Entrepreneurship – Essence of Business Milestones
Published March 30, 2012 | 
It’s never really been about just doing the best we can, but doing what is necessary to show successes along the road to reach the final successful achievement.
Focusing on the essence of milestones for your business, write down the objectives that must be achieved before you can consider having reached your goal, and these very objectives are the essence of your milestones. An example may be, if you want your unique gift store to reach the goal of a monthly profit of $20,000, milestones would be making monthly profits of $5,000, then $10,000, then $15,500, then $18,000. Also, if you want your floor janitorial company to make the make the switch to being 100-percent green-friendly, the milestones may include finding a couple of affordable suppliers of green cleaning products, and then developing your own commercial cleaning solutions.
Going further, you should organize the goals and milestones in sequential or chronological order including short-term, medium-term and long-term. Understand that a well-organized list allows for much easier change, adjustment and revisions as needed. But, try not to revise your milestones and goals unless your business significantly changes and you have to take action and make the changes.
So, assume that your business experiences a loss of 10-percent in profits after the second quarter of the current year. That is the time to make the adjustments and revisions to include new goals and milestones relating to the action of gaining new customer accounts or lowering operating costs or both, rather than continuing with the original milestones on your initial list. 
You should consider that reaching your old goals and milestones may not be possible until your business recovers a bit after you taken the necessary actions.
You should make it a practice to refer to your list of milestones at least every six months to ensure that you are on track, but most entrepreneurs that are dialed in to the “Lean Business Planning” process will check progress weekly, monthly and quarterly. As you reach each milestone, cross them off or highlight them, or signify in some clear way that you have completed an important step toward accomplishment of your goals.
Finally, a list that is either laminated or placed in some sort of document protector and posted in a prominent location in your office can serve as a daily source of motivation for your entire team, the simple effect on everyone can be priceless.
Entrepreneurship – Goal Measurable
Published March 23, 2012 | The greatest goal ever created and developed in the history of man, without a plan, is still just a wish.
Goal Measurable means that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. In the broadest sense, make sure the whole complete goal statement is a measure for the project or tasks. And, if the goal is reached or accomplished, the success is recognizable. However, you should realize and understand that there are generally several smaller short-term measurements that can be added as part of the overall goal, and these are most often referred to as objectives.
Your goal should have measurable progress markers or objectives, so you can have proof and see that progress is being made. To know exactly when you reach your goal, be very specific. We need to complete the initial development of the website by this date, establishes for everyone the specific target date to be the marker or objective. We want to be developing the website is not measurable for all to see and know the results.
Understand that you need to establish and set distinct tangible criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you ever set for your business. So when you measure your progress, you know when you stay on track, reach your set target dates, and are then able to experience the exhilaration of achievement, which in and of itself, serves to greatly spur you and your team on to maintain the continued level of effort required to reach your goals.
You should start by creating short-term goals (i.e. 3 month goals etc.) with several measurable posts or markers along the way. It is important to write a plan of action and processes by listing three separate approaches or optional paths to help you reach your goal. Make note to be certain the approaches/paths are actionable with no hint of vagueness in the description.
You should gauge or measure to assess your progress and momentum toward your goal every week. This should include recording any additional business metrics to determine how well you are progressing with your different approaches. And, if at any time you determine the approaches are working to the level they need to in order to reach your established goals, you can dynamically change and adjust them until you find the optimal path for you.
Setting the Goals and Objectives of Your Business Plan
Published May 5, 2010 | 
Objectives clarify what it is you are trying to accomplish in specific, measurable goals, and for an objective to be effective, it needs to be a well-defined target with quantifiable elements that are measurable, whereas your vision statement is expansive and idealistic, and the mission short, powerful, and memorable, your objectives are designed to focus your resources on achieving very specific and certain results, and the purpose of well defined objectives is to cause meaningful action.
You must realize that most objectives can be broken down into general headings including financial, marketing and sales, operations, human resources, research and development, manufacturing, and personal.
Now in order to create a solid objective you must clearly describe the activity required, such as the introduction of new products, along with what will happen and when, such as a book, by 6/30, and a CD ROM by 8/15. You must then take the facts and put them into complete objectives, such as introduce a book by June 30th and a CD-ROM by August 15th.
Now you must think back to the vision statement once again, and remember, your vision statement looked five years into the future toward a specific destination in time that you want to arrive at, and think about the activities you need to accomplish this year in order to move toward that specific destination. 
Use the information to create five to seven objectives that are critical to arriving at your envisioned future.
Just like the rest of your business plan the objectives and goals are a critical component that should not be taken lightly and require diligence to establish these destinations on the road map you are creating that is the Business Plan of your business model, and although they might seem ambitious to some, they must be both measurable and achievable to you and your management team.
How to Define Goals and Objectives
Published May 23, 2009 | 
Goals are your definition of what success looks like or they are your vision in miniature, and they specify what work of your vision will get done, by whom, and by when, and in effect, goals posed the question, “What will I have to accomplish I the end of this year to consider myself a success?”
Objectives clarify what it is you are trying to accomplish in specific, measurable goals and for an objective to be effective, it needs to be a well-defined target with quantifiable elements that are measurable. Whereas your vision statement is expansive and idealistic, and the mission short, powerful, and memorable, your objectives are designed to focus your resources on achieving specific results, and the purpose of well defined objectives is to cause meaningful action.
There are many types of objectives and your plan should include a wide variety and for many businesses the two most important categories will be the financial and marketing objectives, and it is important, however, to tailor your objectives to cover the entire scope of your business, focusing on the goals that are most critical to your success.
Most objectives can be broken down into general headings including financial, marketing and sales, operations, human resources, research and development, manufacturing, and personal.
To create a solid object that you must describe the activity required, such as the introduction of new products, and describe what will happen and when with specific dates and times, and you can then wordsmith these pieces into a complete objectives, for example, Marketing and Objective is the introduction of a book by June 30 and a CD by August 15.
There is always the right way and a wrong way, for example the right way would state obtain Oracle named account status by July 2010 and SunMicro key account status by year end (measurable and easily understood). And in all the wrong way, develop strategic marketing alliances with key partners (with whom? And by when?).
Many world-class companies will not only set the business and operational goals for themselves, but also expansive goals as well, and expansive goals are intrinsic and seek to set the standard extremely high based upon some subjective standard of greatness. The premise of these goals is not about outrunning competitors spent on reaching the same prize, rather, it’s about having one’s own view of what the prize is, and there can be as many prizes as runners with imagination being the only limiting factor. What distinguishes leaders from laggards, and greatness from mediocrity, is the ability to uniquely imagine what could be.
Bill Russell, the legendary center for the Boston Celtics basketball team, used to keep his own personal scorecard and he graded himself after every game on a scale of 1 to 100, and in his career he never achieved more than 65. Now, given the way most of us are taught to think about goals, we would regard Russell as an abject failure, but the poor soul played in over 1,200 games and never achieved his standard, yet it was striving for that standard that made him arguably the best basketball player ever. Remember, it’s not what the vision is; it’s what the vision does.