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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.

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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.

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Short-Term, Medium-Term & Long-Term Planning in Business

by Devra Gartenstein

Published on 18 Oct 2018

Although short-term, medium-term and long-term planning in businesses address different time frames, they should be cut from the same cloth. The more closely you align your short, medium and long-term goals, the more effectively you will be able to make plans that sync your immediate objectives with your big picture vision.

Short-Term Planning

Short-term planning in business generally focuses on a three-to-six-month time frame, especially in reference to revenue and profitability. Short-term objectives are geared towards short-term needs such as improving cash flow or launching a new product. This short-term perspective is especially useful for satisfying investors who want to see results or improving your company's bottom line so you can secure additional financing for longer-term goals. Whatever your short-term goals, make sure they serve your longer-term vision. Your new product launch should be consistent with your overall brand and with the line of products you're building over time. Your strategies to improve cash flow should bring in additional revenue in ways that don't compromise your values or distract you from your overall mission.

Medium-Term Planning

Medium-term planning is often overlooked in discussions of strategic objectives, but it is important because it brings together the clarity of shorter-term goals with the depth of longer-term planning. A short-term goal may be based on an immediate need and a long-term goal may be so broad that it is difficult to create measurable milestones. But a medium-term goal is close enough for you to project a specific targeted outcome, while also being distant enough to be meaningful for your longer-term vision. Medium-term planning generally covers a period of about three years. It may include plans to open a new store or enter a new market. It is a long enough time frame for you to see if you're achieving real results, yet it's a short enough period for you to pivot and change direction if your initial strategy isn't successful.

Long-Term Planning

Long-term planning is rooted in your company's identity and purpose. It may have elements of specificity such as a goal to open a certain number of new stores over the next ten years. However, it is impossible to predict market conditions and current events over such an extended time frame. Because of this difficulty, even specific long-term plans are mainly concrete ways to express a larger vision such as eventually supplying work shoes to your entire region. Take your long-term planning very seriously, but adjust it over time as your medium-term situation unfolds.

Long-Term vs Short-Term Planning: Key Differences and Strategies

Throughout history, whether a society focuses on long-term or short-term planning often decides its fate. Those who look ahead tend to keep their culture strong and their society together better than those who only think about immediate gains.

From war generals to founding fathers, this sentiment has been captured in many eloquent ways. Including when Sun Tzu said in The Art of War, “ The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand .” Or when Benjamin Franklin famously stated, “ If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail .”

One of these men conquered nations, and the other helped to build one. The fact that they both credit strategic planning as one of the essential ingredients for their success merits a closer look from any leadership team at what these processes entail.

You’ll discover that effective workforce planning is an art form as much as a science. And just as history shows us, getting that chemistry right sets the winners apart from the…well, you know.

This article will help you understand the art of planning within your organization. We’ll define what short-term and long-term planning entails, break down key differences between the two, and discover strategies for implementing each in a balanced way. Let’s begin.

Difference between long-term and short-term planning

The art of planning, long-term vs. short-term goals, long-term planning in business, short-term planning and its impact, balancing long-term and short-term planning, let’s wrap it up, boost your team’s efficiency with hubstaff's productivity tools.

The most distinct difference between long-term and short-term planning is the time frame .

Long-term planning looks at a three to five-year period or even longer; short-term planning covers up to a year. 

This profoundly impacts the goals, KPIs, and projects an organization will choose during each process. That being said, when short-term and long-term planning are leveraged correctly, they always work towards the same vision.

Long-term planning 

Long-term planning determines your organization’s goals in the next five to ten years. Think big. What sustainability, growth, and innovation approach will secure your competitive edge and ensure future relevance? When mapping out your plan, how can you consider market trends, potential disruptions, and strategic opportunities? 

A thorough analysis of your business environment will help you uncover objectives and specific business strategies that align with your organization’s values and vision. Then, by setting relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), you can measure your progress towards them.

Short-term planning 

The goal of short-term planning is to prepare businesses for the near future. It typically includes less than a year and focuses on short-term solutions that serve the organization’s day-to-day needs. 

This planning process is also dynamic by nature and requires constant adjustments. Your focus should be on managing resources, executing projects, and getting quick wins to spur momentum for the organization.

Organizations often need help reconciling the needs of their short-term and long-term plans. This could mean they’re focusing too much on one and not the other. Or that the goals being set are simply in contention with one another.

The art of planning is balancing both short-term and long-term goals, resource allocation, KPIs, and more. Your organization might be subject to changing market dynamics, unforeseeable challenges, and new technologies. You have to stay nimble in the short term without losing sight of the long term. It’s a delicate balancing act.

But according to a study by McKinsey & Company , it’s effective. Organizations that take this balanced approach experience 47% higher revenue growth and 36% higher profitability than companies that focus predominantly on one type of planning over the other. 

Let’s dive a little deeper into the art of planning so you can learn how to implement this balancing act in your own organization.

Time frames in planning

Let’s begin by defining their scope to understand the planning processes better.

Long-term planning time frames

Long-term planning typically covers three to five years but can span as far as decades. Companies will want to consider more significant projects with longer time horizons during this stage in the planning process.

Short-term planning time frames

Short-term planning covers a period of up to one year and is often broken down into quarterly, monthly, and even daily actionable goals and KPIs.

Bridging the gap with medium-term planning

Medium-term planning is another essential function bridging the gap between the immediate actions defined in short-term planning and the blue-sky ambitions of long-term goals.

This type of planning focuses on implementing strategies and initiatives that ensure short-term fixes are not just temporary patches to more significant problems.

For example, an organization might solve a software issue with a quick fix in the short term but secure a service contract with an IT company to receive ongoing maintenance and regular updates as a medium-term approach.

Long-term goals help to chart a path toward your organization’s future vision. They’re broad and ambitious by nature and include projects such as expanding into new markets, establishing partnerships, and investing in product development. They’re also set over a longer time horizon than short-term goals and often face more risk and uncertainty.

Short-term goals , on the other hand, are about continued progress. When leveraged correctly, they establish momentum for the organization through quick wins and act as stepping stones from short-term success to achieving long-term goals.

Long-term planning takes your organization out of the day-to-day hustle and into the future. Successful organizations start this process with a crystal clear vision in mind. As Jeff Bezos once said, “ Be stubborn on the long-term vision but flexible on the details .” Now, how do you begin thinking about those details? First, you have to be able to see the forest for the trees. 

That’s why strategic analysis should form the foundation of your long-term planning process. Here’s what that should look like:

• PESTEL and SWOT can help you analyze the external market environment and your internal capabilities. 
• Then, you can leverage this data to begin setting objectives for your organization in alignment with your vision. 
• After that, establishing the right KPIs will help you measure your progress and develop short-term goals that keep you on track for achieving these broader objectives. 

Let’s look at an example of how a PESTEL and SWOT analysis can be effective in long-term goal setting.

PESTEL Analysis Example

We’ll use a fictional technology company called Flowbar in this example. Imagine Flowbar is exploring expansion into a new market and needs to understand the macro-environmental factors. A PESTEL analysis would be the perfect tool. 

• P olitically, they would assess the stability of markets and government regulations.
• E conomically, they would look at economic growth, currency exchange rates, and consumer purchasing power.
• S ocially, they might examine cultural attitudes toward technology, digital literacy, and consumer behaviors.
• T echnologically, factors such as the availability of the proper infrastructure would be necessary.
• E nvironmentally, Flowbar should assess regulations and public sentiment towards sustainability practices in their industry.
• L egally, they would review intellectual property laws, data protection regulations, compliance requirements, and the company’s quality control program.

SWOT Analysis Example

In this example, we’ll continue with Flowbar.

• Strengths: This could include Flowbar’s strong brand recognition in current markets and its competitive R&D capabilities.
• Weaknesses: Flowbar will need a more comprehensive understanding of local culture and consumer preferences. Their product offering may also need to be more well-suited to their domestic market, causing a lack of product-market fit in new regions.
• Opportunities: Rapidly growing economies and new available partnerships are potential opportunities for Flowbar when entering these new markets.
• Threats: Flowbar should know the competitive and regulatory landscape in the new markets they hope to enter.

After conducting a PESTEL and SWOT analysis, Flowbar will want to ensure any set goals align with its vision and establish clear KPIs for measuring its success.

When done correctly, short-term planning addresses the organization’s immediate business needs and challenges while keeping sight of the long-term vision. It involves setting daily, monthly, and quarterly goals that create momentum for the organization and act as stepping stones toward longer-term goals. 

A recommended framework for setting practical short-term goals is SMART goal setting . 

SMART is an acronym that describes the five essential components of a practical goal.

Let’s take a look at what they are:

• S pecific: Being clear and detailed will help you focus resources and achieve desired outcomes.
• M easurable: Having KPIs tied to your goals allows you to effectively track your progress towards achieving them.
• A chievable: Setting realistic and attainable goals will motivate your teams and increase momentum across the organization.
• R elevant: Short-term goals should always connect to your organization’s long-term objectives. 
• T ime-bound: A precise timeline is crucial for prioritizing tasks and resources and creating a sense of urgency. 

Now that we’ve defined SMART goal setting, let’s look at a real-world example of how to use this framework properly.

Examples of SMART goals

Imagine you’re a software company’s marketing manager wanting to increase monthly product page traffic. A SMART goal would look something like this: 

Increase monthly traffic to the product page by 10% over the next quarter.  

This goal is specific, measurable with standard analytical tools, achievable, relevant to a longer-term goal of increasing market share, and set over a clear time frame of one quarter. 

The SMART framework can be helpful for all kinds of organizations with goals. And now that you’re familiar with how to use it, you’re ready to begin setting short-term goals in your own business.

So far, we’ve laid out the difference between a short-term and long-term objective and analyzed the best practices for each. But how do you maintain a balance when implementing them into your organization?

Here are a few well-loved strategies: 

• Ensure you align the short-term business goals with the long-term objectives and desired outcomes. Failing to do so would result in misallocating time and other precious resources. 
• Be flexible. The market changes on a day-to-day basis. Short-term goals should remain Agile and adaptable without losing sight of the longer-term goals they’re working towards. 
• Regularly review and re-prioritize based on stakeholder alignment and available resources. 
• Foster a culture that values and understands the relationship between short-term and long-term goals.

By implementing these strategies, organizations not only achieve successful results in the short term but also lay the groundwork for sustained growth toward their future vision.

It’s clear at this point that understanding and balancing long-term objectives and short-term planning is vital for achieving success within your organization. And whether it’s Sun Tzu or Jeff Bezos, we’re not the only ones who think so.

By bringing the art of planning into your organization, you can build momentum toward your long-term goals and vision. The result will be a lasting legacy that puts you on the right side of history’s great strategic organizations.

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The Differences Between Long-Term, Mid-Term, and Short-Term Planning

RELATED TAGS:

goal setting , Long-term planning , Mid-term Planning , Short-term planning , Strategic Planning , strategy execution

Understanding different types of planning horizons is crucial for both professional success and personal growth. While some goals and projects require a long-term vision, others need a more immediate approach to keep things moving smoothly. Whether you’re managing a team or working on individual objectives, knowing when and how to apply these planning strategies can significantly enhance your overall effectiveness. In this article, we will delve into the nuances of long-term, mid-term, and short-term planning, offering practical insights on how to integrate these approaches for better strategic outcomes.

What is Long-Term Planning?

Long-term planning refers to setting goals and outlining strategies that span several years into the future—usually anywhere from five to twenty years. This type of planning is characterized by its focus on big-picture objectives that require sustained effort over an extended period.

Key Characteristics and Objectives

• Visionary Focus: Long-term planning often revolves around a visionary objective, such as expanding business operations, developing new products, or achieving personal milestones like retirement.
• Comprehensive Strategy: Detailed strategies are developed to sustain progress over the years, aligning resources, capabilities, and efforts to achieve these long-term goals.
• Risk Management: By considering the long-term horizon, planners can identify potential risks and develop mitigation strategies.

Examples in a Professional and Personal Context

• Professional: A company aims to expand its market presence to new geographical locations within the next decade.
• Personal: An individual plans to save for retirement by setting aside a portion of their income over a 20-year period.

What is Mid-Term Planning?

Mid-term planning acts as a bridge between long-term and short-term planning. Covering a period from one to five years, it provides tangible milestones that guide you towards long-term goals while managing day-to-day operations effectively.

The Role of Mid-Term Planning

Mid-term planning ensures that your short-term actions align with long-term visions, creating a coherent path towards achieving significant objectives. It helps in breaking down long-term goals into more manageable chunks, making it easier to track progress and adapt strategies as needed.

Practical Examples and Benefits

• Professional: A business sets a three-year plan to develop and launch a series of products that align with its long-term vision of market expansion.
• Personal: An individual embarks on a three-year fitness program to prepare for an upcoming marathon, ensuring each year builds on the previous one’s progress.

What is Short-Term Planning?

Short-term planning involves setting goals and strategies that can be achieved within a year or less. This type of planning is most effective for managing daily tasks and ensuring immediate objectives are met.

Immediate Benefits and Challenges

• Efficiency: Short-term planning allows for quick accomplishments, fostering a sense of achievement and motivating further progress.
• Flexibility: It offers the flexibility to adapt to immediate needs and unforeseen circumstances.
• Challenges: However, the primary challenge lies in ensuring that short-term actions contribute to mid-term and long-term objectives.

Incorporating Short-Term Plans into Daily Life and Work

• Professional: Planning the agenda for the next quarterly business review to ensure current projects align with mid-term and long-term strategies.
• Personal: Setting a daily schedule to hit weekly fitness goals that contribute to a larger mid-term health plan.

Listen to the podcast: What is (and isn’t) strategy?

Comparing the Three Planning Types

Understanding the intricacies of each planning type enables a holistic approach to achieving goals. Each planning horizon—long-term, mid-term, and short-term—contributes uniquely to an overarching strategy, but they also intersect in meaningful ways.

Key Differences and Intersections

• Long-Term vs. Mid-Term: While long-term planning provides the visionary framework, mid-term planning translates this vision into actionable milestones.
• Mid-Term vs. Short-Term: Mid-term planning bridges the gap to the long-term vision, ensuring that short-term activities are aligned and purposeful.
• Overall Strategy: A balanced blend of these planning types ensures a robust strategy where immediate actions steadily build towards larger goals.

How to Set Long-Term Goals in 7 Steps

Achieving long-term goals requires a systematic approach. Here are the steps to help you set and realize your long-term objectives:

Step 1: Define Clear Objectives and Priorities

Begin by clearly outlining your long-term objectives. What do you hope to achieve? Prioritize these objectives based on their importance and feasibility.

Step 2: Evaluate Resources and Potential Obstacles

Assess the resources at your disposal and identify any potential obstacles. This step is crucial for developing a realistic and effective strategy.

Step 3: Create a Timeline with Specific Milestones

Break down your long-term objectives into smaller, manageable milestones. A detailed timeline helps to maintain focus and track progress.

Step 4: Identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Determine the KPIs that will measure your progress. These indicators will serve as benchmarks, ensuring that you stay on course toward your goals.

Step 5: Communicate and Align Long-Term Goals with Team Members or Stakeholders

If you’re working with a team or stakeholders, effective communication and alignment are essential. Everyone involved should understand and commit to the long-term objectives.

Step 6: Monitor Progress and Make Necessary Adjustments

Regularly review your progress against the outlined milestones and KPIs. Be prepared to make adjustments as you go to address any issues or changes in circumstances.

Step 7: Continuously Review and Adapt as Needed

Long-term planning is not a set-it-and-forget-it exercise. Continually reassess your goals and strategies to adapt to any new developments or opportunities.

For more detail, read: How to Create a Long-Term Business Strategy in 7 Steps

Implementing a Mixed Planning Approach

To reap the benefits of each planning horizon, a mixed approach can be incredibly effective. This strategy involves integrating long-term, mid-term, and short-term plans to form a cohesive roadmap.

Strategies for Combining Planning Horizons

• Align Goals: Ensure that your short-term tasks contribute towards mid-term milestones, which in turn align with long-term objectives.
• Flexible Reviews: Periodically assess all levels of your planning to make necessary adjustments.

Tools and Techniques

Utilize planning tools that can manage diverse planning cycles, such as Gantt charts, project management software, or even strategic planning and execution software like AchieveIt. These tools can help you visualize your plans, set reminders for key milestones, and track progress efficiently.

Reflect on your current planning strategies and consider how a mixed approach could enhance your effectiveness. By incorporating long-term, mid-term, and short-term planning, you’ll be better equipped to navigate the complexities of achieving your goals. For a more integrated and cohesive planning solution, explore AchieveIt’s strategy planning and execution software.

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Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

Business planning: Short, medium and long-term objectives

When writing a business plan what is meant by 'short-term objective', 'medium-term objective' and 'long-term objective'?

The difference between short, medium, and long-term objectives is the time frame of each, and the implication this has on the nature of the objectives.

Short-term objectives are generally those relating to that financial year, in a time frame from now to the end of the year (ie up to a year away).

An example might be to raise turnover by 8 per cent and profit by 9 per cent by the end of the financial year.

Medium-term objectives are generally those that relate to a period from 18 months to three years or sometimes five years (whichever is appropriate for the organisation and people setting the objectives).

These objectives will therefore be broader, can be reviewed and may need to be amended with time. An example might be to relocate to brand new premises of 20,000 sq ft by March 2021.

Of course, the medium-term will become short-term with the passage of time and should be reviewed and updated with this in mind.

Longer-term objectives are generally more aspirational and so tend to relate to a period of five years plus. Often for owners and/or managers, these can tie closely in with personal goals and work-life balance . An example might be to sell the business for £5 million before the owner/manager turns 60.

Alex Ingham, managing director – MI Supplies

Alex Ingham, managing director of workwear and clothing site MI Supplies, put together a three-year growth plan called Project 2020 to get the company in gear.

Focusing on our website, we are extending the MI brand to overseas markets with sites designed specifically for the German and French territories in 2018.

We already have a very strong website in comparison to our competitors. Where we feel we can stand out, however, is by having multi-lingual sites across the UK and Europe.

Our first one for Germany is launching in just a few weeks’ time. We feel we have a great offer for the German market, where the majority of sites do not have the same breadth of brand and styles as we can provide.

We are working closely with our internal web team, very closely with our supplier base and have a team of people from our web platform company, Visualsoft, all working towards the same goal.

MI Supplies is also currently looking at each courier option for each EU country.

The reason for implementing Project 2020 was to spread our risk; not being dependent on one region, one country or one economy. Very often when one country in Europe has a downturn or recession, there are other countries that have an upturn. This is, we feel, a good plan to ensure we counter any downturns in certain countries.

We are looking at pushing our online turnover to £10 million per annum by the end of 2020 with the goal of hitting four million website visitors for our multi-site offering across Europe.

Simon Freer, owner – SAF Professional Cleaning Services Ltd

Working with a business coach can be the starting point for many business owners when it comes to objective setting. That was the experience of Simon Freer, owner of Surrey-based contract cleaning company, SAF Professional Cleaning Services Ltd .

I was operating as a sole trader when I first started a coaching programme with the Engineering Growth Club to set clear and measurable business objectives.

I found it challenging at first because we spent time looking at the business in detail across five dimensions – sales marketing, finance, talent and process – so we could drill down on what the business vision and purpose was: our USPs and what we wanted to achieve in the short, medium and longer term.

This is what I did this for each dimension, setting objectives in every area. These varied from sourcing the right talent, to establishing operational processes, to improving conversion rates for marketing and sales.

Having always been very reactive and basically being busy all the time but in an unstructured, non-goal orientated way, it was painful to be setting measurable goals, but adopting this as a discipline has transformed my business.

In the past 18 months, I’ve gone from being a sole trader on small contracts, to incorporating and then winning some very big contract customers. I now have a team of people working for me in the back office and I’ve doubled my turnover – all as a result of having clear, focused objectives which I reviewed and became accountable for.

Writing a business plan

However, it is imperative when setting business goals, whether they are short-term or long-term, that they follow the principle of SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound, if they are to be truly effective.

A business plan is a great tool to help you methodically plot your business goals and objectives,

Simon Freer followed the ‘strategy on a page’ model rather than writing a chunky business plan,

‘This places everything that’s essential within a business plan on a single page and it’s much more like a living document that you can tweak and change on an ongoing basis,’ he says.

  ‘There’s no point having an extensive business plan that’s out of date by the time it’s finished and never reviewed again. Far better to have a condensed version that’s linked to your objectives. You will refer to it constantly and it always keeps you on track.’

Read the article here on how to write a business proposal

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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

Achieving business success is much like baking your mom’s famous chocolate cake: it requires a mix of ingredients, careful steps, and a good measure of patience. Just as baking leads to delightful results, short-term efforts in business pave the way for long-term success. 

Both short-term and long-term goals are essential to driving a business forward. But what exactly are these goals, and how are they established? In this article, we’ll define and compare short-term and long-term goals and provide you with 30 practical examples of each.

What is a long-term business goal?

Long-term business goals represent the major milestones your company aims to achieve over a significant period, usually ranging from one to ten years. These goals are high-level strategies that guide your organisation toward its vision, providing a roadmap for sustained growth and success.

Effective long-term goals are designed to be flexible, allowing your business to adapt to technological advancements, political shifts, and other environmental changes. While these goals set an ambitious direction, they also influence and are influenced by short-term objectives and daily operations.

Maintaining a sense of direction is crucial, but so is fostering a bottom-up approach that encourages adaptability, creativity, and diverse input in decision-making. This balance ensures that your long-term goals remain relevant and achievable.

What is a short-term business goal?

Short-term business goals are the objectives that your company aims to achieve in the near future, typically within a timeframe ranging from a week to a year. These goals are focused on immediate outcomes, enhancing productivity, and improving time management .

Short-term goals are specific, actionable, and often targeted at individual or team efforts rather than the overall company strategy. Despite their immediate focus, they should be aligned with your long-term objectives to ensure coherent progress toward your overarching vision.

In simple terms, short-term goals are the steps you need to take to reach your long-term aspirations. They serve as a practical tool to ensure your business is on the right track, providing regular checkpoints and adjustments along the way.

Short-term vs. long-term goals

Short-term and long-term goals have different purposes, but they complement each other. Here are three key factors that distinguish them:

Long-term goals are strategic, outlining the future direction and aspirations of the business. Short-term goals are more tactical, focusing on immediate performance and contributing to the overall success of the business in the present.

Short-term goals are measured in weeks or months, while long-term goals span years. Long-term strategies rely on the achievement of multiple short-term goals to progress toward the ultimate vision.

Flexibility

Short-term and long-term goals differ in adaptability. Short-term goals are specific and actionable, addressing immediate needs. Long-term goals are flexible, allowing adjustments as strategies and conditions change.

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

Looking for real-world examples to help you craft business goals? By applying the SMART methodology —ensuring goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound—we’ve compiled examples of both long- and short-term business goals that are easily adaptable.

Short-term vs long-term marketing goal examples

Long-term goal:

Increase traffic to the shop section of the website

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

• Develop a social media strategy to boost posting frequency from 3 times a week to daily
• Plan an email campaign aiming for an average click rate of 10% before the new product launch

Short-term vs long-term finance goal examples

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 the cost of goods sold (COGS) expenses by 20% this quarter

Short-term vs long-term HR goal examples

Improve employee retention rate

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

• Allocate 10% of the HR budget to personal development training
• Implement a monthly feedback form for greater visibility of company issues

Short-term vs long-term sales goal examples

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
• Secure $30,000 in new deals by the end of the quarter

Short-term vs long-term customer service goal examples

Increase customer satisfaction

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

• Improve the first-contact resolution rate by 10% by the end of the quarter
• Enhance 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 goal: Increase blog traffic by 25% in the next three months by optimising existing content for SEO and publishing weekly articles on trending topics.
• Long-term goal: 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 goal: Improve email open rates by 10% over the next quarter through A/B testing of subject lines and personalised content.
• Long-term goal: Double the email subscriber list size within the next 18 months by leveraging lead magnets and optimising signup forms across all digital platforms.
• Short-term goal: Redesign the company homepage to improve visual appeal and user engagement within the next two months.
• Long-term goal: Establish a cohesive brand identity across all products and marketing materials within two years, enhancing brand recognition and consistency.

User experience (UX)

• Short-term goal: Decrease website bounce rate by 20% in the next six months through improved navigation and faster page load times.
• Long-term goal: Achieve top-tier customer satisfaction scores for the digital experience within the next three years by continuously refining and personalising the user journey.
• Short-term goal: Reduce deployment time by 30% within the next quarter through the implementation of automated deployment pipelines.
• Long-term goal: 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 goal: Complete the development of a new mobile application feature within the next three months to meet market demand.
• Long-term goal: Transition the entire software portfolio to a microservices architecture within the next five years to improve scalability and maintainability.

Project management

• Short-term goal: Improve project completion rates by 15% over the next six months by adopting agile project management methodologies.
• Long-term goal: 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 just starting out, moving beyond the 'vision' phase of goal setting can be challenging. You might know where you want to go, but figuring out how to get there is the hard part.

OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results . It's a goal-setting framework that bridges the gap between vision and strategy, providing a simple, shared language to define the focus of different teams within your organisation.

Here’s how to turn your short-term business goals into OKRs in three easy steps:

1. Define your objectives

Start by defining your overall objective. If you're setting quarterly goals, create a clear statement that explains what you aim to achieve by the end of the quarter.

For example, a Customer Success team might have the objective of significantly improving user satisfaction.

2. Select your metrics

With your objective in place, the next step is to identify the Customer Success KPIs that align with this objective. These could include:

• NPS (Net Promoter Score)
• Average response time
• CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)

These metrics will become your Key Results.

3. Use the SMART formula to turn metrics into Key Results

Finally, convert your KPIs into SMART goals , making them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Your quarterly OKRs might look like this:

Objective: Significantly improve customer satisfaction

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

While mastering the nuances of OKRs may take some practice, numerous guides can help you transform your vision into a clear set of actionable OKRs .

How to track short-term and long-term goals

Benefits of tracking your business goals

Setting goals is the first step toward achieving success. Without goals, it's challenging to identify what you want to accomplish and how to get there. Equally important, however, is tracking your progress toward these goals . This practice keeps you focused, motivated, and accountable. By consistently monitoring your short-term and long-term goals, you can ensure steady progress toward achieving your objectives.

Short-term business goals

Tracking short-term goals is crucial for maintaining urgency and motivation. These goals are essential for ensuring daily business productivity and providing immediate progress feedback, acting as stepping stones to make long-term objectives feel more attainable.

Long-term business goals

Long-term goals provide a clear vision and direction for the future. Unlike short-term goals, which focus on immediate results, long-term objectives guide the company toward its overarching aspirations, looking years ahead. They help steer the business, ensuring all efforts contribute to a cohesive strategy.

Balancing both

It's important to keep track of both short-term and long-term goals to maintain a healthy balance. Short-term goals drive immediate actions and results, while long-term goals ensure that these actions align with the broader vision. This balance keeps the business on track, ensuring consistent progress and long-term success.

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

The role of spreadsheets for goal-tracking.

Spreadsheets are widely used in businesses because they are flexible and easy to use. They are great for organising data and monitoring business goals. However, while they are versatile and allow for custom calculations, they may not be the best option for tracking goals comprehensively .

Spreadsheets need regular manual updates, which take up time and increase the risk of errors. This manual process can lead to inaccuracies, affecting your ability to make informed decisions. Additionally, spreadsheets lack advanced data visualisation capabilities, making it hard to identify trends, predict performance, and make strategic adjustments. Without dynamic visualisations, it's difficult to pinpoint areas of success or improvement.

Specialised goal-tracking software will save you hours at work

Consider using a dedicated goal-tracking platform like Tability to simplify goal management. These platforms provide a structured method for setting, tracking, and achieving business objectives. Unlike spreadsheets, specialised software offers dynamic OKR dashboards that promptly address specific questions.

One significant advantage of these platforms is their ability to integrate with other tools, such as project management systems, allowing you to seamlessly map relevant strategic projects to your objectives. This integration ensures that all aspects of goal-tracking are interconnected, providing a holistic view of progress and performance.

Finding the right balance

Achieving business success is like perfecting a beloved recipe; it requires precision, timing, and patience. Establishing a balanced blend of short- and long-term goals is essential, as it serves as the roadmap that guides your business forward. While short-term goals drive daily operations, long-term goals ensure that you are steering towards the bigger picture with confidence and clarity.

Combining well-defined goals with the right tracking tools, such as Tability , becomes the secret ingredient to not just reaching but surpassing your business aspirations. By leveraging specialised platforms, you can save time, reduce errors, and gain valuable insights, ensuring that your business stays on track and achieves its objectives.

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Copyright © 2024 Tability Inc.

The importance of short, medium and long term goals

Table of Contents

The importance of goals for your business

Goal setting, smart goals, short-term goals, medium-term goals, long-term goals, why set goals for your business, techniques to start goal setting, save time to focus on your goals.

Goal-setting is a helpful process that we can all do, whether it’s personal or for your business. When you write down your goals, you are 33% more likely to successfully achieve them than those who just formulate them in their mind.

The biggest challenges around setting short, medium, and long-term goals can be creating them and following through. This article will show you the importance of setting short, medium, and long-term goals.  We will cover the following topics:

• The importance of goals
• Goal-setting
• Why you should set goals
• Goal setting techniques

Setting goals helps you focus and achieve growth for your company. With businesses, one of the most significant motivating factors is profitability. However, an increase in revenue generally doesn’t happen without marketing, sales and managing your accounts properly. 

They are also vital when motivating employees and understanding clients. When you have a goal, you have something to aim towards, and you can strive to improve your business to find a way of reaching that goal. 

Many people set New Year’s resolutions, but they often fall by the wayside a couple of weeks into the new year. The key steps to setting goals are the following:

• Write down your goals 
• Set objectives and habits that will help you achieve these goals 
• Set yourself a deadline to complete them

Without these, your goals for your business are just dreams. Eventually, you will most likely forget about them after a while. 

One of the best ways of setting goals is to use the SMART method . SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely. The SMART framework will help you to create essential goals and help you to stick to them. However, it’s also important to remember that your plans may change depending on how well your business performed over the last few months. 

If your goal was to increase revenue by 10% in Q1 and achieve it quickly, you might aim to increase your income by 15% in Q2. The same can be said if you don’t reach your goal. The most important thing is to keep revisiting your goals and adjusting them accordingly.

Short-term goals are essential for businesses because they often dictate what daily tasks to focus on. They are also the foundation of much bigger goals down the road. The timeline for short term goals is generally two to three months. However, it’s essential to be realistic about what you can achieve in just a few short months. 

If you want to break it down into the SMART framework for your business goals, it will look something like this: 

• Specific: Increase revenue by £1,000 per week
• Measurable: You will be able to measure your company’s cash flow
• Achievable: You have researched and analysed data that it is possible to increase your revenue by £1,000 per week
• Relevant: Increasing your income is crucial for your business
• Timely: You have set a deadline for your goal

To reach this goal for your business, you will need to put the processes or actions in place to help you achieve it. For example, will you advertise your business more? Will you make an effort to speak at events? Will you invest a portion of your revenue into paid advertising? Setting your goals is a great starting point; the next part is taking action and developing habits to achieve those goals. 

You can learn more about improving your sales pipeline in our article: How to Improve Your Sales Pipeline .  

While a short-term goal is achievable in a few months, a medium-term goal is meant to be achieved in between several months up to five years. 

Medium-term business goals may often depend on the success of the short-term goals. For example, suppose you achieve the short term goal of increasing your revenue by £1,000 a week. In that case, your next goal could be setting a marketing budget , hiring another sales representative or moving to a different location. 

Long-term goals should aim to be achieved in the next five to ten years. While it can be difficult for small businesses to predict the future, it’s essential to think of the future and plan for it as much as possible; however, if you’re a startup looking to create an exit strategy for your company after the next few years. 

You can start by creating long term goals and then break them down into short or medium-term goals, and work out what you need to do daily to reach them. 

Goals can be a compelling way of creating focus and drive to achieve growth for your company. With businesses, one of the most significant motivating factors is profitability. However, an increase in revenue generally doesn’t happen without marketing, sales and managing your business expenses and budgeting correctly. 

They are also vital when motivating employees and understanding customers. When you have a goal, you have something to aim towards, and you can strive to improve your business to find a way of reaching that goal. 

One of the best ways to start goal setting is to start writing down all of your business goals and get any ideas out of your head onto paper. There are some great techniques to start brainstorming, including:

• Brain dump: this simply just writing down everything and anything that comes to mind and organising it later.
• Mindmapping: is similar to the brain dump technique but a bit more organised. Start with a goal and write down anything related to your goal and structure it with a bubble in the middle with several different branches coming off of it. 
• List-making: This technique involves picking one goal and listing all of the steps or smaller goals that it would take to achieve your main goal. 

Try out a few different techniques and find out which one is the best for you. Whichever method you use will give your business a significantly better chance of succeeding than if you didn’t write down your goals.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF BOTH SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM STRATEGIC GOALS

There’s an old saying that the difference between a dream and a goal is a plan. Keep in mind that 50% of small businesses fail by year five. A fundamental reason? Poor planning.

Compare these two goals: expand my business vs. increase revenue by 15%. Which of these feels more specifically strategic? To effectively manage your business, you’ll need to go beyond an aspirational vision and create more specific and attainable goals. Most business owners have a business plan or strategy, but not all are actionable. They don’t specify things like, what should you achieve in the first year? What about your 5-year plan? A core part of strategic planning is organizing your goals into short-term and long-term. Goal setting determines the direction and scope of an organization. It should help you answer key questions: What are the priorities for me and my team? How will resources be allocated? What tells me I’m successful?

The core differences between short-term and long-term goals

Setting each type of these goals helps position your business for growth and ensures you are competitive in the broader industry. They have similar features, but there are different approaches necessary to reach short-term vs. long-term goals.

In addition, both short-term and long-term goals should have a clear relationship. Think of the long-term goal as your “north star” and the short-term as the “map” that guides you.

Why you need to do both?

Because of the complexities of running an agency, dividing goals into short- and long-term can help you take control and run your business to be its most successful. Creating both types of goals will drive better results by:

• Enhancing clarity . Creating goals based on short-term or long-term characteristics helps clarify expectations for you and your staff. What are the priorities? What steps should you take to achieve your purpose? In addition, having both types of goals demonstrates why you are focusing on certain initiatives and the impact of achieving them.
• Motivating employees and stakeholders. When goals are longer term, they are easily forgotten or dismissed in favor of what can be achieved more immediately. But seeing the small wins associated with short-term goals not only helps reinforce your larger strategy – it also strengthens the long game. Your staff will feel inspired by their progress and part of the company success. This often leads to better retention and more satisfied employees. People want to work for an organization that has a clear and defined path, and they work harder when they understand the end goal.
• Driving momentum. More immediate goals are milestones towards larger aspirations. Those milestones help you and your team act on larger ideas and celebrate wins along the way. With short- and long-term goals, employees get immediate feedback and better understand expectations. Consider the visual of a pyramid – each rock is necessary to build the overall structure, and neither is possible without the other.
• Enabling a test and learn environment . As you journey towards your ultimate long-term goal, it’s important to reflect on what’s working and adjust in areas like producer performance, marketing, or client retention. Perhaps you identify you’ve been pursuing the wrong types of clients and can make adjustments while still on track for the long-term goal.

It’s important to make both short-term and long-term goals something to achieve, not individual tasks. Each type of goal should be assigned to a department, function, individual, or the entire agency.

Done well, setting goals can help you take advantage of opportunities, tackle challenges, prepare for the future, and keep you focused on the big picture.

Is FirstChoice, a MarshBerry Company, right for you?   

Your company’s strategic plan is a roadmap for how your company will function, grow, and succeed. Working with an experienced  agency network  brings reassurance that you are on the right track and our regional leaders act as your accountability partner. 

FirstChoice, a MarshBerry Company, caters to insurance agency owners who prioritize talent investment, embrace challenging decision-making, want to develop and work toward a strategic plan, and are open to agility and empowerment. FirstChoice offers growth solutions tailored for agencies of all sizes. If you are not a FirstChoice member and are interested in learning more about the nation’s number one agency partner, visit  www.MarshBerry.com/FirstChoice . 

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellevate/2019/10/24/eight-common-reasons-small-businesses-fail/

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Short, Medium and Long-Term Goals: Making Business Planning Effective

Making goals is something we all do, whether that be in our personal or business life.

From deciding that we’re going to read one chapter of a new self-help book per day, right through to increasing turnover by 50% or more.

The problem is that most of us never get around to actually writing these goals down and making the plans and adjustments necessary to attain them.

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” Pablo Picasso

Hardly surprising then that 92% of New Year’s goals (i.e. resolutions) fail by January 15 th ! This and other stats can be found in this article by Alex Mace.

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What are goals.

At the most basic level a ‘goal’ is a desire, objective or outcome you wish to achieve. For example, losing a few post-Christmas pounds, running a marathon, increasing income.

The trouble is, unless you write these objectives down and give yourself a timeframe and a methodology to achieve them, they are basically just desires/dreams.

People with written goals are 50% more likely to achieve than people without goals .

Not only that but you need the will power and management team to actually get the job done. You can have the best plans known to man but you absolutely need that management team, a.k.a the right people, to make it happen .

This also means hiring the right people .

Currently the most commonly used methodology for goal setting is SMART – an acronym for:

We talked about this in the article What Are the 5 Main Elements of Managing Employee Performance?

Targets and goals will obviously change and develop over time, often dependent on the success (or otherwise!) of previous goals.

For example, if you set an outcome of increasing turnover by £10,000 in Q2 but managed to achieve this by Q1 then you would consider imposing a higher target for Q2, maybe £15,000 or even £20,000.

It’s equally possible that expectations may have to be revised downwards.

The point is, it’s vital to continually revisit goals, to tweak, adjust or even entirely re-evaluate them in line with actual progress . There is little more demoralising than consistently missing out on achieving goals and targets.

Be prepared for things to change , have contingencies in place to mitigate them and don’t get too upset if you don’t reach the goal first time around; it doesn’t mean you’ve necessarily failed; it doesn’t mean the goal or target was unachievable; it might be the goal was too ambitious or that circumstances, the market or market conditions changed during the period.

We speak more below about what might impact your goals but a familiar quote springs to mind: “The only constant is change” so be prepared to re-work your plan if necessary.

Keep the end vision in view, even if that seems tricky at times.

Remember, success is rarely linear; even the most profitable and successful people, entrepreneurs and businesses will have experienced ups and downs .

Short-Term Goals

Breaking your goals down into time related chunks makes them more achievable…remember the ‘ T ’ in the acronym SMART relates to time .

Short term goals are generally defined as those which can be achieved within two or three months but this very much depends on what it is you’re planning: sales targets (how much growth?), new recruits (how many people?), learning a new skill (is two months realistic to learn coding, part-time, from scratch?). So make sure your goals are also realistic.

“Dream big dreams, but never forget that realistic short-term goals are the keys to your success” Mac Anderson

If we look at the example of increasing turnover used earlier; increasing turnover by £1k per week for a quarter could be classed as a short-term goal.

Breaking it down under SMART shows the target is:

Specific – £1k per week

Measurable – income is trackable

*Achievable – you have researched/verified this is possible

Relevant – increasing turnover is VERY relevant to business success

Timely – you have set a deadline

Setting the goals isn’t the end of the story though!

If they aren’t * achievable, if you haven’t put the plans in place to ensure the increase in turnover is possible then no matter how amazing your goal setting is, you will never reach them.

If it was simply a case of coming up with the targets and following through by setting them down in writing, we’d all be successful. You need to have a framework in place to ensure that the target, in this specific instance increasing turnover, can be met.

That may mean employing an extra salesperson, paying overtime to production operatives, putting in more hours yourself – even putting up prices. Give yourself the best possible chance of success and do not rely on chance .

Medium-Term Goals

A short-term goal is achievable within a few months, a medium-term goal however is designed to take several months to up to five years to reach fulfilment.

Increasing your turnover (the short-term goal mentioned above) may cause you to set another goal to relocate to larger premises within five years. This would be classed as a medium term goal.

Similarly, an increase in personnel, a revised remuneration package, internal organisational change and reducing production costs via economy of scale, would also fall under the banner of medium-term goals.

Your medium-term goals will often be set as a result of achieving short term targets – in fact they are often driven by the achievement of short-term goals. Think of the chicken and egg scenario – could a relocation be achieved without increased turnover: would a relocation work without increasing staff? Everything is interlinked so make sure your goals are too.

CONTACT SUCCESS STREAM

We help businesses make better decisions through planning, goal setting and motivating teams.

Long-Term Goals

As the name suggests, long term goals are those which will take many years to come to fruition – usually between 5 – 10 years.

Planning any more than 10 years in advance is notoriously tricky (at least without a crystal ball or a time machine) but that’s not to say you can’t set such long term goals – especially in terms of an exit plan for example – just be prepared to continually adapt and adjust to take account of changing situations.

“If the plan doesn’t work, change the plan but never change the goal.” Unknown

Long term goals can be achieved by using a series of short- and medium-term goals as stepping stones along the way to the end point. Breaking down your longer-term targets into a series of smaller (and thus more achievable) steps is a great way to ensure your ultimate success.

How to Go About Goal Setting

The obvious start is to know where it is you want to end up!

Have a clear goal (or series of goals) in sight. For example:

• Increase turnover by £xx
• Increase ROI by xx%
• Increase sales by xx%
• Become the go to supplier by 2030
• Hand over the running of the business by 2035

The easiest way to arrive at goals is to simply sit down and write down ALL your personal or organisational dreams and aspirations for the next 10 years or so (personal and business) – it doesn’t matter how far fetched and impossible any of them may seem and at this stage you don’t need to work out how you will achieve them. Just write them down.

Once you have your list – it may contain only a few items or it may be pages long – it’s time for a brainstorming session to refine some of the ideas lurking in your mind. If you have a management team this may be a good time to bring them in.

There’s lots of different ways to brainstorm:

Mind mapping can be extremely freeing and useful. Start with the goal or target, write it on a large piece of paper and surround it with a ‘bubble’ then simply jot down anything that comes to you (or your team) when you consider the initial idea. This could be words, images, other ideas.

Brain dump – similar to mind mapping but even less structured! Simply write down anything and everything that comes to mind.

List making – focus on one goal at a time and create lists of what may be required to achieve it – including breaking it down into smaller steps and goals.

A useful way to look at goal setting in your business (and personally) is to use the ‘staircase’ method to figure out the necessary steps.

Start with ultimate GOAL – let’s say to achieve a £million turnover within 10 years – put that as your top step.

The bottom step is where you are now – £250k for argument’s sake.

Then work out how many steps you will need to reach the top stair, the goal of £1million.

Each of these steps can become a goal along the way to achieving the end result.

“It’s better to be at the bottom of the ladder you want to climb than at the top of the one you don’t.” Stephen Kellogg

Strategy vs Tactics

Once you know where you want to end up it should be easier to work out how to get there. As previously mentioned, you may have to make several corrections along the way and even your ultimate destination may change slightly but you have an end goal in sight.

What you need to achieve the end objective are strategies and tactics.

Now, the words ‘strategy’ and ‘tactic’ are often used interchangeably but they do however have very distinct meanings. Tactics  are the actual means used to attain an objective, while  strategy  is the overall plan.

To put it more succinctly, tactics are short term actions whereas strategy is the long-term vision. Strategies may have to change and adapt to take into account external influences, whilst tactics are mutable and will change to reflect your strategy.

In our example of increasing turnover, the strategy is the overall plan to increase income; the tactics employed to do this could be any number of things from price rises to employing more people to buying another business and these will change depending on their success factor.

What Might Scupper These Plans?

It doesn’t matter how fantastic your strategy and planning towards your overall objective is – there are always outside influences that could affect the achievement of your goals:

• Governments change and with them so do tax breaks and benefits, minimum wage levels etc.
• Climate change is increasingly affecting businesses with fuel price hikes, green initiatives etc.
• Access to finance may become difficult
• Competition in a sector may increase
• New technology could render products/services obsolete
• Cultural tastes change.

This is why you must continually reassess and re-evaluate goals and be prepared to change direction if necessary. Nothing is ever really set in stone in the business world and a failure to change could result in a failure to succeed. Think about Kodak, Nokia, Blockbuster and Polaroid (amongst others) whose failure to adapt to a changing world ultimately led to their demise.

“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” Confucius

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Short, medium and long-term plans with a career.

Whilst we’ve concentrated mainly on goal setting in a business environment, it would be remiss not to point out that short, medium- and long-term goal setting can also be applied in a personal career development sphere .

Creating a personal development plan takes time but we go about it in a similar manner. Consider yourself a little business (or a big business of you prefer).

Maybe you want a career change or there are specific reasons you have to change path .

Take becoming a partner in a firm of accountants as an example:

Becoming a Chartered Accountant and a partner may be the long-term goal but to get there will take several steps; the necessary ‘A’ Levels; University degree; a job; completing the ICAEW exams etc.

Just as with a business, external influences along the way may force changes in direction. Failure to get high enough grades initially may mean an apprenticeship route instead of University, but with the ultimate goal in sight the tactics change but the destination is the same.

Use the SMART goals, the Staircase method and do some brainstorming of your own to work out how to get to where you really want to be in 10 years’ time!

“Dreams are extremely important. You can’t do it unless you imagine it.” George Lucas

In business and life goals are what drive us to succeed.

We all need something to aim for to keep us focussed and feeling alive. That includes businesses.

But a goal that is not written down nor supported by any sort of planning is basically just a dream and, whilst we can all dream of bigger things not all of us actually achieve them.

“Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen.” Wayne Huizenga

Jo founded Success Stream. With over 30 years experience in hotels, leisure, technology and sales she has worked in many a stressful and demanding environment. She now focuses her time on helping others overcome stresses and hurdles in their lives and ensuring they reach their true potential.

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11 Tips for Creating a Long-Term Strategic Plan

7 min. read

Updated October 29, 2023

Strategic planning is a management tool that guides your business to better performance and long-term success.

Working with a plan will focus your efforts, unify your team in a single direction, and help guide you through tough business decisions. A strategic plan requires you to define your goals, and in defining them, enables you to achieve them—a huge competitive advantage.

In this article, we’ll discuss 11 essentials for creating a thorough and effective strategic plan. Each tip is a critical stepping stone in leading your business toward your goals.

• 1. Define your company vision

You should be able to define your company vision in 100 words. Develop this statement and make it publically available to both employees and customers.

This statement should answer the key questions that drive your business: Where is your company headed? What do you want your company to be? If you don’t know the answer to these questions off the top of your head, then you have some thinking to do! If you have the answers in your head, but not on paper—get writing.

If you have them written down, congrats! You’ve completed the first and most critical step in creating a long-term strategic plan.

• 2. Define your personal vision

While your personal vision is just as important to your strategic plan, it does not need to be shared with your team and customers.

Your personal vision should incorporate what you want your business to bring to your life—whether that’s enormous growth, early retirement, or simply more time to spend with family and friends.

Aligning your personal vision with your company vision is key to achieving your personal and professional goals. Just as with your company vision, have your personal vision written down in a 100-word statement. Know that statement inside and out and keep it at the forefront of your decision making.

• 3. Know your business

Conduct a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. By knowing where your business is now, you can make more informed predictions for how it can grow.

Questions such as “Why is this business important?” and “What does this business do best?” are a great place to start. A SWOT analysis can also help you plan for making improvements.

Questions such as “What needs improvement?” and “What more could the business be doing?” can help guide your strategic plan in a way that closes gaps and opens up opportunities.

For more on completing a SWOT analysis, see our SWOT analysis guide.

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• 4. Establish short-term goals

Short-term goals should include everything you (realistically) want to achieve over the next 36 months.

Goals should be “S.M.A.R.T.” (specific, measurable, actionable, reasonable, and timely).

An example of S.M.A.R.T. goals include “building out a new product or service within the next year” or “increasing net profit by 2 percent in ten months.” If you’ve already conducted a SWOT analysis, you should have an idea of what your business can reasonably achieve over a specified period of time.

• 5. Outline strategies

Strategies are the steps you’ll take to meet your short-term goals. If the short term goal is “build out a new product or service,” the strategies might be:

• Researching competitor offerings
• Getting in touch with vendors and suppliers
• Formulating a development plan
• Outlining a marketing and sales plan for the new offering
• 6. Create an action plan

An action plan is an essential part of the business planning and strategy development process. The best analysis, in-depth market research, and creative strategizing are pointless unless they lead to action.

An action plan needs to be a working document; it must be easy to change and update. But, must also be specific about what you’re doing, when you will do it, who will be accountable, what resources will be needed, and how that action will be measured.

Action plans put a process to your strategies. Using the previous example, an action plan might be: “CMO develops competitor research packet for new offerings by 9/1. Review packet with the executive team by 9/15.”

When The Alternative Board, Bradford West  Director Andrew Hartley was responsible for designing and delivering a three year, $10m environmental business support program, a full and detailed action plan was required for funding.

“That action plan allowed me to 1.) manage and measure the evolving program, 2.) ensure resources and staff were where they needed to be, and 3.) track whether the design of the program was working and delivering the level of results we were contracted to deliver,” says Hartley.

“Even I was surprised about how helpful that action plan was,” he says. “I cannot image approaching any significant project or business without one.”

• 7. Foster strategic communication

To align your team, you must communicate strategically. Results-driven communication focuses conversations and cuts out excessive meetings. Every communication should be rooted in a specific goal.

Include the how, where, when, and most importantly why every time you deliver instructions, feedback, updates, and so on.

• 8. Review and modify regularly

Check in regularly to make sure you’re progressing toward your goals. A weekly review of your goals, strategies, and action plans can help you see if you need to make any modifications.

Schedule time in your calendar for this. Weekly check-ins allow you to reassess your plan in light of any progress, setbacks, or changes.

• 9. Hold yourself accountable

Having a business coach or mentor is great for this. If you have a hard time sticking to your plans, you’ll have an equally hard time meeting your goals.

According to The Alternative Board’s September 2015 Business Pulse Survey, the number one reason business owners choose to work with mentors is accountability.

“Having a close—but not too close—space for advice and accountability is really valuable,” says TAB Member Scott Lininger, CEO of Bitsbox. “Someone who is too close to your business (such as board members) often have a perspective that’s too similar to your own. Over time, your coach comes to know your team, your product, and your business, and they help you work through all kinds of challenges in a way that’s unique.”

“All too often I find that leaders accept underperformance against their strategic plan too easily,” adds Hartley. “A coach can rekindle the resolve and ambition of the leader, resulting in a recovery of lost margins, sales, or output.”

According to Hartley, a coach can build accountability by questioning what’s working, making sure everything’s on track, pointing out areas of underperformance, and asking what corrective action needs to be pursued.

• 10. Be adaptable

Remember: You can’t plan for everything. Just as challenges will arrive, so too will opportunities, and you must be ready at a moment’s notice to amend your plan. Weekly reviews will help enormously with this.

“A strategic plan will likely need to be changed very soon after approval because nobody can accurately predict anything but the very near term future,” says Jim Morris, owner and President of The Alternative Board, Tennessee Valley. “You stay adaptable by monitoring the plan every day. The wise leader will be constantly looking for opportunities to exceed the strategic plan by being opportunistic, creative, and by exploiting weaknesses in the competitive market.”

By doing this, Morris was able to exceed forecast results of every strategic plan he ever approved. “The times when I needed to be flexible were when we met strategic plan goals ahead of time and had to rewrite the plan to keep it current and relevant.”

It’s important to be adaptable because nothing stays the same. “It’s more important to be agile and take advantage of opportunities that weren’t foreseen and make adjustments,” says Morris. “This and a continuous improvement mindset is the best way to exceed plan goals.”

• 11. Create a strategic planning team

As a business owner, you should never feel like you have to do everything alone.

A strategic planning team can help with every phase of the process, from creating a company vision to adapting your strategy week-to-week. Compose your team of key management staff and employees—some visionaries and some executors.

If you think you’re “too busy” for start strategic planning, then you need strategic planning more than you know. Having a focused plan allows you to focus your energies, so you’re working on your business, rather than in it. As a business owner, it is your responsibility to steer the ship, not put out day-to-day fires.

Yes, creating a strategic plan is challenging, and it’s certainly time-consuming, but it will make all the difference in achieving your long term goals. You’ll avoid making bad decisions and expending more effort than you need.

Try these 11 tips to get started, and then be flexible in your ongoing approach. You’ll be amazed at how much more streamlined your business processes will become when you are working with a long-term strategic plan.

Jodie Shaw is The Alternative Board (TAB)’s Chief Marketing Officer. She brings over 20 years of B2B marketing and 10 years in franchising to the role. Prior to to her work with TAB, Jodie served as the CEO and Global Chief Marketing Officer of an international business coaching franchise, serving more than 50 countries.

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All Hail Medium-Term Planning

• Dominic Houlder
• Nandu Nandkishore

The short term is a free-for-all and the long term is just a dream.

There is a chronological no-man’s land that executives steer diligently clear of, as if it were a sort of Bermuda triangle. Think about it. When did you last hear a CEO utter the words, “In nine months time…” or “This time next year…” or “By the fall…”

• DH Dominic Houlder is an Adjunct Professor of Strategic and International Management at London Business School.
• NN Nandu Nandkishore is an Executive Fellow at London Business School. Previously he was an executive board director of Nestlé S.A.

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Short-Term and Long-Term Goals Examples: A Goal-Setting Guide

Discover key goal-setting strategies, get examples of short-term and long-term goals, and actionable tips to set successful goals.

Kinjal Dagli

Sr. Content Marketing Manager at Together

Published on 

November 24, 2023

Updated on 

Time to Read

mins read time

Setting goals is the first step to accomplishing anything meaningful.

While most people set goals in their personal and professional lives, few end up achieving them.

In a recent survey, roughly 70% of respondents said that they were likely to set goals for the new year. But only 48% of goal-setters said they’d document their goals, and roughly the same number planned to create an action plan to achieve them.

That means that last year, half of the people ended up with vague goals and no actionable plans to achieve them. While the other half had clearly defined goals and actionable plans.

Which group is more likely to achieve their goals?

Our vote goes to the ones with written down, specific goals.

Clearly defined short-term and long-term goals, which are precise and detailed, eliminate ambiguity and provide a clear roadmap. When these goals also present a level of challenge, they engage and motivate us, leading to enhanced performance. That’s why goal setting is the first and most important step towards achieving your dreams.

What is goal setting?

Goal setting is the process of identifying what you aspire to achieve and outlining a path to reach that destination.

It's a method of deciding what is important for you to accomplish in your life or career and establishing measurable targets and deadlines to make those achievements a reality. It is an effective way of bringing about positive change in our lives.

Goal setting isn't just about achieving business success or personal milestones. It's also about personal growth. With the help of short-term and long-term goals, individuals create a balanced approach to career growth. Short-term goals help them make progress as they work their way towards their long-term goals.

What are short-term and long-term goals?

Short-term goals are the stepping stones to our grander ambitions. They are those objectives we set to be achieved relatively quickly — usually within a few weeks, months, or one year. Short-term goals are specific and are often designed to be highly actionable, guiding us towards immediate progress. 

In contrast, long-term goals are the ones we envision for our future selves, mapping out where we hope to be several years down the line. They are broader, more encompassing, and, by nature, less detailed than short-term goals. These are the kinds of objectives that demand patience, persistence, and a strategic approach. 

Think of the famous long-distance runner, Eliud Kipchoge. Kipchoge is known for setting both short-term and long-term goals in his training and career. In the lead-up to major marathons, he sets short-term goals like improving his time in specific training runs, increasing his weekly mileage, or focusing on recovery techniques. These short-term goals are integral to his larger ambition of winning races and breaking records. Kipchoge's approach exemplifies how short-term goals can effectively contribute to achieving major, long-term objectives in a professional context.

Short-term goals are measured in tangible, quantifiable achievements, while long-term goals are gauged by milestones that mark significant progress towards a broader life or career vision. 

Setting SMART goals

When it comes to achieving your ambitions, not all approaches to goal setting are created equal. One standout method that offers clarity and direction is the SMART goals framework , a technique widely embraced for its effectiveness.

SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This criterion transforms vague intentions into clear, actionable plans. 

Let's break down each component:

• Specific — Your goals should be clear and concise. Instead of saying you want to "improve sales," a specific goal would be "increase sales by 10%."
• Measurable — You need to be able to track your progress. If your goal is to "increase networking opportunities," make it measurable by aiming to "attend two industry events per month."
• Achievable — While it's great to dream big, your goals also need to be realistic. Ensure you have the resources and time to achieve the goals you set.
• Relevant - Your goals should align with your values and long-term objectives. If you're aiming to climb the corporate ladder, a relevant goal could be to "take on a leadership role in a major project."
• Time-bound — Set a deadline. A time-bound goal compels action and helps prioritize tasks. Instead of "learn to code," try "complete a coding course in the next three months."

Applying SMART principles to short-term and long-term goals

By integrating SMART criteria into your goal-setting strategy, you create a solid foundation for both short-term wins and long-term successes. This method not only clarifies what you're working toward but also enhances motivation as you're able to celebrate each milestone along the way.

For short-term goals, SMART principles help you create a focused pathway to immediate success. 

For example, a project manager might set a goal to "reduce team overtime by 15% in the next quarter." This goal is: 

• Can be measured by hours tracked
• Is achievable with the right strategies
• Is relevant to job performance
• Has a clear time frame

On the flip side, long-term goals benefit from the SMART framework by offering a long-range vision with milestones. 

Let's say you aim to "become a published author within five years." To make this SMART, you could start with "write a 50,000-word draft in year one." This plays into your broader goal by giving you a specific target to achieve within a set period.

3 examples of short-term goals 

Short-term goals act not only as stepping stones but also as powerful motivators, offering quick wins that keep us driven.

Here are three examples of short-term goals that can make a significant difference in an individual's personal and professional growth.

1. Improve time management

Improving time management is a common short-term goal that many professionals set to enhance their productivity. 

By committing to finishing tasks within the workday and avoiding overtime, individuals can achieve a healthier work-life balance. This could involve using a digital planner to organize and prioritize daily tasks and setting specific time limits for each activity. 

2. Enhance project management skills

Another short-term goal that offers tangible benefits is the enhancement of professional skills . For instance, a professional might aim to complete an online course in project management over the next two months.

By allocating an hour each weekday to engage with the course material and participate in weekly assessments, the individual can incrementally build new expertise. 

3. Grow professional network

Expanding one's professional network can be a vital short-term goal, especially in today's interconnected world.

An individual might set a target to grow their professional network by adding 50 new connections within a month. This could be achieved by actively attending networking events and engaging with industry professionals on platforms like LinkedIn. 

3 examples of long-term goals             

When we set our sights on the horizon, long-term goals guide our journey. They're not just targets but powerful motivators that propel our personal and professional growth. 

Let's explore three such goals and the profound influence they can have on one’s life.

1. Achieving an executive position

Achieving a senior role in a company means making wise career moves, learning consistently, and becoming a strong leader . 

By meeting performance goals and taking opportunities to lead, an individual can steadily climb the corporate ladder, gaining professional recognition and financial rewards along the way.

2. Attaining financial independence

The path to financial freedom is typically charted through disciplined saving, savvy investing, and living within one's means. 

This long-term financial goal can lead to a life less tethered to financial stresses, allowing more freedom to pursue personal interests and passions.

3. Publishing a book

For those with a story to tell, committing to writing and publishing a book can be a dream with years in the making. 

It requires regular writing, maybe taking writing classes, and lots of patience. But the payoff is a work that shares one’s voice with the world, potentially opens doors to new opportunities, and offers a profound sense of personal achievement.

Tips for creating short-term and long-term goals

Embarking on a journey towards achieving your aspirations, whether personal or professional, requires a roadmap. Without a plan, it's easy to get lost or sidetracked. To ensure your goals aren't just wishes, you need a strategic approach to make them a reality. 

Here is a practical guide to long-term and short-term goal setting, along with tips to stay motivated.

1. Define your vision 

A study by Gail Matthews at Dominican University showed that individuals who write down their goals are 42% more likely to achieve them than those who don't. 

Setting a clear vision is more than just daydreaming, it’s a documented way to increase your chances of success. By envisioning your success, you provide yourself with a source of motivation that's both personal and powerful.

Take, for example, Jim Carrey, who wrote himself a check for $10 million for "acting services rendered," post-dating it by five years. By the time those five years had passed, he was indeed commanding such fees for his film roles.

2. Break it down 

Breaking your long-term goals into short-term, actionable steps will help you achieve them faster. This makes your goals more digestible and provides you with a clear path forward.

By establishing monthly or quarterly targets, you create a rhythm of success. Each small goal you meet builds your confidence and propels you towards the next, making the journey towards your long-term aim a series of attainable steps rather than a daunting leap.

3. Set SMART goals 

As we discussed in an earlier section, your goals must be SMART. Incorporating SMART elements into goal setting adds clarity to your objectives. 

Being specific eliminates confusion, measurable metrics offer a clear progress metric, achievability maintains motivation, relevance aligns goals with broader objectives, and time-bound deadlines add urgency and accountability.

4. Track your progress 

The journey towards your goals is a continuous process that benefits greatly from regular review and adjustment. By monitoring your progress, you can celebrate your successes, understand where you might be falling short, and make necessary adjustments. 

For instance, runners and cyclists use apps like Strava to track their training, which not only helps them stick to their training regimen but also improves their performance by providing detailed feedback on their progress.

5. Celebrate small wins 

Celebrating small wins is integral to achieving long-term goals as it involves breaking down larger objectives into manageable milestones and acknowledging achievements along the way. 

By maintaining a focus on these smaller victories, one can cultivate a positive mindset, sustain momentum, and enhance their commitment to the overarching goal. Moreover, celebrating small wins offers opportunities for learning and adaptation, allowing you to refine strategies based on what has contributed to the success.

Empower teams to attain their goals through a mentoring program

Setting clear, actionable goals gives you a clear roadmap to follow, ensuring you're always moving in the right direction, whether in your career or personal life. But achieving these goals doesn't have to be a solo journey. 

This is where mentoring software like Together can make a significant difference. 

Together facilitates meaningful connections with mentors who offer guidance, insights, and support tailored to your specific goals. It provides a structured environment for tracking progress, setting reminders, and reflecting on achievements, making the process of reaching your goals more interactive and engaging.

Whether you are just starting to set goals or are looking to refine your strategy, remember that success lies in clear planning and seeking the right support. A mentoring program can provide that extra layer of guidance and accountability needed to turn your goals into reality.

Together can help you launch a world-class mentoring program. Book a demo to see how.

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The Differences Between Long-Term and Short-Term Planning

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Sometimes, planning is easy – you know exactly where you want to go for lunch and your plan for the future is crystal clear.

But more often than not, planning is difficult — from lack of resources to lack of vision, from not knowing where and how to start to having difficulties with setting effective objectives. The future can be unpredictable and planning can be tricky.

Yet, it’s not impossible. In this article, we’ll go over what long-term and short-term planning mean, what is the difference, as well as how to successfully do both. Of course, with examples included.

What are long-term and short-term planning?

Let’s start by defining what long-term and short-term planning are.

What is short-term planning?

Short-term planning is usually considered to take 12 months or less. Your daily, weekly, monthly, even quarterly and yearly goals — all can be filed under “short-term goals.” They are stepping stones that will help you to reach your big goal(s).

That type of planning requires you to look at the current situation and fix potential issues as soon as possible. Sometimes “as soon as possible” takes a short period of time, sometimes 6 months, depending on the complexity of the issue.

Here are some examples of short-term goals, divided into five categories: career , education, personal development, finances, and marketing.

• Career goals : “Apply for a job”, “Make a website for your business.”
• Academic goals : “Take a new marketing course”, “Pass the AP Statistics exam.”
• Personal development goals : “Start going to bed before midnight”, “ Track your time for a month”, “Read 20 pages a day.”
• Financial goals : “Pay off the debt”, “Get a raise before the end of the year.”
• Marketing goals : “Increase brand awareness”, “Boost website traffic.”

💡 If you need help with setting short-term goals, these articles can come to the rescue: How to plan your day and stay organized & How to make productivity plan in five easy steps . For easier planning, check out Online planner templates too.

What is long-term planning?

Long-term planning involves goals that take a longer time to achieve and require more steps; they usually take a minimum of a year or two to complete. They aim to permanently resolve issues and reach and maintain success over a continued period.

We’ll discuss an exact strategy to set and complete long-term goals later in this article.

Before that, let’s go over a few examples of long-term goals:

• Career goals : “Build a profitable business”, “Turn your passion into a career.”
• Academic goals : “Get a Bachelor’s degree”, “Get a Master’s degree abroad.”
• Personal development goals : “Read more books”, “See the 7 wonders of the world.”
• Financial goals : “Save for retirement”, “Become a millionaire.”

What is medium-term planning?

That’s not all, folks: there’s also medium-term planning . It entails applying more permanent solutions to short-term problems and implementing policies and procedures to make sure that those short-term problems won’t happen again. If a piece of equipment breaks, a short-term solution would be to fix it, while a medium-term solution would be to invest in a service contract.

Another example of medium-term planning is investing in employees’ training programs rather than organizing a workshop from time to time (which is a short-term solution).

Key differences between long-term and short-term planning

The most obvious difference between long-term and short-term planning is the amount of time each one takes; while short-term planning involves processes that take 12 months or less, long-term planning is, as the name suggests, longer — there’s no upper limit to the longevity of a long-term plan.

There’s an anecdote that Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA, told a group of managers that it’s “important to think where we should be in 200 years.” (You don’t have to think that far ahead — a 5-year plan is completely fine.)

Another difference is their complexity: long-term planning is more elaborate, tactical, and involves more steps to success. As opposed to that, short-term planning is often quite straightforward. Short-term goals usually serve as milestones achieved in a short period of time that get you to your long-term goal.

In business, short-term goals are mostly focused on internal issues, such as customer complaints or inefficient management, while long-term goals cover both external and internal issues. When you’re planning long-term, you need to be aware of external factors, like global trends and changes, political situation, the ways current events may affect the economy, and so on.

The difference between long-term and strategic planning

Another frequently asked question is: Is strategic planning the same as long-term planning? If not, what’s the difference between the two?

Strategic planning consists of statements and goals that determine things such as:

• Where your company should be in the next couple of years and how to get there;
• How to respond to changes in the environment with success;
• What’s the anticipated financial performance;
• What’s the most effective business strategy.

Strategic plans are not actionable — that’s where long-term planning comes in.

Long-term planning determines concrete processes and actions needed to achieve strategic goals. It also focuses on setting priorities, aligning resources, forecasting, and handling unexpected changes.

In other words, strategic planning determines what and long-term planning determines how .

How to set long-term goals in 5 steps

As setting good long-term goals is the foundation of every other planning you’re going to do, it’s important to see how to get it right. That can often be hard and overwhelming, especially if you’re making plans for the distant future, e.g. 10 years in advance — which is why we made this step-by-step guide.

Step 1: Define your vision

Ask yourself: What is your (or your company’s) vision? What is your purpose? What are your core values? If you’re a company: what problem do you want to solve and how would the world look without that problem?

Ideally, where would you want to be 3, 5, and 10 years from now? What is, right now, stopping you from achieving that? What changes do you need to make? If (or better to say, when ) you manage to achieve your objectives, how different would things be, and in what way?

All these questions will help you clarify what do you want to achieve. The next step is – how to get there?

Step 2: Set SMART goals

If you’re sure in the direction you want to take, it’s time to set goals. Your objectives should be challenging, yet achievable, and most importantly, they should be SMART.

The examples I’ll provide to explain each letter of this acronym are mostly short-term goals as it’s easier to understand that way, but these criteria can (and should) be applied to any type of goal, whether short or long-term.

• Specific : Once I heard someone say that “goals should have their name and last name”, meaning they need to be as particular and well-defined as possible. “I want to find a job” is not a specific goal, while “I want to land a _____ position in ____ field, preferably in ____ type of company in ____ area” has a name, last name, even a middle name.
• Measurable : In order to know if you’re making progress, you need to be able to see where you stand and measure it. That’s why setting goals such as “increase brand awareness” is not very good – how do you know if you accomplished it or not? Instead, try something like “get 5K followers on Instagram and 1K likes on our Facebook page.”
• Attainable : As we mentioned above, the goals you set should be challenging, but possible to achieve. “Earn a million dollars in a week” is measurable and time-bound, but not realistic, at least not for most of us (that being said, if it’s realistic for you, go ahead and set that goal).
• Relevant : Relevant goal is a goal that fits your vision and has importance to you. If you want to be a lawyer, setting a goal of graduating from medical school doesn’t make a lot of sense for your career path.
• Time-bound : Give yourself a specific time frame to reach success and complete the goal; if it has multiple steps, impose a deadline for each milestone.

Step 3: Break down your goals into smaller ones

After you set your SMART goals, it’s time to break them down into smaller chunks, that will again be divided into series of actionable steps.

Big goals often consist of a few milestones that you need to reach; each one should become its own short-term or medium-term goal. Think of them as checkpoints in a race or levels in a game – you need to pass them all to get to the finish line and win.

Keep dividing it until your big goal becomes a weekly or daily to-do list. The more complicated the goal is, the more times you’ll have to break it down into smaller parts.

Let’s say you just got into university and your new goal is to get your Bachelor’s degree.

• First, you’ll divide it into 3 or 4 goals (depending on how many years it lasts): “finish 1st year”, “finish 2nd year”, and so on.
• To be able to do that, you need to pass your exams, and each of the exams will become its own goal.
• To pass each exam, you usually have to take quizzes, write papers, read a lot, make presentations, etc; again, each of those pre-requirements becomes a subgoal.
• Then you divide that into concrete steps: doing research, writing the first draft of your paper, editing it…

By making tiny steps like these, you’ll eventually and gradually accomplish your long-term goal.

Step 4: Prioritize

Go through your list of goals and put them in the order of their priority. That will facilitate making short-term goals and organizing your time, energy, and money in the right way. First focus on the goal(s) that will make the most difference and that align with your values the most.

Also, ask yourself: Are there some areas that need immediate assistance? Are any of those goals time-sensitive? What is the likely outcome of (not) making this a priority?

Step 5: Keep updating your list

Goals and priorities may change over time. You may develop new aspirations, or simply give up on a goal.

Because of that, it would be a good idea to occasionally go through your list, make sure it’s up to date and change something if needed.

Adjust your goals and reach them faster — with Clockify

Your goals are arguably one of the most important aspects of your life.

However, most people struggle to stick to a goal because they encounter various obstacles, such as a lack of motivation or fear of failure.

A time tracking system like Clockify dispels all the fear and infuses you with motivation. 

Well, suppose you’ve got a complex project on your hands. In that case, you can create milestones in Clockify to make your project more achievable — and less daunting. 

Here’s what your project timeline looks like, with dates, assignees, and projects:

To create a milestone, follow these steps:

• Click on the phase/date where you’d like to set your milestone,
• Add your milestone in the pop-up,
• Select that date and enter the name of your milestone,
• Click Create and see your milestone in action.

As soon as you reach your project milestone, you’ll feel a surge of motivation, making it more likely that you will continue working on your goals.

Suppose, at some point, you feel like you’ve overestimated yourself by assigning too short of a deadline for your goal. In that case, you can edit your milestone by clicking on it.

Here are the steps to make changes to your project milestone:

• Select the milestone in question,
• Edit dates, name, or delete the milestone,
• Click Save to complete the process.

Creating milestones regularly will help you keep up with your goal streak and achieve awesome things in your work life.

Even though you can track project duration in Clockify completely free of charge, take a look at other plans and pricing lists Clockify also has to offer:

Also, don’t miss to check out the newest bundle plan , offering Clockify with 2 more apps at a special price.

Whether it’s short-term wins or long-term visions, you can attain your goals faster with a piece of project tracking software.

Dunja is a content manager passionate about time management and self-improvement. After years of trying out all the productivity techniques she managed to come across, her goal became to share her knowledge and help others to become the best, most successful versions of themselves.

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7 Powerful Medium-Term Goals to Set for Your Business

The exact time frame of a medium-term goal varies. Since every business is different and is operating at different stages, medium-term goals can refer to any goal that one hopes to accomplish anywhere between several months but less than five years.

If you’re on your way to achieving all your short-term business goals and you’re still working on your long-term goals, setting medium-term goals is your next step. Here are a few you should consider.

1. Make It to the 5-Year Mark

They report that approximately 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open, 45% during the first five years , and 65% during the first 10 years.

It’s an important long-term business goal to be able to celebrate being in business for five years. It’s an accomplishment simply getting to this point, due to the many challenges new business owners face. Some reasons for new businesses failing include:

2. Diversify Revenue Streams

One way of doing this is by selling products in your salon that clients can purchase and take home. Make these products available online on your business’s website so that a client can repurchase them without setting an appointment or coming into your shop.

3. Launch New Products or Services

People who are interested in their health might want nutrition advice. Could your gym offer appointments with an on-site nutritionist as well? Think about new ways your business could help people, especially in ways that the competition hasn’t thought of yet. 

4. Reduce Costs

5. increase customer retention.

Bad feedback can help you improve your business. Customers are far more likely to tell their friends when they are unhappy with a business, than when they are happy with it. So, if a customer is unhappy, get to the cause. If you have an open mind, you might actually find an opportunity to improve something and increase customer retention.

6. Develop Strategic Partnerships

Who has the square footage to sell your product? Who already has the customer base willing to try something new? A strategic partnership with an office building – one already in your neighborhood – might be a perfect fit. Would they be willing to let you sell your products in front of their store? It never hurts to ask. This is just one example of a strategic partnership. 

7. Automate Much of Your Work

Not all work can or should be automated. Work that requires your complete attention, focus, and creativity will not be automated. You also cannot automate the decision-making and planning for the business. As the leader, those things are part of your responsibility.

Here are some examples:

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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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Top 10 Long-Term Planning Templates with Examples and Samples

Lakshya Khurana

A long-term business plan considers the company's objectives and market dynamics for a period of over five years or more. These goals represent a zeal and educated intent to grow the enterprise into the future while navigating an ever-changing business landscape.

The previous blog covered templates to help you implement short-term tactical plans that you construct from the objectives of the long-term plans. This blog covers the templates that will aid you with those. These readymade presentations will cover all aspects of a company’s ultimate goals, be it in sales, brand recognition, shareholder growth, investments, social media presence, etc.

Why Long-Term Planning?

There are several reasons that showcase why long-term plans are critical to business success:

• Alignment of purpose- It gives employees a sense of direction in their work to have a clear long-term goal that aligns with their short-term objectives.
• Resource Allocation- Using projections of resource use, assets can be delegated in an informed manner to prevent issues such as overspending, production delays, etc.
• Growth- Business expansion without a defined long-term plan is a pipe dream. With a plan, however, the business can recognize and capitalize on opportunities and create mutually beneficial partnerships that lead the company to scale up.
• Risk Management- With time to anticipate risks, the business can create contingency plans to mitigate them.

Other benefits, like talent development, financial management, regulatory compliance, etc., enable you to make your mark in the industry and remain a formidable presence.

You will need the tools to create and share such a plan, delegate responsibilities, and deliver progress reports. Our pre-made Long-Term Planning Templates will do this for you.

How Long-Term Planning Templates Can Help?

We at SlideTeam understand your business requirements, and using this know-how, we have created content-ready and 100% editable PowerPoint Presentations that do the work for you. A team effort by the company's workforce and even beyond is needed to execute your plans, and our slides are the perfect resource to generate and maintain this momentum.

Our PPT Designs give you a starting point, a structured framework, and the flexibility to later the slides to suit your needs. This means a lot of time and energy saved for you that can be put to better use.

Let us dive into our curated list of the 10 best Long-Term Planning Templates that offer you all you could ask for.

Template 1: Short, Medium, and Long-Term Planning PowerPoint Template Bundles

Plan your business strategy to achieve your short-to-long-term goals with this PPT Deck. Contained within these slides are templates to share and execute an action plan for objectives such as delivery of products, shareholder growth, tourism, change adaptation, integrated business planning, investment, and more. Most slides serve a particular industry but can be easily transformed for your needs. Some slides provide a general strategy for long-term planning that you can use as step one. Download this presentation from the link below.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Template 2: Short-Term and Long-Term Planning PowerPoint Presentation Slides

This template bundle delivers a visually diverse collection to lay out your short- and long-term goals for stakeholders. Showcase the timeline that defines the nature of the objectives. This also includes mid-term and SMART goals. There is ample space to detail the goals, including delegating roles and responsibilities, KPIs to track progress, etc. You can also showcase an overview of the business, including your mission and visions, as well as graphs and charts to deliver information. Download now.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Template 3: Long-Term Strategic Planning Slide Presentation Tips

Use this PowerPoint Slide to present your long-term plan with the added advantage of iterative continuous improvement. This six-step strategy includes proposing the goals and mission, examining internal and external issues, conducting a SWOT analysis, and formulating the strategy. Follow this loop to improve business operations and get closer and closer to your ultimate business goals. Download this template now.

GET IT HERE

Template 4: Long-Term Growth Planning Template PPT Slides

This diagram is a visual representation that connects your annual business operations plan with the long-term business plan. The planning loop consists of plans for supplies, short-term goals, annual budget, capital budget, and sales forecasting. Download this slide to integrate annual planning within your long-term plan and execute a strategy to achieve all objectives.

Template 5: Short-Term And Long-Term Planning PowerPoint Slide

This PPT Layout presents a planning model with different levels of government taken as an example. Break down the mayor’s vision (highest level in the local government) into local board plans for the given city. This can then be categorized for local board agreements, including a unity plan, place-based plans, core strategies, and finally, the long-term plan. Download this template to present a detailed overview of the implementation of ideas with a strategy that has been tackled from all directions.

Template 6: Career Path Planning Showing Long-Term and Personal Goals

Plan out your career with your long-term objectives supported by short-term goals. Begin by noting details like quick wins and short steps you’ve taken in the first 3-6 months, proceed by introspection on the previous year in the months 6-12, and add information on plans that would take more time to execute than 12 months. List your long-term and personal goals at the bottom of the layout for reference and motivation. Download this template now.

Template 7: Personal Financial Planning Sheet with Short and Long-Term Goals

Long-term financial planning is critical to the success of a business. Convert raw numbers into easy-to-follow information with tables that deliver it as short-term, intermediate, and long-term goals. Detail the priority of each objective and present the total cost supplemented by the monthly cost and the duration and target date. Download this template to make the fiscal objectives more accessible to understand and achieve.

Template 8: Five Years Roadmap with SWOT Analysis

A five-year plan is quite the perfect duration to set and achieve long-term goals. Detail your goals in marketing, product, business support, and finance. Use your data to conduct a SWOT analysis to crack the code for achieving these objectives. The side presents them in a timeline that acts as the audience's visual reference. Download now.

Template 9: Six Months Roadmap Process

This PPT Layout presents a six-month roadmap to achieve your long-term goals. Beginning with gathering facts, the tasks on the timeline are conducting a SWOT analysis, reviewing inputs, creating a strategic matrix, defining strategies, and finally conducting a review to adjust the plan. Under each step, the readymade slide presents the elements for each task. Download this template now to have the right tools for a six-month plan.

Template 10: Six Months Roadmap for Business Growth

Use this Gantt Chart Slide to deliver a six-month plan to achieve business growth. Detail the tasks along the monthly timeline for departments such as operation, product, engineering, and marketing. The color-coding feature of the chart helps the team understand their goals and keep tack of their work. Grab this template from the link below.

It’s Time to Plan

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”

— Benjamin Franklin, American Founding Father

This quote has never been more valid than for long-term business success. Fulfilling in business for years is too hard without a definitive strategy, and failure is inevitable. But do not forget that SlideTeam’s Long-Term Planning Templates will give you the helping hand you need and even do most of the work for you (it’s already done!).

Access these slides with a single click and streamline your long-term planning process. You can choose one of our subscription services: monthly, semi-annual, annual, annual+ with a click here .

P.S. The templates in this blog are not ranked in any particular order. Pick the one(s) you like and download it!

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Short, Medium and Long-Term Goals: Making Business Planning Effective

Good business planning can be what determines whether a business will be a success. Business owners develop plans to help guide them towards reaching their overall goals.

The most effective business plans tend to divide the planning process into three key phases to allow businesses to track immediate improvements while also monitoring and evaluating progress towards meeting long-term goals.

The different time frames within the planning process focus on time-sensitive aspects of the company’s structure. But while short-, medium- and long-term planning addresses different time frames, they should be closely aligned to enable you to effectively make plans that sync your immediate objectives with your ultimate vision.

Effective goal setting

Goal setting helps businesses assess employee and organization performance, assess resources, and provide effective management direction. Effective business goals typically follow the S.M.A.R.T. model . Goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, and timely. Companies need to know exactly what they want to achieve and how they will measure that achievement. The company, its management team, and its employees must create attainable targets that relate to the business . Companies must also set precise dates by which to achieve the set targets.

To help you achieve your goals, write down all your business and personal aspirations for the next decade, regardless of how impossible and far-fetched they may seem. At this stage, you don’t need to know how you will achieve them.

When you have your list, you can then start to refine some of the ideas. If you have a management team, then it’s a good idea to bring them in. There are different brainstorming and planning techniques , such as:

• Mind mapping : Write your end goal on a piece of paper and surrounding it with a bubble. You can then note down anything that comes to mind when you think about the original idea. This can take the form of pictures or words.
• List-making : Take one goal to focus on and create lists of what is required to achieve it. You can break it down into smaller goals and steps to make it easier.
• Brain dump : This technique is like mind mapping but not quite so structured. Write down everything that comes to mind.

Short-term goals

Short-term goals are generally those intended to be achieved within three to six months. However, this very much depends on what is planned. Short-term goals are typically geared towards a business’ short-term needs, whether that is launching a new product, getting more customer reviews , or improving cash flow. Whatever you choose for your short-term goals, they must serve your longer-term goals. For example, if you are planning a new product launch, this should be consistent with your overall brand and the product range you are gradually building. If your goal is to improve cash flow, your strategy should bring in additional revenues in ways that don’t distract from your overall mission. Whatever your short-term goals, they must be realistic.

Medium-term goals

Medium-term goals are designed to take anywhere between several months and five years to reach completion. It’s common for medium-term planning to be overlooked when it comes to discussing strategic objectives. However, it is important to clarify the shorter-term objectives with the depth of long-term planning. While short-term goals are based on immediate need and long-term goals are often so broad, it isn’t easy to create measurable milestones. Medium-term goals, however, are close enough for you to set a specific outcome while also being far enough away to be meaningful for your long-term vision.

Medium-term planning may include plans to enter a new market, launch a new product or open a new store. It gives you long enough of a period to see if you are achieving real results but short enough time for you to change direction should you need to.

Long-term goals

Long-term goals are those that will take several years to complete, usually between five and 10 years. This can prove difficult, but that doesn’t mean you can’t set such longer-term goals for your business; you’ll just have to be prepared to adjust your plan to take into account changing situations and markets. Even specific long-term goals are usually just concrete ways of expressing a larger vision.

You should always take long-term planning seriously but know that you will have to regularly adjust it over time as the medium-term unfolds. You can achieve your long-term goals by using your short-term and medium-term goals as steppingstones that will take you to the endpoint. When you break down your long-term objectives into smaller, more achievable steps, you are more likely to ensure your success.

Whatever aspirations you have for your business, effective short, medium, and long-term planning will be key to helping you achieve your business goals and taking your business in the right direction.

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More From Forbes

6 types of short-term financing.

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Xan Myburgh is the CEO + Founder of Backd Business Funding , a leading alternative financing solution.

The working capital of a business is its lifeblood. Used to fund day-to-day operations such as paying employees, ordering supplies and making loan payments. Find your working capital in the difference between your current liabilities and any current assets. With more working capital, your business can be more efficient and respond quickly to opportunities or challenges.

Increasing your short-term working capital can allow you to take advantage of opportunities like expanding your team, or it can help you overcome challenges like needing to replace a company vehicle. But how can you increase your working capital in time to meet your changing financial needs? What are your options for financing, and how do you know which is best for you?

What Are The Different Types Of Financing?

Businesses can secure financing through short-, medium- and long-term solutions. Typically, short-term financing has a repayment period of one to two years, medium-term solutions can be repaid over two to five years, and you would have 15 to 20 years to repay a long-term financing solution. Another key difference between long-term, medium-term and short-term finance solutions is how much money you can borrow. On average, longer-term options will have higher ceilings for how much money you can borrow compared to shorter-term options.

When Should I Use Short-Term Financing?

Short-term financing is often considered if you need funds quickly to capitalize on a fleeting opportunity or to cover unexpected costs. Still, each situation is unique, and knowing the pros and cons of short-term financing will help you make the right decision.

Advantages of Short-Term Financing

• Shorter application process.
• Easier to get approved.
• You get your money quicker.
• Improves your credit score.

Disadvantages of Short-Term Financing

• Higher interest rates at times.
• Stricter repayment policies.

What Are The Types Of Short-Term Financing?

When securing short-term working capital, you will usually be able to choose between six financing options. Your time frame and financial history will impact which solutions appeal to you.

Credit Cards

You’re likely familiar with credit cards from your personal life. They can help finance your business while building credit, too. Some cards will even offer rewards like cash back, which you can add to your working capital. When choosing a credit card for your business, try to find one with little to no annual fees and interest rates.

Trade Credit

What is the most common form of short-term financing? Trade credit. This type of short-term financing is built on the relationship between a business and its supplying firm. When businesses receive materials from their supplier, they usually do so on credit. Suppliers can incentivize expedient repayment with discounts.

Government Aid

Through the Department of Treasury, the U.S. government offers financial assistance to small businesses. If your financial situation calls for tax credits , emergency capital assistance or paycheck protection , it is worth seeing what programs you qualify for.

Credit Unions

If you prefer to do your banking locally, credit unions can be a viable option for securing financing. Credit unions are not-for-profit, so their accounts often come with fewer fees and loans have lower interest rates than when working with a commercial bank.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is a government agency that offers financing options for small businesses. When applying for financing through the SBA, you’re not working directly with the government. Instead, vetted lenders review your qualifications to see what solutions you are eligible for. SBA loans can also include a cap on the total amount of interest you’ll pay over the lifetime of the loan. Unfortunately, it typically takes a minimum of 30 days to get cash in hand from an SBA loan.

Businesses can also rely on commercial banks for financing, although their business loans tend to have a higher interest rate than credit unions. Working with a commercial bank can also leave you waiting weeks to receive capital. For certain needs, that can be too late.

Fortunately, there are alternatives to loans that still offer a lump sum of cash with typically less hassle. My company is one of them, as are other online business loan providers. These short-term working capital solutions can allow you to put your money to work in a matter of days.

Working Capital Solution

Whether seizing opportunities or overcoming challenges, businesses need working capital. Small- and medium-sized businesses can find both short-term and long-term finance solutions to be prepared for whatever comes their way.

Forbes Finance Council is an invitation-only organization for executives in successful accounting, financial planning and wealth management firms. Do I qualify?

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Supply Chain Line Manager - Structures

Job description.

About Safran Nacelles Ltd Safran Nacelles is a worldwide leader in aircraft engine nacelles. Our products and services equip all aircraft types; regional, business, short, medium and long range commercial aircraft. Our expertise covers nacelle design, manufacturing, integration, maintenance and services. We were voted the 28rd best worldwide employer in 2022 by Forbes. Our site in Burnley provides employment to almost 700 people and we are proud to be one of the largest private sector employer in Burnley. Our Four People Fundamentals underpin life at Safran, and our culture is built on the following principles; • Promoting diversity and inclusion • Developing skills and building opportunities • Creating a trustworthy work place • Promoting collaboration and mutual support Why not visit our website for more information on careers at Safran What will I be doing? - Manage the Planning and Control Process for the Assembly line/s - Develop the MPS for the Assembly line/s in compliance with the agreed production plan - Carry out RCCP, taking care to monitor all critical and bottleneck resources and propose mitigation plans - Implement action plans to reduce hazards and uncertainties in order to maintain the desired service level - Develop the inventory forecast for the short and middle term, estimate buffers on references, take accountability for stock reliability and inventory costs - Manage the master production schedule and the material requirements planning validation process - In cases of overload, adapt the master production schedule to the load/capacity balance, and suggest actions to improve flexibility with the production lines to absorb occasional overload - Lead the weekly MPS meeting: measure and analyse performance, analyse the impacts, reschedule if necessary - Establish detailed production schedules for the Assembly lines. - Ensure that schedules are produced as planned and are adjusted according to the risks - Coordinate the external supply, following the calculation of material requirements, and develop action plans to mitigate risks ( OTD, financial, …) - Take accountability for the coordination of critical parts with external/internal scheduling teams - Ensure the accuracy of the dynamic data within the Assembly ERP system - Interface with the Industrial Program Manager to manage short term changes to demand plans - Measure and analyse performance in coordination with the Assembly lines using the defined MRP2 metrics and provide the required weekly/monthly reports - Analyse the root cause of metrics not at target level (MPS, OTD, etc.) and work with the Assembly line management to develop the necessary action/recovery plans - Ensure the Assembly lines operate at a MRPII Class One Safran for planning and control - Contribute to lean and improvement projects: - Ensure configuration management (updated articles, classifications and Boms in ERP) and maintain the changes record sheet

Complementary Description

Exceptional Company Benefits - Competitive salary - 37 hour working week over 4.5 days with a 1pm finish on Friday - Flexi-time scheme that allows you to take two half days or one full day off per month - 33 days annual leave [inclusive of bank holidays] - Option to purchase an additional 5 days of annual leave - 10% employer pension contribution - 5% employee contribution with the option to increase this voluntarily through tax efficient salary exchange - 4 x life insurance benefit as a member of the pension scheme - Non-contributory BUPA private medical insurance plan - Group income protection scheme paying 50% of your salary in the event that you are too ill to work - Support for your continuous professional development and career development - Enhanced sickness, maternity, adoption and paternity leave - Excellent on-site catering facilities offering subsidised hot and cold breakfast and lunch - Option to purchase Safran shares with additional free shares from the Company - Corporate membership at Crow Wood Hotel & Spa to use the fitness suite, classes, pool and sauna, offering 54% discount as a gold member - Wellbeing support through our employee assistance programme offering mental health support through a confidential 24/7 helpline, access to remote GP appointments, medical second opinions and physiotherapy - Cycles to work scheme - Discounts on your high street purchases through our benefits platform

Job Requirements

Benefits (Continued) - Long Service awards providing you with a monetary award and additional annual leave - Relaxed dress code on Fridays - Support for flexible working - Safran referral scheme – refer someone for a job and you may qualify for a £1,000 reward - Hybrid working option - Electric car charging points on site - Enter a draw to win a Burnley Football Club hospitality match day experience - Line manager leadership conference every 6 months - Fully funded quarterly site team-building events What do you need from me? Participate to : - Rate Readiness and resources investment studies - Stock Takes, Audits & Assessments - In grab list analysis with detection of short and middle term risks - The Programme Operations meetings and other required UAP governance meetings MANDATORY EXPERTISE - Extensive Supply chain experience - A global and trans-functional vision of the UAP - Familiar with the site's organisation - Detailed vision of production processes and their company's supply chain - Proficiency in the MRP2 process - Knowledge of business economics - Good technical knowledge on the markets of SAFRAN Group products - Matrix management - Experience of leading and developing a team KNOW-HOW: Tools: - Familiar with the information systems used in the Supply Chain: i.e. ERP, - Supplier Portal - Familiar with desktop tools Communication: - Capable of communicating clearly and concisely - Able to escalate at the right time and at the right level - Capable of making decisions - A good team player - Able to negotiate well with internal / external contacts Analysis: - Capacity to analyse a complex problem, sum it up and find solutions - Capacity to analyse the information supplied by other departments - Ability to gauge the importance of drifts and to anticipate the consequences Attitude & Behaviour: - Concise - Communicative - Proactive - Autonomous - Thorough - Perseverant & resilient - Accountable

Specificity of the job

As required

Locate your future workplace

Bancroft Road, BB10 2RZ

England United Kingdom

08.23.2024 Supply chain

Customs Compliance Coordinator

Burnley, England

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Harris Plans to Ban Grocery ‘Price Gouging.’ What Does the Evidence Say?

Price increases when demand exceeds supply are textbook economics. The question is whether, and how much, the pandemic yielded an excess take.

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By Jim Tankersley and Jeanna Smialek

Reporting from Washington

Vice President Kamala Harris’s economic agenda for her presidential campaign features an argument that blames corporate price gouging for high grocery prices.

That message polls well with swing voters. It has been embraced by progressive groups , which regularly point to price gouging as a driver of rapid inflation, or at least something that contributes to rapid price increases. Those groups cheered the announcement late Wednesday that Ms. Harris would call for a federal ban on corporate price gouging on groceries in an economic policy speech on Friday.

But the economic argument over the issue is complicated.

Economists have cited a range of forces for pushing up prices in the recovery from the pandemic recession, including snarled supply chains, a sudden shift in consumer buying patterns , and the increased customer demand fueled by stimulus from the government and low rates from the Federal Reserve. Most economists say those forces are far more responsible than corporate behavior for the rise in prices in that period.

Biden administration economists have found that corporate behavior has played a role in pushing up grocery costs in recent years — but that other factors have played a much larger one.

The Harris campaign announcement on Wednesday cited meat industry consolidation as a driver of excessive grocery prices, but officials did not respond on Thursday to questions about the evidence Ms. Harris would cite or how her proposal would work.

There are examples of companies telling investors in recent years that they have been able to raise prices to increase profits. But even the term “price gouging” means different things to different people.

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