A mission statement is a handy thing to have for any type of small, home or micro business. Its job simply is to state what you are trying to do with your business. It looks at the here and now. It doesn’t get all dreamy eyed about hopes and aspirations, like a vision statement can. Instead, a good mission statement says this is what I am doing and this is what my business is all about.
Vision or Mission?
It is easy to confuse mission and vision statements, but really who cares which is which? It’s what they say that counts. For those keeping score at home, a vision statement looks to the future and states where you want to be in 5 or 10 years. It gives your long term goals and overall strategy. A mission statement deals with the present and says how you are getting to get to your long term goals.
Vision = long term strategy and goals
Mission = short term tactics and immediate plans
Coming up with yours
When you are working on your mission statement try to keep it short. A paragraph will do. You are just trying to distill the essense of your business with your mission statement.
When starting out, its fine to brainstorm a hundred ideas for what to put into your mission, but you need to cut it down to just a sentence or two in the end so that it is memorable. If it is too long to know by heart, it’s no good.
It’s okay to talk about making money, too, if that is the point of your business. Let’s be realistic, right?
Two types of mission statements
There are two approaches you can take to a mission statement. The first describes what business you are in, who your customers are and how you get them to buy. This is a perfectly acceptable, if not a little boring, approach to take. Here are some straightforward examples to look at. They get the job done well.
The second approach is to think more along the lines of what your business tag line or brand is. Coke says their mission is to refresh the world . Microsoft says their mission is to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential Nike’s mission statement is to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.
Go ahead and try this approach for your business as well, or combine the two approaches. The coffee shop example from Bplans.com does a good job of this:
The Daily Perc Mission is three-fold, with each being as integral to our success as the next.
Product Mission – Provide customers the finest quality beverage in the most efficient time.
Community Mission – Provide community support through customer involvement.
Economic Mission – Operate and grow at a profitable rate through sound economic decisions
Personal mission statements
You can even have your own personal mission statement, too. This is habit #2 of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People . FranklinCovey and Nightengale-Conant have online tools that can help you come up with your own personal mission statement.
In the end
The purpose of a mission statement really is to remind you, your employees and your customers what you stand for. If you have a mission statement, keep it handy and visible so you will know if you start to stray from the path you’ve chosen. Then you can evaluate and adjust as needed to help you get to your end goal and be successful. If you don’t have one, give it some thought.
For more, take a look at Know Your Motivation for Starting a Microbusiness, Set Your Startup Goals, Do You Really Need a Vision Statement? and Do You Need a Business Plan?
You can always contact me at MicroBizMadeSimple.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!