How to Set Business Objectives

However, setting effective business objectives can be a daunting task, especially if you’re new to the world of entrepreneurship.

That’s why, in this article, we’ll provide you with a comprehensive guide on how entrepreneurs can set business objectives. We’ll cover everything from understanding your business and identifying your target audience to prioritising objectives, creating an action plan, measuring progress and much more.

Jump to the following sections:

• Understanding Your Business
• SMART objectives
• Prioritising objectives
• Action plan
• Measuring success

Understanding Your Business

It may sound obvious, but really understanding your business is the first step in setting effective business objectives. As an entrepreneur, you need to clearly understand your business’s purpose and vision and its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. By analysing your company in this way, you’ll be better equipped to set objectives that align with your overall vision and help you achieve your long-term goals.

Purpose and vision

One of the first things you should do when setting business objectives is to identify the purpose and vision of your business.

This means asking yourself questions like:

• What problem does my business solve?
• What makes my business unique?
• What are the long-term goals of my business?

By answering these questions, you’ll be able to develop a clear understanding of the purpose and vision of your business, which will help you to set objectives that are aligned with your overall mission.

Read more about objective setting below.

SWOT analysis

Another important aspect of understanding your business is to conduct a SWOT analysis. As you may know, SWOT stands for:

• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Threats

Doing a SWOT analysis can help you identify the key factors affecting your business. By analysing your weaknesses, you can identify the areas that need improvement and set objectives that address those weaknesses. By identifying opportunities and threats, you can develop objectives that help you to take advantage of opportunities and mitigate potential threats.

Audience

Finally, it’s essential to identify your target audience and market segment. Knowing who your customers are and what they want is vital to setting business objectives that are focused and effective. By understanding your target audience, you can set objectives designed to meet their needs and address their pain points.

SMART Objectives

SMART objectives are an effective framework for setting business objectives and, by using them, can help you set clear and focused objectives, making it easier to measure progress and achieve your business goals.

Specific

The objective should be clear and well-defined and focused on a particular area of your business. For example, rather than setting an objective to ‘increase sales’, you might develop an objective to ‘increase sales of our new product by 20% over the next quarter’.

Measurable

The objective should include specific metrics that can be used to track progress and measure success. In the example above, the objective is measurable because it consists of one particular metric (20% increase in sales) that can be tracked and measured over time.

Achievable

Given your business resources and constraints, your objective should be realistic and within the realm of possibility. Setting too ambitious or unrealistic objectives can lead to frustration and a lack of progress, so setting challenging but achievable objectives is essential.

Relevant

Align the objective with your overall business goals and strategy, and it should be relevant to the needs and wants of your target audience. For example, setting an objective to increase sales of a product that is not in demand or not aligned with your overall strategy would not be relevant.

Time-bound

Include a specific timeframe for achieving the objective, as setting a deadline for achieving the objective can help to keep you focused and motivated. It can also help you to measure progress and adjust your strategy as needed.

Prioritising Objectives

Once you’ve identified your business objectives and developed them into SMART objectives, the next step is to prioritise them. This involves deciding which objectives are most important and which ones should be tackled first. This can be a challenging process, but it’s essential to focus your efforts on the areas that will significantly impact your business.

One approach to prioritising objectives is to use a prioritisation matrix. This tool can help you evaluate each objective based on two key factors: impact and effort.

• Impact refers to the potential positive impact that achieving the objective will have on your business
• Effort refers to the level of effort and resources required to achieve the objective.

Using a prioritisation matrix, you can plot each objective on a graph that shows its impact and effort level. Objectives with a high impact and low effort level are the ones that should be prioritised first, as they offer the most significant return on investment in terms of time and resources. Those with a low impact and high effort level may be a lower priority and can be tackled later.

Another approach to prioritising objectives is the Pareto Principle or ‘the 80/20 rule’. This principle states that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

Applied to business objectives, this means that 80% of the impact on your business will come from 20% of the objectives. By identifying the top 20% of objectives that will have the biggest impact on your business and prioritising those, you can focus your efforts on the areas that will make the most significant difference.

Action Plan

Once you have set your business objectives, developed them into SMART objectives and prioritised them, you are ready to create an action plan: a roadmap that outlines the specific steps you will take to achieve your objectives. This will help you break your objectives into manageable tasks and set timelines and milestones for each step.

Tasks

The first step in creating an action plan is identifying the specific tasks or activities that must be completed to achieve your objectives. You should determine who will be responsible for completing each task and when it needs to be completed. Also, identify any resources or support required to complete the job.

Prioritise

Once you have identified the specific tasks and activities, the next step is to prioritise them based on their importance and the order in which they need to be completed. This will help you stay focused and ensure that you progress towards your objectives logically and efficiently.

Timelines and milestones

After prioritising the tasks, you should set specific timelines and milestones for each. This will help you to monitor progress and stay on track. It’s important to be realistic when setting timelines and to build flexibility in case of unexpected challenges or delays.

Communicate

Finally, it’s crucial to communicate the action plan to everyone involved in implementing it. This may include employees, contractors, or other stakeholders. Communication helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page and understands their roles and responsibilities, as well as helping to build a sense of ownership and accountability for achieving the objectives.

Measuring Progress

Measuring progress is a key aspect of setting and achieving business objectives. Measuring progress makes it easier to know if you’re progressing towards your objectives, are on track, and need to adjust your approach.

KPIs

The first step in measuring progress is identifying the metrics and indicators (often called KPIs, key performance indicators) most relevant to your objectives. These could include financial metrics, such as revenue or profit, as well as non-financial metrics, such as customer satisfaction, website traffic, or social media engagement. It’s important to choose metrics that align with your SMART goals.

Targets and benchmarks

Once you’ve identified the metrics, the next step is setting targets or benchmarks for each. This will help you to know what level of performance you need to achieve to be successful, and remember that you should make your targets realistic, achievable and aligned with your overall objectives.

Monitor and review

After setting targets, you should track and monitor progress regularly. This could be done weekly, monthly or quarterly, depending on the nature of the objectives and the metrics being measured. It’s essential to have a system for collecting and analysing data and reporting progress to key stakeholders.

When analysing progress, you should always aim to be objective and look for trends and patterns in the data, as this will help you to identify areas where you’re making progress and areas where you may need to adjust your approach. It’s also important to celebrate successes and to learn from failures or areas where progress has been slower than expected.

Adapt

Finally, use that progress data to adjust your approach as needed. This could involve making changes to your action plan, shifting resources to areas that need more attention, or revising targets based on what you’ve learned.

Measuring progress is a critical step in achieving your business objectives. By identifying relevant metrics, setting targets, tracking progress, analysing data, and adjusting your approach as needed, you’ll be better equipped to progress towards your objectives and succeed in your business.

Now you’ve set your business objectives, why not use our free business plan template to create an actionable strategic plan to deliver on your goals.