business plan short term goals

Examples of Effective Short-Term, Mid-Term, and Long-Term Business Goals

By Kate Eby | September 7, 2023

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Setting effective goals is vital to your business’s success. Good goals help organizations move forward and keep employees on track. We’ve talked with experts and gathered examples of solid short-term, mid-term, and long-term business goals.

Included on this page, you’ll find examples of long-term , mid-term , and short-term business goals and how they work together. Plus, check out an easy-to-read chart on which framework is best for setting time-based goals and a free, downloadable goal-setting worksheet that can help your team create your goals.

Common Time Ranges for Different Business Goals

Companies set large overarching goals to achieve in two to five years. To attain long-term goals, set goals with shorter time frames that work toward the long-term objective. Depending on the type of goal, some experts might refer to it as a strategy or an objective . However, there is a difference between a goal, an objective , and a strategy. 

Examples of Long-Term Business Goals

Long-term goals focus on the big-picture vision for the future of the organization, generally covering two years or longer. They typically don’t cover more than five years, since the business and technology environment can change drastically after that time frame.

Long-term goals are more aspirational and might not have the specificity of short-term and mid-term goals. “These goals ought to be aligned with the overall vision of the company,” says Izzy Galicia, President and CEO of global professional services firm the Incito Consulting Group and an expert in Lean enterprise transformation.

The long-term goals also must be realistic. “We know from the literature and practical experience that you want goals that are challenging, but they're also achievable. You don't want to have a goal that people don't buy into at all, or it's just so outrageous that you can't possibly achieve it,” explains Lee Frederiksen, managing partner of Virginia-based Hinge Marketing and former Director for Strategy and Organizational Development at Ernst & Young.

Here are four examples of long-term business goals:

• Increase Sales: A common long-term goal is to increase sales significantly. A company might establish a long-term goal of increasing total sales by 40 percent in three years.
• Become Niche Leader: Another company might have its sights on becoming dominant in its industry. It would set a long-term goal of becoming the leader in its market niche in four years.
• Expand Company Locations: Adding storefronts over the next few years is also a common long-term goal. A company with that aim would set a long-term goal of expanding its one restaurant location to four locations in four years.
• Create and Develop a Non-Profit Entity: An organization or group of people can also establish a long-term goal of establishing a successful nonprofit organization focused on environmental conservation.

Examples of Mid-Term Business Goals

Mid-term goals help an organization meet a long-term goal. They can take an organization six months to two years or so to reach. 

Here are examples of mid-term goals that will help a company reach a specific long-term goal: 

A company’s long-term goal is to open three more restaurants in the next four years. These examples are some of the mid-term goals they would need to achieve first:

• Systematize Standard Operating Procedures for Running the Restaurant: The mid-term goal would be to document and systematize its standard operating procedures to efficiently operate its original restaurant within a year.
• Develop a Hiring Process That Attracts Talented Employees: The company sets a goal of developing and implementing a hiring process to attract committed employees in the next 14 months. 
• Research and Evaluate the Best Locations to Open the New Restaurants: The company would set a goal of continually scouting and evaluating possible locations for new restaurants over the next two years.

A group of people have the goal of creating a successful nonprofit organization in five years. Here are some examples of mid-term goals they would set and meet first:

• Establish Partnerships with Local Environmental Organizations: The group of people would like to start a nonprofit focused on environmental conservation. A mid-term goal would be to develop and establish partnerships with key local environmental organizations within the next two years.
• Develop and Implement a Solid Fundraising Strategy: The nonprofit needs funding to be successful. The organization would set a mid-term goal of developing an effective fundraising strategy within the next 18 months.
• Build a Dedicated Team of Volunteers: To help it reach its long-term goal of establishing a successful nonprofit focused on environmental conservation, the organization would set a goal of building a system to attract and retain volunteers for the organization within the next year.

Examples of Short-Term Business Goals

Short-term business goals encompass work that helps an organization reach its mid-term goals. These goals are often meant to be reached in a month or a quarter. Some might take six months or so to accomplish. Only one department — or even only one worker — might work on some short-term goals.

Some experts call short-term goals objectives. They might call the shortest short-term goals tactics . (Learn more about the differences between business goals vs. business objectives and strategies vs. tactics .)

“If one of my goals is to develop a content strategy — so that more people are aware of my company — I can't jump into Year Three and say, ‘I have a content strategy,’” shares Keith Speers, CEO of Consulting Without Limits , which provides business consulting, leadership coaching, fractional leadership, and other consulting services. “Part of that one- to three-year plan is developing my audience, curating them, creating content, and establishing myself as someone who's a thought leader in a specific field. All of that requires establishing short-term goals or objectives.”

The short-term goals or objectives are “more about the measurable steps or actions to take in order to reach that (mid- or long-term) goal,” states Marco Scanu, a business coach and CEO of Miami-based Visa Business Plans , a consulting firm providing attorneys and investors with business planning services.

Here are examples of short-term goals to build toward achieving the mid-term goals associated with expanding a company’s restaurant count from one to four: 

• Assemble a Team to Develop a Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Document for Current and Future Locations: To help reach the goal of systematizing its SOP for running its original restaurant, the company would set a short-term goal of developing a SOP document for the company’s original and future locations by the end of the next quarter.
• Work With an HR Consultant to Attract and Retain Qualified Staff: To reach the mid-term goal of developing a hiring process that attracts talented workers who will stay with the company, the business would set a goal of hiring and working with a human resources consultant to find ways to attract and retain employees within the next month.
• Create an Internal Team to Improve Compensation and Increase Retention: To reach the goal of developing a prosperous hiring process, the company would set a short-term goal of forming an internal team to assess ways to improve employee compensation and retention within the next two months.
• Research Demographic/Economic Trends in the Metro Area: To achieve the goal of researching and evaluating the best locations for new restaurants, the company would set a short-term goal of researching demographic and economic trends within neighborhoods where they want to add new restaurants.
• Work With a Real Estate Agency to Find Potential Buildings: To complete the mid-term goal of researching and evaluating the best locations for new restaurants, the company would set a goal of hiring and working with a real estate agency within the next two weeks. The real estate agent would continually search for good locations for possible new restaurants.

Here are examples of short-term goals necessary for a group of people to create a successful environmental conservation nonprofit:

• Research and Identify Potential Partner Organizations and Establish Connections: To reach the mid-term goal of establishing partnerships with local environmental organizations, the founding group would set a goal of identifying specific organizations that might be good partners and connecting with their representatives in the next six weeks.
• Research Grant Applications, Methods for Individual Donations, and Fundraising Events: To reach the goal of developing a solid fundraising strategy, the organization would set a short-term goal of researching the elements of  a fundraising plan that includes grant applications, individual donations, and fundraising events.
• Identify and Collect Contact Details of Potential Volunteers: To build a dedicated team of volunteers, the organization would set a goal of meeting and collecting contact details of potential volunteers over the next four months.

Examples of Short- and Mid-Term Business Goals Contributing to Long-Term Goals

These examples break down how to strategically set short- and mid-term goals to achieve a company’s long-term more visionary goals. “I think of short-term and mid-term goals as stepping stones to your long-term goals, things you have to accomplish to be able to get to the next goal,” Frederiksen explains.

• Short-Term Goal: Use customer relationship management (CRM) software to gather better information about potential and existing customers.
• Short-Term Goal: Increase production of website content.
• Short-Term Goal: Create and implement a new Google ad strategy.
• Short-Term Goal: Establish an engineering and product team to tweak product features.
• Short-Term Goal: Hire a new vice president of sales. 
• Short-Term Goal: Add three new members to the overseas sales team.
• Short-Term Goal: Hire a rebranding consultant.
• Short-Term Goal: Hire a contractor to lead the website redesign.
• Short-Term Goal: Find more opportunities for the new CEO to speak at industry events.
• Short-Term Goal: Become a key sponsor of an annual industry conference.
• Short-Term Goal: Empower the marketing vice president to pursue other sponsorship opportunities.

Business Goal-Setting Frameworks

When setting goals, it helps to use an established framework. Experts point out that, in setting business goals, people most often use one of five goal frameworks . Those frameworks are SMART, management by objectives (MBO), objectives and key results (OKR), key results areas (KRA) , or big hairy audacious goals (BHAG). Here are details on each of these business goal-setting frameworks and which goal length they work best for:

Which Business Goal-Setting Framework to Use

Learn more about goal-setting frameworks and use goal-setting and goal-tracking templates to get started working on your goals.

Business Goals Worksheet Template for Excel

Download the Business Goals Worksheet Template for Excel

Use this free template to guide your team in setting long-, mid-, and short-term business goals. Identify long-term goals, and then the mid-term and short-term goals that serve them. You have room to add any tasks and actions that must be completed to reach those goals. The downloadable worksheet is fully customizable.

Improve Your Goal-Setting With Real-Time Work Management in Smartsheet

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

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.

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

40 Short-Term Business Goals Examples to Set in 2023

• OKR - Objectives & Key Results

For more than 10 years Weekdone has provided tens of thousands of teams from startups to Fortune 500 with world leading goal-setting software called Weekdone . These are our lessons learned.

Short-term business goals should be a road map that shows where you want to go. Setting short-term goals for a business can get a bit trickier. As they must be very clear, practical, and easily understandable for employees. That is why we’ve compiled 40 + examples of short-term business goals and objectives in this article. Feel free to try them out in Weekdone for free.

What’s more, when setting business objectives you must always keep the long game in mind. Otherwise you might stray from the really impactful daily tasks.

How to Set Business Goals with OKRs

For setting business goals, you can use the popular Objectives and Key Results ( OKR ) method. This is an increasingly flexible methodology for increasing your own and your team’s productivity and focus. In simple terms, OKR is an easy process of setting company, team, and personal goals then connecting each goal with 3-5 measurable results.

Objectives should be qualitative and describe the desired outcome. Make it inspirational and understandable to those reading and working toward it! Key Results are the quantifiable measures that help explain how from reaching your Objective you are – adding metrics to Objectives.

Set OKR Goals in Weekdone

Use the popular OKR goal management framework in a dedicated OKR software with OKR examples to get teams on the right track from day one!

Examples of Short Term (Quarterly) OKRs

Here are some of the example business Objectives you can find also from our resource: okrexamples.co

Objective: Research and improve customer satisfaction. Key Result #1: Achieve Net Promoter Score (NPS) of over 8.0. Key Result #2: Get 1000 survey responses to annual satisfaction survey. Key Result #3: Conduct 50 phone interviews with top customers. Key Result #4: Conduct 15 phone interviews with recently churned customers. Key Result #5: Present an action plan of 10 improvements for next quarter. Sign up to add this goal to Weekdone

Objective: Improve internal employee engagement. Key Result #1: Conduct 3 monthly “Fun Friday” all-hands meetings with motivational speakers. Key Result #2: Interview 48 employees on their needs for improving our work culture. Key Result #3: Implement using OKRs and Weekdone software in all of our 23 teams. Key Result #4: Reach weekly employee satisfaction score of at least 4.7 points. Sign up to add this goal to Weekdone

Objective: Successfully launch version 3 of our main product. Key Result #1: Get over 10000 new signups. Key Result #2: Get published product reviews in over 15 publications. Key Result #3: Achieve sign-up to trial ratio of over 25%. Key Result #4: Achieve trial to paid ratio of over 50%. Sign up to add this goal to Weekdone

40 Examples of Short Term Business Goals

In the next 40 examples, we’ll consider the SMART goals criteria. Meaning a suitable goal will follow the SMART formula: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timed.

1. Gain X New Customers by the end of X month

Setting business goals in the short term is generally from 1-3 months time. Usually, setting a 3 month (quarterly) period is a good timeframe to satisfy the: achievable, realistic, and timed aspects of the SMART criteria. You’ll gain enough meaningful data to start making better decisions for your company as well.

With all that in mind, ask yourself, when do you want these customers? How many new customers do you want? How can teams set goals to drive this forward as well?

2. Increase Revenue by X Amount This Month

Another great short-term goal to have as a business is to increase your revenue. More revenue = more profits 💵

Set a realistic goal for the amount of revenue you believe you could make in a month.

Note: Before you set your goal, first look at what you’ve done in the past to ensure it really is realistic. If you do reach this goal, you can always make the next month’s goal more ambitious.

Related: Weekdone helps you define your ambitions when setting OKRs since you can set your Objective (goal) with a related confidence level and type! How confident are you that you’ll achieve this goal?

Moonshot: Otherwise known as “stretch goals”, are seemingly impossible to achieve. Forcing you to shoot for the moon (get it?!) and everyone contributing to the success of this goal out of their comfort zone. Aim for 70% achievement here!

Roofshot: These are your more “committed” goals. Maybe you’ve achieved this target before, but it’s been some time. You’re in your comfort zone, but still want to achieve 100%. That’s your drive!

Read more about the difference between aspirational and committed goals.

3. Successfully Host an Event

As a small business owner, a great way to market yourself is by setting business goals that center around hosting events.

While the above goal is a bit broad, you would have to take the event itself and center a more specific and actionable goal around the event.

To use an OKR example for this short term goal, we could frame it like this:

Objective: Host a successful golf tournament with at least 70% attendance Key Result #1: Distribute invitations to 100% of customers Key Result #2: Sign contracts with 12 industry partnerships/sponsors Key Result #3: Raise $50,000 for X charity associated with tournament Sign up to add this goal to Weekdone

Key Results help you to break down the Objective into more “bite-sized pieces”. Within each measurable Key Result, you will have various activities that help you make progress toward achieving those targeted outcomes! Using OKRs helps you keep weekly focus on your short term and long term goals.

4. Increase Employee Retention Through the End of the Fiscal Year

If you are a business that sees many employees come and go throughout the year, it’s a good idea to make one of your goals centered around employee retention to reduce turnover.

Whether you choose to put in an incentive program or go through the ropes to find something that makes employees happier like scheduling team-building activities or something else of the sort, setting a goal to keep your employees around is a great way to help the business grow!

5. Reduce Monthly Expenses this Quarter

If you notice that you are spending a lot of money each month, a great short-term goal is to reduce monthly expenses. Review your current expenses to see what you are spending money on, but once you do that, you should be able to eliminate some of the heftier expenses that you realize aren’t needed.

Thinking outside of the box to manage monthly expenses can benefit your business.

6. Create a Budget Tracker

If your business doesn’t have a budget tracker or dedicated accountant, this is a great short term goal! This is the only way to visualize how you’re spending is going and how you can allocate resources better for the next goal term, or quarter.

There are many programs you can use for budget tracking as well as simply using Excel. Just remember to document every single expense so you have access to historic data in order to make better accounting decision in the future

7. Research Various Market Opportunities

As a business, it’s always smart to consider growth and expansion. You’ll notice that this short-term goal only covers “research” – since looking into your possibilities is a big task. Focusing here can set you up for the trial/experimental phase in the next quarter.

If you’re a service provider, are there other parts of the market that you could expand into to offer more services? If you sell products, what other products are in your niche that you could offer to customers? See what opportunities come about as you do some competitor research!

8. Implement a Hybrid Work Model

This short term goal has potential to be carried out in a quarter (3 months) if done so efficiently with the leadership team completely on board!

With so many people working from home these days, hybrid work has proved its value. Happier employees with more flexibility, and offering companies the option to downsize and save on overhead costs.

Of course, in order to do this successfully, you’ll need to find a software solution to support your business goal management and satisfies employees as to keep momentum going rather than deplete it!

Use OKR Software

9. create a social media content plan.

Over 4 billion people use social media, so it shouldn’t go unnoticed as an opportunity to gain new customers or higher engagement levels!

One way to implement social media into your marketing technique is to put all of your energy and focus into one platform until you grow that one. Another way to go about this is to choose several to focus on.

To make sure you are giving social media the time of day, you could consider hiring an agency to do the work for you so you can focus on other parts of the business. Otherwise, it could be an employee’s part-time job to run the social media accounts and calendar.

Whatever you do in terms of who runs your social media, you should ensure that you are posting on your social media platforms a few times per week. The most important thing is to stay consistent. If you post once a week and it’s every Wednesday, keep doing that so customers know when to expect to hear or see something from you!

10. Improve Customer Service

When setting business goals, you have to also take into account who you are serving. This goal is specific to Customer Service Teams, if you find that your rate of engagement with customers is on a downward trend, can set the short term goal of making improvements!

When setting this goal, you have to take actionable steps within this goal to guarantee you are reaching it. How do you plan to improve customer service? What are the challenges you need to surpass in order to achieve the expected outcome?

Here are a few ideas: (if using OKR goals , these would be your Key Results )

• Increase our ratings on 10 review websites
• Create an “after purchase” email automation flow that receives a 2.5% open rate
• Complete 50 customer account checks weekly to reduce churn from 3.2% to 1.5%.

Each of these items will have various activities (or initiatives) that individual teammates work on during the timeline to drive the changes and see progress on a weekly basis!

11. Stay Up-to-Date With Marketing Trends

Since trends are constantly changing, you need to be looking out for the newer trends. Simply being behind the times can make you less successful than if you stayed on top of current trends.

So what types of trends should you be looking for?

As of 2022, marketing is trending toward short-form videos and social media. Most is digital rather than in paper form as well.

12. Develop a New Product

Is it time to create or make changes to your product to meet the demand of what people want?

For example, let’s say you make and sell soy candles. While reviewing sales from last quarter, and discussing customer requests with your Sales team, you learn that customers have been asking for a diffuser option! This is a great time to ramp up production on something new.

Having conversations with your teams is crucial to help find new areas of opportunity. The OKR goal setting methodology helps companies and teams adopt a collaborative process with goal-setting at the forefront!

Read why OKRs are so beneficial to teams

13. Create an Employee Incentive Program 

Employees love recognition. About 45% of workers in America leave their jobs – because they don’t feel recognized by their employers. It’s so important to create some type of employee incentive and recognition program.

As a business owner, it’s important to ensure that your employees feel recognized, motivated, and fulfilled, otherwise a new opportunity awaits them and they could end up leaving your company.

Something as simple as sending a weekly email to acknowledge a job well done, or something worth supporting will go a long way.

14. Create a Blog

Content creation is a huge marketing win and opportunity for people to find you online through organic search.

On the blog, you have to guarantee that you are posting simply about your niche. If you are a lawn care service company, you most likely don’t want to post about the best going-out clothes to wear around town.

Creating a blog is a great example of a short term goal for your marketing team. Here’s an OKR example to show how it would look:

Objective: Create a WordPress blog that stands out among competitors Key Result #1: Research 30 competitors in our niche and create 1 master competitor’s analysis spreadsheet Key Result #2: Create a content calendar and write 10 articles to promote Key Result #3: Research and test SEO tools, choose 1 to move forward with Sign up to add this goal to Weekdone

15. Go Paperless

Going paperless is a step closer to being more environmentally friendly as a business. With more and more customers (78% of customers to be exact) preferring to purchase from a green company, you will have a leg-up in the industry if you choose to go paperless.

This could mean a few different things, and doing even just one of these things to start will be working toward your goal.

• Eliminate paper checks for employees
• Eliminate flyers and mail marketing
• Change menus or services/products to online menus

This could be a goal that you set over a three-month period. From there, you could do one of these each month. Making the objective more attainable for a shorter term.

16. Make Company Meetings More Efficient

Teamwork makes the dreamwork, right? So, in order to come up with innovative solutions, create products, or solve problems meetings should give everyone a voice, in an efficient way!

Setting a short term business goal like this, proves to everyone that you:

• understand there is a problem with the current process,
• value individuals’ needs and time,
• are committed to making an improvement

17. Improve Company Data Analysis

It’s always great to implement goals and techniques, but without analyzing how it works, you may be left with more questions than answers.

Make a short-term business goal to improve your collection and analysis of data. This is a very general goal, but for example you could create reports for individual teams based on what they need to measure their success on short-term team goals.

18. Prepare an Investment Portfolio

Investing in your business is crucial for growth and opportunity. If you don’t already have a portfolio for investments, this is a great short-term business goal to implement!

Set yourself a timeline of 3 months (1 quarter) to review investment opportunities, meet with investors or a financial advisor, or whatever you need to make this goal achievable and lasting.

Of course, once you achieve this goal, you could consider an annual goal surrounded by the growth you hope to see within 1 year.

Read about annual vs. quarterly goals

19. Test OKR software for Better Goal Setting

There are so many goals you can have as a business owner, as well as individual team goals. But if you’re not using software to track everyone’s progress it can be frustrating trying to keep up with others, losing momentum all around!

So, it may be time to consider using software to help you track quarterly goals company-wide! At Weekdone, we fully believe in the benefits of the OKR methodology – OKRs not only help you break down your goals into measurable outcomes, but the framework brings focus back to what’s really important.

Read our extensive list of the best OKR software . It shares details about 24 goal management tools + their supporting features that help you make positive changes with lasting results!

20. Raise Brand Awareness on Social Media

As a brand, you should always consider how to grow your audience, whether through social media, blogs, or various email campaigns. For a short-term business goal about raising brand awareness, consider choosing one outlet – social media, or even further, Instagram! This removes the ambiguity and gets you that specificity!

What is your Objective? What is motivating you to raise awareness on social media this quarter? Maybe you saw a drop in traffic from this channel and would like to see more referrals coming in. Consider the “why” and surround your focus on this!

Marketing Short Term Business Goal Example (specific to raising brand awareness using OKRs )

Objective: Increase organic traffic from Instagram and raise brand awareness Key Result #1: Solidify 10 influencer partnerships within our niche Key Result #2: Create, run, and optimize 2 paid advertisement posts to drive organic traffic Key Result #3: Improve engagement from 50% to 90% Sign up to add this goal to Weekdone

Now, in order to reach your desired outcome for each Key Result, to drive your Objective forward, you’ll have to create some initiatives or larger projects to work on daily that keep you on track!

Initiative Examples connected to Key Result #3 Example #1: Prepare, Run, and Analyze results from an Instagram Giveaway Example #2: Share 50 relative accounts from ours in stories/reels Sign up to add this goal to Weekdone

Now, you have larger projects that help you stay focused on your goal! Using these, set yourself some weekly plans , and daily tasks to improve focus and motivation for yourself!

21. Test various hashtag methods

On social media, you also want to focus on getting your content seen! There is a method to all of the madness that is social media, and one of them is focusing on the hashtags you use when you post.

For instance, if you are a travel agency, you may use hashtags like:

• #travelagency
• #webooktravel
• #travelmore
• #travelandexplore

Expanding your reach on social media with hashtags is a great option and you could dedicate some time (possibly even shorter than 3 months) to analyzing and testing different options!

22. Start producing video content

Videos are an upward trend for marketing campaigns. Whether you post a short-form customer testimonial video on your website or create a reel on Instagram or TikTok, these are fast moving attractors!

With short playing times, they hold people’s attention a bit longer. Sometimes they are also played quickly, so people will watch them more than once (which, on social media helps you get more reach, and more reach means more customers!).

Short-form videos are trending on websites, blogs, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and even other platforms, too!

23. Improve Customer Feedback Channels

Having a short-term business goal related to customer feedback, allows you to think further into how you receive it, measure it, and what you do with it!

You can get more feedback from your customers through: anonymous customer satisfaction surveys, rewards for reviews, check-in calls or emails! However makes sense for your business.

24. Improve Employee Morale at Work

As a company, you want to ensure your team is connected, happy, and motivated. Some initiatives that could help drive this goal forward are:

• Plan and hold X company events this quarter
• Test and implement an employee engagement tool for the company
• Hold 1:1 weekly check-ins with employees

25. Go Green

Our society is making the push to go green, so your company should also make this a goal. While this is a large goal in itself, there are ways to chunk this “go green” goal into smaller goals.

For instance, as mentioned before, you could take three months to go paperless.

One month you could make the goal to hire a green cleaning company to use healthier cleaning products and fewer paper towels. The next month you could install energy-efficient hand dryers in the workplace.

Another month you could incentivize workers to walk or carpool to work.

Every month could be a different goal toward going green, but each month you grow closer to being as green as possible! The short-term goals help to lead you to your long-term goals.

26. Formulate your Company Mission Statement

Having a mission statement as a company is not only helpful for customers and others to see, but it also helps make the workplace more cohesive. Everyone knows the values and goals you have as a company.

To achieve this goal, it’s important to gather the leadership team for a brainstorming session. Only after this should you include individuals, maybe you could create an anonymous worksheet to help float ideas around and understand what the company means to your workers.

27. Promote a New Version of Your Product

After creating products, you also need to promote them to make sure they sell.

Just before the launch of your new product, start planning the next quarter to be your active promotion time. During this time, Marketing team prepares promotional materials, the Product team is fixing any reported bugs to ensure proper functioning, the Design team could be working on a new landing page on the website to share feature developments!

28. Organize Business Expenses

If you don’t have a way of tracking items that you can write-off for tax purposes, you may find yourself stressed when tax season rolls around since you have to get everything in order. Instead of waiting until the last minute – have a system in place to meet the goal of not being stressed once per year.

Your goal could be to track your business expenses every Monday. This is a short-term goal is more of an individual weekly goal that will help you with your business tracking and tax filing every single year.

29. Improve Internal Organizational Structure

As your company grows, responsibilities are dispersed among teams and you can easily lose sight of whats going on in the day to day, feeling overwhelmed and confused! That’s why it is important to have a system that works and can grow with you as you scale up.

We recommend finding a way to improve this internal struggle for yourself and your employees! There are plenty of tools out there to help you save the day, however we wholeheartedly recommend the OKR framework to help you turn that chaos into confidence! Building internal processes, structure and ultimately a more positive organizational culture through goal-setting and tracking!

30. Improve Company Communication

As a business, it can be difficult to keep track of what everyone is doing! And with so many tools available, where did you make that important note? Improving company communication is a great short term goal or initiative that you should start seeing positive changes immediately!

Some ideas to help you get started here are:

• Create a digital company calendar where everyone has access
• Use a digital communication tool like Slack or MS Teams so everyone stays connected
• If you choose to improve organizational structure and communication in one quarter – test out these OKR software with Slack integrations!

31. Hire consultant for X project

Say you have a new project coming up, but your current resources and employees cant handle the workload, or it’s outside of their wheelhouse – you’ll need to hire outside of your team.

This short term goal would begin with creating a job description, finding the right platforms to list it, interviewing consultants, negotiating contracts, and whatever else you may need.

32. Increase customer retention

If you’ve noticed that your customers are less active over time, or are churning quicker than before – retention is a great place to start. Begin with your Sales team and discuss numbers and try to place where the issue started based on collected customer feedback, product issues, and more. Then start setting yourself some targets related to retention. This helpful article shares 10 customer retention metrics you may want to consider using to help you achieve your outcome!

33. Improve New Market Knowledge

By setting the short term business goal of improving your knowledge and understanding of a new market, you’ll be more active in getting to know potential customers, competitors, and value you could bring to this new market.

This is a short term goal that you could set for yourself in 1 quarter; make sure you consider putting together your research in a report and comparing it against other markets down the line. Having this data will allow you to see how quickly things change and what you’ll need to do to adapt if you want to grow.

34. Participate in X Community Events

This short term marketing goal could be a part of a broader Company Objective to expand community outreach. However, with your Marketing Team aligned with that Objective you’ll be able to move things forward with actionable outcomes.

How many events can you realistically participate in during a 3 month period? Consider choosing, planning, and preparing – given your current available budget and resources.

35. Test New Messaging on X

If your business is going through a transition phase, this is a great short term goal to try out some new messaging. Before you change elements across all of your platforms, it’s important to see what sort of engagement and people this new message drives to your product.

The Marketing team could test and optimize the message, while your Sales Team analyzes the quality of those new leads. A collaborative short team goal that can provide valuable insights into the next quarter.

36. Improve the SEO on Your Website

Assuming you have a website and are creating content for your users, you need to go through and  improve the SEO  throughout.

There are plenty of ways to do this, but to get started:

• Ensure your website is mobile friendly (check Google Search Console )
• Sign up for a tool like SEMrush or Ahrefs to help analyze keywords and current positioning.
• Learn some SEO best practices and implement them, examples: strategic internal linking, best page structure, and optimizing images for search.

It’s important to note that SEO is a long term game, most results will show in 3-6 months time, but tracking and keeping up with it will improve your organic reach to bring in new customers!

37. Facilitate More Employee 1:1s

As a business owner or manager, it is crucial to have one-on-one time with employees to make sure they feel valued. This is also a time for them to voice their concerns as well.

Having a monthly meeting to check in with individuals’ progress, challenges, and general thoughts on their role and responsibilities helps employees improve in addition to you as a manager. Ask and give feedback regularly – make it your goal to be a better leader.

38. Complete a Course on X

Learning opportunities are always a great short term business goal to set. You should allow and encourage your employees to do the same. Whether you give them a quarterly stipend to enroll in a certification program, or take a course together as a team/company, you won’t regret it.

39. Encourage Monthly Self Care

To avoid burnout, you need to take care of yourself, and you also need to take care of your staff. But it’s not enough to tell everyone to take care of themselves! 

You have to encourage it in the short and long-term.

Here are a few ways to encourage self-care in the workplace:

• Allow employees the flexibility to work from home
• Give employees one half-day on a Friday each month
• Give a gym stipend to employees every month
• Create a contest that centers around self-care

40. Change Up the Office Space to Be More Trendy

Another goal of yours as a business owner could be to change up the office space. This could be to make it a space that people like to be in or to simply stay up with the times of more collaborative office spaces.

Instead of having individual offices, you could have an open space with tables, couches, and chairs for employees to hang out in and work.

Start with a budget and go from there.

Ready to Set Awesome Business Goals?

Without short term goals for your business, you’ll be overwhelmed by the long-term agenda.

There are so many examples of short-term goals to choose from that it can be easy to get distracted. Ultimately, you’ll want to use these examples as inspiration. In the end, remember the SMART formula for effective goal setting – S pecific, M easurable, A chievable, R ealistic, and T imed.

If you found our OKR examples interesting, read more about how to write and set good OKRs .

Try Weekdone to help you set more strategic goals with Objectives and Key Results and lead your company with confidence. Weekdone is your leading OKR software for status reporting, aligning team OKRs with business goals, and visualizing weekly and quarterly achievements. The fundamental concepts of appropriate alignment, structure, and connectivity are important to us. From the ground up, we can make your organization feel more connected by achieving business goals together. Sign up now .

8 Short-Term Business Goals Examples

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 bigger picture.

Short-term business goals you set for yourself and your business that you hope to accomplish within a short period. This could be as short as a few weeks or up to a year. The reasons why short-term goals are important are many. These types of goals provide quick wins. This means that while you are seeking to accomplish your long-term and medium-term business goals , you have shorter goals that provide small victories 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 towards them by lining up smaller, shorter-term goals to accomplish.

Over the next few weeks, months, or even the next year, what do you hope to accomplish? If you’re not sure where to start, here are a few short-term business goals examples to think about.

Improve Operational Processes

Although it may seem that improving operational processes is a non-financial business goal , the way a business operates directly impacts its ability to make money. Especially when it comes to being profitable. Your operation process is how you and your business get stuff done. This means how you manage your website, develop your product, find leads, manage inventory, as well as many other things.

You may have an in-demand product or service, but if the way you operate the 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 little things. For example, improve the way that you improve your product fulfillment process this week. Ask yourself “How long does it take to fulfill orders?” Then, seek a way to shorten that time.

Look for small improvements over the course of the year and you will eventually develop a smoother operational process that will help the business become more streamlined.

Increase Sales Revenue for This Quarter

Planning for your business to be profitable must be intentional. So, begin now by creating the goal of increasing sales revenue for this quarter. 

If you’re not sure how you will meet this goal, think about these questions:

• What products are customers buying now ? 
• What products aren’t they buying? 
• Are there seasonal trends impacting the business? 
• What are our competitors doing better than we are?

There are many other ways to increase revenue as well. You can increase the prices of your most popular offerings. You can also increase your advertising and marketing budget to drive revenue. Setting a short-term revenue goal will allow you to see the hidden potential your business has. Seeing what it takes to hit short-term financial goals will help you understand what is needed to help your business scale.

Hire “X” Amount of Employees This Year

Committing to hiring the right number of employees may help you achieve other goals for your business. Not having enough employees on board will only keep you from achieving your other business goals.

For example, if your goal is to sell X number of units – but you’re understaffed – your business will miss its production goal. Or, you will pay more to your current employees in overtime costs.

Ensure you’re placing the right person in each role. These new hires can be pivotal for creating a great culture , and ultimately, cultivating a great reputation for your company. Creating a referral program for your current employees to refer their friends is one easy way of finding great talent.

Expanding your team is a key startup business goal . However, every business that wants 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 customer. The effort and time poured into marketing and other efforts make it costly. Smart companies know that they must not 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- While many companies have done away with coupons, some customers still use them and would be enticed by a coupon or promo code to use on a future purchase.
• Outstanding Customer Service- When employees are rude to customers or they do not seem to care, a business will easily lose customers. Not every customer will complain. Some will just leave your business and never return. After all, there is plenty of competition ready to meet their wants and needs. 

Expand Online Presence by “X”

How would you describe your online strategy? Due to the importance and competitiveness of online marketing, expanding your online presence is an important first-year goal for any business .

If you’ve been doing it all yourself- then it might be time to hire an online expert. It may be time to make it a goal to expand your online presence.

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 gain more sales.

This online presence will enhance your credibility. A basic level of trust, credibility, or familiarity must be established before many people will even purchase from you. After all, you wouldn’t just hand your money over to a stranger, would you? Customers need to know that they can trust your company. They want to know:

• Will I get what I ordered? 
• Are they just going to steal my credit card information? 
• If there’s a problem with my order, will they resolve it?

There are more reasons to enhance your online presence, such as:

• Reaching your target customers
• Making people aware that you’re hiring
• Reminding existing customers to come back and purchase from you again
• Converting ads to sales

Increase Employee Productivity This Month

Increasing employee productivity is another short-term goal you may set at some point. However, to ensure success in this area, make sure your employees have what they need to be successful at their jobs. Be sure your employees are familiar with any safety regulations that apply to their industry. Confirm that everyone has the tools needed to do their jobs.

Test New Product Idea the Year

Testing a new product idea is another short-term goal. If this goal is successful, it could eventually lead to the launching of a new product that could increase sales. You’ll want to test your idea thoroughly before launching it to the public.

You’ll want to think about the products you’re selling that have already been successful. What do customers already love? What similar products could you launch that would be similar? Are there products that you make – or that are made by a vendor/supplier – that could be sold as a pair to what you sell now?

Think about coffeemakers. The Keurig coffee maker has become extremely popular. But, in order to use it, you need the pods. The pods contain coffee. Is there anything you can sell that would be thought of as a pair? Think about ways that you can solve a problem or make life easier for your customers. If you can, then chances are, you may be able to create a new product that will be successful.

Diversify Revenue for the Year

If you’ve already increased your quarterly revenue, another goal to consider is diversifying that revenue. Diversifying revenue means that you are earning income from different sources. This can be done without launching a new product, however. Although that is certainly one way to do it. But what this truly means is diversifying how you make your money and where the money comes from.

One way to diversify is to simply find other places to generate money. If you have an ecommerce store you can diversify the revenue sources 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.

Diversifying revenue is important for all businesses. From restaurants to tech companies. Every entrepreneur should understand that one revenue source 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.

Short-term business goals help entrepreneurs increase their chances of success. By setting short-term goals , leaders will envision what they want the near future to look like, and plan accordingly.

6 Types of Business Goals You Should Understand

8 Entrepreneurship Goals to Set For Yourself

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Team Writer: Erin Shelby is a writer and blogger based in Ohio. Follow her on Twitter @ByErinShelby

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Short-term Business Goals: A Roadmap to Success

Setting short-term business goals is essential for driving progress and achieving immediate results. Research indicates that 70% of successful small businesses consistently set short-term goals. This underscores the pivotal role of goal setting in the success of businesses.

Historically, renowned companies such as Microsoft have utilized short-term goals to drive innovation and growth. For example, in the 1980s, Microsoft set a short-term goal to dominate the operating system market. This led to the development of MS-DOS, which ultimately established Microsoft as a tech giant.

Setting short-term goals in business helps to focus efforts on achieving measurable results within a defined timeframe. This approach not only facilitates better resource allocation but also boosts employee motivation and accountability. According to the American Psychological Association, setting and achieving short-term goals enhances job satisfaction and overall performance.

In essence, setting short-term business goals is a proven strategy for driving immediate success and propelling long-term growth.

In this guide, we will explore the key steps to set short-term business goals effectively. This includes identifying the right goals, establishing success metrics, and aligning them with the organization’s broader strategic vision.

Table of Content:

What are the short-term business goals, how to set business short-term goals, what are the benefits of setting short-term goals for a business, how to evaluate short-term goals of a business.

Let’s dive in.

Definition: Short-term business goals focus on immediate objectives, typically achievable within a year. They often include improving cash flow, boosting sales, enhancing customer satisfaction , and optimizing operational efficiency. Your business may aim to launch new products or services, expand market reach, or strengthen online presence.

Short-term goals often contribute to the achievement of broader, long-term objectives, providing stepping stones for sustainable growth. These goals are flexible, allowing you to adapt to changing market conditions and capitalize on emerging opportunities. Overall, short-term goals provide a roadmap for navigating the immediate future and establishing a foundation for long-term success.

Business short-term goals act as stepping stones, guiding your journey toward long-term success. However, the process of defining and implementing short-term goals requires a thoughtful and systematic approach. Here is a step-by-step process to help you effectively set and manage short-term business goals.

Review Your Long-Term Objectives

Before getting started with short-term goals, it’s crucial to revisit and understand your long-term objectives. This provides context and ensures that your short-term goals align with the overarching vision for your business. Long-term objectives serve as the guiding stars, illuminating the path toward sustainable growth and success.

Identify Key Areas of Focus

Consider the key areas of your business that require attention in the short term. Such areas include improving operational efficiency, increasing sales , enhancing customer satisfaction, or launching a new product. Identifying these focal points is essential for goal-setting precision.

Make Goals Specific and Measurable

Short-term goals should be clear, specific, and measurable. Vague objectives can lead to ambiguity and hinder effective progress tracking . For instance, rather than setting a goal to “increase sales,” specify a time-specific target percentage increase. Measurable goals provide a tangible benchmark for success.

Set Realistic and Achievable Targets

Although ambition is praiseworthy, establishing unattainable goals may result in frustration and demotivation. Assess your business’s current capabilities, resources, and market conditions realistically. Establish targets that are challenging yet attainable, promoting a sense of accomplishment as each goal is met.

Establish a Time Frame

Every short-term goal should have a clearly defined time frame. This adds urgency and helps maintain focus. Whether it’s monthly, quarterly, or semi-annual, setting deadlines instills a sense of accountability and encourages timely action.

Prioritize Goals

Not all short-term goals are of equal importance. Arrange them in order of importance according to their influence on the broader business goals. This allows for more effective resource allocation and ensures that efforts are concentrated on the most critical areas.

Break Down Goals into Actionable Steps

Transform overarching goals into actionable steps. Break down each goal into smaller, manageable tasks that contribute to the larger objective. This approach makes the implementation process more digestible and facilitates a step-by-step approach to achieving success.

Allocate Resources

Identify the resources—financial, human, and technological—required to accomplish your short-term goals. Also, ensure your business has the necessary tools and capabilities to execute the action steps outlined for each goal.

Monitor and Measure Progress

Regularly monitor and measure progress toward your short-term goals. Use key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess success and identify areas that may need adjustment. This ongoing evaluation is critical for staying on course and data-driven decision-making .

Adjust Goals as Needed

Business landscapes are dynamic, and unforeseen challenges may arise. Be adaptable and open to modifying goals in response to evolving circumstances. This adaptability ensures your business remains agile and responsive to evolving market trends .

Communicate Goals to Your Team

Effective communication is vital for goal alignment within your organization. Communicate short-term goals to your team to ensure everyone understands their role in achieving these objectives. This shared understanding fosters a collaborative environment geared toward success.

Celebrate Achievements

Acknowledge and celebrate the accomplishment of short-term goals. Recognition not only boosts morale but also reinforces a culture of achievement within your organization. Take the time to reflect on milestones, learn from successes, and carry that momentum forward.

Short-term goals of a business, though seemingly modest, play a pivotal role in steering it toward long-term objectives. Let’s uncover the manifold benefits that setting short-term goals brings to your business.

• Focus and direction: Short-term goals provide a roadmap, offering a clear direction for day-to-day operations. Breaking down long-term objectives into manageable tasks helps to channel efforts toward achieving specific milestones. This, as a result, ensures a focused and purposeful journey.
• Motivation and morale: Attaining short-term goals creates a sense of accomplishment, boosting motivation and morale among employees. Recognizing progress, even in small increments, instills a positive work environment. Consequently, it fosters a culture of success and encourages individuals to strive for excellence.
• Quick adaptability: In a rapidly changing business environment, the ability to adapt swiftly is paramount. Short-term goals allow organizations to respond promptly to market shifts or unforeseen challenges, enhancing their resilience and agility.
• Improved performance management: Setting short-term goals facilitates a more efficient performance management system. Clearly defined objectives enable you to assess employee performance against specific benchmarks. From this, you can provide constructive feedback and encourage continuous improvement.
• Resource optimization: Allocating resources based on short-term goals helps to optimize financial, human, and technological resources. This targeted allocation ensures that efforts and investments align with immediate objectives, maximizing efficiency and effectiveness.
• Risk identification and mitigation: Short-term goals illuminate potential risks and challenges in the early stages. This proactive approach allows you to identify and mitigate risks promptly. This prevents them from escalating into larger issues that could jeopardize long-term success.
• Enhanced decision-making: The clarity provided by short-term goals enhances decision-making processes. With a well-defined roadmap, you can navigate uncertainties with a greater understanding of the potential impact on immediate objectives.
• Customer satisfaction and retention: Focusing on short-term goals often involves improving products or services to meet customer needs more effectively. This customer-centric approach enhances satisfaction and contributes to customer retention , laying the foundation for long-term loyalty.
• Increased productivity: Clear short-term goals contribute to a more productive work environment. Employees can prioritize tasks, set deadlines, and work with purpose, leading to increased efficiency and output. This heightened productivity positively impacts the overall performance of your organization.
• Measurable progress: Short-term goals are inherently measurable, providing tangible benchmarks for progress. This quantifiable measurement allows you to track your business’s advancement, identify areas for improvement, and celebrate successes. Consequently, it fosters a culture of continuous improvement.
• Adaptive strategy development: Setting short-term goals allows you to test and refine strategies quickly. Through iterative processes, you can adapt and fine-tune your approaches based on real-time feedback. This ensures that strategies remain effective in a constantly evolving market.
• Competitive advantage: Businesses that effectively set and achieve short-term goals gain a competitive advantage. Agile responses to market changes, meeting customer demand, and goal delivery position you as an industry leader.

Navigating through the vast sea of data can feel like finding a needle in a haystack. The key to unlocking its secrets lies in data analysis , a challenging yet rewarding endeavor.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and in data analysis, this couldn’t be truer. Data visualization plays a pivotal role in making sense of complex datasets. It enables us to spot trends, patterns, and outliers with ease.

Excel is a powerful tool for data analysis. However, it falls short when it comes to creating visually appealing and insightful charts and graphs .

This is where ChartExpo comes into play.

ChartExpo bridges the gap and revolutionizes the way we visualize and interpret data.

Now, let’s delve into the art of evaluating short-term goals for a business with ChartExpo.

How to Install ChartExpo in Excel?

• Open your Excel application.
• Open the worksheet and click the “ Insert ” menu.
• You’ll see the “ My Apps ” option.
• In the office Add-ins window, click “ Store ” and search for ChartExpo on my Apps Store.
• Click the “ Add ” button to install ChartExpo in your Excel.

ChartExpo charts are available both in Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Please use the following CTA’s to install the tool of your choice and create beautiful visualizations in a few clicks in your favorite tool.

The sample data below contains the short-term goals of a business.

Let’s visualize this data in Excel with ChartExpo and glean valuable insights.

• To get started with ChartExpo, install  ChartExpo in Excel .
• Now Click on My Apps from the INSERT menu.

• Choose ChartExpo from My Apps , then click Insert.

• Once it loads, scroll through the charts list to locate and choose the “Multi-Axis Spider Chart” .

• Click the “ Create Chart From Selection ” button after selecting the data from the sheet, as shown.

• ChartExpo will generate the visualization below for you.

• If you want to add anything to the chart, click the Edit Chart button:
• Click the pencil icon next to the Chart Header to change the title.
• It will open the properties dialog. Under the Text section, you can add a heading in Line 1 and enable Show .
• Give the appropriate title of your chart and click the Apply button.

• Add the percentage sign with the Expand Market Reach values.

• Click the “Save Changes” button to persist the changes made to the chart.

• Your final Multi Axis Spider Chart will look like the one below.

• Customer retention is Sales’ primary focus, with a high score of 90%.
• Marketing emphasizes market reach (85%) and cost efficiency (90%).
• Customer service excels in customer retention (95%) and sales (90%).
• Product quality excels in cost efficiency (95%) but lags in innovation (70%).
• Cost efficiency is a notable strength across all departments.

What is a short-term plan in business?

A short-term plan in business outlines specific actions to achieve immediate objectives. Typically spanning weeks to a year, it provides a roadmap for tasks, resources, and milestones. It focuses on tactical steps, addressing immediate challenges and opportunities in the business environment.

What is a good short-term goal?

A good short-term goal is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). It should align with broader objectives and be realistically attainable within weeks to months. Moreover, it should provide a clear, tangible outcome that contributes to overall business success or personal development.

How to set business short-term goals?

• Review long-term objectives.
• Identify key focus areas.
• Make goals specific and measurable.
• Set realistic targets.
• Establish time frames.
• Break down goals into actionable steps.
• Allocate resources.
• Monitor progress.
• Adjust as needed.
• Communicate goals.

Setting short-term business goals is a strategic imperative, providing a roadmap for success in the ever-changing business landscape. Aligning these goals with long-term objectives provides focus and direction.

The process involves a meticulous approach—identifying key areas, making goals specific, and establishing realistic targets. Moreover, time frames and prioritization enhance efficiency, ensuring tasks align with immediate objectives.

That’s not all.

Breaking down goals into actionable steps facilitates implementation, while resource allocation optimizes efficiency. Regular monitoring allows for adaptability, identifying and mitigating risks promptly.

Enhanced decision-making and customer satisfaction are byproducts of this structured approach.

The benefits are far-reaching—motivating teams, increasing productivity, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. The ability to measure progress tangibly reinforces a sense of accomplishment. Moreover, short-term business goals contribute to adaptive strategy development, allowing you to stay agile in dynamic markets.

Furthermore, the competitive advantage gained by those who effectively set and achieve short-term goals cannot be overstated. Communication and celebration play pivotal roles in sustaining momentum and fostering a positive work environment.

ChartExpo stands out as a versatile tool for goal-oriented data visualization. Its features empower you to present data effectively, make informed decisions, and achieve short-term business goals with precision.

Do not hesitate.

Get started with ChartExpo today to fuel your pursuit of business success.

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Principal Writer

Don’t underestimate the outsized impact of short-term goals

If long-term goals are the destination, short-term goals are the roadmap.

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Whether you realize it or not, you probably already set quite a few short-term goals for yourself.

You want to sort your to-do list before your morning meeting. You want to go for a walk over lunch at least three days this week. You want to land five speaking opportunities this quarter. 

Throughout your day, week, month, or year, you set small-in-scope, attainable finish lines that give you a little boost of forward momentum. Those are short-term goals. But what exactly makes these bite-sized objectives so helpful? 

Let’s explore the power behind short-term goal-setting – and how you can hack these goals to boost your own motivation and sense of satisfaction.

What is a short-term goal?

A short-term goal is exactly what it sounds like: it’s something that you want to accomplish in the relatively near future. 

Simple enough, but it’s worth digging a little further into the mechanics of this type of goal. A short-term goal:

• Can be accomplished in a short timeframe (most experts say within a year or less)
• Details a specific action to take or target to accomplish
• Supports a broader vision for your career or life

Here are a few short-term goals – both personal and professional – to get your own wheels turning: 

Short-term career goal examples

• Complete company’s three-month leadership training program
• Lead a cross-functional project this quarter
• Provide praise and positive feedback to at least one employee per week this month

Short-term personal goal examples

• Stretch every day this week
• Read two books this month
• Pay off car loan by the end of the year

Long-term goals vs. short-term goals: What’s the difference? 

So how do short-term goals stack up against long-term counterparts? It’s easy to think about them in terms of duration – short-term goals impact the near future and long-term goals look further out. But to get a more nuanced handle on the difference between short-term and long-term goals, it’s better to think about their intent :

• Long-term goals reflect your overall values, beliefs, and desires.
• Short-term goals are the specific actions you take to pursue those broader ambitions.

If your short-term goal is to complete your company’s leadership training program, that might feed your long-term goal of moving into a management position. Or your short-term goal might be to pay off your car loan because your long-term goal is to be debt-free.

Why bother setting short-term goals?

If you have your sights set on a faraway finish line anyway (whether that’s a promotion, financial independence, or something else), what’s the point of making pit stops along the way? Short-term goal setting is beneficial for a few important reasons. 

1. Short-term goals are more motivating

Use motivation theory to inspire your team’s best work

Anybody who’s ever set a New Year’s resolution (and then kissed it goodbye come February) will admit that it’s tough to muster the gumption to actually achieve a goal. Fortunately, short-term ambitions can give your motivation a much-needed boost.

You can thank the neurotransmitter dopamine for that. While it’s typically thought of as the feel-good brain chemical that’s released in response to a reward, research shows that it’s actually closely tied to motivation too. Dopamine is what pushes us to seek the reward in the first place.

Your brain knows that it feels good to accomplish things – it wants to cross that finish line. So, you’ll not only get a dopamine spike when you set the goal, but also when you’re close to achieving it . 

Basically, your brain would much prefer an immediate celebration over delayed gratification, and short-term goals offer a more instant reward. 

2. Short-term goals make the process feel more manageable

What feels easier? Going for a 30-minute walk today or training for an entire marathon? Even elite runners will likely admit that the walk requires a lot less sweat (both literally and figuratively).

Pursuing our goals often requires changing our behavior , whether that’s in big or small ways. And even on a good day, altering our habits, attitudes, and actions is tough. Short-term goals make it all feel a little more doable, not by changing your lofty and intimidating goals, but by dividing them into more attainable guideposts. 

3. Short-term goals give you an action plan

It’s easy to figure out where you want to go – getting there is the hard part. While setting a long-term goal pinpoints the target, it doesn’t actually fuel your journey.

That’s why you need short-term goals too. They detail the smaller behaviors and actions you need to take to move toward your long-term objectives. 

If long-term goals are the destination, short-term goals are the roadmap. 

4. Short-term goals allow for regular reflection and adjustments

Much like your desires and values, your goals will change over time. In addition to short-term goals serving as milestones when you can celebrate your progress, they also provide an opportunity for reflection.

How do you feel accomplishing this goal? Is it as rewarding as you thought it would be? Why or why not? Does it still align with your overarching vision?  

That’s not to say you need to sit yourself down for in-depth self-analysis every time you check something off your list. Sometimes it’s just a gut check that occurs naturally. 

If you finish that leadership program and feel drained rather than energized? That’s an indicator that you should reevaluate if you want to move into a management position at all, or if perhaps your aspirations have shifted somewhere along the way.

Better to change course now than when you’re at the end of the road.

How to set motivating short-term goals

How to write SMART goals

Short-term goals are more action-oriented than your longer-term objectives. But then what separates them from all of the tasks that you frantically scribble on your daily to-do list? Short-term goal setting requires a little more thought and intentionality than jotting down every task you need to check off that day. One of the best ways to ensure you’re investing the right amount of planning is by using the SMART goal framework .

In case you haven’t heard of SMART before, it’s an acronym to help you remember that your goals should be: 

• Specific: Be clear about what exactly needs to be accomplished. In the case of short-term goals, this should be an explicit action you want to take.
• Measurable: Include a quantifiable benchmark so you’ll know when you’re successful.
• Achievable: Especially since your short-term goals don’t stretch on forever, you need to confirm that they’re realistically attainable in a shorter time frame.
• Relevant: Remember that your short-term goals are intended to support something bigger, so they need to be relevant to your overall vision.
• Time-bound: Every goal needs a deadline—and that’s especially true for short-term goals. What’s the end date for when you need to take that action?

Most of the short-term goal examples we listed above already incorporate elements of the SMART framework, but we can expand on them further to provide more helpful details. Here’s what that could look like: 

SMART short-term career goal examples

• Complete company’s three-month leadership training program this May
• Kick off a cross-functional project involving at least three teams by the end of the quarter
• Provide praise and positive feedback in-person or in writing to at least one employee per week this month

SMART short-term personal goal examples

• Stretch for at least 10 minutes every day this week
• Read two books (one fiction and one non-fiction) by the end of the month
• Pay off remaining $4,000 balance on car loan by the end of the year

Short-term goals might not look years down the line, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worthy of some careful thought and planning. The SMART goal framework will help you set meaningful targets, rather than hollow or trivial to-dos. 

Short-term goals: So much more than quick wins

Yes, short-term goals are objectives you set for the near future – but they’re so much more than low-hanging fruit you can grab for some instant gratification and a quick hit of dopamine.

Short-term goals give you a detailed action plan to realize your bigger ambitions and values. And they give you plenty of opportunities to reflect on whether the path you’re on is the one you actually want to stay on. 

That’s a pretty big impact for a supposedly small goal.

Advice, stories, and expertise about work life today.

How to Set and Achieve Short-Term Goals in Your Business (+30 Examples)

Discover how to set and track short-term goals for your business that you can actually achieve, plus 30 short-term goal examples to inspire you.

Do you have a big vision for your company that seems unattainable?

That’s a long-term goal that can seem pretty overwhelming at first glance.

Fortunately, setting manageable, short-term goals for yourself and your team can help ensure that you not only achieve your long-term vision but also reach optimal levels of productivity along the way.

But what exactly are short-term goals, and how are they different from long-term goals? And how do you strategically set them?

In this article, we’ll look at short-term goals and how they can help your employees and business achieve success. We’ll also show you how to set and measure short-term goals and give you a list of 30 examples to use as inspiration.

What are short-term goals?

Short-term goals are specific objectives you want to achieve in the near future or in a relatively short period of time.

In the context of running your business, short-term goals focus on helping your business succeed in several areas, including finances, client satisfaction, and output.

Setting short-term goals (that take a few days, weeks, or months to complete) and breaking them down into bite-sized tasks will give your team the direction they need to finish larger projects on time and deliver top quality.

What’s the difference between goals and aspirations?

While goals and aspirations may seem very similar and are often used synonymously, there are some key differences that make goals more useful than aspirations.

‎The main differences between goals and aspirations are as follows:

• Goals are more specific than aspirations  and often have numbers linked to them. For example, whereas a goal would look something like, “We want to host an online summit for 2,000 attendees by the end of March,” an aspiration would be, “We want to host a summit.”
• Goals are backed by action  and have detailed tasks to attain them. Aspirations, on the other hand, are often thought of as dreams or wishful thinking since they don’t involve a plan for reaching them.
• Goals have a specific time frame  and are often bound to a particular date. That way, the person knows precisely how much time they have to reach the deadline. By contrast, aspirations don’t have to be achieved in a specific period.

What’s the difference between short- and long-term goals?

Like aspirations, there are differences between short and long-term goals . Here are a few of them:

• Time frame:  A short-term goal is an objective you want to achieve relatively soon, perhaps in a few days, a week, a month, or a year. A long-term goal is a larger objective you want to achieve in the distant future, usually in the next 5 to 10 years. Long-term goals require more planning and patience due to their longer time frames.
• Flexibility:  Due to their specificity, short-term goals are less flexible than long-term goals. This is because smaller goals have more precise tasks and urgent deadlines. Long-term goals have broader timelines, and specific aspects of your life or business can quickly impact them — making them more flexible.
• The number of goals:  You can have several short-term goals simultaneously. Most long-term goals consist of various short-term goals that make the process of reaching the long-term objective easier. By contrast, you will likely only have a minimal number of long-term goals since they’re more significant and far more daunting.
• Difficulty:  It’s far easier to achieve short-term goals since it’s easier to track their progress and gain prompt feedback on them. Long-term goals are more difficult to reach since they take longer, their success often only measurable in years. This makes it more likely for people to give up on them along the way.

Why are short-term goals crucial to business success?

Unfortunately, around  80%  of people never set goals. Yet, setting goals can mean the difference between success and failure — for individuals and businesses alike.

Here are some of the primary advantages of setting short-term goals for you and your team to reach deadlines and satisfy clients:

1. Gives you and your team greater focus

Setting short-term goals will give your employees greater focus and direction. They’ll know what needs to be done and by when since they’ll have a clear plan in place with actionable steps to follow.

This will increase their motivation and make it less likely that they will become overwhelmed or confused. They’ll also be able to organize their days more efficiently since they’ll know which tasks to prioritize and when.

2. Pushes employees to overcome procrastination

Studies find that  20%  of adult men and women worldwide are chronic procrastinators. This means that a fifth of your employees are likely to procrastinate when they don’t have a clear plan of action.

‎You can help  stop your employees from procrastinating  by giving them a specific and time-bound goal so that they know what tasks need to be taken care of and by when.

3. Helps manage time effectively

Defined deadlines will give your employees a clear indication of the duties that need to be completed during different phases of a project so it can progress to the next stage.

If they know a project needs to be completed by a specific date, they can use that deadline to determine when each subtask needs to be done.

This will help them manage their time better so that they don’t end up damaging their work-life balance . Instead, they’ll have enough time to complete their work and home life responsibilities.

Discover  12 effective time management strategies  you can use in your business.

4. Gives quick feedback

Short-term goals give you the ability to get instant and insightful feedback instead of having to bank on the success of a long-term goal that could take years to reach.

These smaller milestones provide consistent updates on how your project is going and can help bring to light any obstacles or risks that could prevent you from reaching your long-term objective.

You’ll be able to see the gains you’re making toward your bigger vision — which will build the confidence of all employees involved.

5. Creates productive behavior patterns

Having a clear plan of action will not only help your employees overcome procrastination, but it’ll also make them more productive. There’s  clear research that shows that the “way” a goal is pursued directly affects how effectively behavioral change takes root.

With clear and well-articulated short term goals, individuals are likely to be more efficient and complete an optimal number of tasks, which then reinforces that behavior. Eventually, their output will align with their and the company’s expectations.

‎In some cases, more productivity can even lead to higher employee satisfaction since they feel like they’re making a difference and doing a good job.

Examples of short-term goals for your business

Now that you understand the importance of short-term goals for your business, you’re probably wondering what these goals should look like.

Here are 23 examples of short-term business goals:

• Grow the business’s Instagram following to 1,000 followers in one month.
• Leave the job site at 6 pm every day for two weeks for a better work-life balance.
• Publish eight blog posts in one month to increase web traffic.
• Increase service prices by 3% over the next six months.
• Increase quarterly sales revenue by 5%.
• Make sure staff capacity remains at 120% for the summer season.
• Plan and begin an employee rewards program by the end of April.
• Enhance customer satisfaction over the next quarter.
• Hire three new employees over the next three months.
• Run a weekly giveaway campaign on Facebook for one month to increase brand awareness.
• Offer a training program for outbound sales associates to increase conversions by 10%.
• Implement an “Employee of the Month” program by June 30.
• Create a LinkedIn business page, and post on it thrice weekly over the next three months.
• Get your business site on the first page of Google within the next year.
• Launch a new product or service within six months.
• Get 50 customer reviews in three months.
• Host a team-building weekend at the end of November.
• Automate 40% of payroll duties by implementing AI accounting software by August 31.
• Decrease the costs of goods by 10% this quarter.
• Allocate 15% of the human resources budget to communication and leadership training.
• Increase the first reply time by 3% by the end of this month.
• Increase the number of cold calls from five to 20 per day.
• Give 2% of the company’s monthly income to charity for a year.

You can also set  professional development goals  to become a better leader, which could positively affect your employee attrition rate. According to Statista,  34%  of employees leave their jobs due to uninspiring leaders.

‎So being a good manager or team leader could inspire your employees to work harder and stay with your company.

Examples of professional development goals include the following:

• Take a three-month advanced management course to develop your skills.
• Attend four additional staff meetings per month.
• Increase the level of productivity through time management strategies.
• Earn a new certificate within one year.
• Build your network with 20 professionals in three months.
• Read one business or personal development book per week for three months.
• Speed up your morning routine and get to work 20 minutes early every day for two weeks.

Luckily, you can manage both your individual and team goals with  Motion . Motion allows you to sync your personal and team goals so you can have all your tasks in one place.

This makes keeping track of your work and personal tasks easy with the click of a few buttons. You’ll never feel overwhelmed or confused again.

How to set short-term business goals

Follow the four steps below to set strategic and achievable short-term goals for your business.

1. Determine key focus areas for your business

Look at areas of your company that need improvement or in which you’d like to succeed. It’s best to consider areas with quantifiable results so that you can measure performance metrics throughout the process.

Make sure you focus on something that affects your business’s growth and success, such as its profitability, market share, or customer satisfaction. These types of goals will have KPIs that you can track, such as CLV (customer lifetime value), NPS (net promoter score), and ETR (employee turnover rate), to name a few.

Areas that make the best candidates for immediate improvement are ones that directly impact revenue.

For example, you may consider creating a training overhaul or implementing new sales training. While it costs money to do this, it has a direct, quantifiable impact to bottom-line revenue because offering training programs to sales employees means they’re better able to convert leads into sales.

And this increases the business’s overall profitability as a result.

2. Visualize the end result

Now that you’ve identified the area you want to focus on, you’ll need to set a short-term goal. The first step in creating such a goal is to know what you’d like to achieve by the end of it.

Keep in mind that short-term goals are often linked to more important long-term goals. Thus, you’ll be able to use your long-term goal as the guiding light.

3. Reverse-engineer the goal

Once you have an endgame (or long-term goal) in mind, you can work your way backward to determine which steps you need to implement to achieve it.

Do this by breaking your long-term goal into short-term goals and then breaking those goals into manageable tasks.

For example, if your long-term goal is to expand your company to 500 employees within the next 5 years, you’ll need to set short-term goals, such as hiring 100 new employees per year, creating employee awards programs for higher retention, and adjusting infrastructure and operations to support this growth.

Then, based on these three "short-term goals, you can formulate smaller, actionable tasks by quarter, month, and even week. This type of visibility will also help you understand the key stakeholders you can delegate tasks to and provide clear benchmarks for success.

4. Use the SMART formula and the OKR framework

Making your short-term goals as specific as possible is essential because, as mentioned earlier, a goal that isn’t specific and doesn’t have a timeline isn’t a goal but an aspiration.

Making sure your goal has a focus and can be measured will ultimately determine its success since you’ll have a clear path toward reaching it and a way of measuring results.

This is where the SMART goal method comes into play.

The SMART framework is a popular goal-setting technique that people have adopted worldwide.

‎With this framework, you can ensure your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

You can also use the objectives and key results (OKR) strategy, which allows you to create actionable stepping stones that’ll serve as a “roadmap” to attaining your goals.

In the OKR framework:

• The  objective  is the short-term goal you want to achieve.
• The  key results  are the smaller action steps (or tasks) that you must take to achieve the goal.

‎By thinking of the actions that’ll need to be taken to achieve each short-term goal, you’ll be able to provide your employees with a detailed action plan for every project.

How to track your goals so you can achieve them

All goals need to be tracked.

This is especially essential for businesses with employees in the field who need to meet specific deadlines or a certain amount of sales.

For example, construction companies may set a short-term goal for their workers to lay the foundation of a building. To achieve this goal, the construction workers will need to track their tasks, such as excavation and footing installation, to ensure that they can get to the next part of the process on time.

Helping employees track their progress will directly impact your company’s performance since your employees will know exactly what’s expected of them.

Here are three excellent strategies you can use to track your goals:

• Communicate progress:  Make sure your employees communicate with management and vice versa so there’s no confusion about the status of the goal and who’s contributing to it.
• Create project milestones, and celebrate hitting them:  As your team progresses, it’s important to celebrate each milestone that’s hit. This will motivate your employees and help ensure that the larger objectives are reached.
• Use software to manage your goals:  You can  use Motion to manage your goals  by connecting your team’s work in one place. This way, your entire team will fully understand the project’s status. With Motion, you can set daily or weekly goals and even set the urgency of each task so workers know when they need to work faster to stay on track.

Ready to create achievable short-term goals?

Short-term goals pave the way to success in your professional life and business.

By following the steps and strategies outlined above, you can create short-term goals that are both measurable and achievable. Furthermore, if you’re a manager, you can set goals for both yourself and your employees to get projects done more efficiently.

Are you or your employees struggling to achieve short-term goals because you simply don’t have enough time to finish the work? Discover  how Motion users complete their work two hours faster every day .

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What is a Business Plan? Definition and Resources

9 min. read

Updated May 10, 2024

If you’ve ever jotted down a business idea on a napkin with a few tasks you need to accomplish, you’ve written a business plan — or at least the very basic components of one.

The origin of formal business plans is murky. But they certainly go back centuries. And when you consider that 20% of new businesses fail in year 1 , and half fail within 5 years, the importance of thorough planning and research should be clear.

But just what is a business plan? And what’s required to move from a series of ideas to a formal plan? Here we’ll answer that question and explain why you need one to be a successful business owner.

• What is a business plan?

A business plan lays out a strategic roadmap for any new or growing business.

Any entrepreneur with a great idea for a business needs to conduct market research , analyze their competitors , validate their idea by talking to potential customers, and define their unique value proposition .

The business plan captures that opportunity you see for your company: it describes your product or service and business model , and the target market you’ll serve. 

It also includes details on how you’ll execute your plan: how you’ll price and market your solution and your financial projections .

Reasons for writing a business plan

If you’re asking yourself, ‘Do I really need to write a business plan?’ consider this fact: 

Companies that commit to planning grow 30% faster than those that don’t.

Creating a business plan is crucial for businesses of any size or stage. It helps you develop a working business and avoid consequences that could stop you before you ever start.

If you plan to raise funds for your business through a traditional bank loan or SBA loan , none of them will want to move forward without seeing your business plan. Venture capital firms may or may not ask for one, but you’ll still need to do thorough planning to create a pitch that makes them want to invest.

But it’s more than just a means of getting your business funded . The plan is also your roadmap to identify and address potential risks. 

It’s not a one-time document. Your business plan is a living guide to ensure your business stays on course.

Related: 14 of the top reasons why you need a business plan

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What research shows about business plans

Numerous studies have established that planning improves business performance:

• 71% of fast-growing companies have business plans that include budgets, sales goals, and marketing and sales strategies.
• Companies that clearly define their value proposition are more successful than those that can’t.
• Companies or startups with a business plan are more likely to get funding than those without one.
• Starting the business planning process before investing in marketing reduces the likelihood of business failure.

The planning process significantly impacts business growth for existing companies and startups alike.

Read More: Research-backed reasons why writing a business plan matters

When should you write a business plan?

No two business plans are alike. 

Yet there are similar questions for anyone considering writing a plan to answer. One basic but important question is when to start writing it.

A Harvard Business Review study found that the ideal time to write a business plan is between 6 and 12 months after deciding to start a business. 

But the reality can be more nuanced – it depends on the stage a business is in, or the type of business plan being written.

Ideal times to write a business plan include:

• When you have an idea for a business
• When you’re starting a business
• When you’re preparing to buy (or sell)
• When you’re trying to get funding
• When business conditions change
• When you’re growing or scaling your business

Read More: The best times to write or update your business plan

How often should you update your business plan?

As is often the case, how often a business plan should be updated depends on your circumstances.

A business plan isn’t a homework assignment to complete and forget about. At the same time, no one wants to get so bogged down in the details that they lose sight of day-to-day goals. 

But it should cover new opportunities and threats that a business owner surfaces, and incorporate feedback they get from customers. So it can’t be a static document.

Related Reading: 5 fundamental principles of business planning

For an entrepreneur at the ideation stage, writing and checking back on their business plan will help them determine if they can turn that idea into a profitable business .

And for owners of up-and-running businesses, updating the plan (or rewriting it) will help them respond to market shifts they wouldn’t be prepared for otherwise. 

It also lets them compare their forecasts and budgets to actual financial results. This invaluable process surfaces where a business might be out-performing expectations and where weak performance may require a prompt strategy change. 

The planning process is what uncovers those insights.

Related Reading: 10 prompts to help you write a business plan with AI

• How long should your business plan be?

Thinking about a business plan strictly in terms of page length can risk overlooking more important factors, like the level of detail or clarity in the plan. 

Not all of the plan consists of writing – there are also financial tables, graphs, and product illustrations to include.

But there are a few general rules to consider about a plan’s length:

• Your business plan shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes to skim.
• Business plans for internal use (not for a bank loan or outside investment) can be as short as 5 to 10 pages.

A good practice is to write your business plan to match the expectations of your audience. 

If you’re walking into a bank looking for a loan, your plan should match the formal, professional style that a loan officer would expect . But if you’re writing it for stakeholders on your own team—shorter and less formal (even just a few pages) could be the better way to go.

The length of your plan may also depend on the stage your business is in. 

For instance, a startup plan won’t have nearly as much financial information to include as a plan written for an established company will.

Read More: How long should your business plan be?  

What information is included in a business plan?

The contents of a plan business plan will vary depending on the industry the business is in. 

After all, someone opening a new restaurant will have different customers, inventory needs, and marketing tactics to consider than someone bringing a new medical device to the market. 

But there are some common elements that most business plans include:

• Executive summary: An overview of the business operation, strategy, and goals. The executive summary should be written last, despite being the first thing anyone will read.
• Products and services: A description of the solution that a business is bringing to the market, emphasizing how it solves the problem customers are facing.
• Market analysis: An examination of the demographic and psychographic attributes of likely customers, resulting in the profile of an ideal customer for the business.
• Competitive analysis: Documenting the competitors a business will face in the market, and their strengths and weaknesses relative to those competitors.
• Marketing and sales plan: Summarizing a business’s tactics to position their product or service favorably in the market, attract customers, and generate revenue.
• Operational plan: Detailing the requirements to run the business day-to-day, including staffing, equipment, inventory, and facility needs.
• Organization and management structure: A listing of the departments and position breakdown of the business, as well as descriptions of the backgrounds and qualifications of the leadership team.
• Key milestones: Laying out the key dates that a business is projected to reach certain milestones , such as revenue, break-even, or customer acquisition goals.
• Financial plan: Balance sheets, cash flow forecast , and sales and expense forecasts with forward-looking financial projections, listing assumptions and potential risks that could affect the accuracy of the plan.
• Appendix: All of the supporting information that doesn’t fit into specific sections of the business plan, such as data and charts.

Read More: Use this business plan outline to organize your plan

• Different types of business plans

A business plan isn’t a one-size-fits-all document. There are numerous ways to create an effective business plan that fits entrepreneurs’ or established business owners’ needs. 

Here are a few of the most common types of business plans for small businesses:

• One-page plan : Outlining all of the most important information about a business into an adaptable one-page plan.
• Growth plan : An ongoing business management plan that ensures business tactics and strategies are aligned as a business scales up.
• Internal plan : A shorter version of a full business plan to be shared with internal stakeholders – ideal for established companies considering strategic shifts.

Business plan vs. operational plan vs. strategic plan

• What questions are you trying to answer? 
• Are you trying to lay out a plan for the actual running of your business?
• Is your focus on how you will meet short or long-term goals? 

Since your objective will ultimately inform your plan, you need to know what you’re trying to accomplish before you start writing.

While a business plan provides the foundation for a business, other types of plans support this guiding document.

An operational plan sets short-term goals for the business by laying out where it plans to focus energy and investments and when it plans to hit key milestones.

Then there is the strategic plan , which examines longer-range opportunities for the business, and how to meet those larger goals over time.

Read More: How to use a business plan for strategic development and operations

• Business plan vs. business model

If a business plan describes the tactics an entrepreneur will use to succeed in the market, then the business model represents how they will make money. 

The difference may seem subtle, but it’s important. 

Think of a business plan as the roadmap for how to exploit market opportunities and reach a state of sustainable growth. By contrast, the business model lays out how a business will operate and what it will look like once it has reached that growth phase.

Learn More: The differences between a business model and business plan

• Moving from idea to business plan

Now that you understand what a business plan is, the next step is to start writing your business plan . 

The best way to start is by reviewing examples and downloading a business plan template. These resources will provide you with guidance and inspiration to help you write a plan.

We recommend starting with a simple one-page plan ; it streamlines the planning process and helps you organize your ideas. However, if one page doesn’t fit your needs, there are plenty of other great templates available that will put you well on your way to writing a useful business plan.

See why 1.2 million entrepreneurs have written their business plans with LivePlan

Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software , a co-founder of Borland International, and a recognized expert in business planning. He has an MBA from Stanford and degrees with honors from the University of Oregon and the University of Notre Dame. Today, Tim dedicates most of his time to blogging, teaching and evangelizing for business planning.

Table of Contents

• Reasons to write a business plan
• Business planning research
• When to write a business plan
• When to update a business plan
• Information to include
• Business vs. operational vs. strategic plans

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11 Short-Term Business Goals: Set Smarter and More Effective Goals

Written by Jacques Skuteeki

Jacques Skuteeki, Business Innovation Strategist, transforms success through comprehensive strategies. Our team excels in market research, audience targeting, needs assessment, and competitive analysis. Experience the impact of our content strategy, delivering quality, engaging, problem-solving content. Trust Jacques Skuteeki for innovative business guidance. Stay tuned for more insights on our holistic approach.

So you have started your business. Congratulations! But the simple, ugly truth is that your business might fail before it reaches its second anniversary. I don’t mean to be blunt, but it is just the truth.

You might be wondering why. The reason why most businesses might fail before they reach their second anniversary is because of a lack of goals.

One of the most important things you can do for your business is to set goals, no matter how old your business is, how profitable it is, where you are located, or even what you sell. Goals help you keep track of your business and prevent it from becoming stagnant.

The misconception a lot of people have about business goals is that they are something we set at the start of every business year. However, it shouldn’t be that way. You should be setting goals multiple times a year, tracking your progress, and modifying the strategies you are following in order to achieve a prosperous business.

You can create a successful small business if you set smart, attainable, short-term goals. Whether you want to expand your business into a new market, make new hires, or acquire new leads, short-term goals will help you sustain momentum over the long run.

It might seem simple, but setting goals for a business is always difficult. Setting short-term goals for a company is also challenging, because they must be practical, clear, and easily understandable to employees.

To help you get started with your business goals, here is a list of 11 short-term goals that have the potential to turn your business around.

Tip: Pick some goals that are good for your business, turn them into SMART GOALS, and create a great plan to achieve them one by one.

You may have noticed that I highlighted “SMART GOALS.” That is because it is important to turn your short-term goals into smart goals.

So what exactly are SMART GOALS?

Every business has a goal. However, it is important to know that providing a good description of this goal will help you achieve the goal more quickly. This is where SMART GOALS come in. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Acceptable, Realistic, and Time-Bound. It is a method used to achieve every goal successfully; it gives a sense of direction to the goals you want to achieve.

Still, don’t understand the concept of SMART GOALS? Don’t worry – you will after you read the explanation of each of the letters in S-M-A-R-T.

S – SPECIFIC

Every business needs a specific goal, not random goals. Let me explain. For instance, you want to increase your business’s sales, because your current sales situation is not satisfactory. However, “increasing sales” is not a specific goal, so it is unclear how to achieve this goal. SMART goals should be formulated so that this goal is achievable.

The goal must describe an observable result, behavior, or action. So by answering the WH- questions, the goal will become more clear, specific, and achievable:

• What do we want to achieve? (Increase sales by 40%)
• Who is involved? (The marketing department and sales department)
• When is it going to happen? (From April 1st to November 30th)
• What parts of the goals are important? (Advertising should be used actively, and the sales department must work harder)
• Why is this goal important? (Competition is increasing, and to survive in the market, you have to become a key market player)

M – MEASURABLE

Every SMART goal should have a starting point and a finishing point. These points are indications of the effort that must be made to achieve your business goal. So it is advisable that you have a benchmark of the situation. Using the same goal example, “increase sales,” we can measure the benchmark answering these questions:

• How much sales did you make in the past year? (5 million in 2018)
• How can you calculate if the goal has been achieved? (40% of 5 million is 2 million, which means your goal is achieved if you make 7 million)
• What efforts do you have to put in place? (A great advertising campaign has to be put in place with consistent follow-up actions from the sales department)
• How can you measure your goals? (Your goals can be measured by comparing the monthly sales with the figures from the past year. If it is greater, you are achieving your goals; if otherwise, you need to step up your game)

A – ACCEPTABLE

You can’t just set goals because you think they will work; you have to set goals because they are acceptable. Your goals have to be acceptable by you and your department or group. Only then does that goal stand a chance of succeeding. When your employees accept a goal and actively work on it with you, that goal stands a chance of succeeding. For instance, if increasing your sales by 40% is too ambitious, then you can adjust the percentage to about 20% (something that would be acceptable).

R – REALISTIC

A goal can be specific, measurable, or acceptable, but not realistic. In order for your business goal to be realistic, you have to consider the practical situation and the work that everyone is involved in. Let’s face it: it is not possible that everyone will be committed to the same goal all the time. The goal must be important to those who are going to work on it. It also must be ensured that the entire team in charge of working on the goal has the time and manpower to focus on that goal for the specified period of time.

Most importantly, the goal must be challenging enough to motivate the entire team in charge of working on it. Otherwise, it will have a demotivating effect on the entire team, and the goal won’t be achieved.

So the concept “Realistic” in SMART has to do with the feasibility of the goals.

If you are going to stick to short-term goals, it is best they are SMART. Although the T in SMART doesn’t always work for long-term goals, it is very important for short-term goals.

Most people confuse Time for Measureable, but they aren’t the same. Time is the period allocated to reach or achieve the goals. A SMART goal should have a start and end time.

Using the same example, “increase sales,” instead of giving a random time, you can narrow it to a specific time by answering the question, “When is it going to happen?” For this example, the answer is from the 1st of April to the 30th of November. So you are anticipating to make two million extra sales within the given dates.

Since we have talked about the concept of “SMART,” let’s dive back into the main discussion of short-term business goals.

How can you set short-term business goals?

In order to figure out which goals you need to reach within the next six or twelve months, you need to answer these questions:

• Is my service or product evergreen or will it go out of trend? For instance, if you have a  clothing line  that creates clothes based on certain trends, you need to consider creating a new line as soon as another trend hits the market.
• In what other areas is my business presently active? In what other areas will it be active in about three years from now? Being able to answer all these questions will help you plan your short-term or long-term goals and their allocated budget.
• In what areas does my business have to improve? Who do I have to network with to stay aligned with my goal? If you have a clothing line and create trendy clothes, your short-term goal may be to network with top-notch designers. You could come up with a trendy clothing line for the next fall or summer.

11 SHORT-TERM BUSINESS GOALS

1.grow faster.

If your business is facing some real competition, it is best to add at least one fresh product to your inventory as needed. For instance, you run a clothing business, so obviously, there are lots of competitors. To grow faster and be ahead of your game, you have to add at least one new collection as needed. However, not just any collection will do. You have to make sure it is a trendy collection that will draw customers in – think outside of the box.

Regardless of your type of business, the new product should be something you can price high and then bundle with a less popular product to trigger interest, which will help to boost sales and create massive brand recognition.

2.Up Your Online Game

This is 2019, not 1960… Everything is done online, from making inquiries to making orders. You name it… everything. So getting your online visibility to its peak is one of the major goals you should pursue.

You might decide to start a social media campaign and a website all by yourself, which is fine. But do you have the time to learn about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), website analysis, online sales, and all the other stuff that have to do with online visibility? If your answer is no, then your goal should be to hire a social media manager to manage your social media accounts, and a website consultant to work on your site, boost its SEO, and improve its efficiency.

If you want to grow faster and make more money, you should make sure you are visible online.

3.Build Awareness

If you are a startup business, one of your short-term goals should be to build awareness for your business. Building awareness is measured in terms of percentages. For instance, your goal for the first three months might be to achieve a  brand-awareness  level of 5% of all businesses and customers in the area.

You can build awareness for your business solely through advertising and calculate the results through marketing research surveys.

4.Establish a Customer Base

Once you have succeeded in building awareness for your business, your next goal should be to establish a customer base. One way to establish your customer base is by getting as many people to buy your services or products. You can also distribute coupons or fliers, offer special deals on various services or products, or place ads in newspapers.

Another tested way to establish your customer base is by introducing products at a low price. Here is the deal: people will flock to your business if you offer a product that is high in demand at a low price (everyone loves low prices).

The major key to establishing a customer base is  REPEAT SALES . When a customer likes your product, he/she will come back and purchase more products. So your goal is to retain customers! You can maintain a database of customers to keep track of how much your customer base grows.

5.Establish Good Relationships with Agencies and Suppliers

Although you might be wondering why this is even a short-term goal, it is a goal that you should work towards achieving. Once you develop a good relationship with your suppliers, they will be more apt to meet your shipping requirements, which is good for your business. That’s not all; you might also receive special deals on shipments due to your good relationship with them.

If you are working with agencies like the marketing and advertising agencies, you have to make sure you establish a good relationship with them.

6.Make a Profit

One of your short-term business goals should be making a profit as soon as possible. Without profits, you won’t be able to expand your inventory or advertising, which means you might not attract customers. Without profits, it will be very difficult to pay your bills. So making a profit should be one of your major short-term business goals. The best way to make a profit is by  increasing your sales  and keeping your expenses within their allocated budget. You have to make sure the amount you spend on advertising, hiring, and rent doesn’t exceed the profit you are making.

7.Cut the Use of Paper and Go Paperless

You might be wondering why “going paperless” is a short-term goal, but it is a goal. Cutting the amount of paper you use in your business can help reduce expenses and improve productivity. However, you need to keep in mind that going paperless is not for every business. Find out if going paperless will work for your type of business. If it does, we advise you go paperless; if it doesn’t, you can just stick to the paper.

8.Collaborate With Your Team to Brainstorm New Ideas

It doesn’t matter if your team members are located in the same office or not; you should make sure you collaborate with your team often. Collaboration will help increase productivity, efficiency, and will strengthen the team’s bond.

Make sure you set aside time every week or every month (whichever works better for your team) to brainstorm new ideas to solve problems, create new opportunities, and improve your product.

9.Promoting a New Service or Product

This short-term goal is not mandatory; it just happens organically. You only get to promote a new service or product when you have something new to promote. If you have got nothing to promote, then don’t worry about this business goal.

Promoting a new service or product is something that gives most business owners the chills. If you want to launch a new product, it is very important to have a specific objective in mind. This objective could mean selling a specific amount of the product or service within the first month of launch. It could also be hosting an event to introduce the product or service to your customers.

Your objective solely depends on you and your type of business. Once you have determined your objective, then you will have something to work on.

10.Revitalize Your Market Analysis

What you are trying to achieve is finding new ways to market to your niche.

You can offer some of your clients or customers a discount or free product in exchange for interviewing them. You can ask generic questions about how they feel about the market and how they spend time with others just like them. The purpose of all the interviews is for you to get to know your customers more. It will help you narrow down your target audience so you know specifically what they want, what they like, what they do, and even how they behave.

11.Manage Cash Flow

Managing cash flow is an essential short-term business financial goal. A lot of people confuse cash flow with profit, but they are two different things.

Cash flow is all about the money going out of your business and coming into your business in terms of payments. If the amount coming into your business is higher than the amount leaving your business, then you are in cash flow positive.

There are so many things that take money from a business, including paying suppliers, buying and managing inventory, and paying employee salaries. If you can’t manage cash flow, then you are sure to run into losses before the third year of business.

Every business must ensure that inventory management is in place, that receivables against invoices are expedited, and that payments are made close to the due dates.

All of this boils down to cutting costs wherever possible and managing cash flow to make sure your business doesn’t run into loss.

Choosing your short-term goals will not be the same for every business as every business is different. However, when you are deciding on your short-term goals, be sure to also keep your long-term goals in mind.

Your marketing strategy and short-term goals should help you boost your business and take it to the level you want it to be. But you should always think of your overall marketing plan when you are choosing any goal, be it long term or short term, or you stand the risk of wasting all of your time and money.

So here are 11 short-term business goals that will help you decide on goals for your business.

Content By: Ethan Perkins | May 4, 2019 | Read More Here

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The importance of setting short-term goals (with examples)

Goals help you take action on larger ideas or visions. Short-term goals specifically help you to plan and take action on tasks that can be completed in the near future. In this article, get two strategies to help you create short-term goals more effectively. Then, check out some examples of short-term goals, plus how to track and use them so they have the highest impact.

Whether it’s launching a new product with your team, building your dream house, or achieving your big hairy audacious goals (BHAGs) , it's easy to feel overwhelmed when your goal is a large, ambiguous idea. Setting short-term goals can help you reach larger objectives and make progress towards your desired outcome.

What is a short-term goal?

A short-term goal is a goal that you want to complete in the near future, such as within the next week or the next month. These are often stepping stones towards larger goals, though not always. You can also use short-term goals to take action on smaller projects or ideas. As a result, short-term goals tend to be easier to achieve. 

20 examples of short-term goals

10 short-term professional goals examples:

Manage the next quarterly project from start to finish in Q3.

Get certified in a project management tool by EOY.

Increase net promoter score by five points this quarter.

Build social reach with five LinkedIn posts a day for the next 30 days.

Schedule three networking lunches this month.

Call 50 new prospects this quarter.

Log off at 6:00 PM every day this week.

Reduce creative requests backlog by 10% in Q1.

Publish six new blog posts in the next 60 days.

Update portfolio with new designs by end of next month.

10 personal short-term goals examples:

Put 5% of your monthly income into a savings account starting next month.

Eat meat-free dinners one day a week starting today.

Read two books this month.

Reduce screen time daily average by 15 minutes this week.

Track spending for 30 days.

Call a friend every Saturday morning this month.

Walk for 15 minutes every day starting next week.

Practice daily deep breathing for the next 60 days.

Journal for 20 minutes every Sunday starting next month.

Play with your kids for 30 minutes every night starting today.

Notice that ‌these goals all have a specific time frame assigned to them. This makes your goal more actionable by connecting those actions to a specific amount of time.

What are the benefits of setting short term goals?

Short-term goals can be used to break down larger, more general goals. They don’t replace these big, overarching goals, but rather give you a path to achieve them.

Setting and working on short-term goals helps you:

Realize what you can accomplish today and take action

Get quick feedback

Get started faster

Define deadlines

Manage and prioritize tasks 

The difference between short-term goals and long-term goals

A long-term goal is your North Star. It’s the bigger objective that you want to achieve. Short-term goals are different. They focus on a smaller portion of work in a shorter time frame. By breaking a larger, long-term goal into many short-term goals, you can prevent procrastination and stay focused on the task at hand. 

Let's look at an example of a long-term goal that has smaller short-term goals built into the action plan .

Long term goal: A sales team is looking to close $500,000 in new sales in the next year. 

Short term goal: The small- and medium-sized sales team wants to close $50,000 in new sales in Q1.

You could then break the short-term goal down into even smaller, more specific goals assigned to each sales representative. For example, Areej will aim to close $8,000 in new sales during each month of the quarter.

Strategies for setting short-term goals

Being strategic about how you set your goals can help focus them—which will ultimately make it more likely that your goals pay off. Try these strategies to get more specific, actionable short-term goals:

SMART Goals

SMART goals are a common goal setting technique. SMART is an acronym that stands for:

Ensuring that your goals contain every facet of a SMART goal can help you get clear on what you want to accomplish, how you’re going to do it, and when it needs to be done.

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)

When setting short-term goals, it's important to connect specific actions to your goals. By creating actionable stepping stones, you can set up a strong roadmap towards achieving your goals—both short-term and long-term ones.

You can see this approach in action with OKRs, or objectives and key results . The objective is the goal you want to achieve. The key results are the metrics by which you'll measure progress towards those goals.

Goals can be used in conjunction with OKRs to help you make progress on key results. Think about what actions you need to take to achieve the desired key results and use those to set your goals. 

Example of how to set short-term goals

Let’s say your social media team's OKR is to increase your social media following by 400% this fiscal year. 

There's no clear plan for how to get to that 400%, so the team gets together to brainstorm actionable steps they can take to increase their social media following. One team member suggests hosting giveaways twice a quarter to increase follower counts. Another team member suggests using paid ads to increase awareness. Another suggests working with different influencers every week to promote their brand. 

All three of these ideas are good options, and all of them can be set as short-term goals to achieve the main OKR. Here's what those three goals would look like written out:

Host a giveaway two times a quarter.

Gain 250 followers through paid advertisements every quarter.

Promote each account through an influencer channel once a week.

Each of these shorter goals focuses specifically on a task that contributes to a longer-term company goal. Aligning tasks with smaller team goals, and bigger company objectives is a central aspect of building a pyramid of clarity. With the pyramid of clarity, you can connect your day-to-day work to your short-term goals. That way, your entire team is working towards the same objective, bringing your organization closer to achieving it.

Tracking goal progress

Whether it’s a long-term career goal or a short-term personal one, goal tracking is essential to ensure that you’re making progress. 

According to a recent survey by Asana , only 26% of knowledge workers have a very clear understanding of how their work contributes to company goals. If your team members don’t know what goals they're contributing to, they might not be producing work that impacts those big picture company goals.

Goal tracking helps you see if the work your team is doing contributes towards a bigger goal. But how do you ensure that your team is regularly working towards those goals? Here are a few strategies:

Communicate progress clearly: When everybody sees how work is progressing, there's no confusion as to whether or not the work is contributing to the goal. 

Create (and celebrate!) project milestones : As your team progresses, it's important to celebrate incremental progress so they don't get discouraged halfway through or lose focus.

Manage goals with software: Connect your team's work with your company's goals all in one place. By using work management software like Asana , your team will have one source of truth for all work. 

One of the major benefits of goal tracking is that it gives you visibility into whether your strategies are working. If you're actively monitoring your key results and not seeing the desired outcomes, you can dig further to discover what’s missing. Does one of your team members have too much on their plate? Is one of your strategies not as effective as you thought it would be?

Monitoring your goals gives you the opportunity to pivot your strategy when things aren’t going according to plan. 

Using short-term goals for professional development

You might not be able to control everything about your professional life, but setting goals helps you take advantage of those you can control. Whether it’s prepping for a review six months away, taking an online course, or a complete career change, these short-term goals will help you zero in on how to move the needle in your professional life.

Managing team goals to become an effective manager

As a manager, it could be challenging to create your own personal goals without first looking at your team’s individual goals. Great managers help unblock contributors so that goal-achieving tasks can get done. 

Before setting personal goals as a manager, look at your team’s goals. Base your goals on the work your team is contributing to so that everyone is aligned and making progress. 

Monitoring personal professional development with short-term goals

In addition to using short-term career goals to monitor your team’s or company's progress, you can monitor short-term goals to track your own—or a team member’s—personal development. If you’re developing new skills or taking on new responsibilities, track how those skills are helping you achieve your goals. 

Let’s look at an example.

Taylor is a sales development representative at a SaaS company. They don’t particularly enjoy spending time on sales calls, but they’ve found several tools to help them create an automated email flow to reach out to their prospects. 

Taylor’s manager notices that they are not making the recommended number of sales calls, but they’re still hitting their sales goals because of how well their prospect emails convert.

Taylor’s manager sees this as an opportunity for growth, and asks Taylor if they would like to transition to a role that allows them to further create email marketing opportunities for other SDRs on the team. By monitoring how Taylor was progressing towards their goals, Taylor’s manager was able to create an opportunity for them to grow into a position that was a strong fit for their skillset. 

Setting goals for your own personal development

Goals can be used to help your personal development as well. If you have long-term life goals, you can set up short-term personal goals as you would professional ones. Set measurable goals to serve as small stepping stones for your progress. 

You can use short-term personal goals for a variety of different aspirations. For example, you can set up short-term financial goals to hit a bigger goal of reducing credit card debt. Or, maybe you use weekly goals to develop a fitness or morning routine. These shorter, targeted goals can have a big impact on your daily life.

Here’s an example of how you can break down a personal goal:

Long-term personal goal: Run a half marathon within 6 months 

Short-term goals :

Be able to run a mile without stopping by end of week 2

Run a 5K by the end of month 1 in under 35 minutes

Run a 10K by the end of month 2 in under an hour

As you can see, the short-term goals are incremental, but they all work together to achieve the big goal at the end—running a marathon.

Track short-term goals more effectively

Looking for a way to effectively track your goals, both short-term and long-term? Tracking your goals using work management software like Asana can help you break your goals into actionable tasks.

Related resources

7 steps to complete a social media audit (with template)

How to accomplish big things with long-term goals

What are objectives and key results (OKRs)?

Fix these common onboarding challenges to boost productivity

How to Set Short Term Goals for Your Small Business (15 Examples Included)

Setting appropriate goals is something that every business owner should prioritize. When you get it right, these goals will guide your actions — which saves you time and makes business easier. To get it right, you need to set both long term and short term goals for your small business.

This post may contain affiliate links. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

Today, I’m deep diving into short terms goals. You’ll understand what they are, how they are different from long term goals, and why you need them. Plus, I’ll give you a few examples, so you can get an idea of how you should use short-term goals to help you advance bigger goals.

Short Term Goals Versus Long Term Goals

Miriam Webster defines a goal as the end towards which effort is directed. In other words, everything you wish to accomplish is a goal. This can be confusing. Especially when it comes to setting goals for your business .

Understanding what short terms goals are and how to use them to your benefit starts with understanding the difference between short and long term goals.

A long term goal is something you want to achieve in the distant future. Think several years out.

An example of a long term goal may be:

I will grow my email list to 100K relevant subscribers by September 28, 2027.

What makes this goal long term is the date. This is something you wish to achieve in five years. It’s a much bigger, loftier goal.

What is a Short Term Goal?

A short term goal is just that — short! These goals have much swifter deadlines. Usually, within a year or less.

Anything and everything from your “to-do” list items, to monthly milestones, to quarterly and yearly goals are considered short term.

Short term goals do two important things. They support

• Long term goals
• Other short term goals

Think of short term goals as a bridge between where you are right now and where you want to be in the distant future.

How Short Term Goals Benefit Your Small Business

The short term goals you set for your small business are critical to your ability to reach those bigger, long term goals. But that’s not the only benefit.

Here are just five of the many benefits you can expect:

1. Defines Your Action Steps

Let’s face it. A big goal with a far-away deadline can feel intangible and overwhelming. Often you’re left thinking, “where should I start?”

That’s where short term goals come in and save the day. Breaking that big goal into shorter ones makes everything easier.

You essentially can use short term goals to create your entire plan of action to achieve your long term goals.

2. Keeps You Focused on the Present

It’s hard enough to focus on “right now” with all of the distractions you battle every day. To think that you can stay present with what you need to do today while focusing on your end goal is unrealistic.

It’s much easier to focus on smaller, shorter term targets. They will help you keep your attention on what needs to happen in the current moment.

Doing what matters now is what will help you make that long term progress.

3. Helps You Define Deadlines

The point of setting a long term goal for your small business is to achieve that goal. However, if you keep your attention on that long term deadline, you’ll find yourself constantly frustrated, feeling like you’ve made little progress.

Breaking those long term goals into short term goals mean closer deadlines. And those shorter goals, put in a logical sequence, constitute a plan with clear due dates and deadlines.

Defined deadlines will help keep you on track.

4. Provides You With Feedback Faster

Those defined deadlines also offer you the opportunity to receive valuable feedback on your progress. And you’ll get that information faster from your short term goals.

If you are meeting your short term goal deadlines, you’ll remain on track.

If you find that you’re constantly pushing those due dates and deadlines back, then you’re off track. Make sense?

In other words, what’s happening with your short term goal progress will give you the feedback you need to either continue forward or make appropriate adjustments.

5. Minimizes Procrastination

Setting short term goals for your small business will help minimize procrastination.

Having a big, lofty goal due far in the future looming large over you is fodder for procrastination because it just feels too overwhelming.

It’s much easier to take action on small steps with short deadlines.

Slow and steady wins the race.

How to Break a Long Term Goal into Short Term Goals for Your Small Business

Now you understand the difference between long and short term goals for your small business. You also are aware of why setting short term goals are of benefit to you.

So let’s talk about how to actually break a long term goal into short term goals. Sound good?

Breaking Down Long Term Goals

To demonstrate what I mean, let’s revisit our long term goal example:

A yearly, short term goal that supports this bigger goal is:

I will grow my email list to 20K relevant subscribers by September 28, 2023.

What makes this a short term goal for business is, again, the date. Yes, the number of email subscribers also changed, but that number isn’t relevant.

But, we can break that short term goal down again into other short term goals as well.

Quarterly, Short Term Goal:

I will grow my email list to 4K relevant subscribers by December 28, 2022.

Monthly, Short Term Goal:

I will grow my email list to 1.2K relevant subscribers by October 28, 2022.

Breaking Down Short Term Goals

Let’s stop there.

This short term goal may be quite realistic if your business has been actively list buildling with a sophisticated funnel and ads strategy.

BUT if you haven’t been building a list of any kind, adding 1.2K new email subscribers in a month could be a challenge. Especially if you don’t have a email software or a lead magnet (ie. your freebie).

Either way, what’s important to know is this:

• You need to take your current circumstances somewhat into account when breaking down your long term goals
• Breaking down your long term goals in this manner will help you make better decisions when it comes to numbers, deadlines and other metrics

For the sake of this example, let’s say you’re new to list building.

The first decision you need to make pertains to the metric of 1.2K new emails. If you have no platform or lead magnet (ie. your freebie), then that’s a big number. And, of course, you’ll need to spend some time putting these things into place.

Let’s create a more realistic, short term goal for the month:

I will create my list-building machine and add 200 new email subscribers in the next 30 days.

Now we have something to really work with.

Creating Micro Goals

This brings me to what I like to call micro goals. A micro goal is a super short term task that is a component to achieving short term goal. Think of these as “to-do” list items that are less formal.

So for this goal:

Micro actions could be:

• Research email management systems
• Choose an email management system
• Set up email management system
• Brainstorm lead magnet ideas
• Validate lead magnet ideas with ideal clients
• Outline lead magnet
• Write lead magnet
• Design lead magnet

Of course, this is just an example. And as a matter of fact, some of the micro-actions could be broken down even more.

The point is to take a big project and break it into small actions and then smaller actions. Especially if a task feels overwhelming.

Small steps are where it’s at, my friend. They will help you create a flow that will have you achieving your goals more quickly and effortlessly than ever.

Must a Short Term Goal Always Support a Long Term Goal?

You might be wondering, “do the short term goals I set for my small business always need to support a bigger goal?”

That’s a fair question. To which the answer is, “it depends”.

For example, you may decide to build your first digital course over the next six months. That would be a short term goal. The sales you make of that course could relate to a larger, long term revenue goal.

On the other hand, you may set the short term goal to implement a project management tool to use with your team. That goal could be part of a short term effort to get more organized, but doesn’t relate to a long term goal.

Got it? Good!

Consider Setting These Short Term Goals for Your Small Business

If you’re new to the goal-setting philosophy, start with setting a few short term goals for your small business.

Need some inspiration? Here are a few ideas.

• Close two new clients in the next 30 days.
• Outsource all or part of a project this year.
• Create written processes for repeatable tasks over the next 60 days.
• Conduct a marketing audit this week.
• Introduce a new product or service this quarter.
• Establish a morning routine this week.
• Reduce business expenses by 20% in 6 months.
• Integrate an easy-to-manage social media strategy this month.
• Test out Facebook Ads for a lead magnet for 90 days.
• Design a signature talk over the next month.
• Start a journal and write an entry daily for the next 90 days.
• Develop one new, good habit every month for the next year.
• Conduct market research to discover competitors over the next 30 days.
• Develop the company’s mission statement in the next 14 days.
• Increase company revenue by 25% over the next year.

Once you’ve chosen your short term goals. Break them down into smaller action items.

Setting Short Term Goals for Your Small Business Will Help You Make Progress Faster

Whether related to a long term goal or not, the short term goals you set for your small business will help you make better, faster progress on what really matters to the success of your business.

Take some time to brainstorm some helpful short term goals that will support the larger goals you’ve set. You’ll find that business feels just a little bit easier. Because taking little steps consistently is far less overwhelming than thinking about the bigger picture all of the time.

Yes. Those long term goals are your target, but your short term goals are what will get you there in the end.

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What Is a Business Plan?

Understanding business plans, how to write a business plan, common elements of a business plan, how often should a business plan be updated, the bottom line, business plan: what it is, what's included, and how to write one.

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

A business plan is a document that details a company's goals and how it intends to achieve them. Business plans can be of benefit to both startups and well-established companies. For startups, a business plan can be essential for winning over potential lenders and investors. Established businesses can find one useful for staying on track and not losing sight of their goals. This article explains what an effective business plan needs to include and how to write one.

Key Takeaways

• A business plan is a document describing a company's business activities and how it plans to achieve its goals.
• Startup companies use business plans to get off the ground and attract outside investors.
• For established companies, a business plan can help keep the executive team focused on and working toward the company's short- and long-term objectives.
• There is no single format that a business plan must follow, but there are certain key elements that most companies will want to include.

Investopedia / Ryan Oakley

Any new business should have a business plan in place prior to beginning operations. In fact, banks and venture capital firms often want to see a business plan before they'll consider making a loan or providing capital to new businesses.

Even if a business isn't looking to raise additional money, a business plan can help it focus on its goals. A 2017 Harvard Business Review article reported that, "Entrepreneurs who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve viability than the otherwise identical nonplanning entrepreneurs."

Ideally, a business plan should be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect any goals that have been achieved or that may have changed. An established business that has decided to move in a new direction might create an entirely new business plan for itself.

There are numerous benefits to creating (and sticking to) a well-conceived business plan. These include being able to think through ideas before investing too much money in them and highlighting any potential obstacles to success. A company might also share its business plan with trusted outsiders to get their objective feedback. In addition, a business plan can help keep a company's executive team on the same page about strategic action items and priorities.

Business plans, even among competitors in the same industry, are rarely identical. However, they often have some of the same basic elements, as we describe below.

While it's a good idea to provide as much detail as necessary, it's also important that a business plan be concise enough to hold a reader's attention to the end.

While there are any number of templates that you can use to write a business plan, it's best to try to avoid producing a generic-looking one. Let your plan reflect the unique personality of your business.

Many business plans use some combination of the sections below, with varying levels of detail, depending on the company.

The length of a business plan can vary greatly from business to business. Regardless, it's best to fit the basic information into a 15- to 25-page document. Other crucial elements that take up a lot of space—such as applications for patents—can be referenced in the main document and attached as appendices.

These are some of the most common elements in many business plans:

• Executive summary: This section introduces the company and includes its mission statement along with relevant information about the company's leadership, employees, operations, and locations.
• Products and services: Here, the company should describe the products and services it offers or plans to introduce. That might include details on pricing, product lifespan, and unique benefits to the consumer. Other factors that could go into this section include production and manufacturing processes, any relevant patents the company may have, as well as proprietary technology . Information about research and development (R&D) can also be included here.
• Market analysis: A company needs to have a good handle on the current state of its industry and the existing competition. This section should explain where the company fits in, what types of customers it plans to target, and how easy or difficult it may be to take market share from incumbents.
• Marketing strategy: This section can describe how the company plans to attract and keep customers, including any anticipated advertising and marketing campaigns. It should also describe the distribution channel or channels it will use to get its products or services to consumers.
• Financial plans and projections: Established businesses can include financial statements, balance sheets, and other relevant financial information. New businesses can provide financial targets and estimates for the first few years. Your plan might also include any funding requests you're making.

The best business plans aren't generic ones created from easily accessed templates. A company should aim to entice readers with a plan that demonstrates its uniqueness and potential for success.

2 Types of Business Plans

Business plans can take many forms, but they are sometimes divided into two basic categories: traditional and lean startup. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) , the traditional business plan is the more common of the two.

• Traditional business plans : These plans tend to be much longer than lean startup plans and contain considerably more detail. As a result they require more work on the part of the business, but they can also be more persuasive (and reassuring) to potential investors.
• Lean startup business plans : These use an abbreviated structure that highlights key elements. These business plans are short—as short as one page—and provide only the most basic detail. If a company wants to use this kind of plan, it should be prepared to provide more detail if an investor or a lender requests it.

Why Do Business Plans Fail?

A business plan is not a surefire recipe for success. The plan may have been unrealistic in its assumptions and projections to begin with. Markets and the overall economy might change in ways that couldn't have been foreseen. A competitor might introduce a revolutionary new product or service. All of this calls for building some flexibility into your plan, so you can pivot to a new course if needed.

How frequently a business plan needs to be revised will depend on the nature of the business. A well-established business might want to review its plan once a year and make changes if necessary. A new or fast-growing business in a fiercely competitive market might want to revise it more often, such as quarterly.

What Does a Lean Startup Business Plan Include?

The lean startup business plan is an option when a company prefers to give a quick explanation of its business. For example, a brand-new company may feel that it doesn't have a lot of information to provide yet.

Sections can include: a value proposition ; the company's major activities and advantages; resources such as staff, intellectual property, and capital; a list of partnerships; customer segments; and revenue sources.

A business plan can be useful to companies of all kinds. But as a company grows and the world around it changes, so too should its business plan. So don't think of your business plan as carved in granite but as a living document designed to evolve with your business.

Harvard Business Review. " Research: Writing a Business Plan Makes Your Startup More Likely to Succeed ."

U.S. Small Business Administration. " Write Your Business Plan ."

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June 29, 2022

Short-term vs. long-term business goals: Comparison + 30 examples

Monika Gudova

Content Writer and Editor

Table of contents

Not unlike the recipe for your mum’s famous chocolate cake, the recipe for business success calls for various ingredients and steps plus time and patience. It requires short-term work (baking) to yield long-term results (happy tummies). 

In business, short- and long-term goals are used tactically to help a business move forward. But what are they? And how are they set? We’ll define and compare short-term and long-term goals and show you 15 examples of what they look like in business.

What is a long-term business goal?

It’s all in the name — long-term outcomes are what your company wants to achieve in the long term. They’re high-level goals or strategies you want to accomplish in the coming years, driving you closer to your vision. Good long-term goals should be adaptable to technological, political and other environmental changes.

No exact period defines long-term goals, but most organisations think of them as goals you aim to achieve in the next one to ten years. While ambitious, they inform short-term goals and day-to-day business flow and vice versa. Knowing a general direction is essential, but keeping a bottom-up approach that supports adaptability, creativity and more input into decision-making is still crucial.

What is a short-term business goal?

The term ‘short’ is key in describing short-term goals. They define business goals you want to achieve in the near future, which can span from a week to a year, depending on the project and organisational preferences. They focus on the present, promoting productivity and good time management.

Short-term business goals are clear, easily actionable and geared toward individual or team efforts rather than overall strategy. That being said, short-term goals should still be set with long-term strategy in mind — to set short-term goals, you need to know generally where your business is heading. In simpler terms, short-term goals are the steps you need to take to get where you want to be and a tool to check you’re heading in the right direction.

Short-term vs long-term goals

Short-term and long-term goals may differ, but it’s not quite David and Goliath. Below we’ve listed three key factors that set short- and long-term goals apart.

The biggest difference between short-term goals and long-term goals is their purpose. Long-term goals are strategic — they’re a plan for the future of the business. Short-term goals contribute to the success of a business but have more to do with your current performance.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to defining what’s considered short-term or long-term, but generally speaking, short-term goals are more likely to be measured by weeks or months and long-term goals by years. Long-term business strategies require many short-term goals to meet.

Flexibility

Short-term goals and long-term organisational goals are also different in adaptability. Short-term goals are typically more clearly defined and actionable, whereas long-term goals are flexible to changes in strategy.

Examples of both short- and long-term goals in business

Looking for some real-world examples to help you write business goals? Using the SMART methodology — which requires goals to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound — we’ve compiled some examples of long- and short-term business goals that are easily adaptable.

Short-term vs long-term marketing goal examples

A long-term marketing goal might sound like this:

• Drive more traffic to the shop tab on the website

And the short-term business goals that support this long-term strategy might look like this:

• Develop a social media strategy that boosts posting from 3 times a week to daily
• Plan an email campaign that achieves an average click rate of 10% before new product launch  

Short-term vs long-term finance goal examples

The following might be a long-term finance goal:

•  Reduce operating costs

And to support the long-term strategy, short-term finance goals may look like this:

• Automate 50% of payroll duties by adopting accounting software by June 30
• Reduce cost of goods sold (COGS) expenses by 20% this quarter

Short-term vs long-term HR goal examples

Long-term HR goals would include:

• Improve employee retention rate

Whereas the short-term HR goals for the long-term strategy may look like this:

• Allocate 10% of HR budget to personal development training
• Implement one feedback form a month for more visibility across company issues

Short-term vs long-term sales goal examples

A typical goal for long-term sales growth may look like this:

• Increase total sales revenue

In contrast, the short-term goals for sales might be as follows:

• Generate 50% of sales from clients X and Y by the end of June
• Make $30,000 in new deals by the end of the quarter

Short-term vs long-term customer service goal examples

An example of a long-term customer service goal might be:

• Increase customer satisfaction

Whereas customer service short-term goals are more likely to be specific:

• Increase the first-contact resolution rate by 10% by the end of quarter
• Improve first reply time by 5% overall by the end of the month

Other examples of short-term and long-term goals for business

Content marketing.

• Short-term: Increase blog traffic by 25% in the next three months by optimizing existing content for SEO and publishing weekly articles on trending topics.
• Long-term: Establish the company as a thought leader in its industry within two years, by consistently producing high-quality, research-backed content that addresses key challenges and trends.

Email Marketing

• Short-term: Improve email open rates by 10% over the next quarter through A/B testing of subject lines and personalized content.
• Long-term: Double the email subscriber list size within the next 18 months by leveraging lead magnets and optimizing signup forms across all digital platforms.
• Short-term: Redesign the company homepage to improve visual appeal and user engagement within the next two months.
• Long-term: Establish a cohesive brand identity across all products and marketing materials within two years, enhancing brand recognition and consistency.

User Experience (UX)

• Short-term: Decrease website bounce rate by 20% in the next six months through improved navigation and faster page load times.
• Long-term: Achieve top-tier customer satisfaction scores for the digital experience within the next three years by continuously refining and personalizing the user journey.
• Short-term: Reduce deployment time by 30% within the next quarter through the implementation of automated deployment pipelines.
• Long-term: Achieve a 99.9% uptime for all critical systems within the next two years by enhancing monitoring, scalability, and disaster recovery strategies.

Software Development

• Short-term: Complete the development of a new mobile application feature within the next three months to meet market demand.
• Long-term: Transition the entire software portfolio to a microservices architecture within the next five years to improve scalability and maintainability.

Project Managers

• Short-term: Improve project completion rates by 15% over the next six months by adopting agile project management methodologies.
• Long-term: Implement a company-wide project management software solution within the next year to enhance collaboration, tracking, and reporting capabilities.

How to turn short term business goals into OKRs

Whether you’re 20 years into trading or in the early stages of business, getting past the ‘vision’ part of goal setting is not always easy. You may know where you want to be, but getting there is the hard part.

The OKR acronym stands for Objectives and Key Results. It's a goal setting framework that bridges the gap between vision and strategy and introduces a simple shared language to write down the focus of the different teams in your organisation.

Turning your goals into OKRs can be done in 3 simple steps:

1. Define your objectives

First you need to define your overall objective. If you're setting quarterly goals, then you need a statement that clearly explain what you expect to get at the end of the quarter.

For instance a Customer Success team could have:

• Significantly improve user satisfaction

2. Select your metrics

Now that you have an objective, the next step is to pick the Customer Success KPIs that will best map to that objective. That could be:

• Average response time

These metrics will become your key results in the next step.

3. Use the SMART formula to turn your metrics into Key results

Finally, all we need to do is to transform our KPIs into SMART professional goals to make them measurable and time-bound.

You end up with quarterly OKRs that look like the following:

Objective: Significantly improve customer satisfaction

• KR1: Increase NPS from 20 to 50
• KR2: Reduce average response time from 2h to 30min
• KR3: Improve CSAT by 15%

Of course, there's a bit more subtleties to master, but there are some guides that can help you turn a vision into a simple set of OKRs .

How to track short and long term goals

Benefits of tracking your business goals

Setting goals is only the first step you take to achieve success. Without goals, it's difficult to determine what you want to accomplish and how to reach your destination.

But, tracking your progress towards your goals is equally important. This is what helps you stay focused and motivated. By tracking your short-term and long-term goals, you can keep yourself accountable and on track towards achieving your objectives.

Short-term business goals help you maintain a sense of urgency and motivation while working towards a larger long-term objective. You can see them as a way to ensure business productivity.

Long-term goals, on the other hand, help you maintain a clear long term vision and a sense of direction. Unlike short term business goals, the long term objectives will help you steer the company by looking many years forward.

Tracking both short and long-term goals helps you maintain a healthy balance between the two.

Optimising business goal-tracking: choosing between spreadsheets and specialised platforms

The role of spreadsheets for goal-tracking.

Spreadsheets are a familiar tool for many businesses, known for their flexibility and ease of use in a variety of tasks. They offer a simple way to organise data and track the progress of your business goals. However, when it comes to effectively monitoring your achievements and assessing detailed progress, spreadsheets might not be the all-in-one solution you need.

While spreadsheets are incredibly versatile, allowing for the customisation and calculation of data, they fall short in providing a dynamic, holistic view of your business goals. One of the key challenges with spreadsheets is their static nature—they require regular, manual updates, which not only consumes valuable time but also increases the risk of errors. This manual process can lead to inaccuracies in your data, impacting your ability to make informed decisions.

Moreover, spreadsheets lack advanced data visualisation capabilities, making it harder to spot trends, forecast future performance, and make strategic adjustments. Without the ability to easily visualise your progress, identifying areas of improvement or success becomes costly.

Specialised goal-tracking software will save you hours at work

Opting for a dedicated goal-tracking platform , such as Tability, will simplify the way businesses approach their goal management strategies. Such platforms offer a structured and organised approach for setting, tracking, and achieving business objectives.

Unlike spreadsheets, a platform like Tability will have a multitude of OKR dashboards ready to-go, each designed to answer very specific questions in a timely manner.

The other advantage of such platform is that they'll often have the ability to connect to other tools, such as your project management platforms, to allow you to map the relevant strategic projects to your objectives .

Get the right balance

Wrapping up, the journey to achieving business success, much like perfecting a beloved recipe, is about mixing the right ingredients with precision, timing, and a bit of patience. Establishing a balanced blend of short- and long-term goals is essential, serving as the roadmap that guides your business forward. While short-term goals keep the engine running day to day, long-term goals ensure you're headed in the right direction, steering towards that bigger picture with confidence and clarity.

The combination of well-defined goals and the right tracking tools, like Tability , becomes the secret ingredient to not just reaching but surpassing your business aspirations.

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Examples of Long- & Short-Term Goals for a Business

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Growing a business requires setting short- and long-term goals. Often the short-term goals are the steps necessary to achieve the longer-term goals. You can choose related areas such as advertising and revenue, and base short- and long-term goals within these categories.

An example of a short-term goal is to increase your advertising budget each month for the next three months. An example of a long-term business goal that the short-term goal helps achieve is to double business revenue by the end of the fiscal year.

Revenue Goals and Supporting Goals

If your long-term revenue goal is to double revenue by the end of the current fiscal year, another example of a supporting short-term goal is to contract an advertising consultant for one month to help you analyze and capitalize on your customer's buying trends. Another short-term goal example is to spend the next month learning your primary competition and brainstorming on what you offer that they don't. You can us this research and design a new advertising campaign that highlights the unique points about your business or products.

Customer Service Goals

One long-term goal for customer service would be achieving at least 95 percent positive customer feedback. An example of a supporting short-term goal is to redesign the customer service research process to include new questionnaires and incentives, such as monthly drawings for free products or discounts on future purchases for customers who take the time to respond.

Employee Appreciation Goals

Some businesses establish a long-term employee appreciation goal of awarding an employee of the year award to the employee who provides the most creative input during the year in terms of practical ideas to improve the company. Supporting short-term goals are to award employee of the month designations each month throughout the year to mark the progression of creative input, and to include more employees in the reward process than is possible with a single annual award.

Community Outreach Goals

Building the company's name recognition within the community through community outreach projects is a popular long-term goal for businesses. Examples of short-term supporting goals are to reward employees who volunteer with designated community programs with additional time off, bonuses or gift cards. Another short-term supporting goal is to choose one or two high-profile annual charity events to sponsor.

Website Traffic Goals

A long-term goal regarding web traffic is to increase traffic to your company's site by at least 50 percent by the end of the current fiscal year. Supporting short-term goals are to research and purchase web traffic analysis software to better pinpoint current traffic trends, to hire a web consultant for one month to propose and implement programming changes to make the site appeal to a broader audience than your traffic trend research suggests currently exist.

Another example of a short-term goal is to select a medium for advertising your site other than the Web, such as a bus campaign where you advertise your site address on the side of city buses for one month, or billboards, where you lease a billboard in a conspicuous place in town for one month.

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An attorney for more than 18 years, Jennifer Williams has served the Florida Judiciary as supervising attorney for research and drafting, and as appointed special master. Williams has a Bachelor of Arts in communications from Jacksonville University, law degree from NSU's Shepard-Broad Law Center and certificates in environmental law and Native American rights from Tulsa University Law.

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What are Short and Long-term Business Goals?

A critical aspect of having a successful business is its functionality and goals. Having a business goal is essential to an entrepreneur or organization because this helps them to measure success and foresee the longevity of their business.

Business goals are preferably the things that a company expects to accomplish during a specific time period. They guide you in the proper direction and motivate you to take the necessary steps to get there. Setting business goals is beneficial to both large and small businesses. However, when it comes to establishing goals, you need to identify the purpose of short-term and long-term goals.

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What are short-term goals in business?

Short-term goals are something you wish to achieve in the  nearest future.  The term  nearest future  refers to the current day, week, month, or year. Short-term goals are sometimes known as smaller goals because they have a shorter time range. The time range for short-term goals is usually substantially shorter for when the time span exceeds a year, you’ve reached the level of long-term goals.

What is a long-term goal in business?

Business goals establish a clear understanding of what a business wants to accomplish over a given period of time. They help establish the desired result that employees can work towards and observe the progress being made, which boosts morale. Contrary to short-term objectives, long-term business goals are things that you want to achieve in one, three, five years or more into the future. Any successful business has clear and defined long-term business goals that set the direction of the company.

Importance of business goals

Business goals are clearly defined steps and processes to achieve significant business objectives within an established time. For all employees participating in the business, goals must be precise and clearly stated. Having clear, well-communicated business goals, especially when you run a small business allows all employees to be on the same page for how you want the company to operate and reach the goal in the most effective way. Here are a few additional reasons why businesses require business goals.

Defines Success

One importance of business goals is to define success. But, in order for you to achieve business success, you should define what success looks like to your employees. Also, you need to consider what you believe your company is capable of when setting business goals.

Keep team working together

With goal setting, the management team can develop strategies and methods to enhance the performance goals of the team. Having the ability to keep the team working together around set goals is one of the most important advantages of utilizing business goals.

Maintain accountability

You can break down your business goals to the individual level once you have established them. Having business goals can help you to maintain accountability for all the levels of the organization, from the highest management all the way down to the individual company members. When team members are given responsibilities of their own, it is easy for managers to monitor how they are performing and when if they need further assistance.

Improve decision making

If your organization tracks both its short-term and long-term business goals on a regular basis, you can utilize previous goals to guide your decision-making and planning. For example, if your company implements a new marketing strategy to measure its growth and success, you may use the information to develop a performance-based business strategy for the future year.

How to set a goal?

Determine your goals.

The first stage in developing both short and long-term business goals is to identify the things you want to achieve in the following years. Many people believe that creating goals set for ten years is good, but you can create goals that can be achieved as soon as one year, five years or as far in the future as thirty years. Set business goals as you can for your company with the time frame you choose.

Think SMART goals

Your employee/s contributes a lot to the success of your organization. Perhaps, if you want to serve a bigger market in your industry, make sure that you think of SMART goals. SMART goals are one that is designed to make goal setting easier. SMART goals include all of the following factors to help you focus your efforts and increase your chances of success.

Specific: A goal should be defined that is both clear and explicit. If the goal is not clear, you won’t be able to focus your efforts or feel motivated enough to attain them.

Measurable: Maintaining a record of your progress will help you keep on track, remain motivated, fulfill deadlines, and take pleasure in the feeling of excitement of getting closer to your objective.

Achievable: While planning a realistic goal, you may discover new and untapped opportunities or resources that can help you attain it. Of course, a larger goal means larger opportunities open with technical skills needed, so keep in mind all the time the precautionary steps you need to take in order to attain a goal.

Relevant: You do not want to create goals that are not relevant to the industry that your business belongs. As a result, ensure that your methods and plan will be in the right direction and also guarantee that you reach the goals related to the business.

Time-bound:  Every goal requires a deadline to focus on and something to work towards. Give classification to your plan and categorize it if it is a short-term goal or a long-term goal. by doing you can set and arrange them according to priority.

Arrange your goals according to priority

Many businesses have a number of long-term goals they intend to achieve. As a result, it’s critical to prioritize the goals on which you want to reach out first and devote your company’s resources to achieving them before moving on to other objectives. Setting priorities will help the people involved in the business environment to keep their center of interest and effort to the ones that shall be done first while still making progress for the long-term goal.

Make an action plan

Your goal will never be accomplished if you do not put any action into it. When listing setting business goals, make sure that you also have an action plan on how to attain them and perform specific actions in response to your listed business goals.

Track your progress regularly

Regularly tracking short and long-term goals is a key part of reaching them. It’s easy to forget about long-term goals or lose sight of the end goal because they can take a long time to reach. Keeping track of your progress toward each objective can help you stay on track and make any required changes.

What are three examples of long-term goals?

You already have the meaning and purpose of a short-term and long-term goal, yet we do not stop there. You are about to know the three popular examples of long-term goals, the following are the details:

Personal Goals

Whether it is for business or own life, personal goals are essential. Setting personal goals can help you improve your life. In this way, you will feel satisfaction in achieving your dreams, overall happiness and well-being. But before you set your personal goals, make sure that you identify your purpose or what you want your life to be in a few years.

Professional goals

Professional goals are what you set so you can retire satisfied with your career and business life. In other words, they are your long-term career goals. Setting a long-term goal for your business identifies its success. Let’s take an example of the fast-food chains, many of them started way before the ’80s or ’90s, but up until now, they are still in service. Do you wonder how it happened? It is because they set an amazing goal for their business and pass it through generations. If you want your business to reach this level, make sure that you set a concrete goal for it.

Financial goals

Long term financial goals differ from personal and professional goals because it has a purpose in both personal and professional aspects. In business, financial goals play a big role when lifting your feet off the ground. You started your business small, so you will begin receiving pennies in return, but in the long run, when you have already overcome the system, you will indeed receive big among in return for your hard work. While for professional reasons, you surely want to retire early and not worry about expenses during those times so, it is good to have long-term goals for your finances.

What can hinder the business goal?

Some concrete examples that can hinder a business goal are the sudden changes in how the business works under a government ruling. Many businesses did not expect this to happen, just as they did during the first few months of the pandemic. But when you have a business goal, you can adapt and be prepared for such circumstances that might occur.

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Written by Earl Timothy

A writer, who wants to share his thoughts with people of any age and converse with them through his writing. He writes in different niches, from pets, travel, adventure, and more. But now, he is currently writing business and industry articles for the Government Contracting sector.

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15 Best Examples of Professional Goals [+Tips to Achieve Them]

Published: May 01, 2024

“So, where do you see yourself five years from now?” Oof, that can be a tricky interview question, especially if you’re unsure of your professional goals.

When I graduated from college and started interviewing in my chosen field, I felt like I needed to plan my entire professional life, complete with one concrete end goal.

To be honest, it was overwhelming. I desperately needed actionable advice to plan steps to reach my professional goals.

In this post, we’ll define professional goals, provide examples, and give you tips so you can plan, meet, and exceed the goals you set for yourself.

What are professional goals?

Professional Goals Examples

Tips for Achieving Professional Goals

Work Towards Your Professional Goals

What Are Professional Goals?

Professional goals are achievements or milestones you hope to achieve in your career. These include personal and professional development, skill development, salary increases, career advancement, and switches.

Professional goals are often personal, but they don’t have to be. You can set professional goals for yourself and your team to help improve your organization and elevate it to the next level.

Free SMART Goal Template

A free template to help you create S.M.A.R.T. goals for marketing campaign success.

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What makes a good professional goal?

What separates a professional goal from a wish is that professional goals are attainable and achievable when designed with the appropriate framework.

It’s important to point out that you might have one overarching professional goal, like “become professionally bilingual.”

However, under your overarching goal, you might have smaller, more manageable goals with a specific, actionable framework attached to them to help you reach your biggest goal.

The SMART goal framework is the perfect framework to apply to reach your big and small goals. The letters of SMART stand for:

Let’s examine each letter so that you understand how to structure your goals for maximum achievement.

When writing your own professional goals, you need to be specific. For example, if you want to become bilingual to position yourself ahead of your competition in the job market, you need to be specific about the language you’ll need to learn.

There are over 2,000 languages worldwide, but only one or two will be relevant to your job market. Take some time to research your field before choosing your second language.

In other words, you need to ensure your smaller goal is specific enough to help you reach your overarching goal.

If your goal is measurable, you can easily track your progress. You can make your goals measurable by including a number. For example, if your goal is to learn Spanish, a more measurable goal would be, “Learn five new Spanish vocabulary words.”

The difference between “Learn five new Spanish vocabulary words” and “Learn Spanish” is that you now have something to work on. Making your goals measurable can help break down the task, too.

If your goals aren’t attainable, there’s a good chance they’ll fall into the “wishes” category. By adjusting your goals to your ability, you have something to work towards.

Once you reach your initial goal, you can change your objectives for continued improvement.

Attainable goals are helpful because they help you see how far you’ve come from your baseline. Small wins are encouraging and can help you push through to the end.

The trick to the SMART goal framework is to keep your objectives relevant. For example, if I wanted to learn Spanish as a global sales rep, I would need to focus on learning vocabulary specific to my job.

While watching Spanish comedians might be a great way to learn new slang, it won’t help me communicate effectively and professionally with my clients.

Before setting your goals, ask yourself, “Will this goal help me reach my desired objective?” If the answer is yes, make sure it’s specific enough, measurable, and attainable. If the answer is no, this might be a goal you set aside and pick back up later.

Putting a time frame on your goal helps you increase your motivation and stay accountable for your progress. Plus, when your goals are specific, measurable, attainable, and relevant, you can track your progress and better visualize your wins.

If you’re like me and tend to get off track, SMART goals are your best friend.

Writing and implementing SMART goals can help you reach your professional goals much faster because you can break your ultimate objective into actionable steps. Think of them as your plan for success!

Professional Goal Examples

Ready to set a goal for yourself, but you need some examples? Here are FIFTEEN examples of professional goals:

1. Land an internship

If you’re a college student looking for work experience or want to enter a new industry, landing an internship is an excellent goal. Internships are a great way to gain the skills you need to be successful in your industry.

Plus, you’ll gain insider knowledge. You can acknowledge your experience on your resume, giving you a leg up on your competition.

Pro tip: Check with your local labor unions or your university’s Student Success Center for leads on potential internships.

2. Grow Your Network

When I decided to become a freelance writer, I knew I needed to grow my network and connect with others.

Growing your network is a good idea for many reasons, including collaborating with like-minded people and uncovering career opportunities.

Becoming active on social media platforms, like LinkedIn, and attending in-person meetings is a great way to make yourself available and gain new connections.

Pro tip: If you want to grow your network online, commit to regularly posting updates on social media. Social media management tools can help you keep up with your posts and nurture relationships with your followers.

3. Learn a New Skill

Increasing your skill set is a fantastic professional goal. Think about the skills you need to be successful in your work. Are there any skills you need to brush up on?

Or, if you’re looking to change careers or get a promotion, which skills will make your transition easier? Make a list and find ways to gain those skills, like taking a class or attending a seminar.

Pro tip: After making your list of desired skills, use the SMART goals framework to create an actionable learning plan.

4. Start a Podcast

Kaitlin Milliken, Senior Program Manager HubSpot, made starting a podcast one of her professional goals. Podcasting is a great way to gain technical and interviewing skills.

Milliken says, “One of my professional goals was to start a podcast. I was lucky enough to work as a multimedia producer at a startup that was looking to kick one off. I started by listening to other shows for inspiration — Reply All, The Journal, and Post Reports were really big at the time.

Miliken says she spoke with a few folks who had started their own hobby shows to get a sense of what gear was available within her budget.

"After that, I pitched ideas, wrote scripts, and started booking interviews. The big challenge was finding the time," she says. "I was still reporting stories, making newsletters, and creating videos in my role."

She explains, "I had to be very intentional about blocking off time on my calendar so I could accomplish this professional goal.”

Pro Tip: If starting a podcast is one of your professional goals, listen to related podcasts for inspiration for your own.

5. Earn a Professional Certificate

Depending on your job, you may need a professional certificate to advance your career. As a teacher, I needed to become licensed to teach my chosen subject. So, I spent a lot of time taking education courses to gain licensure.

If earning a professional certificate is on your list of professional goals, look for classes that offer relevant certifications. Then, commit to signing up for and completing the course.

Pro tip: Many companies offer continuing education courses for their employees. Take advantage of these offerings to advance your career and deepen your knowledge base. HubSpot Academy is also a great resource for learning new skills and receiving certifications.

6. Start a New Business or Company Initiative

Your personal goals can double as a company initiative, too. Not only will you benefit from gaining new skills, but your company benefits from your efforts, too. Caroline Forsey, Principal Marketing Manager at HubSpot, made starting a new company-wide initiative one of her professional goals.

Forsey says, “A professional goal I set for myself was to own the first thought leadership program at HubSpot -- I succeeded in doing so by leaning into team and company-wide goals and ensuring my program became indispensable to hitting those goals."

She explains, "So, for instance, I knew our team-wide goals were to grow organic traffic on the SERPs."

Rather than leaning into social or email views for my program, Forsey ensured she kept organic views top-of-mind with each piece of content she created for the program.

"I continued to ask myself: Does this have search intent? Is there MSV? Can I make it more SEO-optimized?" she explains. "It's always tempting to lean into personal interests when creating and working towards a goal, but it’s critical you keep the larger picture top-of-mind if you want it to gain buy-in from stakeholders.”

7. Become a Pro at Time Management

If you’re anything like me, the workday can slip by before you know it. And in times like that, productivity seems to go out the window. Becoming better at time management is an excellent professional goal and a necessary skill for many jobs within any industry.

To improve your time management, you might need to reduce your distractions or use a planner to schedule your workday.

Pro tip: Time blocking is a fantastic way to stay on task. At the start of each day, write down your to-do list and break it into smaller chunks that you can complete in a certain amount of time. Then, commit to completing those tasks during your given timeframe.

8. Increase Your Sales

If you’re in sales, you know how important it is for your company to reach your sales and revenue targets yearly. So, setting “Increase My Sales” as a personal and professional goal is not a bad idea. Take a look at your numbers, then determine where and how you need to improve it.

Pro tip: Check with your managers about their sales enablement program. Sales enablement can help you learn how to manage your sales more effectively.

9. Be a Star Employee

Becoming a star employee is really about advancing your career within your company. Erica Santiago, Marketing Manager at HubSpot, made this one of her professional goals and told me how she did it.

Santiago says, "A professional goal of mine at HubSpot was to really own a lane in terms of content so that I could be a go-to for certain projects and really get my name out in the company."

She says she noticed other writers and contributors seemed to really own a topic, and it helped them stand out.

"I wanted to do the same to set myself up for opportunities," she says. "I achieved this by taking a moment to ask myself what my strengths are, what topics I enjoy, and how these things tie in with HubSpot's greater goals."

Eventually, Santiago realized that the creator economy is a topic that she's really familiar with, thanks to the content creation she does outside of HubSpot.

She then realized there are content creators who could benefit from HubSpot’s marketing products and blog content.

"From there, I took it upon myself to write more content centered on creators and eventually started my series 'The Creative,'" she explains. "It‘s still getting off the ground, but the content that’s come out so far has proven it to be a promising project."

She continues, "Now, I‘m regularly assigned creator economy-based content, and I’ve carved my own niche within the marketing blog.”

10. Become a Mentor

If you feel you have a lot of industry experience and knowledge to share, consider making "Become a Mentor” one of your professional goals. As a mentor, you’ll gain leadership skills, like teaching, while positioning yourself as a leader in your field.

Pro tip: If you want to become a mentor, consider partnering with your manager to design a mentorship program for new employees. If your organization already has a mentorship program, sign up to share your knowledge with others.

11. Create a Work-Life Balance

As someone who works from home, it can be tempting to work 24/7. But one of the biggest reasons I started my own business was to have time for the things I wanted to pursue—like running a half marathon and working on my personal blog.

So, making it a goal to create a better work-life balance was a must! Time to refresh and recharge is critical to decreasing the chance of burnout.

Pro tip: Commit to keeping your work at work. That means getting into the habit of leaving unfinished tasks on your desk for the next day. You can always pick up on your tasks later.

12. Get a Promotion

Many people share the professional goal of working towards a promotion, which often comes with a salary increase.

Martina Bretous, Editor of HubSpot’s Next in AI blog, made getting a promotion her goal. But she didn’t sit idly by and wait for her managers to notice her. Instead, she made a plan and shared it with me.

Bretous says one of her professional goals was to become a blog editor at HubSpot.

"The first thing I did was ask blog editors to shadow them. This was a key part of my learning," she recalls. "I had to understand the day-to-day of the role and ask questions to understand initiatives, goals, and challenges.

She then took any opportunity to fill in when an editor was out of the office. This gave her the hands-on experience she was looking for before she was actually in the role full-time.

"All of this prep work set me up nicely so that when an opportunity presented itself to fill in that role, I was a shoo-in because I knew the property very well," she says. "Other editors could recommend me as someone who understood the blog and confirm that I had hands-on experience."

13. Become a Pro at Technology

Technology is constantly changing, which sometimes means our jobs change with it. If using technology is integral to your job, consider becoming a pro or super user of your tech stack.

This will help keep your skills current and set you up as the office go-to for assisting others in learning, too.

Pro tip: Depending on the tech you use in the office, many organizations offer training courses on how to use their products. Sign up for their email newsletter to stay on top of their training and product releases.

14. Publish Your Research

Publishing your research can set you up for success and position you as an industry expert. Consider writing and publishing your work in industry publications if this is a career goal.

You’ll gain new writing skills and learn how to promote your work to experts in the field.

Pro tip: Research industry publications and their submission guidelines. Each publication may have different submission guidelines, and it’s helpful to know them upfront to save time in the submission process later.

15. Receive an Award

It’s nice to be recognized for your dedication and hard work. Plus, recognition can add to your credibility and credentials as an expert. Receiving acknowledgments and an award takes time, though.

But if this is your professional goal, it’s well worth the effort.

Pro tip: Consider the backgrounds of the award winners within your industry. What did they do to stand out amongst the crowd? Use what you learn from their experiences to map your own path to success.

Be sure to make it your personal roadmap, though, to stand out.

Ready to set your goals in motion? Here are five tips from me and our HubSpot experts for achieving professional goals.

1. Lean Into Your Network

Your network is a gold mine of opportunity. Instead of “gold mine,” rebrand it to “goal mine.”

Milliken offers expert advice on using your network to achieve your professional goals:

“Make the most of your network. The chances are there’s someone you already know who has accomplished the professional goal you want to achieve. In my experience, people have been really generous about sharing their advice. You just need to reach out.”

2. Break Your Goals Down

If you’re not careful, your professional goals can become too big to achieve and manage. Instead, follow Bretous’ advice and break your goals into smaller pieces.

Bretous says, “My advice to anyone with a goal is to break it down into bite-size pieces. Because having a goal can get overwhelming when you see how much you have to accomplish to get there."

She explains, "To avoid that, break it into measurable, smaller goals that you can tackle on a daily or weekly basis. And don’t forget to lean on colleagues and managers for help in achieving this goal.”

3. Find a Mentor

You don’t have to tackle your goals alone. Support, especially from a mentor or manager, is invaluable.

Santiago suggests reaching out to your manager. 

“Share your goals with your manager so they can help steer you in the right direction," she explains. "When I first thought of The Creative, I wasn't sure how to pitch it or what direction to take it in. So, I reached out to my manager, and he helped me fill in the blanks."

4. Be Your Own Advocate

Advocating for yourself is a tough lesson to learn. However, if you want to achieve professional goals, you need to learn to be your own advocate.

Forsey agrees and offers two essential tips for advocating for yourself. Forsey says, “My tip for achieving personal goals is a) ensure your personal goals are aligned with larger business goals, and b) be a major advocate for yourself!"

She explains, "Let people across the company know the impact your goals are having on the company— and, equally importantly, make sure your manager as well as leadership is aware of your personal goals."

Forsey says to continue asking your manager things like, “My personal goal is X. What is your advice on how to get closer to that goal?” or “My personal goal is X. How am I measuring up when it comes to meeting that goal?”

"Having leadership aware of your personal goals helps create personal momentum even on the days that you're feeling less motivated," she says.

5. Seek Feedback

My last tip for achieving professional goals is to seek feedback. In my experience, feedback is an invaluable tool for guiding your personal improvement.

If your manager doesn’t directly offer feedback, don’t be afraid to ask for it. Their insights into your work can help you identify areas for improvement that you might not have been aware of.

Work Toward Your Professional Goals

Professional goals are more than things to check off your to-do list. Instead, they help advance your career and give you a purpose for your hard work.

Don’t let your goals get out of hand, though. Set yourself up for success by using the SMART goals framework and breaking your goals into smaller tasks. With this framework in place, you’ll hit your targets in no time!

Don't forget to share this post!

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Short-term vs long-term goals: how to set in 2024.

Updated on May 13, 2024 by Luke Henderson

Published on May 13, 2024 by Luke Henderson

Goal-setting keeps us motivated and driven to achieve more—be it in our personal or professional lives. Whether you want to switch careers, learn a new language, or move to a new country, all goals can be categorized into short-term vs long-term goals.

According to Stacey Barr , a performance measure specialist, one way to achieve your goals better is to add sensory-specific language to it—or words that describe what you see, hear, touch, smell, or taste—instead of using intangible words like efficient, effective, capable, engaged, and more. 

Another way is to use goal-setting software like Nifty to productively tackle your short-term and long-term goals (more on that later). In this advanced guide, we’re covering everything you need to know about short-term and long-term goals. Let’s go!

What Are Short-Term Goals?

Short-term goals are the stepping stones to your bigger aspirations. In terms of the constitution, they can stand alone or be part of a larger plan. They generally have a timeframe of one year (not more). 

What Are Long-Term Goals?

Long-term goals are the blueprint of your future. You set an intent to achieve an outcome in your personal life or career . However, unlike short-term goals, which are typically accomplished within a year, long-term goals can be achieved within three to ten years or more.

Think of these goals as your guiding stars, providing direction and a sense of purpose. They’re more futuristic in scope and empower you to transition from a passive role to an active one where you proactively work toward your aspirations.

Short-term Goals or Long-term Goals, Nifty is the ideal choice. Know why !

Short-Term vs Long-Term Goals: An In-depth Comparison

Is there a difference between short-term vs long-term goals ? Yes!

While both these kinds of goals help you to accomplish tasks, both differ from each other in numerous ways:

3 Best Examples of Short-Term Goals

Short-term and long-term goals help you visualize your desires—whether for yourself, your teams, or your organization. 

The biggest advantage of using short-term goals is that they allow you to break down big aspirations into concrete, more achievable tasks. This allows you to channel your focus and redirect resources better toward achieving goals.

1. Improve your efficiency 

Short-term goal:  Try a new time management method to increase productivity by 25% in the next three months.

For this short-term goal, you can break it into the following smaller tasks:

• Identify tasks that are time-consuming and distracting in your daily routine.
• Research a time management method that suits your work style—it could be the Pomodoro Technique or Eisenhower Matrix.
• Use a task management tool like Nifty to create a prioritized task list.
• Set aside specific blocks of time for focused work using time tracking software .

Create your short-term goals using Nifty. Get Started Free

2. Improve your fitness level

Short-term goal: Complete a 20-week strength training program to increase muscle mass and strength. 

Here’s a breakup of the smaller tasks for your short-term goal:

• Schedule a consultation with a certified fitness trainer that specializes in strength training. Discuss your fitness goals, exercise experience, and health.
• Get a personalized strength training program that is focused on squats, deadlifts, and bench presses. Commit to working out three to four times per week.
• Gradually increase weights and intensity as the program progresses, ensuring proper form and technique.
• Keep a detailed workout journal to track performance and take body measurements at regular intervals.
• Use a fitness app to chart progress and keep yourself accountable.

3. Master a new recipe 

Short-term goal: Learn a traditional Indian vegetable biryani from scratch and make a homemade biryani spice mix by May-end.

For this short-term goal, you can break it down into smaller tasks such as:

• Research traditional vegetable biryani recipes to understand the key ingredients and cooking techniques. 
• See if you have all the ingredients at home, such as basmati rice, potatoes, carrots, peas, yogurt, and spices. If not, go to the shop and buy.

Start managing your short-term goals with Nifty. Get Started Free .

3 Best Examples of Long-Term Goals

Moving on, let’s look at a few long-term goals in action:

1. Become a mentor

Long-term goal: Become a mentor to five junior professionals within the next five years. Develop a mentoring program with regular meetings, goal-setting sessions, and skill-building workshops to support mentees in their professional development.

Key action steps for this long-term goal would be:

• Enroll in a robust certified mentor training program within the next 3 months.
• Attend training sessions, workshops, and seminars. Participate actively in group discussions, case studies, and role-playing exercises.
• Identify and connect with at least five potential mentees through networking events, industry conferences, and professional organizations within the next year.
• Create a mentoring schedule and communication plan with each mentee to ensure regular contact and support. Include bi-weekly meetings and monthly progress reviews in said plan.
•  Provide regular feedback and resources to help mentees achieve their career goals.

2. Start your own business

Long-term goal:  Launch a successful online eCommerce business selling sustainable home goods and generate $500,000 in annual revenue within the next five years.

• Conduct market research to identify what your customers want within the sustainable home goods space within the next three months.
• Define the product line for characteristics such as design, features, and pricing.
• Conduct a competitive analysis to understand your competitors’ strengths.
• Calculate startup costs, revenue forecasts, and profit margins. Secure funding of $50,000 within the next nine months.
• Launch a professional website to showcase your products within the next 12 months.
• Implement a multi-channel marketing strategy to drive sales within the first year of business.

Manage your long-term goals with ease using Nifty. Get Started Free

3. Write a book

Long-term goal: Publish a bestselling self-help book on personal finance. The target is to sell 100,000 copies within the next three years.

• Research personal finance topics that readers want to read about for a unique angle for the book.
• Write a detailed outline and chapter summaries to organize your ideas.
• Dedicate at least five hours of deep work each day to writing and set specific word count goals to complete the manuscript on schedule.
• Hire a professional editor to review the manuscript. 
• Develop a comprehensive marketing plan , which includes book signings, media interviews, and online promotions.
• Collaborate with publishers to secure a killer book deal.

How to Manage Short vs long-term Goals?

Sure, you could use a pen and paper to write down your goals, but this process can become complex and time-consuming over time. 

Why not track your professional goals digitally with project management software like Nifty?

Here are two interesting features Nifty offers to help you advance in your career like a pro:

1. Nifty Goals Helps Categorize Your Goals Neatly and Add Specific Details Along the Way

Nifty Goals is a great feature to use if you know what’s important to you and how you want to proceed within your career:

You can add high-level tasks to your goal, as well as the target date, metrics, and progress status. So, whether you want to establish clear timelines and realistic OKRs or automate your progress-tracking process, Nifty delivers on all accounts.

When you click on each task, the corresponding window allows you to add more granular details such as assignees, dependencies, attachments, comments, etc.:

That’s not all. Here are a few of its super-handy features:

• Goal-tracking : Track goals by tasks, entire task lists, or specific data such as custom tags, fields, and assignees.
• Communication : Identify and address issues and foster team collaboration with all the information in one place.
• Performance monitoring : Use custom tags to create goals (which automatically get updated) and measure a team or individual’s performance.
• Greater organization : Leverage goal groups to create folders and organize goals around company, team, and personal objectives.
• Access: Choose whether to make your goal public to your organization or share it with specific team members as needed.

When setting your goals, always ask the 3 “W” questions:

• What do you wish to accomplish? (This will help you to understand whether your goal is practical or not)
• Why do you want to achieve said goal? (This will help you to measure its importance and prioritize accordingly)
• When do you want to achieve the goal? (This narrows the timeframe)

As long as your goals are realistic, you’ll be one step closer to achieving them. Plus, always maintain a positive attitude when working on your goals.

2. Milestones View Allows You to Automate Your Progress All the Way

The thing about creating short-term and long-term goals is the ability to tie them to a specific timeline. And Nifty literally showcases the timeline in an easy-to-understand Milestones View:

In essence, Milestones serves as your visual project guide.

It automates the milestone progress depending on how and when you complete your goals. You can also get a real-time overview of in-progress, completed, and overdue goals based on how well you are able to complete the tied tasks (if any).

Moreover, you can view the goals in three different views: timeline, Swimlane, and Master Overview. Each view allows you to pilot your objectives more efficiently by intersecting project milestones with tasks. You can also visualize milestones in a Gantt chart to align your personal or professional goals with time.

Manage your short & long-term goals with Nifty. Get Started Free

Long story short, if you want to get a bird’s eye view of all your goals along with increased visibility into your deadlines and priorities, the Milestones View can help.

Using the feature, you can clearly understand when the goal should begin and end at one glance. So, use this feature to:

• Schedule your goals and set reminders
• Experiment with the time frame, moving the goals around using the drag-and-drop functionality
• Visualize dependencies and ensure you hit all your goals without any roadblocks

5 Tips to Set Your Short-term vs Long-term Goals in 2024

1. set your vision.

Think – where do you see yourself in five years? This will give you a clear direction for your goals . Pick your brains on what you truly want to achieve and why.

2. Keep them measurable

Make sure your goals are measurable so you can track progress. So, instead of saying “I want to get healthier,” say “I want to lose 10 pounds in three months.” The more defined your goals, the easier it’ll be to measure them.

3. Break it down

Break your long-term goals into smaller, bite-sized chunks to make them less intimidating and easier to tackle. 

4. Be realistic 

Be honest with yourself about what you can achieve. Setting goals that are too ambitious can be frustrating and cause you to jump ship mid-way. So, make sure your goals are achievable with the resources, patience, and time you have.

5. Track your progress

Keep track of your progress to stay motivated and see how far you’ve come. Celebrate the smallest achievements to keep the momentum going!

Get the Most of Your Work with the Right Goal-Setting Tool

Setting short- or long-term goals is second nature to everyone. Whether you want to learn a new language, be more productive, read more books every year, or develop a robust professional network, people are always aspiring to be a better version of themselves.

Depending on how complex or simple your goal is, you need to spend enough time and effort planning and strategizing. To help you plan your path to success, invest in a tool like Nifty that ticks off wins from your to-do list without missing a beat. Sign up now !

FAQs about Short term goals vs Long term goals

What is the time difference between a short-term and long-term goal.

Short-term goals are achievable within a few months to a year at most. In contrast, long-term goals can span several years, typically three to ten years or more.

What are short and long-term career goals?

Short-term career goals are objectives you want to achieve within the next few months to a year, such as gaining a new skill.

Long-term career goals, on the other hand, are aspirations you strive to achieve over an extended period, like advancing to a leadership position. They span three years or more.

How can long-term and short-term goals work together?

Long-term and short-term goals work well together. You can break the long-term goals into smaller, manageable short-term goals.

In other words, short-term goals are more like milestones that help you achieve your long-term aspirations and help you stay focused and on track.

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Politics latest: Sunak warning of 'dangerous' five years to come in 'major' speech

Rishi Sunak is delivering a major speech, in which he warns the next few years "will be some of the most dangerous yet". His team has insisted the timetabling has nothing to do with the Tories' disastrous local election results. Watch live by pressing play below.

Monday 13 May 2024 11:04, UK

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• Rishi Sunak delivering 'major' speech - watch live above
• Sources deny it's a reaction to election losses
• Sam Coates:  Sunak to argue UK is safer under Tories as global outlook worsening
• SNP finance probe heading to prosecutors 'within weeks'
• Listen to the Politics at Jack and Sam's above and tap here to follow wherever you get your podcasts
• Live reporting by Tim Baker

The prime minister has taken to his feet and has begun his speech. 

He is set to warn about the dangers facing the UK.

By Sam Coates , deputy political editor

Rishi Sunak will argue that Britain is safer under the Conservatives against the backdrop of two escalating conflicts likely to dominate the week.

In the last few days, the prime minister has broken with US President Joe Biden by insisting the UK should continue to supply arms to Israel.

It comes as Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu appears poised to mount another massive military operation in the southern Gaza town of Rafah against warnings from the US and UK.

Meanwhile, there are fears in Whitehall that Russia could mount an operation on Kharkiv by the end of the week to retake Ukraine's second-largest city.

Both operations could trigger wider repercussions.

Amid this worsening global outlook, the Conservatives want to highlight what they say is the gap between Tory and Labour pledges on military spending.

Sunak announced last month that a future Tory government would ensure 2.5% of GDP will be spent on the military by 2030, while Labour says it will do it when the economic conditions allow.

After the initial announcement, Sunak wants to ensure he gets full public credit for the big spending commitment while pushing Labour on its failure to match the promise.

Read Sam's full analysis below:

Rishi Sunak is set to deliver a major speech at 11am.

The prime minister will set out an election pitch, claiming the UK is facing a "dangerous" period in the coming five years, and the best plan is stick with the Conservatives.

Government sources told Sky News this was not being done in reaction to the poor local election results for Mr Sunak the week before last, but rather was something that had long been on the books.

Mr Sunak will say: "I have bold ideas that can change our society for the better, and restore people's confidence and pride in our country.

"I feel a profound sense of urgency. Because more will change in the next five years than in the last 30.

"I'm convinced that the next few years will be some of the most dangerous yet most transformational our country has ever known."

Stay with us, and we'll bring you the latest on the speech as it happens.

The Sky News live poll tracker - collated and updated by our Data and Forensics team - aggregates various surveys to indicate how voters feel about the different political parties.

With the local elections complete, Labour is still sitting comfortably ahead, with the Tories trailing behind.

See the latest update below - and you can read more about the methodology behind the tracker  here .

In January 2023, Rishi Sunak made five promises.

Since then, he and his ministers have rarely missed an opportunity to list them. In case you haven't heard, he promised to:

• Halve inflation • Grow the economy • Reduce debt • Cut NHS waiting lists and times • Stop the boats

See below how he is doing on these goals:

Ahead of today's events, our deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico UK's Jack Blanchard are giving us the rundown of what's going to happen this week.

Talking about the prime minister's speech this morning - in which Rishi Sunak will warn of the dangerous times we live in - Sam says this is not a new tactic.

Asked if the prime minister is trying to scare us, he says: "Yes, and that is actually quite a common incumbent election campaign to run. 

"And I think the other thing that Rishi Sunak is going to try and do today... is to hammer home the message that the Conservatives spend more on defence spending now. 

"A couple of weeks ago, Rishi Sunak announced a big increase in the period to 2030 - the defence budget will spend 2.5% of GDP.

"But I think they worry in Downing Street people won't notice this great big promise which sets up a dividing line with Labour, just like they didn't really notice the National Insurance. 

"And so Rishi Sunak is up again, bobbing up again today to say, look at what I've done, can I have some credit, please? And can the polls change a bit?"

Jack adds that Labour's plan is to say this argument won't work, as people have seen the Conservatives in charge and aren't happy.

"Labour's argument is that the last few years of Conservative rule have been so chaotic that actually the stable, secure choice is to vote for change this time," he says.

"And that's the message they want to keep hammering voters with the next six months."

👉  Listen above then tap here to follow Politics at Jack and Sam's wherever you get your podcasts  👈

Catherine McKinnell, the shadow schools minister, is speaking to Kay Burley.

The Labour MP says she would welcome more Conservatives to her party in the wake of Natalie Elphicke's defection.

"I think it's really important that we're not tribal about politics, that we are open to people coming round to our way of saying things and our way of wanting to do things," she says.

Asked about Ms Elphicke's reported lobbying of former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland during her ex-husband's court case, Ms McKinnell repeats what Sir Chris Bryant said earlier.

She says she is "baffled" that Sir Robert has only just come forward with his claims.

"It happened four years ago, and he has sat on these concerns  - that he says are very serious to a newspaper - and has not done anything about it," the shadow minister says.

Ms McKinnell points out that Ms Elphicke denies what Sir Robert has claimed and has a different recollection of the meeting.

The shadow minister says: "I just can't quite understand why, if something is this important and as serious as he's alleging, why it wasn't addressed at the time.

"That's very concerning to me, so I think that's something that probably does need to be looked into."

The row over Natalie Elphicke - the Labour MP who defected from the Conservatives last week - is rumbling on.

Over the weekend, it was reported that Ms Elphicke attempted to lobby Sir Robert Buckland when he was justice secretary to intervene in the sexual assault proceedings against her ex-husband Charlie Elphicke.

Speaking to Sky News, Labour MP Sir Chris Bryant says that during his time as chair of the privileges committee they investigated Ms Elphicke and her conduct.

"Now, when we were doing that investigation, I would have thought that if what Robert Buckland has said today, namely that he says that she lobbied him, if that is true, he should have told our committee," he says.

"So if anybody should be being investigated by the parliamentary commissioner for standards - and he's perfectly independent, it's up to him to decide - frankly, it should be Robert Buckland."

Speaking to Sky News, health minister Maria Caulfield says Natalie Elphicke's defection has not gone the way Sir Keir Starmer would have wanted it to.

She says Ms Elphicke's crossing of the House is "disappointing", especially for her constituents in Dover.

Ms Caulfield says: "You know, people are disillusioned enough with politicians. 

"I don't think those sorts of political games are helpful. And I think actually it's probably backfired on the Labour Party more than anyone."

Sir Chris Bryant, Labour MP, has shared with Sky News his latest cancer diagnosis.

Speaking to Kay Burley for melanoma - skin cancer - awareness month, he says that in January he was diagnosed for a second time with the condition, having previously been treated for it.

Sir Chris says melanoma was discovered in his lung. He clarifies that this was not lung cancer, but rather skin cancer that had metastasised.

This was detected as part of his aftercare from his previous experience with the condition.

For his treatment, Sir Chris says that a robot went into his lung, collapsed the organ, and cut the cancerous cells out.

He is now being treated with immunotherapy.

Sir Chris says: "But the most important thing is, especially for kids, but for everybody, please avoid the Sun. 

"You can cover up, use high factor sun cream - remember that sun cream can run out of date. 

"I would urge people never ever use a sunbed - I think they're killing machines I'm afraid.

"And in particular, please, please protect kids. 

"And don't joke about getting pink in the sun - I know it's the great British joke. It's not funny."

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