Business aims and objectives - OCRFinancial aims and objectives

Financial aims and objectives are linked to money. Their goal is to either make sure the business can afford to keep running or help it to make a profit. An entrepreneur may have more than one financial aim or objective that they use to give their business direction.

Financial aims and objectives cover:

• Business survival is a very common objective for a small business. Business survival refers to keeping the business operating for a certain amount of time. Most businesses initially aim to survive their first year.
• Profit refers to any money left over after all costs have been taken away from any revenue made by a business. Businesses usually aim to make a profit within the first two years.
• Sales refer to an amount of a product or service sold by a business. A business will set a target for how much it wants to sell each month and year. This gives the business a target to aim for and a purpose to what its employees do each day.
• Market share refers to the percentage of the market that a business occupies. The market is the industry that a business operates in, for example the fast food industry. An example of an objective for market share might be ‘to have 5% share of the fast food market within a 100-mile radius in the first 12 months’.
• Financial security relates to a business being able to afford to pay off all its costs and have enough cash left to survive. It also relates to an entrepreneur achieving a level of income that will allow them to keep the business operating.