Before starting a journey, we take care of our every small need. Even on a happy trip, we prepare for all the worse conditions before leaving the house. And throughout the journey we keep on monitoring each small bit.

So too with running your own business, or starting a new one. You have to keep a check every now and then. You can’t just sit aside; you have to watch results, review them and revise as needed. This turns planning into management.

Milestones take it a step ahead. They are like adding a GPS in your trip so that you can roam freely and securely with the assurance of not getting lost ever.

Milestones are dates, deadlines, tasks, and budgets. Being human, we tend to work toward milestones much better than just toward general goals. Milestones are when we launch the product, open the new store, hire that missing person, change locations, start a new marketing campaign, and so forth.

Milestones give us clear indication what is going to happen and when it is going to happen for every ongoing tactics related to your products, services, marketing, administration, and finance. They include everything, when are you suppose to launch your product? What prototypes are available? All the things which comes along the path; the social media, advertising, website development and programs to generate leads and traffic are included in each business’ milestones.

Your business plans methodologies are turned into practical through the milestones. They are the building blocks of strategy and techniques. They decide the path for your business goal. They act as bridge between your ongoing plan and actual management and analysis. Thus, turns your planning into management.

As you need tactics to execute strategy, so too you need milestones to execute tactics. Normally you’ll look for a close match between tactics and milestones. You develop your milestones by thinking through strategy, tactics, and actions you need to take. “Milestones make your plan real, concrete and specific”.