Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned pro, reviewing and maintaining long-term goals for your ice cream business is crucial to your success. With so many personal and professional goals, it can be difficult to choose. How do you know which will have the biggest impact on your immediate needs and long-term success?
Four long-term goals of an ice cream business are to establish its brand in the market, increase sales, expand the business in other locations, and increase followers on social media to gain more of their target audience.
Keep reading to learn about some long-term goals you could set for your ice cream business and then put these into action.
Guidelines for setting long-term goals for your ice cream business
- Write down the things you want to achieve in the next 5-10 years.
The first step in making long-term business goals is figuring out what you want to achieve in the next few years, say 10 years in the future would be enough.
- Prioritize your goals
The majority of businesses have multiple long-term goals. However, it can be challenging to focus on all of it at the same time. That’s why it’s critical to establish a hierarchy of objectives to guide the allocation of business resources and ensure success.
- Achieve each long-term goal by accomplishing several smaller ones.
To achieve your long-term goals, you must first break them down into manageable sub-goals, much like you would with your short-term goals. If your long-term goal is to raise your business’s profile in the marketplace, you should divide that into more manageable chunks like increasing specific types of brand awareness.
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Establish your brand in the market
Increasing your ice cream brand awareness and name recognition is one business objective that should be included in your marketing strategy for the long term. This is not something that can be accomplished overnight and is an ongoing process. But if you are easily recognizable in your community, it will go a long way toward bringing in new customers and retaining the ones you already have.
You put in a lot of effort to earn your money, just like everyone else. People are more likely to spend their money on something or somewhere that is familiar to them when they are making a purchase.
Maintaining a consistent presence on social media, regularly taking part in activities and events held in the local community, and designing a brand logo that stands out from the crowd are all things that can assist you in reaching your long-term goal of having an ice cream brand that is easily recognizable.
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Increase your sales
Everyone’s list of long-term business goals should include a focus on increasing sales. After all, you didn’t start an ice cream business with the intention of not making a profit every year. You’re in this because you want to earn some money, right? Growth from one year to the next is one of the most important factors to consider when trying to figure out whether or not an organization is thriving or failing.
Choose benchmarks that are capable of being measured, and decide on a concrete value. If your objective is to have a greater number of clients or customers by the same time the following year, you should establish a monthly target that will provide you with something to work toward.
Alternately, you might be more concerned with increasing your net profit, in which case you will need to determine a revenue goal for yourself. It is not enough to simply state that you want your revenue to be higher than it was the previous year; you need to be more specific. Include a realistic revenue estimate in your marketing plan to increase the likelihood that you will achieve your objective.
When you are planning your long-term and marketing goals for your ice cream business, one important thing to keep in mind is that you should make every effort to make them SMART or Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Expand your business
Expansion is seen by many owners of businesses as a worthwhile long-term business goal that should be added to their list. It is possible that your goal is to expand your ice cream business to the point where it has locations in all of the cities that are within a certain distance of your original location, throughout the state, or even nationwide.
You will need to establish a strong customer base in order to get there, and accomplishing these other long-term goals can assist you in doing so. It is also important to do research and develop a go-to-market strategy that can help you successfully expand into a new area with new customers and new competition. This can help you grow your ice cream business in a way that is beneficial to everyone involved.
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Increase followers on social media
The majority of the information that people obtain today comes from their social media feeds. Now is the time to establish a strong presence across multiple social media platforms for your ice cream business.
Growing your social media following can be time-consuming, but the exposure that results is well worth the effort in terms of your long-term goals. Focus your initial marketing efforts on familiar networks, such as Facebook and Instagram.
Additionally, you can try running Facebook events and Instagram giveaways to expand your audience. Many social media contests are based on participants following your business or tagging friends, allowing you to gain followers quickly.
Conclusion
The long term goals for your ice cream business are to establish your brand in the market, increase your ice cream sales, to expand your business in other locations, and increase followers on social media to gain more target audience. All these long-term ice cream business goals will take time to reach. Some goals, like growing your social media following, may only take a few months, while others, like increasing your sales and establishing your brand, may take a year or more. The key is to start with a good marketing plan, set goals that are realistic but still challenging, and figure out the small steps you need to take to get there.
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Frequently Asked Questions
One example of a short-term goal is to increase your advertising budget every month for the next three months. To double the business’s income by the end of the calendar year is an example of a long-term goal that can be helped by short-term goals.
People who fit a certain demographic profile (in terms of age, income, and lifestyle, for example) are considered to be a product’s target market.
To learn more on how to start your own ice cream/gelato business check out my startup documents here
This blog post is provided for informational purposes only. The information contained is not intended to constitute legal advice or to substitute for obtaining legal advice from a qualified attorney.
Hi! I am Shawn and I am a happy individual who happens to be an entrepreneur. I have owned several types of businesses in my life from a coffee shop to an import and export business to an online review business plus a few more and now I create online ice cream/gelato business resources for those interested in starting new ventures. It’s demanding work but I love it. I do it for those passionate about their business and their goals. That’s why when I meet a ice cream/gelato business owner, I see myself. I know how hard the struggle is to retain clients, find good employees and keep the business growing all while trying to stay competitive.
That’s why I created Ice Cream Business Boss: I want to help ice cream and gelato business owners like you build a thriving business that brings you endless joy and supports your ideal lifestyle.