Objectives

A business' aims show what the business is trying to achieve in the long term. Objectives are used to highlight how those aims are going to be achieved. Often these objectives will be measurable. This allows the business to decide whether they have completed the objective or not. Objectives can take the form of targets and challenges for the business to achieve, for example:

• Selling more products or providing more services than a competitor.
• Selling more products or providing more services than in the previous year.
• Producing new goods or providing a new service.
• Improving an existing product or service.

Sometimes a business will use SMART objectives. A SMART objective has to comply with the following points:

• Specific - you should be able to tell when an objective has been reached by making it as clearly defined as possible.
• Measurable - you should be able to measure whether the objective has been achieved or not.
• Attainable - the target must be possible to achieve.
• Relevant - it should form part of the business’ overall aim.
• Time-related - the objective should be achieved in a specified time period.