The business plan is all about targets

An effective business plan is really all about targets. Affective targets should be set and will act as a motivating factor for those working on the business to help it succeed.

While the overall plan may set strategic goals, these are unlikely to be achieved unless you use SMART objectives or targets, ie Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.

Targets help everyone within a business understand what they need to achieve and when they need to achieve it.

You can monitor the performance of employees, teams or a new product or service by using appropriate performance indicators. These can be:

1. sales or profit figures over a given period
2. milestones in new product development
3. productivity benchmarks for individual team members
4. market-share statistics
5. Targets make it clearer for individual employees to see where they fit within an organisation and what they need to do to help the business meet its objectives. Setting clear objectives and targets and closely monitoring their delivery can make the development of your business more effective. 
6. Targets and objectives should also form a key part of employee performance reviews or appraisals, as a means of objectively addressing individuals' progress. See our guide on how to use appraisals to manage performance.

Make sure that you are both committed to your business plan targets yet flexible in how these will be met and when they may need to be changed. Being flexible in taking advantage of new opportunities is a key benefit of being a small business and should be taken advantage of relentlessly.