Your Mission Statement – How Visionary are you?

Mission or Vision Statements are familiar to most people in business but surprisingly few small businesses actually use them. The purpose of such a statement is to put your business philosophy or reason for being into a brief, memorable form that gives your business direction.

Some statements are so short and nondescript, they can apply to any business. Some are so long and unwieldy as to be easily forgotten and confusing. Your Mission Statement needs specific information pertaining to your industry, customers and staff.

This is the statement by which you will expect all current and future staff to abide by. As such, they need to be comfortable with its content and wording. Involving your staff in the production and regular revision of your statement will produce a philosophy they feel proud of and a part of; they will strive to make it happen more than if it was just another obscure directive from above.

Review Your Mission

Regularly Mission Statements should be reviewed regularly and altered to suit. As your target market grows and revolves so to does your Mission Statement. The same applies as your products alter and your basic philosophy or business aims may grow and develop over the years.

Many businesses review their Mission Statement annually. I review mine as new staff join the business. After they have been with us for several months and have experienced our philosophy in action (and are feeling comfortable about communicating their views to the group) we sit down at a staff meeting and ask for comments on our existing Mission Statement.

Often the wording is changed to suit new members and our target market has been altered and refined to keep up with our role in the changing marketplace. Each member of staff should be able to live with, and abide by, the words in the Mission Statement so it is important that it makes sense to them.

Each member should be able to recall the bulk of the statement. Now I”m not suggesting that you have daily rehearsals, but the statement should be important enough for all staff to remember the gist of it.

The Key Things Your Mission Statement Should Cover are:

Following these guidelines will ensure you produce a vibrant and satisfying statement that your business can look to for direction.