Developing great Mission and Vision statements

We have created a framework that allows business leaders and key decision makers to draft their mission and vision statements along with purpose and company values within a matter of hours not months.

How to develop powerful mission and vision statements for your small business?

During our Brand Core MVVP workshop we go through multiple exercises that enable participants to create core company statements. We start with company’s vision first, move on to the mission, then values and finally — purpose.

It’s rarely the case that team members produce perfect core statements on the spot. Once we manage to get the general idea we hone and polish each statement. We want each sentence to have meaning, to read and sound well, to be concise and to the point. We want to avoid empty words and pompous claims. Let your competitors keep them.

If you want to learn more about Mission, Vision and Purpose with examples, consider reading this article.

How to create a great vision statement for your professional services firm?

If you’re going on your own we suggest to start with your company’s vision first. Since the vision is best described with an image, think about where you want your company to be in 5 to 20 years time. Create a mental picture.

Now think of it as of a destination — a real place. Like if you were planning a trip. When you know where you want to be it gets much easier to plan out the details. You need to create specific milestones as well as means and tools that will help you attain each of them.

Your initial vision statement’s draft will be long. That’s totally fine. It takes years of practise to craft short and meaningful statements. Do not let yourself get discouraged by that. Talk to me, should you require assistance with perfecting your firm’s vision statement.

Here is a helpful tip for you — do include the benefits for your clients in your vision statement.

How to write a powerful mission statement for your small business?

Once you have your vision statement, it is time to draft your company’s mission. Think of your business mission as of activities that will help you get to your vision of success. You will have to define your milestones — business objectives. You will also need to think about the tools that you’ll need to procure in order to succeed.

List all of the services you provide. Pick the ones that are most valuable to your clients. Categorize your service and try to group them into higher-order categories.

When writing your draft mission statement, try to be specific about what you do and who you do it for. Google didn’t include the WHO in their mission statement because it’s obviously everyone. On the contrast, Tesla did include their target buyers — “homeowners, businesses, and utilities”.

Why do you need a vision or a mission statement?

That’s a great question. One might argue that you don’t need one. I’d say that if you’re in business of flipping stuff — buying something cheap here and reselling it for a profit there —then obviously you won’t have a compelling mission or vision.

But when you’ve been in your industry for a while and you’re not planning to go out of business in the foreseeable future, when you have employees and relationships with your clients, having a mission, a vision and a purpose is a must.

The reason why you need these core statements:

• Woo clients. Let your clients know that you’re there mostly for them and not for making fat profits.
• Attract talent. Great people want to work for companies that stand for something.
• See the big picture. Find what’s meaningful and communicate it on all levels so that even the most mundane tasks would feel as a part of the big picture.
• Filter out distractions. Every new business opportunity can be filtered through your mission and vision. If it doesn’t fit in it’s best to be left out.
• Get focused. When you know what you’re supposed to do to achieve your vision of success it gets much easier to double down on those activities.

Consider investing in Brand Core MVVP workshop to get the perfect mission, vision and purpose developed for your small business.

How long does it take to create a vision or a mission statement?

It takes approximately 4 to 8 hours to run the Brand Core MVVP workshop. The more participants the longer the workshop.

During this workshop team members go through a set of exercises starting from the Vision. The final part of the workshop is Purpose. The Core MVVP workshop doesn’t end there. Participants are given some homework. Upon completion we analyze the results.

It is rarely the case that attendees create a good-enough mission or vision statements at the spot. It takes certain skills and experience in creating great core company statements. But it is always the case that the framework reveals nuggets of information about the company. That information is very useful in further work with the Brand Strategy.

The overall process of developing the core brand statements usually takes a month. That’s when you will receive your polished mission, vision and purpose statements for approval. If changes need to be made we make those as well.

How can a consultant help with brand’s mission and vision?

Without the relevant knowledge on the subject marketing managers will find it rather challenging to be able to craft good core brand statements. We have provided an extensive list of bad mission, vision and purpose statements in this article.

A competent consultant will save you and your key people time. You can make your own estimates on how much it’s worth for your small business. An outside expert will have a framework that facilitates the process. You will also be safeguarded about the most common mistakes other companies make with their mission, vision and purpose statements.

How much does it cost to create mission and vision statements?

The typical price for our Core MVVP workshops starts at 2,000 USD. This module is often included in one of our marketing solutions for professional services firms.

Obviously this is not something a bootstrapped start-up can afford. But this is definitely a good investment for small businesses that have been around for five or more years, have a steady cash flow and a decent amount of regular clients. It will pay off handsomely.