Tactics

According to Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia:

A tactic is a conceptual action. In military usage, a military tactic is used by a military unit of no larger than a division to implement a specific mission and achieve a specific objective, or to advance toward a specific goal. A tactic is implemented as one or more tasks.

Tactics are what you're going to do to carry out your strategy to accomplish your goals.

An example of a tactic is: if you're a real estate broker, buying a small, local agency in order to facilitate your access into a new part of the city. Or, purchasing a patent from an inventor to keep the invention from falling into the hands of a competitor. Another example is, if you're a local business, organizing a community protest to keep a competitor out of your neighborhood.

You don't have to know the dictionary definitions of these things or agree with me as to what a tactic is, but you have to know what you mean by them in the context of your business so you can do what you need to do. You need to have your goals, objectives, stragegies, and tactics well laid out.

What do you think of this? What are your ideas? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are the life's blood of my real estate practice and my writing. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Objectives

Many sources lump "goals" and "objectives." Wikipedia, for example, says: "An Objective is a goal, a planned or intended outcome."

I do not.

I define a goal as an intended outcome. An objective is a goal with a date. When you say, "I want to be rich," you are stating a goal, and intention. When you say, "I want to be earning $6.5 million per year by January 1, 2020," you are articulating an objective.

A goal is generally broader then an objective and is a very endpoint. For example my goal in life is to be sitting on the Shilthorn, a very beautiful Alp in central Switzerland, writing the great American novel. My objective related to this goal is to be earning $200,000 per year from my books by 2015.

Whether you agree with my definition or not, it's important that you define what you're talking about. Entrepreneurs need goals, something to shoot for, and they need a deadline so they know if they've accomplished what they they set out long ago. And if not, what they need to do to get themselves on track. Maybe the goal was unrealistic. Maybe the approach you used was not productive. Whatever. And it's important to write things down so you own them and can look back and measure your progress or lack thereof.

What do you think of this? What are your ideas? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are the life's blood of my real estate practice and my writing. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Goal

There is a lot of confusion about what a goal is. Some observers equate it to an objective.

Take this Wikipedia article for example:

A goal or objective consists of a projected state of affairs which a person or a system plans or intends to achieve or bring about — a personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development.

People also talk about objectives, strategy, tatics, intentions, aims, ends, and so forth.

I agree with the Wikipedia article except on equating it with an objective. We're going to sort it all out in the next few blog postings.

Goals are key to entrepreneurs. If an entrepreneur doesn't have a goal, he or she doesn't have anything to shoot for. As was said in Alice in Wonderland, roughly paraphased, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there." In fact, you should go read Alice in Wonderland before reading Wikipedia.

What do you think about goals and objectives? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional actitivities. Entrepreneurial ideas are the life's blood of my real estate practice and my writing. For entrepreneurial ideas on real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for my ideas on entrepreneurial writing and publishing, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com.