long term business plan goals

Business Goals 101: How to Set, Track, and Achieve Your Organization’s Goals with Examples

By Kate Eby | November 7, 2022

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Learning how to set concrete, achievable business goals is critical to your organization’s success. We’ve consulted seasoned experts on how to successfully set and achieve short- and long-term business goals, with examples to help you get started.

Included on this page, you’ll find a list of the different types of business goals , the benefits and challenges of business goal-setting, and examples of short-term and long-term business goals. Plus, find expert tips and compare and contrast business goal-setting frameworks.

What Are Business Goals?

Business goals are the outcomes an organization aims to achieve. They can be broad and long term or specific and short term. Business leaders set goals in order to motivate teams, measure progress, and improve performance.

“Business goals are those that represent a company's overarching mission,” says David Bitton, Co-founder and CMO of DoorLoop . “These goals typically cover the entire business and are vast in scope. They are established so that employees may work toward a common goal. In essence, business goals specify the ‘what’ of a company's purpose and provide teams with a general course to pursue.”

For more resources and information on setting goals, try one of these free goal tracking and setting templates .

Business Goals vs. Business Objectives

Many professionals use the terms business goal and business objective interchangeably. Generally, a business goal is a broad, long-term outcome an organization works toward, while a business objective is a specific and measurable task, project, or initiative. 

Think of business objectives as the steps an organization takes toward their broader, long-term goals. In some cases, a business objective might simply be a short-term goal. In most cases, business goals refer to outcomes, while business objectives refer to actionable tasks. 

“Business objectives are clear and precise,” says Bitton. “When businesses set out to achieve their business goals, they do so by establishing quantifiable, simply defined, and trackable objectives. Business objectives lay out the ‘how’ in clear, doable steps that lead to the desired result.”

For more information and resources, see this article on the key differences between goals and objectives.

Common Frameworks for Writing Business Goals

Goal-setting frameworks can help you get the most out of your business goals. Common frameworks include SMART, OKR, MBO, BHAG, and KRA. Learning about these goal-setting tools can help you choose the right one for your company.

Here are the common frameworks for writing business goals with examples:

• SMART: SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This is probably the most popular method for setting goals. Ensuring that your goals meet SMART goal criteria is a tried and true way to increase your chances of success and make progress on even your most ambitious goals. Example SMART Goal: We will increase the revenue from our online store by 5 percent in three months by increasing our sign-up discount from 25 to 30 percent.
• OKR: Another popular approach is to set OKRs, or objectives and key results. In order to use OKRs , a team or individual selects an objective they would like to work toward. Then they select key results , or standardized measurements of success or progress. Example Objective: We aim to increase the sales revenue of our online store. Example Key Result: Make $200,000 in sales revenue from the online store in June. 
• MBO: MBO, or management by objectives , is a collaborative goal-setting framework and management technique. When using MBO, managers work with employees to create specific, agreed-upon objectives and develop a plan to achieve them. This framework is excellent for ensuring that everyone is aligned on their goals. Example MBO: This quarter, we aim to decrease patient waiting times by 30 percent.
• BHAG: A BHAG, or a big hairy audacious goal , is an ambitious, possibly unattainable goal. While the idea of setting a BHAG might run contrary to a lot of advice about goal-setting, a BHAG can energize the team by giving everyone a shared purpose. These are best for long-term, visionary business goals. Example BHAG: We want to be the leading digital music service provider globally by 2030. 
• KRA: KRAs, or key result areas , refer to a short list of goals that an individual, department, or organization can work toward. KRAs function like a rubric for general progress and to help ensure that the team’s efforts have an optimal impact on the overall health of the business. Example KRA: Increase high-quality sales leads per sales representative. 

Use the table below to compare the pros and cons of each goal-setting framework to help you decide which framework will be most useful for your business goals.

Types of Business Goals

A business goal is any goal that helps move an organization toward a desired result. There are many types of business goals, including process goals, development goals, innovation goals, and profitability goals.

Here are some common types of business goals:

• Growth: A growth goal is a goal relating to the size and scope of the company. A growth goal might involve increasing the number of employees, adding new verticals, opening new stores or offices, or generally expanding the impact or market share of a company. 
• Process: A process goal , also called a day-to-day goal or an efficiency goal , is a goal to improve the everyday effectiveness of a team or company. A process goal might involve establishing or improving workflows or routines, delegating responsibilities, or improving team skills. 
• Problem-Solving: Problem-solving goals address a specific challenge. Problem-solving goals might involve removing an inefficiency, changing policies to accommodate a new law or regulation, or reorienting after an unsuccessful project or initiative.
• Development: A development goal , also called an educational goal , is a goal to develop new skills or expertise, either for your team or for yourself. For example, development goals might include developing a new training module, learning a new coding language, or taking a continuing education class in your field. 
• Innovation: An innovation goal is a goal to create new or more reliable products or services. Innovation goals might involve developing a new mobile app, redesigning an existing product, or restructuring to a new business model. 
• Profitability: A profitability goal , also called a financial goal , is any goal to improve the financial prospects of a company. Profitability goals might involve increasing revenue, decreasing debt, or growing the company’s shareholder value. 
• Sustainability: A s ustainability goal is a goal to either decrease your company’s negative impact on the environment or actively improve the environment through specific initiatives. For example, a sustainability goal might be to decrease a company’s carbon footprint, reduce energy use, or divest from environmentally irresponsible organizations and reinvest in sustainable ones.
• Marketing: A marketing goal , also called a brand goal , is a goal to increase a company’s influence and brand awareness in the market. A marketing goal might be to boost engagement across social media platforms or generate more higher-quality leads. 
• Customer Relations: A customer relations goal is a goal to improve customer satisfaction with and trust in your product or services. A customer relations goal might be to decrease customer service wait times, improve customers’ self-reported satisfaction with your products or services, or increase customer loyalty.
• Company Culture: A company culture goal , also called a social goal , is a goal to improve the work environment of your company. A company culture goal might be to improve employee benefits; improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across your organization; or create a greater sense of work-life balance among employees. 

What Are Business Goal Examples?

Business goal examples are real or hypothetical business goal statements. A business goal example can use any goal-setting framework, such as SMART, OKR, or KRA. Teams and individuals use these examples to guide them in the goal-setting process. 

For a comprehensive list of examples by industry and type, check out this collection of business goal examples .

What Are Short-Term Business Goals?

Short-term business goals are measurable objectives that can be completed within hours, days, weeks, or months. Many short-term business goals are smaller objectives that help a company make progress on a longer-term goal.

The first step in setting a short-term business goal is to clarify your long-term goals. 

“My practice is to start with an aspirational vision that is the framework for my long-term goals and to compare that ‘better tomorrow’ with the realities of today,” says Morgan Roth, Chief Communication Strategy Officer at EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases . “Once that framework of three to five major goals is drafted and I have buy-in, I can think about how we get there. Those will be my short-term goals.”

Bitton recommends using the SMART framework for setting short-term business goals to ensure that your team has structure and that their goals are achievable. “Determine which objectives can be attained in a reasonable amount of time,” she adds. “This will help you stay motivated. Your organization may suffer if you try to squeeze years-long ambitions into a month-long project.”

Short-Term Business Goal Examples

Companies can use short-term business goals to increase profits, implement new policies or initiatives, or improve company culture. We’ve gathered some examples of short-term business goals to help you brainstorm your own goal ideas. 

Here are three sample short-term business goals:

• Increase Your Market Share: When companies increase their market share, they increase the percentage of their target audience who chooses their product or service over competitors. This is a good short-term goal for companies that have long-term expansion goals. For example, a local retail business might want to draw new customers from the local community. The business sets a goal of increasing the average number of customers who enter its store from 500 per week to 600 per week within three months. It can meet this goal by launching a local advertising initiative, reducing prices, or expanding its presence on local social media groups. Small business owners can check out this comprehensive guide to learn more about setting productive goals for their small businesses.
• Reduce Paper Waste: All businesses produce waste, but company leaders can take actions to reduce or combat excessive waste. Reducing your company’s paper waste is a good short-term goal for companies that have long-term sustainability goals. For example, a large company’s corporate headquarters is currently producing an average of four pounds of paper waste per employee per day. They set a goal of decreasing this number to two pounds by the end of the current quarter. They can meet this goal by incentivizing or requiring electronic reporting and forms whenever possible. 
• Increase Social Media Engagement: High social media engagement is essential for businesses that want to increase brand awareness or attract new customers. This is a good short-term goal for companies with long-term marketing or brand goals. For example, after reviewing a recent study, a natural cosmetics company learns that its target audience is 30 percent more likely to purchase products recommended to them by TikTok influencers, but the company’s social media team only posts sporadically on its TikTok. The company sets a goal of producing and posting two makeup tutorials on TikTok each week for the next three months.

What Are Long-Term Business Goals?

A l ong-term business goal is an ambitious desired outcome for your company that is broad in scope. Long-term business goals might be harder to measure or achieve. They provide a shared direction and motivation for team members. 

“Long-term planning is increasingly difficult in our very complex and interconnected world,” says Roth. “Economically, politically, and culturally, we’re seeing sea changes in the way we live and work. Accordingly, it’s important to be thoughtful about long-term goal-setting, but not to the point where concerns stifle creativity and your ‘Big Ideas.’ A helpful strategy I employ is to avoid assumptions. Long-term planning should be based on what you know, not on what you assume will be true in some future state.”

Tip: You can turn most short-term goals into long-term goals by increasing their scope. For example, to turn the “increase market share” goal described above into a long-term goal, you might increase the target weekly customers from 600 to 2,000. This will likely take longer than a few months and might require expanding the store or opening new locations.

Long-Term Business Goal Examples

An organization can use long-term business goals to unify their vision, motivate workers, and prioritize short-term goals. We’ve gathered some examples of long-term business goals to guide you in setting goals for your business. 

Here are three sample long-term business goals:

• Increase Total Sales: A common growth profitability goal is to increase sales. An up-and-coming software company might set a long-term goal of increasing their product sales by 75 percent over two years. 
• Increase Employee Retention: Companies with high employee retention enjoy many benefits, such as decreased hiring costs, better brand reputation, and a highly skilled workforce. A large corporation with an employee retention rate of 80 percent might set a long-term goal of increasing that retention rate to 90 percent within five years. 
• Develop a New Technology: Most companies in the IT sphere rely on innovation goals to stay competitive. A company might set a long-term goal of creating an entirely new AI technology within 10 years.

Challenges of Setting Business Goals 

Although setting business goals has few downsides, teams can run into problems. For example, setting business goals that are too ambitious, inflexible, or not in line with the company vision can end up being counterproductive. 

Here are some common challenges teams face when setting business goals: 

• Having a Narrow Focus: One of the greatest benefits of setting business goals is how doing so can focus your team. That said, this can also be a drawback, as such focus on a single goal can narrow the team’s perspective and make people less able to adapt to change or recognize and seize unexpected opportunities. 
• Being Overly Ambitious: It’s important to be ambitious, but some goals are simply too lofty. If a goal is impossible to hit, it can be demoralizing. 
• Not Being Ambitious Enough: The opposite problem is when companies are too modest with their goal-setting. Goals should be realistic but challenging. Teams that prioritize the former while ignoring the latter will have problems with motivation and momentum.
• Facing Unexpected Obstacles: If something happens that suddenly derails progress toward a goal, it can be a huge blow to a company. Learn about project risk management to better manage uncertainty in your projects. 
• Having Unclear Objectives: Goals that are vague or unquantifiable will not be as effective as clear, measurable goals. Use frameworks such as SMART goals or OKRs to make sure your goals are clear. 
• Losing Motivation: Teams can lose sight of their goals over time, especially with long-term goals. Be sure to review and assess progress toward goals regularly to keep your long-term vision front of mind.

Why You Need Business Goals

Every business needs to set clear goals in order to succeed. Business goals provide direction, encourage focus, improve morale, and spur growth. We’ve gathered some common benefits of goal-setting for your business. 

Here are some benefits you can expect from setting business goals:

• More Clarity: Business goals ensure that everyone is moving toward a determined end point. Companies with clear business goals have teams that agree on what is important and what everyone should be working toward. 
• Increased Focus: Business goals encourage focus, which improves performance and increases productivity. 
• Faster Growth: Business goals help companies expand and thrive. “Setting goals and objectives for your business will help you grow it more quickly,” says Bitton. “Your potential for growth increases as you consistently accomplish your goals and objectives.”
• Improved Morale: Everyone is happier when they are working toward a tangible goal. Companies with clear business goals have employees that are more motivated and fulfilled at work. Plus, measuring progress toward specific goals makes it easier to notice and acknowledge everyone’s successes. 
• More Accountability: Having tangible goals means that everyone can see whether or not their work is effective at making progress toward those goals.
• Better Decision-Making: Business goals help teams prioritize tasks and make tough decisions. “You gain perspective on your entire business, which makes it easier for you to make smart decisions,” says Bitton. “You are forming a clear vision for the direction you want your business to go, which facilitates the efficient distribution of resources, the development of strategies, and the prioritization of tasks.”

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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.

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Setting Business Goals & Objectives: 4 Considerations

• 31 Oct 2023

Setting business goals and objectives is important to your company’s success. They create a roadmap to help you identify and manage risk , gain employee buy-in, boost team performance , and execute strategy . They’re also an excellent marker to measure your business’s performance.

Yet, meeting those goals can be difficult. According to an Economist study , 90 percent of senior executives from companies with annual revenues of one billion dollars or more admitted they failed to reach all their strategic goals because of poor implementation. In order to execute strategy, it’s important to first understand what’s attainable when developing organizational goals and objectives.

If you’re struggling to establish realistic benchmarks for your business, here’s an overview of what business goals and objectives are, how to set them, and what you should consider during the process.

Access your free e-book today.

What Are Business Goals and Objectives?

Business objectives dictate how your company plans to achieve its goals and address the business’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. While your business goals may shift, your objectives won’t until there’s an organizational change .

Business goals describe where your company wants to end up and define your business strategy’s expected achievements.

According to the Harvard Business School Online course Strategy Execution , there are different types of strategic goals . Some may even push you and your team out of your comfort zone, yet are important to implement.

For example, David Rodriguez, global chief human resources officer at Marriott, describes in Strategy Execution the importance of stretch goals and “pushing people to not accept today's level of success as a final destination but as a starting point for what might be possible in the future.”

It’s important to strike a balance between bold and unrealistic, however. To do this, you must understand how to responsibly set your business goals and objectives.

Related: A Manager’s Guide To Successful Strategy Implementation

How to Set Business Goals and Objectives

While setting your company’s business goals and objectives might seem like a simple task, it’s important to remember that these goals shouldn’t be based solely on what you hope to achieve. There should be a correlation between your company’s key performance indicators (KPIs)—quantifiable success measures—and your business strategy to justify why the goal should, and needs to, be achieved.

This is often illustrated through a strategy map —an illustration of the cause-and-effect relationships that underpin your strategy. This valuable tool can help you identify and align your business goals and objectives.

“A strategy map gives everyone in your business a road map to understand the relationship between goals and measures and how they build on each other to create value,” says HBS Professor Robert Simons in Strategy Execution .

While this roadmap can be incredibly helpful in creating the right business goals and objectives, a balanced scorecard —a tool to help you track and assess non-financial measures—ensures they’re achievable through your current business strategy.

“Ask yourself, if I picked up a scorecard and examined the measures on that scorecard, could I infer what the business's strategy was,” Simon says. “If you've designed measures well, the answer should be yes.”

According to Strategy Execution , these measures are necessary to ensure your performance goals are achieved. When used in tandem, a balanced scorecard and strategy map can also tell you whether your goals and objectives will create value for you and your customers.

“The balanced scorecard combines the traditional financial perspective with additional perspectives that focus on customers, internal business processes, and learning and development,” Simons says.

These four perspectives are key considerations when setting your business goals and objectives. Here’s an overview of what those perspectives are and how they can help you set the right goals for your business.

4 Things to Consider When Setting Business Goals and Objectives

1. financial measures.

It’s important to ensure your plans and processes lead to desired levels of economic value. Therefore, some of your business goals and objectives should be financial.

Some examples of financial performance goals include:

• Cutting costs
• Increasing revenue
• Improving cash flow management

“Businesses set financial goals by building profit plans—one of the primary diagnostic control systems managers use to execute strategy,” Simons says in Strategy Execution . “They’re budgets drawn up for business units that have both revenues and expenses, and summarize the anticipated revenue inflows and expense outflows for a specified accounting period.”

Profit plans are essential when setting your business goals and objectives because they provide a critical link between your business strategy and economic value creation.

According to Simons, it’s important to ask three questions when profit planning:

• Does my business strategy generate enough profit to cover costs and reinvest in the business?
• Does my business generate enough cash to remain solvent through the year?
• Does my business create sufficient financial returns for investors?

By mapping out monetary value, you can weigh the cost of different strategies and how likely it is you’ll meet your company and investors’ financial expectations.

2. Customer Satisfaction

To ensure your business goals and objectives aid in your company’s long-term success, you need to think critically about your customers’ satisfaction. This is especially important in a world where customer reviews and testimonials are crucial to your organization’s success.

“Everything that's important to the business, we have a KPI and we measure it,” says Tom Siebel, founder, chairman, and CEO of C3.ai, in Strategy Execution . “And what could be more important than customer satisfaction?”

Unlike your company’s reputation, measuring customer satisfaction has a far more personal touch in identifying what customers love and how to capitalize on it through future strategic initiatives .

“We do anonymous customer satisfaction surveys every quarter to see how we're measuring up to our customer expectations,” Siebel says.

While this is one example, your customer satisfaction measures should reflect your desired market position and focus on creating additional value for your audience.

Related: 3 Effective Methods for Assessing Customer Needs

3. Internal Business Processes

Internal business processes is another perspective that should factor into your goal setting. It refers to several aspects of your business that aren’t directly affected by outside forces. Since many goals and objectives are driven by factors such as business competition and market shifts, considering internal processes can create a balanced business strategy.

“Our goals are balanced to make sure we’re holistically managing the business from a financial performance, quality assurance, innovation, and human talent perspective,” says Tom Polen, CEO and president of Becton Dickinson, in Strategy Execution .

According to Strategy Execution , internal business operations are broken down into the following processes:

• Operations management
• Customer management

While improvements to internal processes aren’t driven by economic value, these types of goals can still reap a positive return on investment.

“We end up spending much more time on internal business process goals versus financial goals,” Polen says. “Because if we take care of them, the financial goals will follow at the end of the day.”

4. Learning and Growth Opportunities

Another consideration while setting business goals and objectives is learning and growth opportunities for your team. These are designed to increase employee satisfaction and productivity.

According to Strategy Execution , learning and growth opportunities touch on three types of capital:

• Human: Your employees and the skills and knowledge required for them to meet your company’s goals
• Information: The databases, networks, and IT systems needed to support your long-term growth
• Organization: Ensuring your company’s leadership and culture provide people with purpose and clear objectives

Employee development is a common focus for learning and growth goals. Through professional development opportunities , your team will build valuable business skills and feel empowered to take more risks and innovate.

To create a culture of innovation , it’s important to ensure there’s a safe space for your team to make mistakes—and even fail.

“We ask that people learn from their mistakes,” Rodriguez says in Strategy Execution . “It's really important to us that people feel it’s safe to try new things. And all we ask is people extract their learnings and apply it to the next situation.”

Achieve Your Business Goals

Business goals aren’t all about your organization’s possible successes. It’s also about your potential failures.

“When we set goals, we like to imagine a bright future with our business succeeding,” Simons says in Strategy Execution . “But to identify your critical performance variables, you need to engage in an uncomfortable exercise and consider what can cause your strategy to fail.”

Anticipating potential failures isn’t easy. Enrolling in an online course—like HBS Online’s Strategy Execution —can immerse you in real-world case studies of past strategy successes and failures to help you better understand where these companies went wrong and how to avoid it in your business.

Do you need help setting your business goals and objectives? Explore Strategy Execution —one of our online strategy courses —and download our free strategy e-book to gain the insights to create a successful strategy.

About the Author

How to set up and achieve long term goals for a business

What are long-term goals for business?

Long-term goals for business are the high-level goals of your strategy that you aim to achieve in the next 3-5 years or even longer. They are the objectives that, once reached, bring you closer to your vision.

They are the milestones for your vision.

They tend to be resilient to environmental changes like technological, political and others. Long-term goals determine the direction of your company and solidify your strategy regarding your position in the market and the industry. In other words, they outline the high-level objectives you choose to accomplish to bring your vision to life.

Why it’s important to set long-term goals

They provide clarity ..

A business with weak or non-existent long-term goals is like a leaf in the wind.

It moves in no particular direction and is subject to every and any change in the environment. It jumps from trend to trend without understanding what causes them, trying to get as much benefit out of them as possible. Sometimes it succeeds, others not so much. As a result, its performance is a roller coaster and its future unpredictable and uncertain. These kinds of businesses move fast towards nowhere.

A business with no long-term goals is in reactive mode .

On the other hand , organizations with long-term goals deriving from their vision have a more steady course. They have clarity on what they wish to become in the next 3-5 years, which guides their decisions. It’s easier for them to spot meaningful trends and take advantage of them in the short term to succeed in the longer term.

Clarity in the organization’s future state, when combined with a concise view of its current state , is a powerful tool. It enables an accurate gap analysis and the grounding of the strategy in reality.

A business with solid and aligned long-term goals is in proactive mode .

How short-term and long-term goals differ

Long-term goals differ from short-term goals in four key traits:

• Short-term goals are malleable .
• Short-term goals are specific .
• Short-term goals are measurable .
• Short-term goals are sacrificable .

Short-term goals change often. As they should. They correlate to the tactics you choose to pursue your strategic objectives. And your tactics change when the environmental circumstances change, e.g., your competitors launched a new product, a global pandemic came out of nowhere, your country leaves a state union , or a new tech disrupts your industry. All of these changes force you to adapt your short-term expectations and tactics. Your long-term goals are more resilient to these changes.

Short-term goals love specificity. This is goal setting 101. Remove ambiguity and make sure that everybody interprets the goals the same way. Make your language simple and your description longer if you have to. Clarity in goals informs decisions. Of course, long-term goals should be clear, as well, but they don’t have to be so specific. 

Short-term goals have numbers in them. They are not metrics or KPIs because they’re lagging indicators of your progress. But they are indicators nonetheless. They inform you whether you and your people did a good job to achieve them. Long-term goals don’t need numbers if they don’t make sense. For example, “Dominate our category” could be accompanied by a number like “Own 70% of the market”, but that doesn’t exactly sum up what “dominating a category” really is.

Short-term goals are sacrificed for the company’s greater good. We’re past the time where quarterly numbers are the holy grail of strategy. Leadership with a clear vision recognizes that sometimes you have to make short-term sacrifices to achieve long-term success. It’s how you build sustainable and stable growth. The reverse is what creates soaring short-term results but destroys the culture and leads to ethical fading.

How long are short-term and long-term goals

The scale is relative.

A colossus like Amazon can’t really keep up and survive with a strategy shorter than 3 years . The bigger the organization (and its market cap), the longer the span of its long-term goals. Planning for so long ahead allows the company to manage its resources efficiently and direct its effort towards the most promising big move.

In his book “Invent & Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos,” Jeff Bezos says that each quarter is baked three years earlier .  Not three months. Not three quarters. Three years. Which means that the numbers of the latest quarter indicate the quality of the company’s 3- year-old strategy. And it makes sense. It’s impossible to coordinate over a million employees if you change the company's direction with every small trend you spot.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the strategy doesn’t adapt to environmental changes.

Complacency is the enterprise killer . Large organizations might be more resilient to threats, but they can become irrelevant very fast, remember Blockbuster and Kodak. However, with size comes one huge advantage. Data. Large organizations have access to huge amounts of data that can generate market insights, spot trends and almost “predict the future.”

Short-term and medium-term goals are decided based on those findings. Due to their dependence on environmental conditions, short-term goals can’t be yearly . Even longer than quarterly is stretching them. In a time of a crisis, short-term goals could be as short as daily and in more peaceful circumstances as long as quarterly.

Long-term goals examples

The further you look into the future, the more uncertain it becomes. The closer your milestones are to your vision, the less specific they become.

Let’s take, for example, The Walt Disney Company . Disney’s vision statement is:

“To be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information.” When Bob Iger took over as Disney’s CEO, his strategy was summed up in three priorities, 3 long-term goals :

• Create content of the highest quality
• Adopt cutting-edge technology to create content & connect with the customers
• Expand globally

These goals are specific enough to guide the decisions of everyone inside the company and are vague enough for everyone to interpret them differently. In other words, they are contextualizing the content of the rest of the strategy.

Other long-term goals examples are:

• Dominate our category
• Create a community-like culture
• Lead the sustainability transformation in our industry
• Create the most comfortable/cheapest/easiest to use [product]
• Digitize our processes

Short-term goals examples

Short-term goals are very specific.

Each department, team and individual has its own short-term goals to meet. What’s important is to have all of them aligned, some shared between teams and people and none isolated. Choosing short-term goals is the last step of your strategy’s implementation and should derive naturally from your strategic priorities.

Here is a list of short-term goals:

• Increase our revenue by 15% by the end of Q1 owned by Jane Doe.
• Reduce safety incidents by 70% by the end of Q1 owned by John Doe.
• Increase customer retention by 30% by the end of Q2 owned by John Doe.
• Hire 5 new salespeople by the end of the month owned by Jane Doe.
• Increase ad conversion by 10% by the end of the next month owned by Jane Doe.

How to set long-term goals

Long-term goals have 3 important components:

• Duration (NOT deadline)
• Specificity to dictate choices
• They are memorable

They don’t have a specific deadline. They have an estimated duration. You don’t “Dominate your category” by Dec 31, 2025. You “Dominate your category” in the next 3 years. If in 3 years you haven’t achieved your goal, then something went wrong. That’s how you should think of your long-term deadline, not as a hard date but as an estimated duration.

They dictate choices. Long-term goals outline the company’s strategy and inform every employee’s decision-making process. Ideally, when a team leader needs to make a decision, crucial or not, they can easily align it with the company’s strategy simply by visiting the long-term goals. That’s why they can’t be overly specific because they will only inform certain types of decisions and be useful to only a limited part of the organization. Thus, creating a big risk of internal misalignment.

They are easy to remember. If your people need to check the company’s long-term priorities every time they make a decision, they won’t. Make sure everyone understands and is on board with your priorities by simply making them memorable. In the end, you want the priorities to provide context, not represent all of your strategy’s details.

Benchmark the duration of your goals externally

Take as much guessing as possible out of the process. Have a hard look at your industry’s history and how long it took certain players to achieve their long-term aspirations. Find out what were their strengths, weaknesses and mistakes . Contrast them to yours and then make an educated estimation of your goal’s duration.

Do better than “best”

Shy away from generic goals like “be the best/first/most innovative.” Nobody perceives these the same way. For example, specify your ideal customer so your people know who NOT to target. Specify your product’s niche , e.g., “perfect scale models” instead of “just toys.” In essence, provide a context to decisions that will dictate a clear set of choices on every organizational level.

Write them for 5-year-olds

If a young child can’t understand your long-term goals, chances are your people will have a hard time remembering them. Simplify the language, avoid jargon, use verbs and be specific in your adjectives . Go beyond 3 goals and you risk giving your people contradicting priorities. Clarity unifies collective effort towards one direction .

How to achieve long-term goals in business

With shorter-term goals.

When you write your strategic plan , start from the end and work your way backward from your vision towards your current state. Here’s how to think about your plan:

• Your vision is your destination.
• Your long-term goals are your milestones.
• Your shorter-term goals are your odometer.

Your strategic plan also contains your Focus Areas and your strategic objectives . They break down your direction even further. 

Starting with the end in mind gives your shorter-term goals a predictive power

So basically, your strategic plan works like a roadmap towards your long-term goals. Here’s how to think about tracking your progress: if you complete all of your strategic objectives, will you have achieved your long-term goals? If you haven’t achieved at least an 80% progress towards them, your tracking is off. You need to revisit your strategic objectives.

This tracking process cascades from the top of the strategic plan to the bottom. Check out how Cascade brings this strategic model to life and aligns your people’s day-to-day work with your company’s vision as a goal management software .

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Strategic Plans for Long-Term Growth: Examples and Strategies

Small to midsize businesses (SMBs) make up the vast majority of businesses in the US, according to the US Chamber of Commerce, and they are widely considered to be engines of innovation in the overall economy. But for many founders of these organizations, creating and maintaining strategic plans to keep those ships sailing smoothly five, ten, or even twenty years into the future can be immensely difficult. Don’t worry, though: We’ve got you covered. In this article, we’ll guide you through strategic planning examples and approaches for small to midsize companies in all types of industries. With a little foresight, you can ensure the strategic planning process is an effective means of building a company you’ll love forever .

If you want to:

• Move your organization in the direction you intend for long-term success.
• Implement your plan smoothly for greater growth.
• Use a better platform for developing a truly effective strategic plan.

… then you’ll love this guide. Let’s get started.

What’s Covered in This Guide

Click on each to jump to that section.

What Is Strategic Planning?

How many types of business plans are there, what is the goal of strategic planning.

• How Do I Become a Strategic Leader?

4 Examples of Strategic Planning Strategies

The strategic planning process in 11 steps, what does strategic planning involve, how to implement your strategic plan, examples of strategic plans, get your strategic planning done on ninety.

Strategic planning is the process you use to:

• Establish and document a clear direction for your organization.
• Identify business goals and set priorities that create growth for your company.
• Formulate a long-term plan of action designed to achieve these objectives.
• Determine an internal system tracking and evaluating performance.

When organizations want to, they use a strategic plan to:

• Strengthen their operation.
• Focus on collective energy and resources.
• Enable leaders, teams, and other stakeholders to work toward common goals.
• Make agreements around desired results.
• Refresh direction and prevail over a changing or challenging environment.

Thinking strategically helps companies take the right action for more success and better outcomes. Some even call it an art.

Strategic plans are one of three essential business plans used to pursue important objectives for your company. When tackling challenges and determining action plans, you can think strategically, tactically, or operationally. These three thought processes often work in concert to help you create a framework that achieves your desired objectives.

• Strategic plans are designed for multilevel involvement throughout the entire organization. Leaders will look ahead to where they want to be in three, five, and ten years and develop a mission.
• Tactical plans support strategic plans. They outline the specific responsibilities and functionalities at the department level so team members know how to do their part to make the strategic plan successful.
• Operational plans focus on the highly detailed procedures, processes , and routine tasks that frontline team members must accomplish to achieve desired outcomes.

The goal of your strategic plan is to determine:

• Where your company stands in relation to the current business environment. Understand how your business operates, how you create value , and how you differentiate from your competitors.
• Where you want to take the business based on Focus Filters such as your company’s Vision, culture, Core Values, and goals . Envision how you see the company 5–10 years from now.
• What you need to do to get there. You come away from your planning sessions with a road map that helps deliver on your strategic objectives. Determine better ways to enable and implement change, schedule deadlines, and structure goals so they’re achievable .

The main purpose of your strategic plan is to create clearly defined goals for achieving the growth and success your organization needs. These goals are connected to your organization’s Vision .

How Do I Become a Strategic Leader? 

Strategic leadership, also known as strategy execution, is how you create, implement, and sustain your strategic plan so your organization moves in the direction you intend for long-term success. This usually involves establishing ongoing practices and benchmarks, allocating resources, and providing leadership that supports your Vision.

Strategic leadership can employ two different approaches:

• A prescriptive approach is analytical and focuses on how strategies are created to account for risks and opportunities.
• A descriptive approach is principle-driven and focuses on how strategies are implemented to account for risks and opportunities.

Most people agree that a strategic plan is only as good as the company’s ability to research, create, implement, evaluate, and adjust when needed. The benefits can be great when:

• Your entire organization supports the plan.
• Your business is set up to succeed.
• Your team members are more likely to stay on track without being distracted or derailed.
• You make better decisions based on metrics that facilitate course correction.
• Everyone in your company is involved and invested in better outcomes.
• Departments and teams are aligned across your company.
• People are committed to learning, leading, and coaching .
• Productivity increases, and performance improves.
• Creativity is encouraged and rewarded.

What are the four main points of strategic planning? You engage in strategic thinking so you can create effective company goals that are:

1. Purpose-driven

Align your strategic plan with the Vision as you understand it.

2. Actionable

Actionable strategic goals are worth spending your time and resources on to reach organizational objectives.

3. Measurable

It’s critical for you to track your strategy's progress and success, enabling your teams to take action and meet the goals more effectively.

4. Focused Long-term

A long-term focus distinguishes a strategic plan from operational goals, which involve daily activities and milestones required for success. When planning strategically, you’re looking ahead to the company’s future.

A strategic plan isn’t written in a day: Critical thinking evolves over several months. Those involved in the strategic planning are usually a Senior Leadership Team and team members from your company and possibly other stakeholders.

When should strategic planning be done?

You should plan strategically for startups and newer organizations from the start. But even if your company is a more established small or midsize business, it’s not too late to start working on strategy.

Flexible timing that’s tailored to the needs of your organization is smart. Although the frequency of strategy sessions is up to you, many leaders use these milestones as a guide:

• When the economy, your market, and industry trends change, or a global event occurs (like the onset of a pandemic)
• Following a change in senior leadership
• Before a product launch or when a new division is added to your business
• After your company merges with another organization
• During a convenient time frame such as a quarterly and annual review

Many organizations opt to schedule regular strategic reviews either quarterly or annually. Especially when crafting a plan, your strategic planning team should meet regularly. They will often follow predetermined steps in the development of your long-term plan.

What are the 11 steps of strategic planning?

1. identify your company’s strategic position in the marketplace..

Gather market data and research information from both internal and external sources. You may want to conduct a comprehensive SWOT analysis . Your strengths and weaknesses are directly related to your current competitive advantage within your industry. They're what you use to balance challenges to your success. They also influence the likelihood of increased market share in the future.

2. Define your unique Vision.

What would success look like for you in three years? Five years? Ten years? Articulate that in your Vision. Formulating purpose-driven strategic goals articulates why your company does what it does. Your organizational values inform your Vision and connect them to specific objectives.

3. Determine your company’s value.

Many companies use financial forecasting for this purpose. A forecast can assign anticipated measurable results, return on investment, or profits and cost of investment.

4. Set your organizational direction.

Defining the impact you want to have and the time frame for achieving it helps focus a too-broad or over-ambitious first draft. This way, your plan will have objectives that will have the most impact. 

5. Create specific strategic objectives.

Your strategic objectives identify the conditions for your success. For instance, they may cover:

• Value: Increasing revenue and shareholder value, budgeting cost, allocating resources aligned with the strategic plan, forecasting profitability, and ensuring financial stability. 
• Customer Experience: Identifying target audiences, solution-based products and services, value for the cost, better service, and increased market share.
• Operational Efficiency: Streamlining internal processes, investing in research and development, total quality and performance priorities, reducing cost, and improving workplace safety.
• Learning and Growth: Training leaders and teams to address change and sustain growth, improving employee productivity and retention, and building high-performing teams.

6. Set specific strategic initiatives.

Strategic initiatives are your company's actions to reach your strategic objectives, such as raising brand awareness, a commitment to product development, purpose-driven employee training, and more.

7. Develop cascading goals.

Cascading goals are like cascading messages : They filter your strategy throughout the company from top to bottom. The highest-level goals align with both mid-level goals and the individual goals team members must accomplish to achieve overall outcomes. This helps everyone see how their performance will influence overall success, which improves engagement and productivity.

8. Create alignment across the entire company.

The success of your strategy is directly impacted by your commitment to inform and engage your entire workforce in strategy implementation. This involves ensuring everyone is connected and working together to achieve your goals. Overall decision-making becomes easier and more aligned.

9. Consider strategy mapping.

A strategy map is an easy-to-understand diagram, graphic, or illustration that shows the logical, cause-and-effect relationship among various strategic objectives. They are used to quickly communicate how your organization creates value. It will help you communicate the details of your strategic plan better to people by tapping into their visual learning abilities.

10. Use metrics to measure performance.

When your strategy informs the creation of SMART organizational goals , benchmarks can be established and metrics can be assigned to evaluate performance within specific time frames. Key performance indicators align performance and productivity with long-term strategic objectives. 

11. Evaluate the performance of your plan regularly.

You write a strategic plan to improve your company’s overall performance. Evaluating your progress at regular intervals will tell you whether you’re on your way to achieving your objectives or whether your plan needs an adjustment.

Effective strategic planning involves creating a company culture of good communication and accountability. It involves creating and embracing the opportunity for positive change.

Consider these statistics:

• In many companies, only 42% of leaders and 27% of employees have access to a strategic plan.
• Even if they have access, 95% of employees do not understand their organization's strategy.
• 5.2% of a strategy’s potential is lost to poor communication.
• What leaders care about makes up at least 80% of the content of their communications. But those messages do not tap into around 80% of their employees’ primary motivators for putting extra energy into a change program.
• 28% of leaders say one of the main reasons strategic initiatives succeed is the ability to attract skilled personnel; 25% say it’s good communication; 25% say it’s the ability to manage organizational change.

Here’s what you can do to embrace a culture of good communication and accountability:

Make your strategic plan visible. Talk about what's working and what isn't. People want to know where and how they fit into the organization and why their contribution is valuable — even if they don't understand every element of the plan.

Build accountability. If you've agreed on a plan with clear objectives and priorities, your leaders have to take responsibility for what's in it. They must own the objectives and activities in your plan.

Create an environment for change. It’s much more difficult to implement a strategy if you think there will be no support or collaboration from your team members. Addressing their concerns will help build a culture that understands how to champion change.

• 98% of leaders think strategy implementation takes more time than strategy formulation.
• 61% of leaders acknowledge that their organizations often struggle to bridge the gap between strategy formulation and its day-to-day implementation.
• 45% of leaders say ensuring team members take different actions or demonstrate different behaviors is the toughest implementation challenge; 37% of leaders say it’s gaining support across the whole organization.
• 39% of leaders say one of the main reasons strategic plans succeed is skilled implementation.

The reality for so many is that it’s harder to implement a strategic plan than to craft one. Great strategic ideas and a clear direction are key to success, no matter what. But so is:

• Turning strategic ideas into an easy-to-implement framework that enables meaningful managing, tracking, and adapting
• Getting everyone in the organization on the same strategic page, from creation to execution

When your plan is structured to support implementation, you're more likely to get it done.

What are examples of good strategic planning? If you prefer a more traditional approach, there's lots of templates out there to help you create a plan document with pen and paper whether you're a for-profit or nonprofit entity .

But Ninety has a better way.

The Vision planner is essentially a strategic planning template on Ninety’s cloud-based platform that allows you to:

• Set goals, establish how you will meet them, and share them with those who need to know.
• Gain visibility around your company's Core Values .
• Create Core Values, a niche, and long-term goals that are accessible to everyone in your company.
• Create a Vision that lets you know what needs to happen now.
• Easily update and track changes.
• Bring alignment to your entire organization.

And you can do all this with only two digitized pages.

In your Vision tool inside Ninety, you can easily access all the things that make strategic plans effective by either using our default categories or making custom ones that meet your company’s specific needs. While you can include information about your Vision, goals, SWOT analysis, and key performance indicators from the start, here are some examples of custom options you could add to help more effectively implement your strategic plan: 

• Executive Summary
• Elevator Pitch
• Compelling Why
• Industry Analysis
• Marketing Strategy
• Operations Plan
• Financial Projections

Your Vision and goals are also completely integrated with all other features on Ninety, such as Scorecards, Rocks, To-Dos, Issues, Org Chart , Meetings, 1-on-1s, and more:

• Create a clear game plan for each team.
• Determine one- and three-year goals.
• Reference past versions in a Vision archive.
• Share your Vision with all teams, or keep it private if it's still in progress.

Now that you’ve learned how to grow your company using strategic planning, it’s time to put your knowledge into practice:

Build your strategic plan on Ninety now .

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How to Set Professional Long Term Goals…And Actually, Achieve Them

Your ability to set and pursue short-term goals and long-term goals significantly influences the success and profitability of your business administration, your enterprise, and your personal life.

Top executives, renowned for their achievements, share one trait: they’re long-term thinkers.

These visionaries project themselves five years into the future, envisioning their positions and responsibilities, all to fulfill their long-term aspirations and prioritize goals. Their continuous quest wondering how to set goals and refine strategic planning propels their business achievements.

Understanding Long-Term Goals

Long-term personal and professional goals are the pinnacle of your professional advancement, requiring substantial time and dedication. Swift achievements aren’t the goal here; meticulous planning and resolute commitment are vital. These objectives might span months or even years.

But remember, even the grandest goals can be broken into manageable portions. A technique called chunking aids this process, dividing the long-term intention into smaller tasks or segments.

Applying this approach enhances any undertaking. Say you aspire to become a bestselling author to elevate your professional network and business profile. Where do you begin?

Start with the ultimate goal—landing on the bestsellers list—and scaffold it with intermediary objectives. Your initial aim might be as simple as learning how to write a book.

Once you’ve studied the techniques employed by successful authors, you can outline milestones along your journey. These stepping stones encompass planning, writing, editing, designing, marketing, and ultimately publishing your book.

In this manner, the short-term goals become scaffolding for your overarching objective of becoming a bestselling author.

Long-term Goals vs. Short-term Goals

Long-term objectives serve as the guiding stars that help crystallize your ambitions. Within them, reside the seeds of short-term objectives – the stepping stones that usher you toward monumental accomplishments.

Consider your long-term triumphs as constellations in the night sky, while your short-term goals function as the guiding lights that illuminate your path.

Picture your team conceiving a groundbreaking app poised to garner a million views annually within two years. These objectives serve as the rudders steering your choices and delineating the destiny of your application. Envision the incremental strides necessary to ascend toward loftier achievements – these are the essence of your short-term and long-term career goals.

Navigating Business Goals vs Personal Goals

It’s imperative to navigate the distinctions between long-term goals for your business, your team, and your personal growth.

While certain goals might align—such as financial or professional achievements—others are tailored exclusively to personal aspirations, like achieving a better work-life balance, honing your time management skills, or laying the groundwork for a comfortable retirement. Recognizing and differentiating between these different types of goals is essential.

Goals for your whole business might pertain to business growth or revenue growth. Team goals could involve communication skills or adding more employees to your roster.

Sometimes these goals might overlap with your personal goals.

But it’s good to have goals for yourself that are completely separate from your business, too. For example, quantifiable goals for improving your time management, becoming a better parent or life partner, a healthy diet, or saving for retirement. These goals are intended for personal growth.

Why Set Long-Term Goals?

Before we talk about some examples of long-term goals, make sure you understand why these types of goals are so crucial and how they can help.

The act of setting definitive long-term career goals catalyzes elevating your performance and bolstering your self-assurance. It’s a reflection of the unwavering belief you hold in your capacity to acquire knowledge and leverage it for your betterment.

Every stride you take towards self-improvement invariably enhances your job performance. Furthermore, goals possess the remarkable potential to augment your workplace contentment through the refinement of your day-to-day objectives.

Sustain Focus and Motivation

Long-term goals emerge as beacons amid the routine challenges of each day. They bestow a sense of direction upon your endeavors, infusing purpose into your actions.

By persistently advancing new skills in the areas that genuinely matter, these objectives provide intrinsic motivation and a positive mindset that propels you forward. The achievement of short-term milestones en route to your ultimate goal fuels an enduring sense of determination.

Uphold Your Vision

As the operational intricacies of daily tasks accumulate, the clarity of your original business dream can sometimes waver.

Long-term goals rekindle the passion that initially fueled your dream country or venture’s inception. Functioning as a bridge between mundane daily responsibilities and your aspirational vision, these goals make your dream palpable and attainable.

Enhance Your Business Operations

Continuous refinement of your day-to-day business operations is a linchpin for sustainable growth. The more streamlined your processes, the higher your overall performance.

In this context, long-term goals are akin to a compass, guiding you toward operational optimization and amplification of revenue streams. They provide a framework to systematically identify areas of improvement, innovate, and thereby elevate the efficiency and effectiveness of your business operations.

Incorporating personal or professional development objectives, such as obtaining a professional certification, attending a leadership course, or honing public speaking skills, into your long-term goals can empower you with the tools to lead with authority and navigate complex challenges effectively.

Ultimately, weaving the threads of long-term goals into the fabric of your business and personal aspirations not only shapes a successful career path but also nurtures a life imbued with meaningful achievements.

How To Set Your Long-Term Business Goals

There’s a simple five-part formula for developing a sense of direction that you can use for both your personal and your personal or professional advancement goals for the rest of your life.

It’s called the GOSPA Formula .

The letters in the word GOSPA stand for G oals, O bjectives, S trategies, P riorities, and A ctivities.

First, the formula starts with setting your own goals first. A goal is a specific place where you want to end up, at the end of a specific time. For example, your goal could be a certain volume of sales, or a certain level of profitability at the end of a quarter or the end of a year.

Every goal you set should be SMART. A SMART goal is:

• Specific . A specific goal is not vague–it outlines exactly what you are trying to do.
• Measurable . Use quantifiable metrics to help you measure when you’ve reached the end goal.
• Achievable . This might not be the time to shoot for the stars. You don’t want to end up discouraged if you can’t reach your goal. Challenge yourself, but make sure the goal is within the realm of possibility.
• Relevant . Every goal you set should be relevant to what’s going on in your business.
• Timely . Finally, a SMART goal will have a deadline. Specify a date by which you need to achieve this goal.

An example of a SMART business goal might be, “Double your monthly revenue within the next three years.”

For a personal goal, you could set a goal such as, “By the end of the year, I want to be able to run five miles.”

Setting SMART goals is helpful because they outline a clear vision with an actionable plan. You’re more likely to reach a goal that adheres to these parameters.

The letter O stands for objectives. These are the sub-goals that you’ll need to accomplish to achieve your long-term goal.

Breaking up your big goals into smaller ones is one of the best goal-setting tips I can give you.

Long-term goals are ideal for your big picture, but if you only focus on your major goals, you’re likely not going to reach them as easily. Instead, you want to take that goal and split it into several smaller achievable goals that will ultimately lead you to the big one.

Once you have a long-term goal in place, medium-term goals should come next, and then short-term goals.

If your long-term goal will take years to complete, consider using months as a time reference for your medium-term and long-term goals examples and weeks or days for your short-term goals.

Maybe your long-term goal is to launch a new product in the next two years. Within a certain number of months, less than a year, you may want to create and test a prototype.

Short-term goals, like research, testing, or gathering materials, will help you reach the prototype stage and help you get to your bigger goal.

The third letter in GOSPA stands for strategies. Your strategy is the method you use to accomplish the objectives of your goals.

For example, if we look at sales, your strategy could be to build an internal sales force or you could outsource all sales to a professional organization. Within this could have numerous sub-strategies within your overall, single sales strategy.

Next in the GOSPA formula is setting your priorities. Not all goals are alike. You may need to start working on some of your goals right away. But others might be able to simmer on the back burner until you’re ready for them.

The million-dollar question is how can you decide which goal or goals to work toward first?

To help you decide, make a list of all your business and financial goals first. Physically write them out with a pen and paper.

Next, figure out how important each goal is to you. Consider creating a value system, such as 1-5, and assigning each goal a number based on importance. You can also rank your goals based on urgency.

If you’re getting external pressure from someone else about a certain goal, or if that goal needs to be completed within a certain timeline for any reason, it might be more urgent than the others.

From there, you can decide which goals you want to prioritize the most. But this list doesn’t have to be set in stone. It’s okay to come back to your goals–say, once a month–and reevaluate. You can always change your strategy for setting long-term goals in the future.

The final letter in the GOSPA Formula is A, which stands for activities. These are the specific daily functions that are delegated to individuals with standards of performance and set deadlines.

If you’ve thought out this process completely, each activity will be determined by the current priorities. Each achievement of your priorities will lead to the accomplishment of the strategy.

When your strategy is carried out, you’ll achieve your objectives and at the end of the period, you’ll reach your goals for a specific level of sales or profitability.

One of the primary qualities of executives in high-profit businesses is that they are continuously going through the strategic planning process. They are always playing down the board. They’re always thinking about the future and about the different things they can do, and how to set up realistic timelines and goals to make their desired future a reality.

Track Progress

Once you’ve performed the GOSPA formula on your goals, all that’s left to maintain your growth is to track your progress.

This step is essential—most successful people regularly check in on their progress, considering the actionable steps they’ve been taking to help them achieve long-term goals.

The method you use to track your progress might vary depending on the nature of a certain goal. At a basic level, however, you want to make a note of everything you do to help reach those long-term goals. Then set time aside to sit down and review.

How much time did you spend last week working toward your goal?

What short-term goals did you check off?

Have you run into any obstacles or roadblocks that might alter your overall timeline?

By carefully tracking your progress as you head toward the finish line, you’ll get valuable firsthand insights that you can use to inform your strategy throughout the entire process.

5 Examples Of Long-Term Business Goals

Do you feel ready to start setting some long-term personal goals, but unsure of where to start? Take a look at these examples of long-term business goals.

Launch A New Product

Launching a new product or service could make an excellent business goal. Depending on the product specifications, it could take anywhere from a few months to several years to bring the product to the market.

This isn’t a process you want to rush–you want any new product or service that you offer to be as high-quality as possible.

Increase Your Sales And Earnings

Increasing your revenue could also serve as a long-term goal for your company. Choose a specific number and a time frame so you’ll know when you’ve reached this goal. For example: “We want to see $XXX in monthly revenue by this month and this year.”

Then figure out what smaller goals you need to set to see the sales numbers you want to see.

Grow Your Social Media Presence

Numbers aren’t everything on social media. The amount of followers you have is important. But engagement is extremely important, too–and so is your overall company reputation and what people are saying about you online.

If you decide to set a long-term goal that relates to social media, consider which metrics are most relevant to your other business goals (for example, your click-through rate will likely have a big impact on your revenue). Then include those in your goal.

Expand Into A New Market

Another example of a long-term goal is to expand into a new market. This can be a great way to pull ahead of your competition. Smaller goals to help you reach a new market could include conducting market research, getting feedback from your current customers, and figuring out what kind of timeline this goal will require.

Hire A Larger Team

Hiring more employees can help grow your business as you bring new perspectives and new skill sets into the room. But don’t hire just for the sake of hiring–hire strategically, figuring out which positions will be the most helpful. If you’re trying to grow your social media presence, a new social media manager might be in order.

Final Thoughts

Goal setting isn’t always easy. But setting long-term goals is the best way to build your dream job or company and advance your career plan, taking concrete steps toward whatever success means for you.

Looking for more goal-setting advice to help you get started? Check out my 14-Step Goal-Setting Guide. This free ebook outlines the strategies you need to avoid common mistakes and succeed with your goals.

If you’re ready to invest in your own business and your personal life like never before, this is the resource for you–my best goal-setting tips all in one place.

Download the ebook for free!

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About Brian Tracy — Brian is recognized as the top sales training and personal success authority in the world today. He has authored more than 60 books and has produced more than 500 audio and video learning programs on sales, management, business success and personal development, including worldwide bestseller The Psychology of Achievement. Brian's goal is to help you achieve your personal and business goals faster and easier than you ever imagined. You can follow him on Twitter , Facebook , Pinterest , Linkedin and Youtube .

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Business goals examples: What they are and how to set them right

• August, 14 2024

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Are you setting realistic business goals that push your business toward success? How about ensuring that your team’s efforts are aligned with current resources? Have you thought about the right structure to measure progress, make informed decisions, and keep everyone focused on your top priorities? This is where business goals examples come in.

If you’re struggling for answers, the guide below contains the 10 most important business goals examples . They should help you set the right goals for your business so you can see it thrive without resorting to complicated strategies. All it takes is proper planning. Let’s get started!

What are business goals?

Business goals are the long-term achievements an organization seeks to accomplish. They are aligned with the company’s mission and vision and serve as a roadmap for growth and success.

As opposed to objectives, which are specific, measurable, and set for a shorter time span, business goals include general, long-term intentions. They contain no specifics but rather a general direction and an estimated outcome. 

Organizations that set and clearly communicate goals are 1.4 times more likely to achieve success. Whether you’re running a small business or a major corporation, SMART business goals examples will help you connect with your audience better, on more fronts, and with long-term results.

How to set business goals

To set effective business goals, start by defining clear, achievable targets that align with your organization’s vision and mission. Those goals will fall into the following categories.

Short-term goals

Short-term goals are specific, actionable targets, set to be achieved in the near future, typically within a few months to a year. They are designed to deliver quick wins and immediate results that contribute to the accomplishment of long-term goals.

• Increasing sales revenue
• Launching a new product
• Improving customer service
• Enhancing employee training

Importance and impact

Essential for achieving quick wins that boost morale and momentum, short-term goals provide immediate, tangible results that can keep team members on track and motivated. They help break down larger, long-term objectives into manageable tasks, allowing leaders to adjust their strategies in response to new challenges or opportunities.

Long-term goals

Long-term goals are strategic objectives that an organization aims to achieve over a longer period, meaning three to five years or more. These goals are aligned with the company’s vision and serve as the basis for setting shorter-term goals and objectives.

• Achieving carbon neutrality
• Developing new technologies
• Doubling the company’s return on investment
• Becoming a top-three recognized brand across operations

Long-term goals act as a compass, guiding decision-making and resource allocation over extended periods. They motivate teams to work consistently toward achieving major milestones, encouraging proactive planning and anticipating business needs. 

SMART goals

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. These types of goals are meant to provide clarity and focus, making it easier to achieve desired outcomes.

• Improving customer satisfaction
• Improving time management skills for employees
• Expanding market reach by accessing the international market

Types of SMART business goals

Let’s look into several types of SMART goals, along with real-life examples of companies that successfully implemented them, creating a structured approach to success.

Financial goals

These goals are mostly tied to revenue, profitability, cost management, and overall financial health. They help ensure the organization’s long-term sustainability and growth, providing a clear benchmark for measuring business success and making informed decisions.

• Improving cash flow
• Achieving a profit margin
• Increasing annual revenue
• Reducing operational costs

Back in 2018, Apple set out to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization . They planned on getting there by expanding their product line, but they also focused on keeping high-profit margins and keeping costs in line. Once they achieved what they set out to do, their position as a leader in the tech industry became rock solid.

Operational goals

They aim to improve day-to-day operations, streamline workflows, and enhance productivity. Operational goals are crucial for resource optimization and cost reduction. When operations run smoothly, customer demands can be met more efficiently. 

Examples 

• Reducing production lead time
• Implementing a new inventory management system
• Improving supply chain efficiency by reducing delivery times
• Increasing manufacturing efficiency by automating manual processes

Marketing goals

Crucial for expanding the business and reaching new audiences, they drive customer engagement , sales growth, and brand recognition, helping businesses reach their target audience and achieve a competitive advantage.

• Increasing brand awareness
• Generating more leads through digital marketing channels
• Launching a new product campaign to achieve a higher market share
• Improving customer acquisition cost (CAC) through targeted advertising

Nike launched a global marketing campaign focused on sustainability and inclusivity. Its final goal was to increase brand awareness and customer engagement around its eco-friendly product line. The campaign was called “ Move to Zero “, hinting at their attempts to reduce their carbon footprint. It increased brand awareness in key markets and was a great success, especially among environmentalists.

Customer service goals

Customer service goals aim to improve service quality, response times, and overall customer satisfaction. In time, they lead to higher customer loyalty and retention, driving repeat business and referrals.

• Reducing average response time
• Increasing customer retention rates
• Achieving a higher customer satisfaction score
• Implementing a new customer feedback system

Employee development goals

These goals focus on enhancing the skills, knowledge, and overall performance of the workforce. They foster a positive work environment and help attract and retain top talent, contributing to employee satisfaction, retention, and productivity.

• Increasing employee engagement scores
• Implementing a leadership training program
• Offering professional development opportunities
• Reducing employee turnover by x% by improving career development pathways

Innovation and growth goals

These include expanding the business through new products, services, markets, or processes. If you’re looking to stay competitive and adapt to market changes, to drive long-term success, these are the goals you need to set. They will also help identify new market opportunities.

Launching new products or services, expanding into new international markets, increasing R&D spending, developing and patenting a new technology.

Textmagic continually expanded its product offerings and market reach, taking its platform from a simple deck for sending text messages to a comprehensive business messaging platform. Today, it includes features like email-to-SMS, SMS chat, and integration with CRM systems, allowing businesses to manage their customer communication more effectively.

Sustainability goals

These goals aim to minimize the business’s environmental impact and promote social responsibility. They enhance the company’s reputation, meet regulatory requirements, and appeal to socially conscious consumers.

• Reducing carbon emissions
• Implementing a company-wide recycling program
• Achieving zero waste in manufacturing processes
• Sourcing x% of materials from sustainable suppliers

Why are business goals important?

Business goals provide direction, focus, and a clear roadmap for success. Let’s see why you need to be clear about what you want to achieve before diving into anything else.

• They enhance organizational performance: Business goals align individual and team efforts with the overall objectives, leading to improved productivity and better performance across the board. 
• They encourage resource efficiency: Goals help prioritize initiatives, ensuring that resources are directed toward activities that offer the greatest return on investment and minimize waste.
• They improve employee engagement: Clear goals come with a sense of purpose and direction, helping employees see the value in their efforts and remain committed to their tasks.
• They promote continuous improvement: Regularly reviewing and setting new goals allows the organization to pinpoint areas for improvement, stay competitive, and adapt to shifting market conditions.
• They support informed decision-making: Adequate goals lead to more consistent and effective decision-making, reducing the risk of getting stuck on initiatives that do not support the company’s long-term vision.
• They increase chances of achieving long-term success: Clear goals help ensure that the organization stays on track and makes small but steady progress toward its vision.
• They strengthen team collaboration: Teams work together more effectively when they understand how their efforts impact the company’s overall objectives. 
• They align efforts with company vision and mission: Business goals keep everyone focused on what matters for the company at a specific time or in the long run, ensuring all efforts contribute to its higher purpose.

10 common business goals examples

Here are 10 common examples of business goals that companies prioritize to drive growth and sustainability, along with strategies to achieve them.

1. Increase revenue

Boosting sales and profitability is typically done by implementing new marketing strategies, expanding product lines, or entering new markets. Also consider price optimization. 

2. Expand market share

You can capture a larger portion of the market by outperforming competitors, reaching new markets, or detailing product offerings.

3. Improve customer satisfaction

Improve service quality by setting clear targets, like answering inquiries within 1 hour and resolving issues in 24 hrs. Where possible, automate routine tasks.

4. Enhance operational efficiency

Looking to streamline processes? Negotiate better deals with suppliers, consider faster delivery, and implement just-in-time inventory practices to reduce storage costs.

5. Develop new products or services

Start exploring new markets to see where your product could solve a problem, then tweak it so that it remains a solution for the following years. 

6. Increase online presence

Improve web traffic, boost social media engagement, or increase online sales. Easier said than done? Understand your audience’s needs, then act to fix customers’ pain points .

7. Strengthen employee engagement

Draw up a detailed employee development program that includes enhancing technical (hard) skills relevant to specific job roles and soft skills such as communication, leadership, and teamwork.

8. Achieve sustainability goals

Are you using too much energy, or is your supply chain management faulty? Optimize logistics and transportation, considering using electric or hybrid vehicles, consolidating shipments, and sourcing materials locally. 

9. Enhance financial stability

Examine expenses, optimize cash flow, and diversify revenue streams. Set aside profits for an emergency fund, consider liquid assets for urgent needs, and include a business continuity plan to ensure operational resilience during disruptions.

10. Expand workforce

Growing the company’s talent pool?  Recruit and retain top talent, enhancing diversity and inclusion along the way. Break this down into quarterly or monthly hiring targets to track progress.

Setting goals is a tailor-fit process. It should include unique business parameters like economic environment, emerging opportunities, and present resources. The best way to go about this process is to look at the bigger picture.

Set yourself up for long-term success by setting business goals that are in line with your target audience’s needs. Prioritize those that impact your bottom line in the long run, and never stop tweaking. 

There’s nothing worse than a generic, one-size-fits-all strategy. Companies with well-defined goals and performance management processes are 4.2 times more likely to outperform their competitors in terms of profitability and growth.

Create your plan and stick to it, but above all, make it easy to manage by including milestones to keep track of your progress. 

Raluca Mocanu is a seasoned content writer, specializing in content marketing since 2016. With a strong focus on customer behavior analysis and SEO optimization, she crafts compelling narratives that drive engagement and boost conversions.

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• 22 types of business objectives to meas ...

22 types of business objectives to measure success

Clear business objectives help you achieve your mission statement and long-term company vision. These objectives can range from financial objectives to organization specific objectives. Take a look at 22 types of business objectives you can set—plus, learn when to use business objectives vs. 14 other goal frameworks. 

Whether you work at a small business, a start up, or as a team lead at a larger enterprise, as a key business owner, you’re responsible for identifying the business objectives that will help your organization hit its long-term goals. Setting goals and strategic objectives is the best way to know where you’re going and how to get there. 

In this article, learn about 22 different types of business objectives and how to make them achievable. Then, take a look at the 15 different types of goals you can set, depending on why you’re setting those goals.

What is a business objective? 

Business objectives are the results you are aiming to achieve in order to accomplish your longer-term company vision. Think of business objectives as metrics to measure your overall business success.

Hitting your business objectives means you’re on the path towards achieving larger company goals. As such, business objectives should focus on large-scale organizational impact. Good business objectives are measurable, specific, and time-bound. 

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22 types of business objectives

Set business objectives based on factors that measure and impact your organization’s success. For example, you might set the following business objectives:

Financial business objectives

1. Profitability: A profitability-focused business objective is important if your company is relying on outside investors. Achieving—and maintaining—profitability ensures your long-term success so you can make progress towards your overall company mission. 

2. Revenue: Revenue-focused business objectives help you balance your income with your costs in order to stay in business. You might set business objectives to achieve a certain annual revenue goal, or to increase revenue by a certain percentage over a period of time. 

3. Costs: Costs refer to how much money you’re spending on your business. Reducing costs can help you increase revenue and achieve profitability. Business objectives related to cost can help you control production or operations cost to improve your business’s financial performance. 

4. Cash flow: Cash flow refers to the money moving into and out of your business. Cash flow can be positive—when you’re making more than you’re spending—or negative—when you’re spending more than you’re making. Similar to profitability, a cash flow-oriented business objective can help set you up for long term financial success. 

5. Sustainable growth: In order to grow as a business, you need to grow sustainably. Setting business objectives around sustainable growth can help you plan your financial projections, employee costs, and other financial considerations. 

Customer-centric business objectives

6. Competitive positioning: A big element of your business strategy is thinking about how your product or service compares to others in the same market. By setting a business objective focused on competitive positioning, you can ensure your product or service reaches parity with what’s expected in the market, or use competitive positioning to outdo your competitors in a key area. 

8. Customer satisfaction: In order to succeed as a business, you need happy customers. Focusing on a customer satisfaction-based business objective can help you better serve your customers. Depending on the business objective, this might focus on a customer advocacy program, a better help desk, or something similarly customer-facing. 

9. Brand awareness: Your brand is what makes your organization stand out from the crowd. Brand awareness is an important way to understand how your customers think of your brand, and how aware they are of your distinct brand vs. your competitors. Understanding—and increasing—brand awareness is a key part of your long-term marketing strategy .

10. Sales: You’ll often find business objectives related to improving or refining the sales cycle. This could include anything from reducing customer acquisition cost (CAC), developing better lead tracking, increasing cross-selling, or something else.

11. Churn: In business, your churn rate refers to how many customers you lose over a set period of time. Reducing churn is a great way to increase your revenue and ensure your customers are satisfied with the product or service you provide. 

Internal business objectives

12. Employee satisfaction and engagement: Part of your business is how your employees feel about working there, too. Increasing employee satisfaction and engagement leads to happier employees, reduced burnout , and more effective teams. 

13. Employee retention: A key internal business objective is how long your employees spend at your company. Increasing tenure and reducing turnover can help you achieve more complex projects with knowledgeable employees. 

14. Company growth: In order to grow your business, you also need to grow the number of people you employ. Growing your company sustainably can be difficult—which is why businesses often set company growth as a key business objective. 

15. Organizational culture: Organizational culture is the ideals, values, and group norms that shape how team members interact within your company. Good culture drives employee engagement and increases retention, which is one of the key reasons so many companies set organizational culture-focused business objectives. 

16. Change management: Smoothly implement large-scale organizational change with change management . Though you typically won’t see organizations set this type of business objective year after year, it can be a helpful objective to set if you have large changes on the horizon. 

17. Productivity: At Asana, we don’t think of productivity as “doing the most you can,” but rather as a way to optimize your time and get your best work done. Increasing employee productivity can help your teams achieve their high-impact work more efficiently. 

18. Employee effectiveness: Teams don’t just need to be efficient—they also need to know the right things to work on. The best companies aim for efficiency and effectiveness—which is where an effectiveness-based business objective comes into play. To learn more, read our article about the difference between efficiency and effectiveness . 

19. Diversity and inclusion: A big part of a welcoming company culture is making sure your employees feel like they belong. Investing in diversity and inclusion programs can help your business be more welcoming to your current and potential employees. 

Regulation related business objectives

20. Quality control: Implementing quality control measures as a business objective can help you ensure your product or services are at the level you want them to be. This in turn leads to better customer relationships and overall increase in revenue. 

21. Compliance: If your business has any compliance needs to meet in the near future, setting those compliance requirements as a business objective will ensure you hit your targets on time. 

22. Sustainability or waste reduction: Some businesses set business objectives to reduce waste or increase sustainability. While this may not directly impact your business, proving that you’re environmentally minded can help you reach specific audiences you’re targeting. 

Which goal framework is right for you?

Figuring out exactly what type of goal you need to set can be tricky. Each goal framework is slightly different—and implementing the right one can help you achieve success. 

The type of goal you set will depend on the business activities you’re running and the specific goals you have. If your goals have a set time frame, you may want to go with short-term objectives, whereas larger goals have their own unique frameworks. 

If you’re not sure where to start, check out these 15 goal frameworks for different situations: 

1. Business objectives: Set goals based on operating factors that impact your company’s long-term success.

2. Business plan : Also called a business strategy plan. Document your business’ goals and plan out how you’ll get there.

3. Vision statement : Set an organization-wide North Star.

4. Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) : Set organization-sized stretch goals .

5. Company values : Align your team around core principles. 

6. Strategic plan : Clarify your three to five year company goals during the strategic planning process. 

7. Strategic goal : Set the goals you want to achieve by the end of your strategic plan.

8. Critical success factors : Clarify the high-level goals you need to achieve in order to achieve your strategic goals. 

9. Strategic management : Execute against your strategic plan in order to achieve your company goals. 

10. Business goals : Set predetermined targets to achieve in a set period of time.  

11. Objectives and key results (OKRs) : Set and communicate annual company goals.

12. Key performance indicators (KPIs) : Set quantitative goals.

13. Project objectives : Share what you want to achieve by the end of a project.

14. Project deliverables : Identify a project’s output.

15. Project milestones : Mark specific checkpoints along a project’s timeline.

More goal setting resources

Clear goals are critical to keep your organization functioning. In addition to business objectives, check out our goal setting resource hub for tips on setting goals and achieving high-impact results. Then when you’re ready, get started with Asana for goal tracking. With Asana , you can connect your company goals to the work that supports them—all in one place. 

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Why You Should Set Better Long-Term Business Goals (and How to Get It Done)

Mentally replay this year. What if your business experienced 2020 with the anchor of strategically adopted and collectively embraced goals? Would your company be on more solid footing today if you had established a better three-, five-, or ten-year plan a year ago?

Revenue, earnings, and market cap are the three ways forward-thinking companies outperform their short-sighted counterparts, according to McKinsey analysts.

No business leader can deny — these are powerful incentives. Especially in turbulent times like these.

•  Why, then, does short-term financial business thinking persist?

•  What do long-term business goals look like at the early-stage startup phase through to the mid-market and onto commercial and enterprise levels?

•  Most importantly, how can leaders establish worthwhile long-term goals and set their teams on a trajectory to achieve them?

Good questions. Let’s take a look.

Why Long-term Business Goals are Important

Every business leader wants both short- and long-term success. But short-term thinking comes naturally. It’s not a challenge to address squeaky wheels, especially when under pressure to regularly report wins.

No, what makes a substantial difference to a company’s future performance is long-term thinking.

Financial benefits

• The higher earnings, revenue, and market capitalization mentioned above: How much, on average? Respectively, 36%, 47%, and $7 billion.

Source: Measuring the Economic Impact of Short-Termism, McKinsey Global Institute

•  Relaxed standard deviation: This means fewer fluctuations, in general, over time. These reduced and buffered swings project a reassuring steadiness. •  Eighty-one percent increased economic profit: Among other things, McKinsey research also shows that those companies’ earnings earned more over time than the short-term goal setters’ did — the opportunity cost of capital investments. •  More loyal, unswerving investors: In a Harvard Business School analysis of over 70,000 earnings calls, leaders using the verbiage of long-term financial objectives attracted more long-term investors. Conversely, leaders who spoke in terms of “latter half” or “weeks” enticed short-sighted investors who held companies’ stock for shorter durations. •  Better shareholder returns: Companies that took a long-term view in the McKinsey study rendered higher total returns to stockholders than companies with short-termism pervading corporate management.

Nonmonetary benefits

Building the kind of company you’re proud of doesn’t mean just making more and more money. Some benefits of long-term goals aren’t financial at all, including the following:

•  The ability to better withstand catastrophic events: McKinsey’s researchers also found that forward-thinking leaders built companies that weathered storms such as banking-industry collapses, global natural disasters, and pandemics. •  Confidence: Leaders with a long-term vision showed more willingness to make bold, agile moves when needed to serve those future goals, according to another recent McKinsey cross-reference study . •  Mental clarity: Teams are free to work cohesively with shared, unwavering distant goals and short-term milestones to help guide the way. •  More efficient operations: That same integrated team spirit can mean less time wasted rerouting for short-term diversions. •  An impressive positive societal impact: The McKinsey study showed firms with long-term goals created an average of 12,000 more jobs. They were also less likely to cut jobs just to achieve earnings expectations. And these added and saved jobs alone, if applied to the rest of the country’s companies, would add up to $350 billion a year to the GDP. That economic encouragement could be felt at every level of life.

(Back to Top)

Why short-term thinking persists anyway

Short-termism rewards instant gratification. Leaders are incentivized to creatively cut corners. Psychologists at McGill University said these rewards solidify brain structures and mental patterns , making it harder to escape the trap of proximate benefits every time the pattern is repeated.

Leaders of privately-owned companies sometimes dismiss this warning as inapplicable, because the transparency of quarterly earnings isn’t a rhythmic part of their corporate experience. But analysts at Ernst & Young found that openness is just one of many factors that go into corporate short-sightedness, and overcoming them all would benefit our entire society.

As McKinsey senior partner Michael Birshan , partner Thomas Meakin, and senior partner Kurt Strovink wrote: “New CEOs find it daunting to make decisions they know will generate value over the longer term, but in the process, create short-term pain that may dominate their tenures.”

Thankfully, acknowledging the mentality of immediacy — and staying on top of it — is the hard part. Breaking free and establishing long-term financial objectives (and achieving them) is simple.

10 Tips for Strategic, Long-term Goal Planning

Small and large companies will have different long-term goals (which we’ll illustrate in a moment). However, both can benefit from these tips when setting long term business goals:

1. Learn the main goal-setting frameworks.

One of the most dramatic goal-setting strategies is known as the BHAG method. “big, hairy, audacious goals” are great for motivational speeches and vision-casting brainstorm sessions. But they can easily get out of line with your company’s values. By nature, BHAGs tend to be so far removed from your employee’s day-to-day duties that individual teammates can become disenchanted each time they’re reminded of it.

Another approach is abbreviated OKR , which stands for “objectives and key results.” These are a bit more strategic than the buzzy BHAGs of visionaries. OKRs are also more organized. A company (sometimes a department) usually selects between three and five long-term goals and arranges the same number of measurable performance outcomes, or results, under them. When those results are achieved, usually the goal is accomplished as a happy by-product.

Next up are S.M.A.R.T. goals. These are “specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-constrained” goals. They’re popular because they can be applied to units as small as individual people and their families, all the way to commercial businesses and governments. The mental exercise of vetting every goal through these filters makes this framework a favorite for business leaders everywhere.

The final conventional goal-setting framework is known as MBO. This acronym stands for “management by objective.” It involves employee participation and accountability, making the achievement of the goal a collective experience.

Knowing the types of goal-setting philosophies can help you choose the best one for your industry and team, so get to know the options before moving forward.

2. Involve employees.

You don’t need to choose the MBO framework to involve your teammates’ individual voices in plotting your course. In fact, Dr. Jac Fitz-enz and SuccessFactors Research conducted a study titled How Smart HCM Drives Financial Performance and found that 44% of high-performing companies aligned their business goals with the goals at the managerial level. Of the weaker-performing businesses, none did.

3. Remember: short-term goals are not the enemy of long-term goals.

Short-term goals should feed into your distant-future goals. They’re there to support the business’s values and long-term plan. Anything that doesn’t should be dismissed as a business-breaking distraction .

4. Run all potential goals through your mission statement and values.

The word “Integrity” was displayed predominantly, ornately in the lobby of the Enron office — right up to the day the company was exposed as a scandalous villain. Did they lack goals? Not at all. They simply allowed their goals to negate their most important commitments.

5. Hire a consultant.

An outsider can ask questions about your business that you wouldn’t have considered. Those pressure tests may reveal both opportunities and risks you wouldn’t have even known were there.

6. Use multiple financial-modeling methods to assess every idea with data (and eliminate the underperformers).

Contact Ignite Spot to learn what kind of forecasting a virtual CFO can perform for your company. Based on the analysis and modeling of an outsourced expert, you’ll have multiple trajectories to choose from.

7. Involve opportunity cost assessments.

With every potential long-term goal comes the real cost of not achieving another goal. Get the hard data on all of your options before choosing and committing your whole business toward accomplishing the wrong one.

8. Include concrete time lines and define/designate roles.

Each team member needs to take some sort of ownership for your business’s long-term goals. Now that you’ve established what they are, assign tasks to move the business toward those objectives .

9. Establish milestones for short-term wins everyone can celebrate.

Think of short-term wins as dots on a connect-the-dots journey. Eventually, they complete an entire picture — the overarching goal . Celebrating them helps every team member stay committed to your long-term business goals.

10. Plan for pivots, not distractions.

Avoid the pitfall of changing long-term goals flippantly because you’re “agile.” Nimble companies change tactics to respond to cultural and market-specific shifts. By contrast, flighty and indecisive leaders allow long-term goals to be abandoned altogether in favor of distracting short-term wins.

Need help setting goals for your business? Download the free business checklist to learn the 8 factors that give you a competitive advantage.

Examples of long-term goals for early-stage startups versus established companies

Small businesses share many goals with their enterprise counterparts. Yours will include data points (percentage points, dates for completion, amounts, etc.) specific to your company and objective, but these ideas will get you started.

Some typical long-term goals for a smaller business:

•  Secure funding.

•  Acquire a competitor.

•  Become profitable .

•  Increase market share.

•  Manage growth, profitability, and cash flow simultaneously.

•  Achieve 360-degree compliance.

•  Achieve double the industry-standard CSAT.

As a company grows, some commercial- and enterprise-level specific visions like these may emerge:

•  Reinvest liquidity wisely.

•  Diversify streams of income.

•  Experimental R&D.

•  Integrated reporting.

•  Implement TQM (total quality management).

Clarity before, during, and after long-term goal setting

Today’s economic stressors may have you feeling like you’re in survival mode. Remember: the businesses that will emerge successfully from these crises are those that establish and stay grounded in their long-term goals.

The first step of forging and achieving your long-term goals is financial clarity. Ignite Spot’s expert accountants give you eye-opening reports and dynamic projections to envision — and then achieve — your business goals. Download our pricing guide today to find the right accountant for your business.

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10 Examples of Long-Term Business Goals to Set Now

December 15, 2023, identify, set, and achieve long-term business goals for success.

Today I want to share examples of long-term business goals with you. Because thinking long-term about your business is key to its success.

One of my former bosses had a good saying. And I think it applies to long-term goals for a business.

My boss used to tell us this. “In the long run, we are only limited by our thoughts. Don’t hold back. Think big!”

So, let’s dive in and think big about our businesses…

Disclosure: At no cost to you, I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Examples Of Long-Term Business Goals

First of all, here you will find today’s examples of long-term business goals list for your consideration:

• Expand into a new geographic market
• Market through a new channel
• Penetrate a new demographic
• Broaden product and service offerings
• Acquire a competitor
• Expand personnel and facilities
• Migrate to a new technology platform
• Put financing sources in place
• Increase earnings
• Improve profit margins

Next, let’s make sure we are completely aligned on today’s topic.  Identifying, setting, and achieving these 10 examples of long-term goals for a business.

Long-Term Business Goals Definition

First of all, a goal is an outcome you want to achieve. That a person envisions, plans for, and commits to achieve.

Furthermore, goals can relate to many aspects of our lives. For example, self-development, career, health, fitness, and personal finance outcomes .

But today, we are talking about goals related to your business.

More specifically, we are talking about long-term goals for a small business . Or, larger businesses too.

Typically, long-term goals take more planning. And more time to achieve. Normally, it takes 5 years or more to accomplish a long-term goal.

Furthermore, long-term goals are more strategic. And they require a vision of what your business will look like in the distant future.

While ensuring its long-term success, growth, and profitability. As you make the journey.

Finally, business goals can be non-financial . Or, they can be tied to a specific financial outcome.

Long-Term Goals For A Business Versus Other Types Of Goals

Businesses also have short-term goals and medium-term goals. Let’s compare and contrast…

Short-Term Business Goals

Short-term business goals are to be accomplished within 1 year.

Their focus is on solving today’s problems. Or, activities in the near term. That creates a foundation for long-term success.

Examples of short-term business goals include:

• Increase on-time delivery from 95% to 99%
• Reduce overhead costs by 3%
• Prepare a business plan

Medium-Term Business Goals

Medium-term goals should be set and completed within a 1-5 year time horizon.

These goals are intended to move your business forward in a meaningful way. But, are too involved to complete within a year.

Examples of good medium-term goals for business include:

• Increase market share by 5%
• Develop and bring to market a product line extension
• Increase shareholder value by $1 million

Next, before we touch on the examples. A little more talk about long-term goals for a business…

The Big Picture View Of Long-Term Business Goals

Today’s examples of long-term business goals are more strategic. Versus short and medium-term goals.

They are not about solving today’s problems. Or, about improving your business on the margins in the next few years.

They are for taking big steps forward. And transforming your business into something bigger and better in the future. Versus what it is today.

These goals take more than 2-3 years to accomplish without causing business instability.

They require careful thought about the direction you wish your business to take. Then planning, resources, and careful execution.

For more on these strategic topics…

consider this excellent course on business strategy and leadership .

But for now, I think about long-term goals for a business in one of three categories:

1. Extending market reach. Specifically, growing business revenue in different and dramatic ways.

2. Ensuring the ability to scale. Having success with growth means being able to handle it. In other words, scaling operations to service the new markets and customers you are reaching.

3 . Balancing growth and profits. Substantial business growth is good. It certainly beats the alternative.

But rapid growth is hard to execute. And it must be done profitably.

Thus, all 10 of today’s examples of long-term business goals fall into one of these categories.

Now, let’s go through each of the 10 goals on our list. All of them can be good investments to make in your business .

1. Expand Into A New Geographic Market

Plan for and expand into new geographic markets. For example, if you operate in Utah. Expand into the high business growth state of Colorado .

If your business services the Western portion of the country. Extend it throughout the United States.

Finally, consider foreign expansion. But, understand that these are big steps. Require careful thought and planning.

Up next in the long-term goals examples for business: channel strategy…

2. Go To Market Through A New Channel

Identify all the possible channels through which your products and services can be sold. Then delivered to your customers.

Utilize one or more marketing channels that have not yet been tapped.

For example, consider a targeted social media strategy. That drives traffic to an online store on your website.

3. Penetrate A New Demographic

Your current products and services are likely popular with a certain demographic.

So, evaluate your marketing plan. To tap into demand from a different segment of the population .

4. Broaden Product And Service Offerings

Enhance and broaden your product lines. Innovate and develop new products and services.

But, be sure they fit within your company’s mission. And customer service value proposition.

So, don’t stray too far. From your business’s core strengths.

Okay.  It’s time for the 5th in our series of long-term goals for business examples: mergers and acquisitions…

5. Acquire A Competitor

Acquiring a competitor can be the quickest way to extend your business’s market reach. And this brings us to the “buy or build” dilemma.

You have to decide if it’s more effective to extend your market reach on your own. In other words, building out those capabilities internally.

Or doing so. by buying a competitor. Specifically, a competitor that has accomplished what your business has not. This is the reasoning behind strategic acquisitions.

When it comes to the buy or build decisions. There is no right or wrong answer.

Each situation will be different. And every business will be different. Including yours.

Okay. So the first 5 examples of long-term business goals relate to extending your business’s market reach.

Accomplish any one or more of these goals. And your business will experience revenue growth. Sometimes, rapid revenue growth.

And rapid growth requires the ability to scale. This leads us to the next few long-term goals for business…

6. Expand Personnel And Facilities

Ensure you have the team in place to handle the influx of business. Including the quantity and quality of staff. Also, management personnel.

Develop and put a personnel plan in place. Including an employee professional development and onboarding program.

Then make sure you have the appropriate facilities. That solves for the right locations, footprint, and space.

This includes production, warehouse, distribution, and office space. Depending on your specific business needs.

Also, consider business outsourcing. Another buy or build decision. As part of scaling up to meet demand.

7. Migrate To A New Technology Platform

Don’t forget about technology. Because most successful businesses run on an enterprise-wide system.

If your business does not have the appropriate technology in place. Or, its capacity is limited.

Then make improving your technology infrastructure a long-term business goal.

8. Put Financing Sources In Place

If you have one, your CFO should be in charge of this goal.

Because growth by extending market reach. And putting the people, facilities, and technology in place to service it. Requires one very important thing.

What’s that? It is cash.

Because it takes money to make money. And investing in growth doesn’t come for free.

Where your cash comes from . Be it debt financing, equity financing, or internally generated funds. Don’t let access to capital derail your long-term business plans.

Okay now. Our final 2 examples of long-term business goals fall in the third category.

Specifically, balancing growth versus business profit goals . Since growth without profit, or at the very least, profit potential. Is no fun when operating a business.

9. Increase Earnings

So, set a long-term earnings goal. And first, put it into dollar terms.

For example, increase pre-tax income from $250,000 to $750,000. That’s a big jump in profit. And why it’s a long-term goal for a business.

But, make sure you have accurate financial information. To do so, consider outsourcing your financial management. Assuming you aren’t up to doing it yourself.

Now, it’s time for our last example of long-term goals in business. Then I will wrap up…

10. Maintain or Improve Profit Margins

Then, make sure your business’s profit margin is stable or even increasing. When I say profit margin, I’m talking about pre-tax income divided by revenue.

Continuing the example from above. Let’s say you did $250,000 in pre-tax profit on $1 million in revenue. So, your profit margin is 25%

Your long-term goal should be to at least maintain that margin. Therefore the new income target of $750,000. Should be generated from no more than $3,000,000 in revenue.

Your profit goals should be part of your financial planning . And, included in pro-forma financial statements.

Make sure the financials encompass all of the economics. Of whatever goals you choose to set.

Finally, I always recommend that business owners keep their personal finances. Separate from their business finances.

I use Personal Capital to track all of my spending and investments. 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 .

Next, a few words about setting business goals. Here’s the best way to go about it…

How To Set Long-Term Business Goals

Business long-term goals should be set using SMART . A SMART goal includes the following 5 attributes…

Specific. Make your goals as detailed as possible. Outlining exactly what you want to accomplish.

Measurable. Determine how you will measure success. Both the interim steps and the completion of the goal.

Achievable. Stretch yourself and your organization. But don’t waste time with goals that can’t be achieved.

Realistic. A goal may be achievable. But it may not be realistic. Determine this by looking at your constraints.

For example, a goal may be achievable. But if it requires an amount of capital that you are unable to obtain. Then it’s not realistic.

In this case, access to capital is the constraint. Other constraints include the ability to attract employees and overall market conditions.

Time-bound. Set a deadline for when the goal will be accomplished. A long-term business goal should be out at least 4-5 years from now.

Finally, be sure to align your goals from short to long term . As a result, they will complement each other.

Since the complexity of long-term goals leads to long time horizons. Achieving these goals is challenging.

So, set yourself up for success…

How To Achieve Long-Term Business Goals

Students of goal-setting use three more steps. After setting goals using the SMART system.

Specifically, businesses that achieve these examples of long-term goals for business do 3 more things.

Specifically, they plan, act, and monitor (PAM) to successfully achieve goals .

Plan. Long-run goals require a plan. Those step-by-step actions, deliverables, and accountability that must be completed on the path to success.

Action. This should speak for itself. But it’s important. Get the planning done. Then, act. Furthermore, involve your employees in goal-setting processes.

Because people tend to delay working on long-term goals in a business. Thus, time management is critical for success.

Monitor. Finally, it’s important to monitor progress against the plan. Every 3-6 months.

Work through the SMART and PAM goal systems. Document as you go. Commit to all your goals and plans in writing.

Research shows that a written goal. Has a much higher success rate. Versus a goal that is not.

Then appoint a person who has the overall task to see the goal through to the end. And give them the resources required to be successful.

Lack of focus and lack of accountability diminishes the chances of success. When pursuing your organization’s goals over a long period.

Okay. Let’s wrap today’s article up with a summary…

Summary: Examples Of Long-Term Business Goals

10 Examples Of Long-Term Business Goals include:

In my opinion, any of these 10 objectives are good examples of long-term goals for a new business. Or, a mature business that has been operating for a while.

They are perfect complements to this…

course I really like about business strategy

…it’s full of great lessons on how to take your business to the next level.

Categories Of Long-Term Business Goals

These business goal examples fall into 1 of the 3 broad categories:

• Extending market reach
• Ensuring the ability to scale
• Balancing growth and profit

In the case of the first two categories. A business owner will be confronted with the options to buy, build, or outsource.

Finally, all goals should be set with an eye on the third category. That is balancing growth and profit.

Setting Long-Term Business Goals

Make SMART goals for your company . They should be:

Achieve Your Long-Term Business Goals

Achieve your goals with PAM:

Document your goals and your plan. By committing to them in writing. Then get to work on your long-term goals for a business.

More Reading About Setting And Achieving Goals

• Level up your money game with these articles
• Move your business to this low-tax state
• Avoid these financial problems

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.

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June 29, 2022

Effective long-term goals examples for business

Monika Gudova

Content Writer and Editor

Table of contents

What makes an effective goal? Like relationships, business goals can be short term or long term , each bringing unique value. But at the end of the day, long-term goals (and relationships) will have the biggest impact. So while understanding the value of long-term goals is vital, it’s following through that really counts. In this guide, we’ll get you equipped to answer the question, ‘What are your long-term goals?’ with real-world examples to help you make them a reality.

What are long-term goals?

Where do you want to be five or 10 years into the future? What about 50 years from now? If megamansions and luxury yachts came to mind, you’re not alone. Long-term goals are just that — hopeful intentions for the future. Without intention, long-term goals are simply daydreams, so it’s important to set objectives to drive you closer to your end goals. From wealth and work to marriage and kids, there are plenty of opportunities to accomplish big things with considered long-term goals.

What are long-term goals for business?

In business, long-term goals have varying definitions and periods. Some define long term as two years, and others as 20. The common ground is the reason behind setting long-term goals  — progress . Organisations driven by long-term goals have a clearer course, helping to guide decision-making and reflection. Here are the four main areas where a business may set a long-term goal.

• Profit: Measuring success through an increase in profit year on year.
• Growth: Company expansion through new employees or locations.
• Reputation: Related to improving service and attracting/retaining customers.
• Social: Community-minded business. This may look like a commitment to reducing carbon emissions.

Examples of long-term goals

What’s an explanation without an example? Here are six long-term goal examples that can be tailored to any business.

1. Increase revenue

This one’s unlikely to be a shock — boosting profits is a key long-term goal for companies small and large. It’s the bottom line for all for-profit businesses, and many businesses measure this by looking at year-on-year growth. By delivering continuous year-on-year growth, organisations foster a culture of improvement. When it comes to goal setting, specificity is key, so pick an ambitious number to drive your business toward success. 

2. Improve brand awareness

It’s marketing 101 — brand awareness, recognition and recall. This is a common long-term goal because (as many new businesses have discovered the hard way) growth doesn’t happen overnight. Brand recognition is essential when launching new products and services to sway consumer decision-making favourably. Whether through social media or other brand-building strategies, it’s important to invest in brand awareness.

3. Build a strong reputation

Reputation is slow-burning but nonetheless a long-term objective most businesses are working toward. Why? Because companies with fantastic reputations attract not only more customers, but loyal ones. Your loyal customers repeat purchases and often peddle your products and services for free. 

4. Create a market-leading online presence

There’s no arguing the power of the internet — it can make or break your business. Ranking well on Google, gaining followers on social media and building a high-traffic website are all ways in which brands are improving their online presence. The potential of a market-leading online presence in this digital age is endless; it’s directly linked to sales, brand awareness, acquiring leads, establishing authority and more revenue-building opportunities. 

5. Expand into new opportunities

Whether it’s a new location, more employees or an innovative offering, a growth mindset is critical to long-term success. No matter the means of expansion, its benefits are clear — an increased capacity that allows you to target new markets, ultimately leading to more revenue. New challenges also bring new perspectives, allowing your business to maintain a competitive edge. 

6. Keep innovating

While a shiny new store is a great (and profitable) example of innovation, it’s not the only road to business expansion. Widening your horizons, whether through a new product offering or implementing new processes, is a worthwhile long-term business goal as it may generate more business. However, like most goals, it’s circular; innovation requires adequate resourcing, resourcing requires the budget, and the budget is what’s formed by innovation.

Achieve long-term goals with OKRs

Long-term goals are just one part of the puzzle that keeps a business growing and improving. A business' success depends on the balance between long-term goals and short-term objectives. Introducing OKRs — the goal-setting framework making long-term goals a reality.

How do OKRs work?

OKRs bridge the gap between top-level business goals and day-to-day operations. It’s a three-step methodology; Objectives, Key Results and Initiatives.

• Objectives: Objectives break down long-term goals into quarterly targets. They’re a simple statement outlining where you’d like to be in three months.
• Key Results: Key results are a way to measure progress on the objective. Good key results aren’t directly actionable, instead outlining a target value and a starting point. 
• Initiatives: Initiatives are all the projects required to meet the Key Result target. Being able to map strategic initiatives to company goals will significantly increase your ability to execute on your strategy.

While setting OKRs is an important step to meeting long-term goals, tracking and tweaking as progress is recorded is what makes them ultimately successful. 

Try OKRs for free

Here at Tability , we’ve designed software that makes committing to the OKRs framework easy for your whole team. With automated reminder emails and an easy-to-use interface, Tability takes the stress out of goal tracking, bringing you closer to your long-term goals. Try Tability for free today.

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Copyright © 2024 Tability Inc.

What Are Long-Term Goals? (+50 Examples & Tips to Achieve Them)

Learn all you need to know about setting long-term goals and how to achieve them. Plus, a list of 50 long-term goal examples you can use as inspiration.

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Setting long-term goals is important if you want to succeed in your life and career.

In fact,  over 1,000 studies  have found that setting lofty, specific goals is linked to higher levels of performance, motivation, and persistence.

But what exactly are long-term goals? How can you set them? And most importantly, how can you achieve them?

Let’s look at long-term goals, why they’re important, and how you can make them a reality. We’ll also give you a list of 50 long-term goal examples so you can be inspired to aim high when setting your goals.

What are long-term goals?

Put simply, a long-term goal is an objective you want to achieve in the future — but one that’ll take a fair amount of effort and time. They’re not something you can achieve in a week or even a year; long-term goals are big goals that concern your health, finances, or career.

To achieve long-term goals, you need to:

• Plan carefully to make sure each goal is realistic and achievable
• Include different milestones to ensure progression
• Consistently put in the work (even if the results are taking longer than expected)
• Remain focused and accountable throughout the process

Difference between long and short-term goals

While both long and short-term goals have end objectives, their scales and the time frames required to achieve them are different.

Short-term goals can take anywhere from a few days to a year to complete, whereas long-term goals can take five years or longer.

Long-term goals are also often made up of short-term goals or smaller milestones that help you stay accountable and measure your progress.

For example, if your long-term goal is to buy a house, you may have several short-term goals to help you afford the property, such as getting a promotion, investing in stock, or taking out a loan.

Since long-term goals are achieved over a long period, they’re more flexible than short-term goals. This is because circumstances that are out of your control (such as inflation when saving to buy a house) may change, and you may need to adjust your overall objective or timeframe as a result.

On the other hand, short-term goals are more specific and often list specific tasks that need to be completed over relatively short periods.

Why is it important to set long-term goals?

Without setting long-term goals, it’s impossible to know where you want to go — let alone how you’ll get there.

In 2018, John Doeer, an American investor with a net worth of over  $4 billion , spoke at a  TED conference  about the importance of goal setting. He went so far as to say that the “secret” to success is setting the right goals.

Not only do long-term goals give you a long-term vision, but they also inspire and motivate you to take deliberate, small actions to help meet them.

They help you stay focused and “keep your eyes on the prize.” As a result, you’ll be better able to organize your time, projects, and resources to achieve the things you truly want.

According to  Positive Psychology , setting goals can also help trigger new behaviors that’ll help you gain momentum in your life.

Long-term goal setting can even promote a sense of self-mastery since your goals will push you to step out of your comfort zone and do things you never thought you were capable of.

Examples of long-term goals

You can set different types of goals for the business, career, personal, and financial areas of your life.

Here are some examples of what these goals could look like:

Long-term business goals

• Grow a successful business
• Reach a monthly revenue of X amount
• Expand your business to a new country or region
• Hire a skilled team of workers
• Travel the world while managing your company remotely
• Rebrand your business
• Increase employee satisfaction and retention
• Leave a legacy
• Develop a personal brand
• Acquire a competitor company
• Grow your customer base to X amount
• Increase shareholder value
• Become a public speaker

Long-term career goals

• Find your dream job
• Improve your work-life balance
• Master a new job skill
• Become a company executive
• Work internationally
• Retire from full-time work
• Shift to a new career path
• Experience career stability
• Achieve a salary of X amount
• Expand your professional network
• Mentor other employees
• Pursue further education
• Become an expert in your industry

Want to set better goals for your career? Read our  ultimate guide to setting professional goals .

Long-term personal goals

• Buy a house
• Live abroad
• Go on your dream vacation (such as a two-week trip to Hawaii)
• Achieve your ultimate fitness level and weight
• Learn to cook like a chef
• Complete a difficult event, such as a marathon
• Have or adopt a child
• Maintain your ideal weight
• Find your life partner
• Become a better parent
• Become a better spouse
• Emigrate to a different country
• Learn to play an instrument

Long-term financial goals

• Become a millionaire
• Improve your credit score
• Pay off your large debts
• Grow your savings account balance
• Invest in something big
• Build an emergency fund
• Saving for a college fund for your kids
• Pay off your car
• Fund your retirement
• Invest money in stock or properties to get X amount of return on investment
• Become financially independent

According to a 2022 Hearts and Wallets research report, long-term financial goals matter to  82%  of American households.

How to set and achieve long-term goals

Setting long-term goals can be tricky and sometimes even overwhelming. Here are some general guidelines you can follow to make it easier:

1. Think of where you want to be in 10 years

You need to visualize your “perfect” future before you even think about creating long-term goals.

Remember that long-term goals require commitment and take several years to achieve. So, you don’t want to end up setting a goal that doesn’t fit into your life or business.

If you’re setting a long-term personal or career goal, it needs to align with your values and be something that matters to you. On the other hand, if you’re setting a business goal, ensure that it aligns with your company’s mission, vision, and values.

Having something to aim for that’ll really impact your life or business will help you stick to your goal — even during uncertain times.

2. Write SMART goals

The SMART goals framework is a popular method used for setting long-term goals. It focuses on helping you set goals that aren’t only suited to you and what you want but that are also realistic and achievable.

SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

When setting SMART goals, ask yourself the following questions:

• Specific:  What exactly is it that you want to achieve? Make the goal as specific as possible. For example, if you’re setting a financial goal, include a specific monetary amount.
• Measurable:  How will you know whether you’ve achieved your goal? Set up key performance indicators that’ll make it clear whether your goal has been met or not.
• Attainable:  Is your goal possible to achieve? Make sure it’s realistic and can be reached within the specified time frame.
• Relevant:  Does your goal contribute to your overall personal, career, or business growth? Ensure you set a goal that fits into your dream life or career. It needs to be focused on what you truly desire.
• Time-bound:  When do you want to achieve your goal? Choose a day you can use as a deadline. The more specific with it you get, the better.

3. Reverse-engineer your goal

Long-term goals can be overwhelming since they’re far more complex than short-term goals. They leave room for you to become demotivated since they can sometimes seem unattainable.

That’s why they should be broken down into short-term, bite-sized, less intimidating goals.

In other words, you need to create a more manageable action plan.

You can do this by reverse-engineering the objective. Start at the end and work backward to determine the smaller tasks that need to be completed for you to attain your ultimate goal.

Like long-term goals, each short-term goal should be based on the SMART framework.

For example, if your long-term goal is to grow a successful business, your short-term goals might include things like the following:

• Writing a business plan
• Gaining funding
• Opening a business bank account
• Hiring your first employee

4. Prioritize your goals

You can use a planning system such as Motion's AI task manager  to prioritize your tasks and manage your schedule — and in doing so, make it easier to achieve your long-term goals.

‎Motion allows you to use  time-blocking  to set aside a specific amount of time to complete different tasks. This helps you to be more productive and get the work done!

With Motion, you can also merge your personal and professional goals — making it possible for you to work on home and work responsibilities on the same day without feeling overwhelmed.

You can also move tasks around whenever emergencies arise so you don’t forget about them — and rest assured that your tasks will be completed no matter what.

5. Make a plan to track your progress

This is where the “measurable” part of your SMART goal comes in. You need to make sure that your long-term and short-term goals are measurable.

For example, if you have a short-term goal of improving your networking and communication abilities, you could measure it through the tasks you complete.

Thus, your tasks may look something like this:

• Reaching out to three new people in your industry per day via email
• Taking a one-week communication course
• Going to a networking event
• Communicating more during work meetings

Completing each of these subtasks with the help of a tool like Motion could help you move toward completing your bigger goal. You can set the urgency of each task, its due date, and much more.

6. Be willing to make changes

As mentioned above, unexpected obstacles sometimes arise. And often, these obstacles are out of your control.

It’s important to remember that things change — and that’s okay.

When you’re aiming for a long-term goal, it’s completely normal for things to occur that knock you off track or for your long-term goal to shift. After all, a lot can happen in 5–10 years!

Rather than becoming demotivated when things change, maintain a mindset of flexibility. If you focus too much on a fixed outcome, you might miss out on other opportunities.

For example, if you’ve set a goal to emigrate to a specific country, but that country’s financial state declines dramatically — no longer making it a viable option — be willing to shift your goal. Look into other countries that could be better options.

Ready to set ambitious long-term goals?

Now that you know how to set your long-term goals, you can get to work setting business and personal goals that resonate with you and your dream life.

Setting these goals may take some soul-searching, but once you have them in mind, you can start working on your plan to get there.

Be sure to use a  to-do list app , as this will help you measure your progress toward your goals much faster.

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4 Things To Do Before You Set Long-Term Business Goals 

Written by Kim Hartsock on December 6, 2023

Each year, most companies look toward the next 12 months (or longer) to chart their objectives (and the steps needed to get there).

It’s a noble initiative. But are you sure that the long-term business goals you’re setting are the right ones?

Are there areas where you should be measuring progress that you aren’t? Are there other kinds of growth that should matter to your company besides the ones you’re pursuing? How can you know?

Join the thousands of business leaders who receive a monthly email with our trusted advisors’ latest insights, designed to help you make the best decisions for your organization. Subscribe here. 

Four Steps To Take Before You Set Long-Term Business Goals

Truly effective long-term goal setting for businesses requires some intentional preparation. Consider doing these four things before you start identifying your specific objectives to help your organization stay on the right path.

1. Understand Your Own Competitive Advantage

Knowing what sets your business apart from the competition is critical for strategically planning your future and setting the right long-term business goals.

Be as specific as possible when defining your advantages above your competitors. Take an honest look at what your company is doing better than anyone else (and what you may actually  not  be doing better than your competition).

It’s important to pinpoint exactly where, how and why your business is different than any other. What does your organization offer that no one else does? Is your product distinguishable? Is your service clearly unique? Are your customers’ experiences different than if they had gone elsewhere? And if so, how?

Knowing your company’s strengths, weaknesses and competitive advantage intimately will create a strong foundation for making strong decisions and setting long-term business goals accordingly.

2. Anticipate Your Competitors’ Advantages (And How They Might Use Them)

After you’ve identified your business’s competitive advantage and differentiators, it’s important to do the same for your competitors. When it comes to your long-term business goals, this will help your company anticipate what challenges may come.

Once you’ve defined the specific entities who you consider to be your competitors, there are several ways to get information that can help you to assess your competitors’ advantages.

Do you want to know what they see as their own differentiators? Look at their company website. Do you want to know how they are looking to grow? Look at the open job positions they’re recruiting for. Do you want to know how their teams operate? Look at employer review websites.

There is a wealth of information readily available about companies everywhere that they may not even realize gives intel into their strategies, culture and differentiators.

Once you’ve gathered information about your competitors, use what you’ve learned to step into their shoes to think through what their futures might look like and how their advantages may impact yours. What might their long-term business goals be, and how may theirs affect yours?

3. Understand Your Ideal Customer

To set the kind of long-term business goals that will push your company forward, it’s important to know not only who your customers are, but who your  ideal  customer is.

Goals that are geared toward earning  any  business or meeting  any  request likely won’t yield the greatest strategic benefit for your organization. Instead, be intentional to set goals to earn business from the customers that are the right fit for your organization. To do that, you must first understand that specific segment of your audience.

What are their questions about your area? What are their problems (and how are they meeting their needs before your business enters the picture)? How do they access the information that’s important to them about your area of expertise?

Ask your current ideal customers about what’s most important to them to help you not only retain their business, but to gather insight that can help you attract other customers like them.

Knowing these key factors about your ideal customers can help you to be more focused on the long-term business goals that will mean more to your organization and those customers who trust you (and who will trust you in the future).

4. Know What Your Challenges Are

After you have a full understanding of your company’s advantages, your competitors’ advantages and the needs and desires of the ideal customers you’re competing for, consider what challenges your business currently has based on that information (not your previous assumptions).

Maybe it’s that your ideal customer likes to consume information in a channel that you haven’t been utilizing, and you haven’t been able to reach them.

Maybe it’s that other companies are growing their teams quickly, and you’ve been experiencing high turnover among your employees.

Maybe you’ve been focusing your efforts on solving one problem, when another problem is actually more important to your ideal customers.

Whatever your challenges may be, identify the most pertinent ones, and gather some data and evidence about them. Depending on the specific challenges you decide to focus on, these data points will be different and varied.

Consider gathering statistics and data anywhere that can help you collect reliable information about your business and others that can in turn help you make informed decisions in these areas.

Setting Long-Term Business Goals and Formulating a Business Strategy

With these challenges in mind, now it’s time to begin actually setting your long-term business goals.

Envision where you see your business in the future after you’ve overcome the challenges you’ve identified based on the information about your ideal customers and your competitors. Then, you’re ready to think through what realistic steps you need to take to get there.

Think backwards from where you want to be to define the results you want to see and the objectives that will get you there in a layered approach.

Formulating these long-term business goals will be different for each organization, but the process of defining objectives and results will largely look the same across the board as you chart your path.

Ultimately, it’s important to remember to make decisions that will allow for flexibility in the areas you want to grow in the future, even if they may not be the most comfortable decisions for the here and now. This means you’ll need to stop, adapt and refocus less as you reach your long-term business goals.

Setting (and documenting) long-term business goals for your business can be a daunting and intimidating task, but it’s essential for growing. Setting the  right kind  of goals is essential for growing in a way that will propel your business forward.

Setting the goals, of course, is just the beginning of success, but it’s undoubtedly the essential first step.

Connect with a Warren Averett advisor who can help you chart a business strategy and set the right long-term goals for your business.

Learn more about the goal-setting process in this episode of The Wrap, Warren Averett’s podcast.

This article was originally posted on February 5, 2020, and recently updated on December 6, 2023.

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Strategic Management Explained: Concepts, Examples, and Trends for Business Success

See how Quantive can help you achieve more of your strategy.

Did you know that 67% of well-formulated strategies fail due to poor execution? Or are companies with effective strategy management 2.5 times more likely to achieve industry-leading performance? In today's cutthroat business arena, the difference between thriving and merely surviving often boils down to one critical factor: how well you manage your strategy.

Why is strategic management important?

Poor strategy management can lead to devastating consequences: 

• market share erosion
• missed growth opportunities
• resource waste
• employee disengagement, and 
• business failure. 

But get it right, and you'll unlock a world of possibilities. An effective strategic management plan paves the way for sustainable competitive advantage, accelerated growth, increased profitability, enhanced adaptability to market changes, and stronger organizational alignment.

At Quantive, we've seen firsthand how masterful strategy management can transform businesses. It's not just about crafting a brilliant plan—it's about flawless execution, constant adaptation, and relentless improvement. In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, these elements form the cornerstone of organizational success.

Ready to master the art and science of strategy management? 

Let's explore how you can turn your strategic vision into tangible business success, avoiding the pitfalls that ensnare so many companies. Instead, chart a course for long-term prosperity and growth.

What is strategic management?

Strategic management is how a company plans, puts into action, and checks its big-picture decisions. It's an ongoing process that helps a business reach its long-term goals. Simply put, it's about making sure what your company can do matches what the market needs, so you can stay ahead of your competitors over time. As The Harvard Business Review explains, strategy management can be the differentiator that helps you come out on top, even in the most volatile markets. Let's look at a few types of strategic management. 

Five types of strategy management:

• Corporate Strategy: Defines the overall direction and scope of the entire organization, including decisions about which industries or markets to compete in and how to allocate resources across different business units.
• Business Strategy : Focuses on how a specific business unit within a larger organization will compete in its particular market or industry.
• Functional Strategy: Outlines how each functional department (like marketing, finance, or HR) will support the broader business strategy through specific objectives and actions.
• Operating Strategy: Details the day-to-day operational decisions, policies, and actions needed to deliver the functional and business strategies effectively.
• Competitive Strategy: Determines how a company will gain and maintain competitive advantage in its industry or market, often through differentiation, cost leadership, or focus strategies.

Key components of strategic management

Strategic management involves three crucial stages that work together to guide a company toward its long-term goals:

1. Strategy Development

• Analyze your current position: Take a close look at where your business stands right now. This involves understanding your strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats in your market.
• Develop your strategic vision: Figure out where you want your business to go in the long run. This includes setting clear, ambitious goals that give your company direction.
• Formulate your strategy: Create a plan to get from where you are to where you want to be. This means choosing the best approach to achieve your goals, given your current situation and resources.

2.  Strategy Execution

• Implement your strategy: Put your plan into action. This involves assigning tasks, allocating resources, and making sure everyone knows their role in achieving the company's goals.

3.  Strategy Evaluation

• Monitor and adjust: after you implement strategic management, track of how well your strategy is working and make changes as needed. This involves setting up ways to measure success, regularly checking your progress, and being ready to adapt your strategy if things aren't going as planned.

The five stages of strategic management

The three components of strategic management — development, execution, and evaluation — can be further broken down into five clear, actionable steps:

Analyze your business’s current position

Understanding where your business stands is the first important step in planning for its future. Start by looking at what your company does well (strengths) and what it needs to improve (weaknesses). Also, think about good opportunities out there for your business and any dangers or challenges it might face.

Next, take a close look at what your company has and can do. Think about the skills of your team, the tools and technology you use, how much money you have, and anything special that makes your business unique. Ask yourself: What makes us different from other businesses? Where do we need to get better?

Finally, look at what's happening around your business. What are the latest trends in your industry? What are your competitors doing? How might big changes in the economy or society affect your business? Keep an eye out for new ideas or technologies that could change how things work in your industry.

By looking carefully at all these things inside and outside your business, you'll get a clear picture of where you stand. This helps you make smart plans that use what you're good at, fix what needs work, take advantage of good opportunities, and protect your business from possible problems.

Develop your strategic vision 

Developing your strategic vision is about creating a clear picture of where you want your business to be in the future. Start by defining your long-term goals. This involves looking ahead for 5-10 years and imagining what success looks like for your company. Be specific and ambitious but realistic. Consider factors like market position, revenue targets, product offerings, and geographic reach.

Next, craft a compelling vision statement that encapsulates these goals. This should be a concise, inspiring declaration of what your company aspires to become or achieve. A good vision statement is forward-looking, challenging, and memorable. Involve key stakeholders in this process to ensure buy-in and alignment across the organization.

Finally, align your mission with your vision. Your mission statement describes your company's purpose and how you aim to achieve your vision. Review your existing mission statement (or create one if you don't have it) to ensure it supports and complements your newly crafted vision. This alignment ensures that your day-to-day operations and long-term aspirations are in harmony.

Throughout this process, encourage open discussion and debate within your team. Your strategic vision should be the result of careful consideration and collective input, reflecting not just the leadership's aspirations but the shared dreams and values of the entire organization. Remember, a well-developed strategic vision serves as a guiding light for all future decision-making and strategy formulation.

Formulate your strategy

Formulating your strategy is about making a clear plan to reach your goals. Start by coming up with different ideas on how to get there. Think creatively, and don't rule out any ideas at first.

Next, look closely at each idea to see if it's doable. Think about what you'll need to make it happen, what risks you might face, and what you could gain. Ask people from different parts of your company what they think. This helps you see each idea from many angles.

Finally, pick the best ideas. Choose the ones that make the most sense for your company right now. Look for plans that use what you're good at and help fix what needs work. They should also take advantage of opportunities in the market and protect you from threats.

Remember, it's okay to choose more than one idea. Often, a mix of different plans works best. Keep in mind that you might need to change your plan as you go along. Things change, and your strategy should be able to change, too. Make sure everyone in your company understands the plan and knows how they can help make it happen.

Implement your strategy 

Putting your strategy into action is all about making your plans real. Start by deciding who and what you need to make it happen. This means giving people the right jobs, money, and tools to do the work.

Next, make sure your company is set up in a way that helps your strategy work. You might need to change how teams are organized or create new roles. The goal is to make it easy for everyone to work together towards your big goals.

Lastly, break down your strategy into smaller steps. Create a clear plan that shows what needs to be done, who's responsible, and when it should happen. Think of it like a road map that everyone can follow. Set deadlines for each task to keep things moving forward.

Remember, good communication is key. Make sure everyone understands the plan and knows what they need to do. Be ready to help solve problems and make changes if things aren't working as expected. Implementing a strategy takes time and effort, but with clear plans and teamwork, you can turn your ideas into real results.

Monitor and adjust 

Keeping track of your progress and making changes when needed is crucial. Start by setting up ways to measure how well you're doing. These are called key performance indicators, or KPIs for short. They're like signposts that tell you if you're on the right track.

Next, make it a habit to check on your progress regularly. This could be weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending on your business. Look at your KPIs and ask yourself: Are we meeting our goals? What's working well? What's not working?

Finally, be ready to make changes. If something isn't working, or if the market changes, don't be afraid to adjust your plan. This might mean tweaking your goals, changing how you do things, or even rethinking parts of your strategy.

Remember, a good strategy isn't set in stone. It should be flexible enough to adapt to new challenges and opportunities. By keeping a close eye on your progress and being willing to make changes, you can keep your business on the path to success, even when things around you change.

Strategy management vs strategic management

While these terms are often used interchangeably, there are subtle differences. Strategy management focuses on the process of creating and implementing specific strategies. It deals with the day-to-day execution of strategic plans and emphasizes tools and techniques for strategy implementation. Strategy management is typically more short to medium-term in focus.

On the other hand, strategic management is broader in scope, encompassing the entire process of managing an organization strategically. It includes strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. Strategic management considers long-term organizational goals and overall direction, involving the alignment of all aspects of the organization with its strategic vision.

In essence, strategy management is a part of the larger process of strategic management. While strategy management concentrates on handling individual strategies, strategic management takes a more holistic view of guiding an organization's overall strategic direction.

Essentially, strategy management is like the engine that drives the car (the strategy), while strategic management is about ensuring the entire vehicle (the organization) is functioning smoothly and headed in the right direction. 

Real-world example of the strategic management process

Now that we’ve clarified the theory, let’s see what the strategy management process looks like in practice. Let's examine how  a successful company, Netflix, leveraged effective strategic management to drive growth and innovation:

Netflix's strategic approach exemplifies a continuous loop of development, execution, and evaluation. Here's a comprehensive illustration:

Strategy Development

In the early 2000s , Netflix identified the limitations of its DVD rental business model and anticipated the rise of internet video streaming. This foresight led to a strategic pivot towards digital streaming services. The company's initial strategy was to leverage its existing DVD rental customer base while gradually introducing streaming content.

Netflix executed this strategy by investing heavily in technology infrastructure to support high-quality streaming. They also secured licensing deals with major studios to build a vast library of streaming content. Key steps included:

• Technology Investment: Developing a robust streaming platform that could handle large volumes of traffic.
• Content Acquisition: Securing rights to popular movies and TV shows to attract and retain subscribers.
• User Experience: Enhancing the user interface to make content discovery seamless and enjoyable.

As the streaming service  gained traction , Netflix continuously monitored performance metrics, including subscriber growth, viewer engagement, and content consumption patterns. For example, they used data analytics to understand viewing habits and preferences, which informed decisions about content acquisition and production.

Adaptation Based on Evaluation

Insights from the evaluation phase revealed that original content significantly drove subscriber growth and retention. Recognizing this, Netflix adapted its strategy to focus more on producing original content. This led to the development of Netflix Originals, starting with "House of Cards" in 2013. The success of original programming reinforced the decision to invest further in content creation.

The shift towards original content was a strategic adaptation based on evaluation insights. Netflix's strategy development became increasingly data-driven, leveraging advanced analytics to predict what types of content would be successful. They continuously refined their content strategy, focusing on genres and formats that resonated most with their audience.

Example Case: "House of Cards"

Development: Based on data insights, Netflix identified a demand for high-quality, serialized drama.

Execution: They invested $100 million in producing "House of Cards," a bold move for an online streaming service at the time.

Evaluation: The show was a massive success, attracting millions of new subscribers and establishing 

Netflix is a credible producer of original content.

Adaptation: Following this success, Netflix ramped up its investment in original programming, committing billions of dollars annually to produce a diverse range of shows and movies.

Ongoing Evaluation and Adaptation

Netflix continues to iterate on its strategy by:

Personalization Algorithms: Enhancing recommendation systems to improve user engagement.

Global Expansion: Adapting content to cater to international markets, producing localized content.

Technological Innovation: Exploring new technologies like interactive storytelling and virtual reality.

This continuous loop of strategy development, execution, evaluation, and adaptation has allowed Netflix to stay ahead in a highly competitive industry, transforming from a DVD rental service to a global leader in digital streaming and content production.

The case studies on Netflix illustrate how strategic management can drive significant business transformation and success. By adopting innovative approaches, leveraging data analytics, embracing new technologies, focusing on original content, and implementing adaptive organizational structures, Netflix has achieved sustainable growth and maintained a competitive advantage in the rapidly evolving entertainment industry. This continuous loop of strategy development, execution, evaluation, and adaptation serves as a model for other companies aiming to thrive in dynamic markets.

Emerging trends in strategic management

The basic idea of strategy management hasn't changed much over time, but how companies actually do it has. New trends are changing how businesses handle the main parts of strategy management. Here are some important trends shaping how companies will manage their strategies in 2024:

• Agility and Adaptability : This trend aligns closely with Quantive's emphasis on an "Always-On Strategy" approach. Quantive's platform is designed to help businesses pivot quickly in response to market changes, which is crucial for long-term success.
• AI and Big Data Analytics: Quantive's StrategyAI platform leverages advanced analytics for more informed strategic decision-making. This trend is at the core of Quantive's value proposition.
• Digital Transformation: As businesses rethink their processes in the digital age, Quantive's tools can help them manage this transformation strategically.
• Continuous Performance Monitoring: Quantive's real-time tracking of strategic KPIs enables proactive adjustments, which is essential in today's fast-paced business environment.
• Scenario Planning: Given increasing global uncertainties, Quantive's platform could potentially assist in developing flexible strategies that can adapt to various potential scenarios.
• Stakeholder Capitalism: While not explicitly mentioned in relation to Quantive, their comprehensive approach to strategy management could help businesses create value for all stakeholders.
• Innovation Focus: Quantive's platform could support businesses in setting up and managing dedicated innovation initiatives as part of their overall strategy.

These trends align with Quantive's mission to empower organizations with strategic agility and data-driven decision-making capabilities.

Actionable tips for strategic excellence

• Encourage cross-functional collaboration with digital tools: Create task forces with employees from different departments and use project management tools like Quantive StrategyAI’s Whiteboards for visual thinking and idea sharing.
• Foster a culture of innovation: Encourage creative thinking and embrace new ideas. Promote a culture where experimentation is valued, and failure is seen as a learning opportunity. Establish initiatives like innovation labs and idea management systems to support this mindset.
• Keep stakeholders engaged: Regularly update stakeholders on strategic progress and changes to keep them engaged, aware of strategic developments, and ready to pivot. This involves scheduling frequent strategy review meetings, sending out progress reports, and creating transparent communication channels.
• Stay flexible and ready to change: Make sure your business plans can bend without breaking. Keep an eye on what's happening in your market and be ready to shift gears when needed. Regularly check how your plans are working, and don't be afraid to make changes. Think of your strategy as a living thing that needs to grow and adapt, not a rigid set of rules. By staying nimble, you'll be better prepared to handle unexpected challenges and seize new opportunities as they arise.

How Quantive Helps You Master Strategic ManagementMastering Strategic Management: The Quantive Approach

At Quantive, we believe that effective strategic management is a continuous journey of learning and adaptation — and our strategy management platform helps your business achieve just that. 

Here's how we help business organizations drive success across each strategy management component:

Strategy development

• AI-powered insights: Quickly analyzes large amounts of information to provide strategic insights, helping to overcome decision paralysis.
• Context input: Allows secure uploading of internal documents to ensure decisions are based on current business realities.
• Expert analysis: Provides AI-driven analysis to support informed decision-making.
• Proven frameworks: Offers recommended analysis frameworks with AI assistance for in-depth strategic exploration.
• Simplified decisions: Presents analysis summaries to facilitate easier decision-making.
• Digital collaboration: Unites stakeholders in a digital space for faster alignment, consensus, and action on strategic decisions.
• Inclusive planning: Ensures the strategic context used for decision-making represents all stakeholders.
• Shared analysis: Allows for collaborative strategic analysis among team members.
• Actionable goals: Converts strategic decisions into comprehensive goals with defined ownership and outcomes.
• Insights summary: Provides summaries of strategic insights for easier understanding and communication.
• Agile planning: Links strategies to execution, making plans more nimble and consistent.
• Strategic alignment: Establishes clarity about priorities, ensuring alignment of strategy and sub-strategies across the organization.
• Growth opportunity identification: Uses AI-driven analysis to uncover growth opportunities that might otherwise be overlooked.
• Change navigation: Offers rapid, comprehensive analysis to help steer through multiple strategic paths effectively.

These features collectively aim to streamline the strategy development process, making it more data-driven and collaborative.

Strategy execution 

1. Initiative Planning

• Smart Digital Whiteboards: Allows leaders to collaborate in a virtual space with AI suggestions for goals and subgoals.
• Leverage Insights with Retrospectives: Uses AI to assist in goal setting and review past performance for future planning.

2. Alignment and Focus

• Alignment View: Visualizes how teams and individuals contribute to company objectives, aligning the organization around strategic goals.
• Cascading Key Results: Break down objectives into measurable key results.
• KPI Ownership: Ensures clear responsibility for key performance indicators.
• AI-Assisted Alignment: Utilizes AI to help align team efforts with strategic initiatives.

3. Flow of Work Integration

• Dynamic Updates: Automatically updates KPIs and goal progress, reducing manual errors.
• Integrations with Business Systems: Connects with existing systems for seamless data flow and updates.
• Automation: Streamlines processes to reduce cycle times and administrative burdens.

4. Team Engagement

• Comments and Reactions: Facilitates direct communication about objectives and progress through comments and reactions.
• Confidence Levels: Tracks team confidence in achieving goals.
• Mobile App: Provides on-the-go access to the platform.

These features collectively support strategic agility, effective planning,  focused execution , and continuous improvement, making Quantive StrategyAI a powerful tool for modern strategy management.

Strategy evaluation

• Real-time Insights: Provides continuous performance improvement through real-time data analysis.
• Smart Reporting: Offers insights and reports to empower faster decision-making and resource optimization.
• Executive Dashboards: Provide an aerial view of progress across teams and KPI movements.
• Metrics Dashboard: Allows tracking of key metrics.
• Progress Reports: Generates reports on strategic progress.
• Integrations and Automated Updates: Integrates with other systems and automates data updates.
• Business Reviews & Check-Ins: Enables transparency into strategic progress.
• Risk Identification: Helps identify potential risks to strategy execution.
• Meeting Streamlining: Facilitates efficient progress sharing and meeting management.
• Blocker Elimination: Helps identify and remove obstacles to strategy execution.
• Improvement Suggestions: Provides recommendations for strategy enhancement.
• Always-On Strategy Support: Facilitates continuous strategy adaptation and improvement.
• Strategic Planning Tools: Aids in strategy development and planning.
• Execution Tracking: Monitors the implementation of strategic initiatives.
• Adaptation Support: Helps businesses pivot and adapt strategies as needed.
• ROI Calculator: Offers a tool to calculate the return on investment of the platform.

These features collectively support  Quantive's aim to provide businesses with strategic agility and data-driven decision-making capabilities.

The Quantive difference

Quantive empowers modern organizations to turn their ambitions into reality through strategic agility. It's where strategy, teams, and data come together to drive effective decision-making, streamline execution, and maximize performance.    

As your company navigates today’s competitive landscape, you need an Always-On Strategy to continuously bridge the gap between current and desired business outcomes. Quantive brings together the technology, expertise, and passion for transforming your strategy and playbooks from a static formulation to a feedback-driven engine for growth.

Whether you’re a fast-growing scale-up, a mid-market business looking to conquer, or a large enterprise looking for innovation, Quantive keeps you ahead – every step of the way. Strategic management helps you lay out the future for your organization, and we help you master corporate level strategy. For more information on the strategic planning process and business management for business leaders, visit  www.quantive.com .

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Constructing a plan for long-term business success.

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Nouriel Gino Yazdinian is the CEO of  NY Elizabeth , a luxury online auction house with offices in the United States and United Kingdom.

The consistent, long-term success of a company hedges on a number of components that factor into the success or failure of a startup looking to reach the next level. Above everything else, the most underrated form of capital that you will ever possess is your mind and sheer willpower.

As the CEO of NY Elizabeth, I have been able to be methodic and apply laser focus in order to realize the success that we have achieved today. But initially, I was armed only with a dream and a few wishful goals that were designed to take me five years into the future. Every step of the way, I found I had to reconfigure expectations and execute in unforeseen ways in order to properly set the direction of the business and utilize short-term objectives to achieve long-term goals. To get to where I am today, I had to have a goal in mind, and I used some methods that can also help others succeed long term.

Your primary focus should be on clients.

Offering customers the best solutions that are tailored to their specific needs is one of the best ways to ensure growth. Satisfied customers are more likely to remain loyal and bring a business repeat business as well as invaluable word-of-mouth marketing that generates revenue in the long term. My primary objective is to always provide quality customer support and utilize effective data that breaks down exactly what our customers need and pinpoint areas where we can improve the services we extend to our clients. In my experience, placing customers first impacts every area of the business and creates an environment that is inviting and easier to lay a foundation to build upon in the future.

Never be afraid to expand into new opportunities.

The plan I initially had in mind served as a blueprint for the future, and by using the economic resources available to me as well as the advice of those that came before me, I was able to quickly ascend to the next level by staying true to my vision while also keeping an eye on future trends that have impacted the art world. As one of their primary missions, an entrepreneur should always be broadening the scope and scale of their products and services over time in ways that play to the core strengths of the company.

Be willing to take the plunge toward a new demographic.

What you offer your clients today may not be what they want in the future, and who your clients are today may not be the best type of client for your company in the future. Any business that wishes to succeed long term must recognize this and act accordingly in order to alleviate any problems as the business ages. For example, the art industry has traditionally been regarded as a place for only the rich and older generations, but at NY Elizabeth, we tapped into younger generations that want to invest in art, presenting them with the opportunity in an industry that has by and large been denied to them. A firm marketing plan that researched their desires enabled us access to this growing market in ways that will benefit us in the future as the world moves toward a more digitized business model.

Put a winning team in place.

No successful business ever makes it on the strength of just one person. A bonafide team that can meet the demands of the industry is what it takes to make a long-term run that reaps the rewards of diligence. It is crucial to assemble a team capable of handling the influx of business at the level expected for true growth and expansion. Depending on the nature of the company, a specialized development and employee onboarding program may be necessary in order to fulfill the needs of consumers.

Never fear the advent of new technology.

With my previous career in tech, I have always been a huge proponent of advocating for the incorporation of whatever programs that can enhance and expand my business and take it to the next level. Businesses that lack the proper technology are doomed before they even really get started, and in the best-case scenario, their capacity to reach the intended audience is limited. There is no reason in the current era to settle for diminished returns with so much useful technology at your fingertips.

Maintain or increase profit margins steadily over time.

Of course, every business wants to be successful and report increases in revenue, and it is crucial that the profit margin of your business remain stable or increase incrementally in order to be deemed a success. The long-term goal of an entity should be maintaining the margin with profit goals as a part of intricate financial planning. Incremental increases allow businesses to ramp up productivity along with motivating the entire team to strive for bigger and better goals to reach.

There is no shame in starting small.

The adage "go big or go home" is not one that business owners should necessarily ascribe to as it is not always as simple as that for many companies. No matter what your particular goals may be or their magnitude, the fact is that starting up any initiative is empowering, and the right ingredients in place can lead to success.

Ask yourself some key questions.

Imagine and plan now for the future success of your business and be prepared to ask yourself the questions that will enable you to achieve what you envision.

• Where would you like to see yourself in five years? Ten years?

• What policies are you setting in place to realize your vision?

• How are you creating solutions for tomorrow's issues facing your industry?

• What steps are being executed to stay connected to your client base?

• How do you feel about the future of your business, both personally and professionally?

Ultimately, your long-term goals now are the early building blocks to creating a successful plan that yields the results you desire.

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As interest rates fall, long-term CD rates won't stay above 4% APY for long. What should you do with your cash?

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• A long-term CD needs to fit with your financial goal and risk tolerance to be worthwhile. 
• A CD ladder can help you take advantage of long-term and short-term CD rates. 
• People comfortable taking more risk likely won't find long-term CD rates compelling enough.

The best CD rates for terms of three to five years are above 4% APY, but you won't be seeing them for much longer.

The CD interest rate environment is changing. The Fed is expected to cut rates soon, possibly at the next meeting in September.

"As rates typically do fall, we're going to see banks get less competitive about keeping cash on hand," explains Lauren Williams, CFP® professional and cofounder of ProsperPlan Wealth .

Short-term CDs still have some way to go, with top rates still hovering around 5% APY, but there's less room for competitive rates on long-term CDs. This begs the question: Is it worth it to open long-term CD right now, or are there better options?

Should I lock in longer-term CD rates now?

Locking in a long-term CD rate could be a good option if it fits your financial goals and you want to keep money in a low-risk place.

For example, Williams says that a long-term CD could be suitable for a more conservative investor who cannot stomach participating in the overall stock market.

CDs like Lafayette Federal Credit Union 3 Year Certificate (4.52% APY),  Department of Commerce Federal Credit Union 3 Year Share CD (4.50% APY), and  First Internet Bank of Indiana 5 Year CD (4.35% APY) are still offering strong rates on cash.

However, people who are comfortable taking more risk may not find long-term CD rates as appealing as other options.

"If you don't need the money for more than three years, you're probably going to want to look to something that's going to have a better growth rate long term," adds Williams.

Furthermore, while CD interest is offered at a fixed rate and guaranteed as long the account reaches maturity, it might not be worth tying up your money for a longer term.

"We are in an environment still where short-term rates are higher than what's paid long term. The reason why is banks don't want to commit to paying fixed rates beyond a certain period of time," says Marguerita Cheng, CFP® professional and CEO at Blue Ocean Global Wealth .

One solution that allows you to take advantage of both short-term and long-term CD rates is building a CD ladder , folding in high-rate, shorter-term CDs like USALLIANCE FINANCIAL 1 Year Online CD (5.20% APY), Sterling Federal Bank 3 Month CD (5.10% APY), or Freedom Bank 6 Month CD, powered by Raisin (5.00% APY).

"The benefit of the CD ladder is is you are having money mature on a regular basis, and you're minimizing interest rate risk," says Cheng.

CD ladders require maintenance, though. You'll have to stay on top of various maturity dates to avoid early withdrawal penalties and reassess whether each CD renewal is the best option for you. If you don't want to commit to maintaining a CD ladder, there are alternative options to long-term CDs.

Alternative options to long-term CDs

If you're seeking a low-risk account, Treasury bills, or T-bills, are an alternative option to CDs. Williams says she typically favors T-bills over CDs because they have more favorable tax rates on income.

CD earnings are taxed as ordinary income, so your rate will depend on what tax bracket you're in . In comparison, you have to pay federal taxes on interest earned on a T-bill but not state taxes, which could be more beneficial.

Something to keep in mind is that Treasury bills aren't protected by FDIC insurance like CDs. With a CD, you know that your account balance is federally insured for up to $250,000 in individual bank accounts and $500,000 in joint bank accounts. Treasury bills are backed by the full faith of the U.S. government, though, so they are still low-risk and secure, overall.

You can also consider other types of fixed-income investments , however, you'll need to assess risk tolerance to decide if another type of investment is worthwhile.

If you're more focused on having access to your money, a high-yield savings account can be another option. 

"There's nothing wrong with erring on the side of caution. If you think that you need to have a little bit more cash, it's true that it may not earn as much in a high-yield savings account, but remember, in a high-yield savings account, you can get your money," says Cheng. 

Even though they have a variable interest rate, high-yield savings accounts allow you to deposit and withdraw money at any time. The best high-yield savings account rates are also still around 5% APY.

How to decide the best option in a declining interest rate environment

As rates are declining, it's important to look at your overall financial strategy and consider individual financial goals. Having a concrete idea of when you'll need money to reach a certain goal, can also help you assess risk tolerance.

For example, if you're planning on buying a house soon, Cheng says it's important to avoid taking on market or investment risk.

"Maybe the Fed will start cutting rates. They indicated that they're making an improvement with inflation . They are meeting in September. We have no idea if they'll cut it by 25 basis points or 50 basis points," says Cheng.

To help narrow down safe investment options, you can compare opening requirements, interest earnings potential, fees, and account accessibility.

Overall, a changing interest rate environment gives you a chance to examine your money and decide if it could be in a better place.

Long-term CD FAQs

A long-term CD is a bank account that lets you lock in a fixed interest rate for several years. Many banks offer long-term CDs of two years, three years, and five years. You may also find terms as long as 10 years at a few places.

A long-term CD could be worth it if it fits your overall financial strategy and want to earn guaranteed interest for a specific purpose. A long-term CD may also be a good option for anyone who prefers keeping money in a low-risk account. It may not be worthwhile if you need an account with more liquidity, or want higher returns.

The biggest disadvantage of long-term CDs is that you have to keep money in your account until it reaches maturity. You also can't make additional deposits unless you've opened an add-on CD .

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Harris cautiously rolls out policy, aiming to outmaneuver Trump and address 2020 liabilities

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, center, arrives to board Air Force Two at San Francisco International Airport, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, Pool)

FILE - A tip jar contains one dollar and five dollar bills, Sept. 6, 2017 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is trying to outmaneuver former President Donald Trump and address old vulnerabilities on her policy positions as she starts to fill in how she would govern if elected in November.

Vice presidents rarely have policy portfolios of their own — and almost always set aside any views that differ from those of the Oval Office occupant. Now, after four years of following President Joe Biden’s lead, Harris is taking a cautious approach to unveiling a policy vision in her own right.

But her surprise ascendance to the top of the ticket after Biden dropped his reelection bid also means her policy platform is being pulled together just as quickly.

When Harris inherited Biden’s political operation in late July, the campaign’s website was quietly scrubbed of the six-point “issues” page that framed the race against Trump, including expanding voting protections and restoring nationwide access to abortion. Instead, Harris has peppered her speeches — so far heavy on biography for herself and her running mate — with broad goals like “building up the middle class.” She has called for federal laws to provide abortion access and ban assault-style weapons, but has been thin on the details of what specifically they would entail or how she would persuade Congress to make progress on some of the most hot-button political issues.

Asked by reporters on Saturday when she would unveil her policy platform, Harris promised more details this week and added, “It’ll be focused on the economy and what we need to do to bring down costs and also strengthen the economy overall.”

The first major window into her thinking came this past weekend, with a proposal pulled not from the policy backwaters of the Biden administration or the cutting-room floor of the legislative process but from her rival: Trump.

Harris announced that she, like Trump, wants to end federal taxation of tipped earnings for workers — with the added caveat that she would limit the plan to those in the lower- and middle incomes. The idea has drawn bipartisan support in recent months and is particularly salient in service industry-heavy Nevada.

It’s also one of the most prominent ideas embraced by Trump in his 2024 bid to get back into the White House — a bonus in the view of the Harris camp, which has tried to needle the Republican into making unforced errors.

The Republican was none too amused by Harris endorsing the idea, complaining on his social media platform that “This was a TRUMP idea - She has no ideas, she can only steal from me.”

Trump continued on the matter in an interview with Elon Musk on Monday night, criticizing Harris for adopting his idea after what he claimed was harassment by the Biden administration of tipped workers.

On Monday, the White House said that Biden backed the plan too, though White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wouldn’t address why Biden and Harris didn’t push for it during their first three-and-a-half years in office.

“Obviously, it’s a new idea,” she said, but added later in response to criticism from Trump, “Why didn’t they pass it during the last administration?”

In her first weeks as a candidate, Harris’ most pronounced policy moves have been to back away from liberal stances she took in her failed 2020 bid for the White House, including proposals to ban fracking, establish a single-payer healthcare system and decriminalize illegal border crossings. Harris dropped out of that heated race before a single vote had been cast but recognizes that voters now could punish her for those stances if not quickly addressed.

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Another complication for Harris comes from her relationship with Biden, who quickly endorsed her and handed her the keys to his political operation after he dropped out.

“The last three and a half years, they’ve been in sync,” said Jean-Pierre. “They have been certainly on the same page. And I presume that that will continue from here.”

Biden himself only began outlining detailed policy ideas for a second term during his final, frenzied effort to salvage his candidacy after his disastrous June 27 debate against Trump. He advocated for restoring abortion access, raising the federal minimum wage and passing a new surtax on billionaires. Harris has largely embraced all those priorities, including the incumbent’s call for changes to the Supreme Court.

But all those plans would require congressional support, which proved elusive even when Democrats held unified control of Washington during the first two years of the Biden-Harris administration.

Harris’ campaign, meanwhile, suggested that her attempted shifts to the center are reflective of how she would try to bring consensus to government.

“While Donald Trump is wedded to the extreme ideas in his Project 2025 agenda, Vice President Harris believes real leadership means bringing all sides together to build consensus,” said Harris spokesman Kevin Munoz. “It is that approach that made it possible for the Biden-Harris administration to achieve bipartisan breakthroughs on everything from infrastructure to gun violence prevention. As President, she will take that same pragmatic approach, focusing on common-sense solutions for the sake of progress.”

While Trump in recent weeks has resorted to personal and racially tinged attacks on his new rival, his campaign has been working to put Harris’ policy aims front and center, aiming to paint Harris as a radical liberal, pointing to old videos of her discussing policy positions during the 2020 Democratic primary.

“Kamala Harris has flip-flopped on virtually every policy she has supported and lived by for her entire career, from the Border to Tips, and the Fake News Media isn’t reporting it,” Trump posted Sunday. “She sounds more like Trump than Trump, copying almost everything. She is conning the American public, and will flip right back. I will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! There will be no flipping!!!”

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.