What are business aims and objectives?

In Business,

Different business organisations will have a large number of aims, which will influence the way that they behave. An aim is what a business wants to achieve - This is normally long-term. Aims tend to be where a business wants to be in 1-5 years and this is communicated to all its stakeholders e.g. Employees. Some of the most common business aims are. Some of the most common business aims are shown below. Aims tend to be a general statement of purpose:

· To make a profit - entrepreneurs risk their capital in a business and profit is their reward for risk-taking. If a business is to grow it needs to make a profit. Some of the profit could be used to buy new equipment, staff or premises.

· To increase market share - If a firm is able to increase its market share, it shows that it is winning customers from its competitors; so many businesses have increasing market share as one of their key aims.

· To provide services to costumers - most businesses provide a service to customers and therefore, they need to provide services to customers in order to make a profit.

· To improve the quality of the product or service ­- In most markets, customers have a choice about the product or service that they use. If the quality of a product is not as good as that of its competitors it is likely to loose market share.

In order to achieve an aim objectives are usually set. Objectives tend to be linked to the Aims and are how the Aims are met. A business can have several objectives that are all linked to a single aim. Objectives are measureable targets e.g. we want to achieve sales of €10 million in European markets in 2012.

Most business objectives tend to be:

S M A R T

Specific - objectives are aimed at what the business does.

Measured - objectives can be measured to see if the target has been met.

Achievable - completion of the objectives is possible.

Realistic - objectives can be met with the current resources available to the business

Timed - target is time specific e.g. in 8 months.