Have you set any short-term goals lately? If you’re like most entrepreneurs and business leaders, you have a long to-do list. But, it’s important to stop and think about the big picture.
Short-term business goals you set for yourself and your business that you hope to achieve in a short period of time. This can be as short as a few weeks or as long as a year. There are many reasons why short-term goals are important. These types of objectives provide quick wins. This means that as you seek to achieve your long-term and mid-term business goals, you have shorter goals that provide small wins along the way.
Short-term goals can also serve as milestones toward your larger goals. If you have big, ambitious goals for your business, you can take steps toward them by lining up smaller, short-term goals to achieve.
Over the next few weeks, months, or even next year, what do you hope to accomplish? If you don’t know where to start, here are some examples of short-term business goals to think about.
Improve operational processes
Although it may seem that the improvement of operational processes is a non-financial business objective, the way a business operates directly affects its ability to make money. Especially when it comes to being profitable. Your operational process is how you and your company do things. This means how you manage your website, develop your product, find leads, manage inventory, as well as many other things.
You may have a product or service that is in high demand, but if the way you operate your business behind the scenes is antiquated and disorganized, you could be wasting time and material resources.
A good short-term goal would be to improve operational processes this week, month, quarter or year. You can start with the small things. For example, improve the way you improve your product fulfillment process this week. Ask yourself “How long do orders take to fulfill?” Then look for a way to shorten that time.
Look for small improvements throughout the year and you will eventually develop a smoother operational process that will help streamline the business.
Increase sales revenue for this quarter
Planning for your business to be profitable must be intentional. So, start now by creating a goal to increase sales revenue for this quarter.
If you’re not sure how you’re going to achieve this goal, think about these questions:
- What products do customers buy? now?
- What products they are not are they buying
- Are there seasonal trends affecting the business?
- What are our competitors doing better than us?
There are also many other ways to increase income. You can increase the prices of your most popular offers. You can also increase your advertising and marketing budget to generate revenue. Setting a short-term revenue goal will allow you to see the hidden potential of your business. Seeing what it takes to meet your short-term financial goals will help you understand what it takes to help your business scale.
Hire “X” amount of employees this year
Committing to hiring the right number of employees can help you achieve other goals for your business. Not having enough employees on board will only prevent you from achieving your other business goals.
For example, if your goal is to sell X number of units, but you are understaffed, your company will miss the production goal. Or, you will pay your current employees more in overtime costs.
Make sure you place the right person in each role. These new hires can be fundamental creating a great culture, and ultimately cultivate a great reputation for your company. Creating a referral program for your current employees to refer their friends is an easy way to find great talent.
Expanding your team is a key startup business objective. However, all companies that want to have the right employees on staff should set short-term hiring goals.
Improve customer retention
It costs more to get a new customer than to keep an existing one. The effort and time invested in marketing and other endeavors makes it expensive. Smart businesses know not to take their current customer base for granted.
How can you improve customer retention? Here are some strategies:
- Marketing through a customer loyalty program: Reward customers for repeat purchases.
- Discounts and Promo Codes: Even though many companies have done away with coupons, some customers still use them and are attracted to a coupon or promo code to use on a future purchase.
- Exceptional customer service: When employees are rude to customers or don’t seem to care, a business will easily lose customers. Not all customers will complain. Some will leave your business and never come back. After all, there is plenty of competition ready to satisfy your wants and needs.
Expand your online presence for “X”
How would you describe your online strategy? Due to the importance and competitiveness of online marketing, expanding your online presence is one important first year goal for any business.
If you’ve done it all yourself, it might be time to hire an online expert. It may be time to expand your online presence as a target.
Why should you make this a priority? There are several reasons. Expanding your online presence will allow you to target more customers, show more people who you are, and get more sales.
This online presence will improve your credibility. A basic level of trust, credibility, or familiarity must be established before many people will even make a purchase from you. After all, you wouldn’t just hand over your money to a stranger, would you? Customers need to know they can trust your company. They want to know:
- Will you get what I asked for?
- Will they just steal my credit card information?
- If there is a problem with my order, will they fix it?
There are more reasons to improve your online presence, including:
- Reach your target customers
- Make the people you are hiring aware of
- Reminding existing customers to buy from you again
- Convert ads to sales
Increase employee productivity this month
Increasing employee productivity is another short-term goal you can set at some point. However, to ensure success in this area, make sure your employees have what they need to succeed in their jobs. Make sure your employees are familiar with any safety regulations applicable to their industry. Confirm that everyone has the tools they need to do their jobs.
Test the new product idea of the year
Testing a new product idea is another short-term goal. If this goal is successful, it could result in the launch of a new product that could increase sales. You want to test your idea thoroughly before releasing it to the public.
You want to think about the products you are selling that have already been successful. What do customers love? What similar products could you launch that were similar? Are there products you make, or made by a vendor/supplier, that could be sold as a pair to what you’re selling now?
Think coffee makers. The Keurig coffee maker has become very popular. But to use it, you need the pods. The pods contain coffee. Is there anything you can sell that would be considered a pair? Think of ways you can solve a problem or make life easier for your customers. If you can, chances are you can create a successful new product.
Diversify the year’s income
If you’ve already increased your quarterly income, another goal to consider is diversifying that income. Diversifying income means that you get income from different sources. This can be done without launching a new product, however. Although this is certainly one way to do it. But what this really means is diversifying how you make money and where your money comes from.
One way to diversify is to simply find other places to make money. If you have an e-commerce store, you can diversify your income streams by also selling on marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, and eBay. You can also offer products within your niche. For example, if you have a clothing brand, you can also sell accessories to complement your line.
Diversification of income is important for all businesses. From restaurants to tech companies. Every business owner must understand that a source of income puts a business at risk of failure if that source is cut off. As a short-term goal, finding other sources can help minimize future financial risks.
conclusion
Short-term business goals help entrepreneurs increase their chances of success. For set short-term goals, leaders will envision what they want the near future to look like and plan accordingly.
Read also:
6 Types of Business Goals You Should Understand
8 entrepreneurship goals to establish
Staff Writer: Erin Shelby is a writer and blogger based in Ohio. Follow her on Twitter @ByErinShelby
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Item tags:
Business Goals · Business Opportunities · Featured · Find Your Way · Grow Your Business · Leadership · Your Mindset
Article categories:
Find your way · Grow your business · Lead your team · Productivity · Your mindset
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Ikaroa is a full stack tech company that understands the importance of setting short-term business goals in order to ensure overall success. Here, we look at 8 short-term business goals examples that can help any business gain traction quickly.
1. Analyzing customer feedback: Ikaroa has a customer feedback tool which enables businesses to get valuable insights into customer satisfaction which can help them better understand what their customers’ needs are.
2. Increasing online visibility: Ikaroa provides its clients with the tools to increase their website’s visibility through search engine optimization (SEO). This helps businesses drive more traffic to their website and enhances their visibility on the web by making them easier to find.
3. Enhancing customer retention: Ikaroa’s Artificial Intelligence-based analysis tool helps businesses retain existing customers by trying to understand their behaviors and preferences. This way, businesses can develop a tailored customer retention strategy which could grow their customer base.
4. Building a culture of collaboration: Ikaroa’s corporate collaboration tools help businesses foster an environment of creativity and innovate by providing their employees with the tools to easily collaborate and communicate with each other.
5. Strengthening customer relationships: Ikaroa provides its clients with customer relationship management tools which enables businesses to track customer interactions and help build stronger connections with their customers. By understanding customer behavior better, businesses can deliver a better customer experience.
6. Finding new revenue streams: Ikaroa’s powerful data analytics tools help businesses discover trends and insights which allow businesses to uncover new sources of revenue.
7. Improving operational efficiency: Ikaroa’s operational workflow tools help businesses streamline their processes, saving time and money.
8. Enhancing product development: Ikaroa’s product management tools enable businesses to get valuable insights into product feasibility and customer preferences. By understanding customer needs better, businesses can quickly develop products that are more likely to be successful.
No matter what size of business you have, Ikaroa provides the tools to help you achieve short-term goals quickly and successfully. When you set short-term goals, you should focus on specific objectives that are achievable within a short period of time. The examples provided above are just a few ways Ikaroa can help your business succeed.
