As a major business owner, you’re responsible for developing the business objectives that will help your organization achieve its long-term goals, whether you work for a small firm, a startup, or as a team lead at a larger corporation.
The greatest method for knowing where you’re headed and how to get there is to set goals and strategic objectives.
In this article, you’ll learn about 22 different types of business objectives and how to make them achievable. Then, take a look at the 15 different types of goals you can set, depending on why you’re setting those goals.
What is a Business Objective?
Business objectives are the results you are aiming to achieve in order to accomplish your longer-term company vision. Think of business objectives as metrics to measure your overall business success.
Hitting your business objectives means you’re on the path towards achieving larger company goals. As such, business objectives should focus on large-scale organizational impact. Good business objectives are measurable, specific, and time-bound.
Set business objectives based on factors that measure and impact your organization’s success. For example, you might set the following business objectives:
Financial business objectives
1. profitability:
A profitability-focused business objective is important if your company is relying on outside investors. Achieving and maintaining profitability ensures your long-term success so you can make progress towards your overall company mission.
2. Revenue:
To stay in business, revenue-focused business objectives assist you to balance your revenues with your costs. You could set company goals to meet a given annual revenue target or to raise revenue by a certain percentage over time.
3. Costs:
The amount of money you spend on your firm is referred to as costs. Cost-cutting can assist you in increasing sales and achieving profitability. Cost-related business objectives can help you control production and operational costs and improve your company’s financial performance.
4. Cash flow:
The money flowing into and out of your business is referred to as cash flow. When you make more money than you spend, your cash flow is positive.
When you spend more money than you make, your cash flow is negative. A cash flow-oriented business goal, like profitability, can help you set yourself up for long-term financial success.
5. Sustainable growth
In order to grow as a business, you need to grow sustainably. Setting business objectives around sustainable growth can help you plan your financial projections, employee costs, and other financial considerations.
Customer-centric business objectives
6. Competitive positioning
Consider how your product or service compares against others in the same market as part of your business plan.
You can ensure that your product or service meets market expectations by defining a business goal based on competitive positioning, or you can utilize competitive positioning to outperform your competitors in a crucial area by setting a business goal focused on competitive positioning.
7. Market share:
This business goal refers to the percentage of the market that your company’s product or service captures. The more your market share, the greater your company’s reach. Setting this type of business goal is beneficial if you’re aiming to expand your market presence.
Social media activities, concerted advertising campaigns, and brand tracking and performance are all options.
8. Customer satisfaction:
You need satisfied consumers to succeed as a business. You can better serve your clients by focusing on a customer satisfaction-based business goal.
This might be a customer advocacy campaign, a better support desk, or something else customer-facing, depending on the business purpose.
9. Brand awareness
Your company’s brand is what sets it apart from the competition. Brand awareness is a crucial metric for determining how your clients perceive your brand and how well they recognize it in comparison to your competitors. Brand recognition is an important aspect of your long-term marketing strategy to understand and increase.
10. Sales:
You’ll often find business objectives related to improving or refining the sales cycle. This could include anything from reducing customer acquisition cost (CAC), developing better lead tracking, increasing cross-selling, or something else.
11. Churn:
In business, your churn rate refers to how many customers you lose over a set period of time. Reducing churn is a great way to increase your revenue and ensure your customers are satisfied with the product or service you provide.
Internal business objectives
12. Employee satisfaction and engagement:
Part of your business is how your employees feel about working there, too. Increasing employee satisfaction and engagement leads to happier employees, reduced burnout, and more effective teams.
13. Employee retention:
A key internal business objective is how long your employees spend at your company. Increasing tenure and reducing turnover can help you achieve more complex projects with knowledgeable employees.
14. Company growth:
In order to grow your business, you also need to increase the number of people you employ. Growing your company sustainably can be difficult, which is why businesses often set company growth as a key business objective.
15. Organizational culture:
Organizational culture is the ideals, values, and group norms that shape how team members interact within your company. Good culture drives employee engagement and increases retention, which is one of the key reasons so many companies set organizational culture-focused business objectives.
16. Change management
Smoothly implement large-scale organizational change with change management. Though you typically won’t see organizations set this type of business objective year after year, it can be a helpful objective to set if you have large changes on the horizon.
17. Productivity
At Asana, we don’t think of productivity as “doing the most you can,” but rather as a way to optimize your time and get your best work done. Increasing employee productivity can help your teams achieve their high-impact work more efficiently.
18. Employee effectiveness:
Teams must not just be efficient, but they must also know what projects to work on. The most successful businesses strive for efficiency and effectiveness, which is where an effectiveness-based business goal comes in. Read our post on the difference between efficiency and effectiveness to learn more.
19. Diversity and inclusion:
A big part of welcoming company culture is making sure your employees feel like they belong. Investing in diversity and inclusion programs can help your business be more welcoming to your current and potential employees.
Regulation related business objectives
20. Quality control:
Implementing quality control measures as a business objective can help you ensure your product or services are at the level you want them to be. This in turn leads to better customer relationships and an overall increase in revenue.
21. Compliance:
If your business has any compliance needs to meet in the near future, setting those compliance requirements as a business objective will ensure you hit your targets on time.
22. Sustainability or waste reduction:
Some businesses set business objectives to reduce waste or increase sustainability. While this may not directly impact your business, proving that you’re environmentally-minded can help you reach the specific audiences you’re targeting.
Which goal framework is right for you?
Figuring out exactly what type of goal you need to set can be tricky. Each goal framework is slightly different—and implementing the right one can help you achieve success.
The type of goal you set will be determined by your business operations and unique objectives. You may choose to use short-term targets if your goals have a specific time limit, but larger goals have their own frameworks.
If you’re not sure where to start, check out these 15 goal frameworks for different situations:
- Business objectives: Set goals based on operating factors that impact your company’s long-term success.
- A business plan: also called a business strategy plan. Document your business goals and plan out how you’ll get there.
- Vision statement: Set an organization-wide North Star
- Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs): Set organization-sized stretch goals.
- Company values: Align your team around core principles.
- Strategic plan: Clarify your three to five-year company goals during the strategic planning process.
- Strategic goal: Set the goals you want to achieve by the end of your strategic plan.
- Critical success factors: Clarify the high-level goals you need to achieve in order to achieve your strategic goals.
- Strategic management: Execute your strategic plan in order to achieve your company’s goals.
- Business goals: Set predetermined targets to achieve in a set period of time.
- Objectives and key results (OKRs): Set and communicate annual company goals.
- Key performance indicators (KPIs): Set quantitative goals.
- Project objectives: Share what you want to achieve by the end of a project.
- Project deliverables: Identify a project’s output.
- Project milestones: Mark specific checkpoints along a project’s timeline.
More goal setting resources
To keep your business running well, you must have clear goals. Check out our goal-setting resource site for suggestions on defining goals and attaining high-impact results in addition to corporate objectives.
Then, when you’re ready, start monitoring your goals with Asana. You can link your company’s goals to the work that supports them all in one location using Asana.
Related:
Well-Written Business Strategy (Importance, Advantages, Examples)
8 Ways to Stay Committed to Your Goals
Secrets to Being Proactive and Achieving Your Goals