Does your business have a mission statement?
What’s the standard you hold your company to?
What’s the goal?
Have you thought about creating one?
What would it state?
Do you think it’s something that only larger companies create to showcase their social responsibility?
Do you think that your small business will do find without one?
Maybe it will. After all business owners are always rolling the dice as calculatingly as they can to succeed. We don’t always have the time or patience for extras. And we’ve already started our business, there’s no point in thinking about the mission statement now, right?
Writing a mission statement for our business is a personal-professional element for any size company. Think of it as the cliff notes version of the executive summary of a business plan. It’s a contract, if you will, between ourselves and our business. It is the commitment and level of integrity we promise our company will strive for on a regular basis. Many companies have gone on and shared this contract among themselves publicly with their customers, but that’s not always necessary.
So why is having a mission statement important?
Books could be filled up with all the little things that have helped business owners achieved their success that are hardly, if ever, mentioned. This, being one of them. I’m borrowing this quote (and if anyone happens to know who said, please share), “Commitment means staying loyal to what you said you were going to do long after the mood you said it in has left you.” When we’ve created a mission statement for our company, a goal we’ve set to attain everyday, is a reminder on those days that are hardest to get up and moving to keep moving. It’s a reminder of the promise we made to ourselves to keep. It is (or, at least, should be) a reminder of why we are doing what we’re doing.
If you have never had a day where you didn’t know where your next client or customer was going to come from, how you were going to keep your business afloat or ever doubted if you should have chased your business dreams, then you never walked in the shoes of a business owner. And having a mission statement helps reminds us to hold ourselves to a higher standard and to a higher cause. It is not just a dream and it is not just a business, it is a calling; it’s something fulfilling.
So, take a moment and write down what your mission statement is, where is it your business is going and what are its goals along the way.
“…you mission statement becomes your constitution , the solid expression of your vision and values. It becomes the criterion by which you measure everything else in your [business].” – Stephen R. Covey (author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)
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