Goals and Objectives

Setting goals and objectives is a necessary action to attaining business success.

According to the Iowa State University Extension website, a goal is a general statement of achievement while an objective is a specific step or action you take to reach your goal. Goals and objectives are important to the entrepreneur, as they clarify the purpose of the business and help identify necessary actions. Goals can involve areas such as profitability, growth and customer service.

Profitability

A common business goal is to run a profitable operation, which typically means increasing revenue while limiting expenses. Revenue objectives could consist of increasing annual sales by 10 percent or landing three new accounts each month. Expense objectives could involve finding a new operating facility that decreases your rent by $200 a month or cutting monthly utility bills by 15 percent.

Customer Service

Examples of customer service goals are to develop a perception that your company is easy to do business with or to improve your response time to customer complaints. Objectives to help meet these goals could be increasing your customer service staff from one to three workers by the end of the year or implementing a policy where customers are guaranteed to receive a return phone call before the end of the business day.

Related Reading: Goals & Objectives for a Cupcake Business

Retention

If you've experienced a problem with employee turnover, your overall goal could be to improve retention. To achieve this goal, your objective might be to develop and implement a training program that details new-hire activities for the first 90 days on the job. You also could implement one-on-one meetings with your employees in an effort to build rapport and find out what's on their mind.

Efficiency

Another goal could be to become more efficient in your business operation as a way to increase productivity. To improve efficiency, you could challenge your salespeople to improve...