Short or long-term goals? What works for a startup?

No matter how big or small a company is, achieving goals are vital to making profit. Sometimes, even the seemingly every-day tasks are vital in pursuit of the goals.

Experts say breaking down goals, crystalising them and dividing them into short, medium, and long-term would help prioritizing them. Short terms usually lead you to medium and long-term. 

“SMART” formula

Specific, measurable, achievable, and timely goals sharpen the focus. Add picture and colour, it becomes even real. 

With all these ideas, how do we set business goals? 

• First of, determine the goals: A startup may have to choose between attracting traffic to its website and doing real sales. Also, they should determine whether traffic and audience building is actually part of the prospecting and how long it would take to convert the audience into customers. 

• Action plans are important in ensuring steps the business should take to achieve the goals. While it’s easier to set goals, action is key to achieve them. Make a spreadsheet of the plan, track the progress, and make sure the result of actions are tracked. Evaluate the progress and finetune the action to ensure the pursuit towards the goal is not compromised. 

• Whether short or long-term, ensure you use the SMART formula. 

• Both short and long-term goals are important and reciprocal. Startups will do well not to compromise one or the other because both short and long-term gorals are important to get to your eventual destination.