Setting your goals and objectives

Goals and objectives tell your audience how you will accomplish your mission. Goals tend to be general statements, like "dominating the market" and "increasing profitability," while objectives are quantifiable actions that are related to specific goals. For instance, from the South Mill example, one of the company's goals is to increase sales, with an specific objective or reaching $13.6 million by the year 2000.

Suppose your mission is to become the largest retailer in your home state. Since it is unlikely that you will succeed overnight (unless your business has a name like Sears or K-Mart), you will probably need a series of intermediary steps to accomplish this mission. You might start by setting a goal of selling more apparel in the coming year with an objective of running quarterly sales in men's and women's clothing.