Business Planning Basics: Business Goals

Now you have a mission statement that says where you are and a vision statement that tells where you want to get to, so you're ready to flesh out the business planning framework by creating the business goals that are going to get you there.


The right business goals follow three goal setting rules.


1) Business goals need to be relevant.


Business owners sometimes make the mistake of choosing business goals that are pointless. For instance, one person I know once set a business goal to hand out one hundred business cards a month. Well he did, but so what? If his intention was to bring in more business, we all know that the way to do that is to establish relationships with people, and you don’t accomplish that by just handing someone a card. The whole exercise was just a waste of time.


To be relevant, a business goal has to be profitable in some fashion. That’s not to say that every business goal has to be measurable in dollars and cents, but it does have to possess a clear advantage or benefit to your business.

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