Creating a Vision and Mission Statement for Small Businesses: Three Steps to Create Your Own
I have spent the last ten years working for well established companies. At the core, each of these companies is a vision and mission statement to help guide the organization. These two things work together as a way to communicate direction, establish purpose, and retain the ideas of the company regardless of personnel changes. Through my experience and MBA studies I learned how a vision and mission set the tone and culture for an organization, but I neglected to create these statements for myself. I’m going to correct that and I’ll explain why later. First, lets start with what Vision and Mission statements are.
Vision Statement
A vision statement is a guide for a company. It is a lofty, long term goal and generally unchanging, especially in well established companies. The important part is it does not change often, otherwise the organization would confuse itself by changing direction too often.
Mission Statement
A mission statement is an action, stating how the company will achieve its vision. This is not a step by step guide, but usually a single sentence used as a guiding principle.
The vision and mission statements work in tandem to set the overall tone for a company. For example, Nike’s vision is “to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world” and its mission is to, “do everything possible to expand human potential.” As you can see, these two statements help people understand why Nike is in business. Notice what it doesn’t say. It does not say Nike will sell shoes, or make money for shareholders. A vision is greater than that, it describes the purpose of the organization, Nike will inspire athletes and it will do it by expanding human potential.
Having a vision and mission are extremely important to help guide your business. Having these two statements in writing will keep your business on track by giving you an unwavering goal to reach for. I think about what Keaton Beyer Woodworking means to me, but until I write it down it’s just an idea and I can’t share it. So I’m writing it here and will update my about page to share why Keaton Beyer Woodworking exists.
Vision: Inspire others to grow their craft.
Mission: Advance the woodworking craft by build high quality furniture, highlighting craftsmanship, and creating tools to hone enthusiast’s abilities.
I started Keaton Beyer Woodworking to build furniture because I am passionate about it and wanted to make more, but my purpose is greater than that. I want my business to be a place where people can learn the craft of woodworking and discover how they can turn that craft into a business by using fundamental business planning tools and resources. Oh so often I hear that small businesses fail in the first two years of existence. The owner may be great at what they do, but lack the knowledge it takes to create a sustainable business model. I want to meld my two worlds of business and woodworking to create a resource for others to create a thriving business.
Create your own Vision and Mission
So how do you create your own vision and mission statement? One great way is to read them. Here are examples of both, vision statements and mission statements from companies to give you an idea of what they say and how they make you feel. Here are 3 steps I used when writing mine:
Explain why you are in business. You are starting your business for a reason, whether its to fulfill a purpose or deliver amazing results to clients. Patagonia’s vision is not to make outdoor apparel, it says, “We’re in business to save our home planet.” It doesn’t say anything about what they do, but instead how they will do it. They have a purpose to fulfill.
Convey action. These statements drive you. Make them dynamic, convey movement toward your goal.
Add emotion. A vision and mission is supposed to be motivating and inspiring. If its written as a transactional statement it won’t motivate you or employees to reach you businesses dreams.
Here are three things to avoid doing:
Avoid stating what you do. If you are a cabinet shop don’t say, “our vision is to make affordable cabinets.” This statement should inspire you to keep going when times get tough. One way to do that is make it about your customers, for example, change your vision statement to say “We help clients discover their dream kitchen.”
Don’t write a book. You’ll read other articles that say a vision and mission can each be 1-3 sentences. They should be one sentence each. If they are longer than that you are missing the point. The best vision and mission statements are simple to understand. Every word in those statements matters, and if it doesn’t take it out.
Remove industry terms. These statements should be understood by anyone. Keep it simple and easy to understand.
Check out this article of bad mission statements to see what else to avoid.
I hope this article helps you on our journey to define your vision and mission. These two statements are powerful motivators and matter most when written down so you as a small business owner can hold yourself accountable to meet your dreams. Have a question? Leave me a comment.
Interested in staying up to date with Keaton’s blog? Subscribe