As the end of the year approaches, it is a good time to establish goals for the upcoming year. Goal setting is an integral part of business planning. Generally, the Strategic Goals establish the foundation for the Tactical Goals. Strategic goals are the big goals, such as the percent of net profit (or total revenue) you want your business to generate, the addition of a new store, and/or the development of a new product/service line.

Tactical goals would be items such as, decreasing food-container costs by 5 percent, increasing same store sales by 5 percent or managing debt so that it doesn’t exceed 25 percent of assets. Finally, create the organizational goals from the tactical goals. Organizational goals are usually less complex to implement, such as hiring and training new employees, developing advertising campaigns, or pay all invoices within 25 days.

Once the goals are established you can create a plan for achieving them. It is best to start with Strategic goals and work your way down to Tactical then Operational goals. While you can work backwards it is probably more work to do so.

Once you have the plan for how you are going to achieve your goals, establish a time line for completing them. Determine who is going to be responsible for working the plan to achieve the goals. You’ll probably have multiple goals, so spend some time on which goal is most important or which one takes the longest to complete. Once you optimize your goals you are ready to take action.

One of the things that I do to stay focused on my goals is to keep my action plan next to my computer. I look at my plan at least once a week. My to-do list is created based on what I have predetermined are steps that need to be taken to reach my goals.

You should establish your goals and use that information to create your budget for the next 12 to 24 months. My next post will address how to create a simple budget.

Best wishes for a prosperous 2010!