Mission & Vision- are you seeing 20/20?
We hear these two words quite frequently. But what do they mean?What direction is your business going?
Are you moving in the “right” direction?
Do you see your business for what it is, or, what you want it to be?
There are many online posts about mission and vision, and I have taken some time to pull out key notes to simplify this for our businesses.
Mission statements are:
• Typically used more internally, than externally
• Not catchy or cleverly written
• A definition of what the business wants to do for at least three sets of people: customers, employees, and owners. It should not be just meaningless hype words.
The question then becomes- Is the work you do, supporting your mission?
If not, does your mission need to change?
Or does your work need to change?
You’ll need to decide this within your own business or organization.
Vision statements:
• Project forward into time three or five years and presents a picture, like a dream, of how things should be
• Where is it, what is it doing, how big is it, what’s special about it
• Short phrase, not long, easy to recall
• Shared publicly
Using your vision statement, you can easily keep the goal in front of you, making business plans to reach your vision, goals, and achieve growth.
Both of these are different from your Business Objectives which should be hard-baked, concrete, specific, and, above all, measurable. Objectives are like sales growth rates, employee headcount, customers in the database, percentages of gross margin or profitability, units sold, and so on.
The bottom line is to create something that works for your business. Another note to mention, don’t forget about your own personal mission. Your business should fit into what YOU want to do in your life. A personal mission can help you determine what you say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to as you receive requests for support.
Create a mission for you and your business. Look into the future- what do you see?
A vision of your personal and business growth… now… what will you do to get there?
