Short-term vs. long-term business goals: Comparison + 30 examples

Achieving business success is much like baking your mom’s famous chocolate cake: it requires a mix of ingredients, careful steps, and a good measure of patience. Just as baking leads to delightful results, short-term efforts in business pave the way for long-term success. 

Both short-term and long-term goals are essential to driving a business forward. But what exactly are these goals, and how are they established? In this article, we’ll define and compare short-term and long-term goals and provide you with 30 practical examples of each.

What is a long-term business goal?

Long-term business goals represent the major milestones your company aims to achieve over a significant period, usually ranging from one to ten years. These goals are high-level strategies that guide your organisation toward its vision, providing a roadmap for sustained growth and success.

Effective long-term goals are designed to be flexible, allowing your business to adapt to technological advancements, political shifts, and other environmental changes. While these goals set an ambitious direction, they also influence and are influenced by short-term objectives and daily operations.

Maintaining a sense of direction is crucial, but so is fostering a bottom-up approach that encourages adaptability, creativity, and diverse input in decision-making. This balance ensures that your long-term goals remain relevant and achievable.

What is a short-term business goal?

Short-term business goals are the objectives that your company aims to achieve in the near future, typically within a timeframe ranging from a week to a year. These goals are focused on immediate outcomes, enhancing productivity, and improving time management.

Short-term goals are specific, actionable, and often targeted at individual or team efforts rather than the overall company strategy. Despite their immediate focus, they should be aligned with your long-term objectives to ensure coherent progress toward your overarching vision.

In simple terms, short-term goals are the steps you need to take to reach your long-term aspirations. They serve as a practical tool to ensure your business is on the right track, providing regular checkpoints and adjustments along the way.

Short-term vs. long-term goals

Short-term and long-term goals have different purposes, but they complement each other. Here are three key factors that distinguish them:

Purpose

Long-term goals are strategic, outlining the future direction and aspirations of the business. Short-term goals are more tactical, focusing on immediate performance and contributing to the overall success of the business in the present.

Timeline

Short-term goals are measured in weeks or months, while long-term goals span years. Long-term strategies rely on the achievement of multiple short-term goals to progress toward the ultimate vision.

Flexibility

Short-term and long-term goals differ in adaptability. Short-term goals are specific and actionable, addressing immediate needs. Long-term goals are flexible, allowing adjustments as strategies and conditions change.

Examples of short-term and long-term goals in business

Looking for real-world examples to help you craft business goals? By applying the SMART methodology—ensuring goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound—we’ve compiled examples of both long- and short-term business goals that are easily adaptable.

Short-term vs long-term marketing goal examples

Long-term goal:

Increase traffic to the shop section of the website

And the short-term business goals that support this long-term strategy might look like this:

• Develop a social media strategy to boost posting frequency from 3 times a week to daily
• Plan an email campaign aiming for an average click rate of 10% before the new product launch

Short-term vs long-term finance goal examples

Long-term goal:

Reduce operating costs

And to support the long-term strategy, short-term finance goals may look like this:

• Automate 50% of payroll duties by adopting accounting software by June 30
• Reduce the cost of goods sold (COGS) expenses by 20% this quarter

Short-term vs long-term HR goal examples

Long-term goal:

Improve employee retention rate

Whereas the short-term HR goals for the long-term strategy may look like this:

• Allocate 10% of the HR budget to personal development training
• Implement a monthly feedback form for greater visibility of company issues

Short-term vs long-term sales goal examples

Long-term goal:

Increase total sales revenue

In contrast, the short-term goals for sales might be as follows:

• Generate 50% of sales from clients X and Y by the end of June
• Secure $30,000 in new deals by the end of the quarter

Short-term vs long-term customer service goal examples

Long-term goal:

Increase customer satisfaction

Whereas customer service short-term goals are more likely to be specific:

• Improve the first-contact resolution rate by 10% by the end of the quarter
• Enhance first reply time by 5% overall by the end of the month

Other examples of short-term and long-term goals for business

Content marketing

• Short-term goal: Increase blog traffic by 25% in the next three months by optimising existing content for SEO and publishing weekly articles on trending topics.
• Long-term goal: Establish the company as a thought leader in its industry within two years by consistently producing high-quality, research-backed content that addresses key challenges and trends.

Email marketing

• Short-term goal: Improve email open rates by 10% over the next quarter through A/B testing of subject lines and personalised content.
• Long-term goal: Double the email subscriber list size within the next 18 months by leveraging lead magnets and optimising signup forms across all digital platforms.

Design

• Short-term goal: Redesign the company homepage to improve visual appeal and user engagement within the next two months.
• Long-term goal: Establish a cohesive brand identity across all products and marketing materials within two years, enhancing brand recognition and consistency.

User experience (UX)

• Short-term goal: Decrease website bounce rate by 20% in the next six months through improved navigation and faster page load times.
• Long-term goal: Achieve top-tier customer satisfaction scores for the digital experience within the next three years by continuously refining and personalising the user journey.

DevOps

• Short-term goal: Reduce deployment time by 30% within the next quarter through the implementation of automated deployment pipelines.
• Long-term goal: Achieve a 99.9% uptime for all critical systems within the next two years by enhancing monitoring, scalability, and disaster recovery strategies.

Software development

• Short-term goal: Complete the development of a new mobile application feature within the next three months to meet market demand.
• Long-term goal: Transition the entire software portfolio to a microservices architecture within the next five years to improve scalability and maintainability.

Project management

• Short-term goal: Improve project completion rates by 15% over the next six months by adopting agile project management methodologies.
• Long-term goal: Implement a company-wide project management software solution within the next year to enhance collaboration, tracking, and reporting capabilities.

How to turn short-term business goals into OKRs

Whether you're 20 years into trading or just starting out, moving beyond the 'vision' phase of goal setting can be challenging. You might know where you want to go, but figuring out how to get there is the hard part.

OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. It's a goal-setting framework that bridges the gap between vision and strategy, providing a simple, shared language to define the focus of different teams within your organisation.

Here’s how to turn your short-term business goals into OKRs in three easy steps:

1. Define your objectives

Start by defining your overall objective. If you're setting quarterly goals, create a clear statement that explains what you aim to achieve by the end of the quarter.

For example, a Customer Success team might have the objective of significantly improving user satisfaction.

2. Select your metrics

With your objective in place, the next step is to identify the Customer Success KPIs that align with this objective. These could include:

• NPS (Net Promoter Score)
• Average response time
• CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)

These metrics will become your Key Results.

3. Use the SMART formula to turn metrics into Key Results

Finally, convert your KPIs into SMART goals, making them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Your quarterly OKRs might look like this:

Objective: Significantly improve customer satisfaction

• KR1: Increase NPS from 20 to 50
• KR2: Reduce average response time from 2 hours to 30 minutes
• KR3: Improve CSAT by 15%

While mastering the nuances of OKRs may take some practice, numerous guides can help you transform your vision into a clear set of actionable OKRs.

How to track short-term and long-term goals

Benefits of tracking your business goals

Setting goals is the first step toward achieving success. Without goals, it's challenging to identify what you want to accomplish and how to get there. Equally important, however, is tracking your progress toward these goals. This practice keeps you focused, motivated, and accountable. By consistently monitoring your short-term and long-term goals, you can ensure steady progress toward achieving your objectives.

Short-term business goals

Tracking short-term goals is crucial for maintaining urgency and motivation. These goals are essential for ensuring daily business productivity and providing immediate progress feedback, acting as stepping stones to make long-term objectives feel more attainable.

Long-term business goals

Long-term goals provide a clear vision and direction for the future. Unlike short-term goals, which focus on immediate results, long-term objectives guide the company toward its overarching aspirations, looking years ahead. They help steer the business, ensuring all efforts contribute to a cohesive strategy.

Balancing both

It's important to keep track of both short-term and long-term goals to maintain a healthy balance. Short-term goals drive immediate actions and results, while long-term goals ensure that these actions align with the broader vision. This balance keeps the business on track, ensuring consistent progress and long-term success.

Optimising business goal-tracking: Choosing between spreadsheets and specialised platforms

The role of spreadsheets for goal-tracking

Spreadsheets are widely used in businesses because they are flexible and easy to use. They are great for organising data and monitoring business goals. However, while they are versatile and allow for custom calculations, they may not be the best option for tracking goals comprehensively.

Spreadsheets need regular manual updates, which take up time and increase the risk of errors. This manual process can lead to inaccuracies, affecting your ability to make informed decisions. Additionally, spreadsheets lack advanced data visualisation capabilities, making it hard to identify trends, predict performance, and make strategic adjustments. Without dynamic visualisations, it's difficult to pinpoint areas of success or improvement.

Specialised goal-tracking software will save you hours at work

Consider using a dedicated goal-tracking platform like Tability to simplify goal management. These platforms provide a structured method for setting, tracking, and achieving business objectives. Unlike spreadsheets, specialised software offers dynamic OKR dashboards that promptly address specific questions.

One significant advantage of these platforms is their ability to integrate with other tools, such as project management systems, allowing you to seamlessly map relevant strategic projects to your objectives. This integration ensures that all aspects of goal-tracking are interconnected, providing a holistic view of progress and performance.

Finding the right balance

Achieving business success is like perfecting a beloved recipe; it requires precision, timing, and patience. Establishing a balanced blend of short- and long-term goals is essential, as it serves as the roadmap that guides your business forward. While short-term goals drive daily operations, long-term goals ensure that you are steering towards the bigger picture with confidence and clarity.

Combining well-defined goals with the right tracking tools, such as Tability, becomes the secret ingredient to not just reaching but surpassing your business aspirations. By leveraging specialised platforms, you can save time, reduce errors, and gain valuable insights, ensuring that your business stays on track and achieves its objectives.