retain an employee, you’ll avoid losing profits by training new employees.
Objective: Communicate often
When you communicate with your employees frequently, they will feel comfortable sharing their frustrations with you. Then, you can problem-solve together to improve their enjoyment of their work. Sometimes, simply offering encouraging words can help retain employees, and other times you may need to shift assignments for a better fit.
Goal #2. Increase Profitability
The more profitable your business, the more options you have for growth, investment, and improvement. Everyone should have an increased profitability goal, but the objectives for reaching that goal will differ.
For example, some may need to cut spending, while others may need to spend more for increased profitability or increased sales.
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Objective: Analyze advertising spending
By analyzing ad spending and return on investment, you’ll be able to pinpoint the best avenues to spend and where you should cut. Analytics is one of the most powerful tools for maximizing spending for the greatest rewards.
Goal #3. Decrease Debt
Debt is often a necessary part of life, but the less debt you have, the less profit you will lose to paying interest on that debt. On the other hand, sometimes taking on debt allows your business to grow in ways that exceed the interest on that debt, and that’s a sign that taking out that loan was a wise financial decision.
However, you should always seek to pay down debt, raise capital and increase market share so the next time you want to invest a large amount of money, you’ll have the assets to do so without a loan.
Objective: Get a business owner’s insurance policy
Part of your debt mitigation strategy should include a business owner’s policy for insurance. Without it, you could rapidly increase your debt with costs to defend yourself against lawsuits or pay for losses due to weather or fire damage.
Goal #4. Improve Customer Retention
Similar to how employee retention helps your bottom line, customer retention does as well. Acquiring a new customer costs more than keeping a customer. You’ll want to reach a larger audience to keep your business growing, but don’t forget to keep your current customers happy and coming back for more.
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Objective: Start using customer surveys
There’s no better way to find out how satisfied your customers are than to hear directly from them. Customer surveys provide an avenue for direct responses from customers. You can learn what they tend to like and what tends to be bothersome.
Customers often ignore surveys unless offered an incentive, so you might want to consider offering a discount code for complete surveys or entering their name into a drawing for a prize. This is a simple, yet easy way to increase customer satisfaction.
Goal #5. Create A Better Product
You have a new product, and that’s why you have a business. Making your product as good as possible will improve your customer retention and their trust in your business.
Better products also have an internal benefit because when your employees see the value you place on improvement, they’ll feel more invested in their work.
Objective: Analyze weaknesses in the product and invite team members to develop solutions
Involvement from the team will help you develop the best solutions because of the different perspectives each team member has. Goals give everyone on the team understanding of what the end result should become.
Goal #6. Improve Customer Service
Customer service is one of the keys to customer retention. You’ll find that setting business goals often work together, and when you have success in one area, you’ll also experience success in other areas. Customer service is how your business deals with its customers. And it’s a critical component of customer satisfaction.
For example, if a customer has a bad experience with your product, their customer service engagement could make the difference between losing a customer or building loyalty. A customer service agent who remedies the problem will likely help the customer build trust with the company.
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Objective: Host customer service training
You can’t expect your customer relations team members to act in a way that represents your brand unless you explain. These training sessions can help customer service employees to develop strategies and techniques for de-escalating situations and leading the customer to a place of fulfilled needs.
Goal #7. Hire Better New Employees
Ideally, every new employee will be a perfect fit and stay at your company until they retire. In reality, you’ll get a couple of people like that, and you’ll get a lot who wash out within a year.
If you want to improve employee retention, you’ll help yourself out by hiring better new employees in the first place.
Objective: Set new hire criteria
If you’ve been hiring new employees without knowing precisely what you’re looking for, you’ll tend to make more mistakes and hire people you shouldn’t.
Sometimes, an employee can be a great fit even if they don’t match every criterion you set so you can be flexible, but writing out the traits you need in new employees will help you focus on what’s most important.
Goal #8. Increase Employee Growth
If employees feel like they’re in a dead-end position, they’ll likely have decreased productivity and an increased desire to find work elsewhere.
An employee growth mindset allows employees to become more profitable and find more meaning in their work. If you have an employee capable of excellent leadership, you’re wasting their talent and reducing your profitability if you keep them in the lowest position.
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Objective: Provide employees with avenues to display strengths
Not everyone has the same strengths, so there’s no single way to find employees’ strengths and help them grow. So instead, give all your employees different ways to grow each week and see where individuals thrive.
For example, one month, you may ask employees to present a training session and help them see who communicates well in a teaching setting. Another month, you may ask employees to look for ways to increase productivity, which will help you find those with analytical minds.
Goal #9. Improve Customer Engagement
When your customers engage with you, that means you’re on their minds. And then, when they need something you provide the solution for, they’ll turn to you because they know you.
Objective: Connect with customers on social media weekly
A social media strategy is a new technology that can help you connect with customers. If someone engages with your posts, make sure they feel appreciated. People like to know what they say or think matters, so don’t hold back.
Goal #10. Purchase A Storefront
A brick-and-mortar location isn’t appropriate or common for all businesses. For example, your business involves internet and software services, and all your employees work remotely. Therefore, you don’t need a physical storefront. However, if you’re renting a storefront, you may want to start looking into buying.
Objective: Reach out to lenders
The first step on a journey to purchase property is reaching out to lenders to develop more specific objectives to help you reach your property goals. For example, you may need to save for a down payment, or perhaps you’ll need to increase your credit score so you can qualify for better interest rates. You’ll know more about your next steps after taking the first step.
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Business Plan Objectives Examples
While smart business goals and objectives examples sound similar to business plan objectives examples, they’re surprisingly different. Goals are specific things you want to attain, while a plan is your overarching way of running your business.
Perhaps a business plan could be to do direct marketing, and your goals and objectives could be to increase your customer base and reach out to five new individuals a week.
Another example of a business plan is an overview of what you provide, and objectives would designate ways to meet goals that fit into your business plan.
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What are good goals and objectives examples? Reasonable or smart goals and objectives will help your business plan be successful.
You can use our list of goals and objectives to help you get started, and then you can tweak them to serve your business best. So spend the time you need on organization and developing goals and objectives.
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More About Guest Contributor
Melanie Musson writes and researches for the insurance comparison site, ExpertInsuranceReviews.com. She is passionate about helping others succeed in their business goals and find the business insurance policy right for their situation.
Last Updated on January 6, 2025
