Common Time Ranges for Different Business Goals
Companies set large overarching goals to achieve in two to five years. To attain long-term goals, set goals with shorter time frames that work toward the long-term objective. Depending on the type of goal, some experts might refer to it as a strategy or an objective. However, there is a difference between a goal, an objective, and a strategy.
| Goal | Common Time Horizon | Experts Also Call … |
Long-Term Goals
| 2 years or greater; usually not more than 5 years | |
| Mid-Term Goals | 6 months to 2 years
| Strategies |
| Short-Term Goals | 1 to 6 months | Objectives or (if very short term) tactics |
Examples of Long-Term Business Goals
Long-term goals focus on the big-picture vision for the future of the organization, generally covering two years or longer. They typically don’t cover more than five years, since the business and technology environment can change drastically after that time frame.
Long-term goals are more aspirational and might not have the specificity of short-term and mid-term goals. “These goals ought to be aligned with the overall vision of the company,” says Izzy Galicia, President and CEO of global professional services firm the Incito Consulting Group and an expert in Lean enterprise transformation.
The long-term goals also must be realistic. “We know from the literature and practical experience that you want goals that are challenging, but they're also achievable. You don't want to have a goal that people don't buy into at all, or it's just so outrageous that you can't possibly achieve it,” explains Lee Frederiksen, managing partner of Virginia-based Hinge Marketing and former Director for Strategy and Organizational Development at Ernst & Young.
Here are four examples of long-term business goals:
- Increase Sales: A common long-term goal is to increase sales significantly. A company might establish a long-term goal of increasing total sales by 40 percent in three years.
- Become Niche Leader: Another company might have its sights on becoming dominant in its industry. It would set a long-term goal of becoming the leader in its market niche in four years.
- Expand Company Locations: Adding storefronts over the next few years is also a common long-term goal. A company with that aim would set a long-term goal of expanding its one restaurant location to four locations in four years.
- Create and Develop a Non-Profit Entity: An organization or group of people can also establish a long-term goal of establishing a successful nonprofit organization focused on environmental conservation.
Examples of Mid-Term Business Goals
Mid-term goals help an organization meet a long-term goal. They can take an organization six months to two years or so to reach.
Here are examples of mid-term goals that will help a company reach a specific long-term goal:
A company’s long-term goal is to open three more restaurants in the next four years. These examples are some of the mid-term goals they would need to achieve first:
- Systematize Standard Operating Procedures for Running the Restaurant: The mid-term goal would be to document and systematize its standard operating procedures to efficiently operate its original restaurant within a year.
- Develop a Hiring Process That Attracts Talented Employees: The company sets a goal of developing and implementing a hiring process to attract committed employees in the next 14 months.
- Research and Evaluate the Best Locations to Open the New Restaurants: The company would set a goal of continually scouting and evaluating possible locations for new restaurants over the next two years.
A group of people have the goal of creating a successful nonprofit organization in five years. Here are some examples of mid-term goals they would set and meet first:
- Establish Partnerships with Local Environmental Organizations: The group of people would like to start a nonprofit focused on environmental conservation. A mid-term goal would be to develop and establish partnerships with key local environmental organizations within the next two years.
- Develop and Implement a Solid Fundraising Strategy: The nonprofit needs funding to be successful. The organization would set a mid-term goal of developing an effective fundraising strategy within the next 18 months.
- Build a Dedicated Team of Volunteers: To help it reach its long-term goal of establishing a successful nonprofit focused on environmental conservation, the organization would set a goal of building a system to attract and retain volunteers for the organization within the next year.
Examples of Short-Term Business Goals
Short-term business goals encompass work that helps an organization reach its mid-term goals. These goals are often meant to be reached in a month or a quarter. Some might take six months or so to accomplish. Only one department — or even only one worker — might work on some short-term goals.
Some experts call short-term goals objectives. They might call the shortest short-term goals tactics. (Learn more about the differences between business goals vs. business objectives and strategies vs. tactics.)
“If one of my goals is to develop a content strategy — so that more people are aware of my company — I can't jump into Year Three and say, ‘I have a content strategy,’” shares Keith Speers, CEO of Consulting Without Limits, which provides business consulting, leadership coaching, fractional leadership, and other consulting services. “Part of that one- to three-year plan is developing my audience, curating them, creating content, and establishing myself as someone who's a thought leader in a specific field. All of that requires establishing short-term goals or objectives.”
The short-term goals or objectives are “more about the measurable steps or actions to take in order to reach that (mid- or long-term) goal,” states Marco Scanu, a business coach and CEO of Miami-based Visa Business Plans, a consulting firm providing attorneys and investors with business planning services.
Here are examples of short-term goals to build toward achieving the mid-term goals associated with expanding a company’s restaurant count from one to four:
- Assemble a Team to Develop a Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Document for Current and Future Locations: To help reach the goal of systematizing its SOP for running its original restaurant, the company would set a short-term goal of developing a SOP document for the company’s original and future locations by the end of the next quarter.
- Work With an HR Consultant to Attract and Retain Qualified Staff: To reach the mid-term goal of developing a hiring process that attracts talented workers who will stay with the company, the business would set a goal of hiring and working with a human resources consultant to find ways to attract and retain employees within the next month.
- Create an Internal Team to Improve Compensation and Increase Retention: To reach the goal of developing a prosperous hiring process, the company would set a short-term goal of forming an internal team to assess ways to improve employee compensation and retention within the next two months.
- Research Demographic/Economic Trends in the Metro Area: To achieve the goal of researching and evaluating the best locations for new restaurants, the company would set a short-term goal of researching demographic and economic trends within neighborhoods where they want to add new restaurants.
- Work With a Real Estate Agency to Find Potential Buildings: To complete the mid-term goal of researching and evaluating the best locations for new restaurants, the company would set a goal of hiring and working with a real estate agency within the next two weeks. The real estate agent would continually search for good locations for possible new restaurants.
Here are examples of short-term goals necessary for a group of people to create a successful environmental conservation nonprofit:
- Research and Identify Potential Partner Organizations and Establish Connections: To reach the mid-term goal of establishing partnerships with local environmental organizations, the founding group would set a goal of identifying specific organizations that might be good partners and connecting with their representatives in the next six weeks.
- Research Grant Applications, Methods for Individual Donations, and Fundraising Events: To reach the goal of developing a solid fundraising strategy, the organization would set a short-term goal of researching the elements of a fundraising plan that includes grant applications, individual donations, and fundraising events.
- Identify and Collect Contact Details of Potential Volunteers: To build a dedicated team of volunteers, the organization would set a goal of meeting and collecting contact details of potential volunteers over the next four months.
Examples of Short- and Mid-Term Business Goals Contributing to Long-Term Goals
These examples break down how to strategically set short- and mid-term goals to achieve a company’s long-term more visionary goals. “I think of short-term and mid-term goals as stepping stones to your long-term goals, things you have to accomplish to be able to get to the next goal,” Frederiksen explains.
- Long-Term Goal: Increase sales by 40 percent in three years.
- Mid-Term Goal: Implement a new content/marketing strategy to increase awareness of a product or service.
- Short-Term Goal: Use customer relationship management (CRM) software to gather better information about potential and existing customers.
- Short-Term Goal: Increase production of website content.
- Short-Term Goal: Create and implement a new Google ad strategy.
- Mid-Term Goal: Improve the quality of its product or service.
- Short-Term Goal: Establish an engineering and product team to tweak product features.
- Mid-Term Goal: Build the sales team.
- Short-Term Goal: Hire a new vice president of sales.
- Short-Term Goal: Add three new members to the overseas sales team.
- Mid-Term Goal: Implement a new content/marketing strategy to increase awareness of a product or service.
- Long-Term Goal: Become a market leader in its niche in four years.
- Mid-Term Goal: Redesign the company website and brand.
- Short-Term Goal: Hire a rebranding consultant.
- Short-Term Goal: Hire a contractor to lead the website redesign.
- Mid-Term Goal: Increase public visibility of the company’s new CEO.
- Short-Term Goal: Find more opportunities for the new CEO to speak at industry events.
- Mid-Term Goal: Increasing the number and size of the company’s sponsorship deals.
- Short-Term Goal: Become a key sponsor of an annual industry conference.
- Short-Term Goal: Empower the marketing vice president to pursue other sponsorship opportunities.
- Mid-Term Goal: Redesign the company website and brand.
Business Goal-Setting Frameworks
When setting goals, it helps to use an established framework. Experts point out that, in setting business goals, people most often use one of five goal frameworks. Those frameworks are SMART, management by objectives (MBO), objectives and key results (OKR), key results areas (KRA), or big hairy audacious goals (BHAG). Here are details on each of these business goal-setting frameworks and which goal length they work best for:
Which Business Goal-Setting Framework to Use
Goal-Setting Framework | Details/Characteristics | Best for Which Goal Length |
| SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) |
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| MBOs (Management by Objectives) |
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| OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) |
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| KRAs (Key Results Areas) |
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| BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) |
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Learn more about goal-setting frameworks and use goal-setting and goal-tracking templates to get started working on your goals.
Business Goals Worksheet Template for Excel
Download the Business Goals Worksheet Template for Excel
Use this free template to guide your team in setting long-, mid-, and short-term business goals. Identify long-term goals, and then the mid-term and short-term goals that serve them. You have room to add any tasks and actions that must be completed to reach those goals. The downloadable worksheet is fully customizable.