How to define long-term business goals

Needless to say, defining your future plans is never easy. If you don’t know the answer to the famous “where do you see yourself in (insert number) years”, there’s a chance you’ll like our little talk today. However, this one will be more focused on defining the “where do you see your business in (insert number) years” issue. In other words: here at MoversTech CRM, we’ll show you how to define long-term business goals. Without further ado, here’s how you’ll make life easier for yourself and your company!

What are long-term goals?

If you find the main term of today’s article a bit confusing, here’s some useful info. In the simplest of words, a long-term goal is something you want to achieve in the future. Setting up long-term goals will put your work in perspective. Not only that, but it will change the way you see the work you do today; you’ll know what you’re striving for. Many business experts agree that setting up long-term business goals is an essential ingredient of a successful career in today’s market conditions. However, all of this doesn’t necessarily mean setting up and tracking these goals is something that’s easy; the process will require some time and careful planning.

Also, you might wonder: just how long are long-term business goals? Well, it depends on the type of work that your business does. Still, there’s something of a standard. For instance, successful entrepreneurs say that a 3-year plan is something that helped them succeed in the first place. Okay, so now that we’ve cleared that one up, it might be time to see just what can a person do to define their long-term business goals!

The main three components of long-term goals

Before we delve deeper into the main subject, let’s take a look at the so-called three components long-term goals possess:

• Duration (not to be confused with a deadline).
• The ability to dictate choices. 
• Memorability. 

In other words: long-term goals shouldn’t possess a specific deadline, they should dictate the business choices you make, and they should be pretty easy to remember. Let’s consider the first component.

Duration

So, what do we mean when we say duration isn’t a deadline? As an example, imagine you’ve set a long-term goal to dominate your field. It’s not like you’ll set a goal to dominate the field by New Year’s Eve three years from now. The duration of the long-term goals needs to be more of an estimate than a deadline. 

The ability to dictate choices

These long-term plans will, without any doubt, dictate your company’s behavior and strategy. To phrase it differently: they’ll have a great (and hopefully – positive) effect on your employee’s decision-making process. Needless to say, before team leaders make a decision, they’ll need to align it with the company’s plans by simply keeping in mind the desired long-term goals. That’s also the reason why long-term goals shouldn’t be something you’d call too specific. They need to be able to affect each segment of your company.

Memorability

Here’s why your long-term goals will have to be easy to remember: if your employees have to check your long-term goals when making this or that decision, they most probably – won’t. Make sure that everyone on the team (your company) understands the long-term goals you’ve set by making them pretty memorable.

How to write long-term business goals?

Here we’ll show you how to write long-term business goals!

Think about the duration

You’ll want to inquire about your industry’s history and see how certain companies handled long-term goals. In other words: you’ll wanna find out how long did it take them to do something and why. Pay attention to both strengths and weaknesses, as well as certain mistakes they might’ve made during their careers in business. Lastly, contrast these characteristics with your firm’s and reach something of an estimation for the completion of your long-term goals.

Be better than just “the best”

Sounds quite simple, right? Anyway, you’ll wanna steer clear of being “the best” or “the most innovative”. Those are just silly constructions that mostly don’t mean anything. You’ll need to be more specific. You’ll want to define your ideal customer rather than focus on being “innovative”. Also, you’ll want to utilize every bit of arsenal you’ve got on your hands and make that an integral part of your plan. For instance, if you’re leading a business in the moving industry, you might want to use some moving leads software. That way, you’ll definitely ensure yourself some presence in the industry, and you’ll agree that’s something you’d call crucial.

Be simple

In other words: even a 5-year-old should be able to understand your long-term business goals. If a child’s not able to understand them, how come you count on older folks remembering them? The language of your long-term business goals should be simplified and without any jargon. Also, stick to the 3 goals or less rule. Clarity equals success!

Track your goals

By defining your long-term goals, you’ll get things into perspective by making an endpoint. Your strategy will look like a roadmap to success. Anyway, it goes without mentioning that you’ll have to track your progress regularly. If you’re coming from the moving industry, you’ll track your progress without much hassle by thinking about CRM with email automation for movers. This kind of software will provide you with some solid feedback and regular reports that include the freshest info, just so you can rest assured knowing that you’re on the right path.

The bottom line

That’s about it on the whole how-to-define-long-term-business-goals topic and similar info! Now you’re equipped with all the necessary knowledge to make a detailed plan of how your company will function in the (nearest) future. It won’t be easy, that’s for sure, but it’s not like you’ll lose anything by trying to put things into perspective!