Goal setting is a vital element for sustaining any business. The ability to set and achieve short term goals would ensure businesses continue to deliver value on daily basis, by extension keep up with operation demands or expenses, whilst the ability to set, work towards achieving, achieve or surpass long term goals would allow for the organization to maintain its going concern.

Consequently, it is imperative for business leaders to understand how to set long term goals; below is a simplified guide in 10 steps.

1. Ask and answer the following questions:
What does the company intend to achieve in the next 10 years?
What must the company do to achieve these landmarks?
Where must the company be positioned, situated or made strategically visible to enable progress?
What assets - human capital and factors of production, must the company acquire to attain desired next levels?
How does the company intend to give back to immediate and remote environment as part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?

2. Attempt to answer each question using numbered bullet points on a separate piece of paper. You may want to engage all the leaders in the company during a strategy meeting in order to harness valuable stakeholder’s inputs for long range goal setting. Ensure there are about 20 to 50 distinct answers for each question.
3. Ascribe realistic timelines in years (1, 2 3, 4 ...) to each of the suggested answers, possibly as superscripts.
4. Reshuffle each list to show balance in goal setting for each year - year 1, 2 , 3 , 4 ... possibly to year 10.
5. Prioritize the listed goals derived from each question - this is a critical step in this task. Recall about 50 answers were collated per question; there would be a need to rank possible options in order of feasibility and priority.
6. Write short reasoning/descriptive essays on each of the top 10 priority items; give reasons for wanting each. If you are unable to muscle good reasons for any item, strike it off the list!
7. Select 4 top priorities from each category to have 20 long range goals or focus areas.
8. Compile these 20 goals in a long term goal journal or company’s 5-year or 10-year plan document as the case maybe.
9. Review the selected goals on weekly basis, feel free to strike out those accomplished or those that are no longer relevant or value adding in line with realistic operational / business environment.
10. Engage your Financial Advisor as part of weekly reviews; ultimately well planned goals should positively impact both the company's corporate existence/image and financial bottom-line.