Whenever you start a new business, the focus has to be on the now and the future. Forward thinking companies are the companies that are leading the way toward the future and are companies that experience growth. You must build a strong foundation and then determine your vision and mission. Creating this blueprint for your future is a sure way to find success.
What is a Mission Statement?
Mission statements are the definition of the purpose of your business. This statement clarifies what you define as success. It also lets everyone in the company know how decisions are made and how to stay on task. An example of a cell phone company mission statement would be: “to connect people through the power of cell phones in a seamless manner.” They have displayed their purpose and how they want to be seen in the business world.
How to Develop your Vision
The first part of vision development is to start a framework that envelops everything your company stands for and everything it wants to become over the years. You can do this by determining a few things:
Purpose – You have to determine what your purpose is in the industry you have selected to work within. Find out what you do best or what stands out from your competitors and market this component.
Customers – Find out who your customers are and determine who you intend to market to and what type of employees you would like to retain to work with those customers.
Reputation – Determine what you want to be known for in your specific industry. Maybe you are not the cheapest or the quickest, but you have the best quality product. Use this to your advantage and build this into your vision and your legacy. Determine what you stand for and don’t waiver from those values.
Success – Define what success is to you and your company. Establish goals to meet the steps to your success. Let others know what success means to you and how you can achieve success as a team. These goals should not be a secret, but clear and visible to all that work for you.
Once you have all of these steps covered, it is time to design your mission statement. Ask everyone what they think about your mission and get suggestions. Use action words and make sure that it is clear from the sentence or two what your company does and what they stand for. The vision statement should project big dreams in the future and it should be very clear. You want it to have passion and to be inspiring and it should be aligned with your business values. This statement should also be forward thinking and create a path to the future of business in your specialty. Your vision should be sustainable and it should be something that can be scaled up as time goes on. This may mean expansion of locations or increasing types of inventory. There should be timeframes set up that display the goals and vision of the company over time with targets to hit along the way.
