Starting a business is a risky venture and requires a lot of effort and preparation. It is hard to picture an expedition aiming to climb Everest without planning and without objectives. It's hard to imagine Christopher Columbus crossing the Atlantic without a minimum of preparation. Objectives represent the results you want to achieve. For example, we can aim to climb Everest or cross the Atlantic by sail.
Goals serve to guide action, but they also serve as motivation. For this reason, it is important that they are realistic. Goals that are difficult to achieve will have a negative impact on motivation, while goals that are too easy to achieve will also have the same impact on motivation.
Goals should be realistic and measurable given the environment and available resources. For example, objectives can be set in terms of profitability (5% net profit), market share (1.5% market share) or human resources management (a turnover rate of less than 5%) .
The important thing in determining objectives is to establish well or we will arrive at the right place.
SHORT-TERM OBJECTIVES
Short-term goals are business goals over a one-year period. It should be measurable and have a timeline. For example, a short-term sales goal might be to achieve monthly sales of $15,000 for the first six months and $17,000 for the rest of the year.
MEDIUM-TERM OBJECTIVES
Mid-term goals represent the company's goals over a 2-3 year period. For example, a goal can be set to achieve a market share of 10% in the next two years and to increase market share by 1% per year thereafter for up to 5 years.
LONG-TERM OBJECTIVES
Long-term goals are usually overall goals based on the company's vision. We generally consider long-term objectives over a period of 5 years. For example, we can mention that one of the long-term objectives of the company is to double the turnover within 5 years or that 50% of the turnover will come from outside the country of 5 years here.