Aims and Objectives Of A Business

Business aims

Every business has aims, these are long-term goals of a business. They are designed to provide a focus for staff and to help a business achieve its key purpose. The aims in the privately owned business usually are to provide goods and/or services to the best of the business ability and to make enough profit to survive. The aims of a public sector business usually are to provide essential and efficient services for the state. A business can have more than one aim but it is sensible for them not to have too many so they can focus on the aims which are most appropriate to the main purpose of their business.

Business Objectives

Business objectives are more detailed goals than business aims, they are targets which get set to accomplish the business aims. Generally, business objectives are easier to achieve than business aims as they are broken down into smaller and easier steps. The objectives of a privately owned business would usually be to increase sales, to increase the number of customers or to reduce costs so that more customers are interested in their business. The objectives of a public sector business would usually be to meet customer targets (an example of this would be to reduce waiting times or to employ more staff) or to keep costs low.

Mission statement

Every large business has a mission statement. A mission statement is the main purpose that the business is working towards. It is often short and catchy. Mission statements that privately owned businesses create often mention increasing customers, improving employees, lowering or increasing the cost of their products and making their products better value for money whilst publicly owned organisations mention improving the service they provide by concentrating on the quality of their service, the efficiency and especially the customer service.

Survival

When in a business we talk about “survival” we refer to when a business is facing a hard time and whether or not they can get out of it or whether they will have to close down. This happens when trading becomes difficult. A method by which businesses survive is to aim to break-even (make enough money to cover the total costs involved in producing, selling goods or services and running the business) over a certain period. This doesn’t make the business any profit but neither does the business lose any money, and therefore they are able to survive.