Every business owner invariably understands the importance of both short- and long-term goals, but many often neglect the most simple planning practices.
One of these, the business plan is simple to create and can the contents can be boiled down to several key points. While a business plan can often seem to be unnecessarily complex, it’s actually easy to create, and many businesses can do so themselves.
Here, the distinctions between short- and long-term planning will be explored.
Understanding Goals
Having an idea of where the company is heading is essential for a business, and especially important in order to set goals. To establish targets that last, the best measure is often to firstly distinguish the short-term from the long-term.
Long-term goals should often be more broad, for example relating to improving customer service over a period of four to five years. Another clear goal may be increasing profits by a certain amount in a similar time frame, or even simply laying out a plan for general growth.
Short-term goals can be harder to plan, but simple steps can make the process far easier. In most cases, short-term goals are absolutely essential in the early days of a company, as they’re often easier to reach than their long-term counterparts.
When planning short-term, it’s often prudent to be highly specific. For example, instead of making a plan to increase profits by 15 per cent, state that a certain monetary amount needs to be reached. By doing so, it’s often easier to see when a particular objective has been reached.
Goal setting in a businesses is absolutely essential to long term success, but it’s highly important to remain adaptable. By doing so, a business can remain flexible and plan for the future.