Strategic Planning: Creating S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Setting short-term and long-term business goals is a key component of strategic planning. For long-term success, your goals should be “S.M.A.R.T.”: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Floro Business Strategies breaks down these elements and how they relate to strategic planning:

Specific

When planning for the future, your goals should be specific. You will not be successful if you do not have clarity on what specifically you wish to achieve. Specifics provide direction.

When crafting specific goals, you must consider the who, what, when, where, and how. Simply deciding you want to “increase revenue” is not enough to drive results. Do you want to “increase revenue” or do you want to “increase monthly revenue by 10% by hiring 3 new sales representatives and reviewing and updating your existing model”?

Measurable

Not everything always works out as planned! Strategic planning often requires professionals to track their progress and sometimes go back to the drawing board and make adjustments for improved results. Therefore, your goals must be measurable to determine what is and isn’t working.

Goals that are measurable use metrics (KPIs) that track data to determine the success of a campaign. Some KPIs include client retention rates, profit margins, lead generation, etc. An increase or decrease in these numbers is very telling!

Achievable

When you’re passionate about furthering the success of your company, you often have big dreams for the future. When setting goals, shoot for the stars — but be realistic! 

Your goals should be attainable. When you set goals, you must be able to achieve them with the people, budget, and resources you have. If you set goals for yourself and your team that are just beyond reach, you are setting yourself up for failure. When setting goals, know your limits and identify what you can reasonably accomplish.

Relevant

In strategic planning, there are short-term and long-term goals. These goals all contribute to the bigger picture and should allow you to bring the organization’s vision to life. Therefore, it’s important to ask yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing.

When setting goals, ask yourself if/how these smaller goals will contribute to the bigger picture. Why is this goal important to your vision? Goals must be relevant!

Time-Bound

You probably have a 5, 10, or 15-year vision for your organization — and your specific, measurable, achievable, relevant goals are just stepping stones toward that future. To see your vision come to life on a macro-level, you must also develop timelines for all your micro-level action items.

Developing a timeline for short-term and long-term goals is important for tracking progress. For day-to-day tasks, designate timelines for planning, gathering resources, implementation, and finally, development. When should each task be completed in order to move forward?

Interested in starting the strategic planning process but not sure where to begin? The professionals at Floro Business Strategies can help you gain clarity, set S.M.A.R.T. goals, and delegate action items for organizational success. Contact us today!

Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn.