Building Personal Goals and Smart Objectives Into Your Business Plan

One of the key purposes of your business plan is to set out your overall vision and ambitions for the company – what it is you are ultimately trying to achieve.

In order to do this, it helps to set out a number of realistic milestones for your enterprise, measured by the achievement of certain business objectives that move you closer to your ultimate aim.

### Personal goals

What do you ultimately hope to gain from the success of your business? It might be that you are looking to build up a company you can sell on for a large return. Perhaps you want to grow a family business that can be handed down. Maybe you see the enterprise as a first step to building a larger business empire. Or you might simply want security for the future. Whatever your ultimate goal is, you can articulate it in a personal mission statement. This helps you to remember the reason you started the enterprise in the first place, and it also provides a vital context for your specific business objectives and milestones.

Regardless of how well prepared and viable your plan is, the business environment is volatile and it’s inevitable you’ll have to make decisions that depart from the strategy you originally set out. But while it’s important to be flexible, it’s essential that you keep your end goal in mind with every big decision you make, or your business will go off track. Your personal mission statement for the company can help you stay focused on the long term while doing what’s necessary for the short term.

### SMART objectives

The business objectives in your plan should focus on the value and growth of your company in terms of turnover and profits. A common and effective way to make these objectives clear and viable is to use the SMART goals principle. Using SMART as an acronym, this means your objectives should be:

* Specific (regarding the tasks and activities required);
* Measurable (in terms of what you hope to achieve);
* Attainable (i.e. within the capabilities of your business);
* Realistic (rather than over-optimistic);
* Timed (achievable within a specific timeframe).

Specify who will be doing what, where, when and why. You need solid criteria with which to measure achievements. You need evidence to show why your goal is both attainable and realistic – remembering that it’s OK to aim high as long as you can build a convincing case for achieving your goal. Aim too low and the objective won’t represent significant progress. A goal is only attainable and realistic if you are ready, willing and able to achieve it.

Deciding on a timeframe for achieving the objective is a balancing act – you have to stay within the bounds of attainability and realism, but if you allow too much time then you will lack the necessary motivation to complete what needs to be done. Don’t put yourself under so much pressure that corners are cut, but build in enough urgency to keep your focused on the task at hand.