Creating a Why statement for a business. Although you will see Why statements for businesses called other names, such as mission statements or vision statements, these are a bit different. They are essentially the same thing. They define the purpose of the business and why it exists.
A mission statement for a business is not going to follow the same format as your personal Why statement, but it is still very important. It needs to be written in such a way that everyone who works within the business and interacts with it as a customer, supplier, or other stakeholder are all clear about what the overall purpose is.
A good mission statement will succinctly describe:
What the business does for its customers What the business does for its employees What the business does for its owners or shareholders You can add a fourth dimension here, which is what does the company do for its community.
Why should you create a mission statement? Just like a personal Why statement, a company mission statement will provide the clarity that you need to do the following:
Create goals for the business Create the culture of the company Create the ethics of the company Define the norms for making decisions If you read a number of company mission statements, you will probably come to the conclusion that they shouldn't have bothered writing one. Even the top companies can be guilty of this. There are mission statements out there that are just meaningless, and you can see that they were written just to tick a box on someone's list. Vague mission statements are a complete waste of time. If the employees and the customers cannot understand your mission statement, then it is not going to motivate them, is it?
We want you to have a meaningful mission statement for your company which everyone can buy into. So please follow the steps below to do this.
Here are the five steps that we recommend that you take to write the best mission statement:
Step 1: What is the story of your business? Although you are not going to actually tell a story in your mission statement—this would make it far too long—you need something that defines your business. Put yourself in the shoes of a prospective customer finding out about your business all the way through to deciding to purchase something that you offer. Why do the customers want what you are selling? How do customers find you? What is in it for them? To write a great mission statement, you need to clearly define the "why to buy" and also define your target customer or your buyer persona. You need to think about why your business is unique from your competitors or better than them. You are not going to include all these things in your mission statement, but you need to think them through and have all of the answers in your head when you are writing your mission statement. A good way to get started is to write a list of what your company does and the things that it doesn't do.
Step 2: What does your business do for your customers? A good place to begin your mission statement is with the good that you do. So with your market-defining story that you worked on in step one, assess what makes your business special for your target customers. With this step, it would be easy to undervalue what your business does, so be careful not to do this. It is not just companies that provide climate change solutions and cures for diseases that can do good. Providing products or services that people need is a good thing. Being a company that people can trust is also good. This is a very important part of your mission statement, so you need to write this down. If the products and services that you offer are good for the environment, then be sure to include that as well. Of course, this needs to be true and something that you can prove. Don't add the word "green" into your mission statement if you can't prove it. Apple's mission statement from 2017 clearly defines the good that the company does for its customers and is not vague in any way: "Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad." Obviously, the mission statement for your business does not need to be as long as Apple's, but you get the idea here.
Step 3: What does your business do for your employees? Smart business owners and managers know that their business needs to be good for their employees as well as their customers, or it will not last very long. It is much better to retain employees for a long time than to have high employee turnover, as this will drastically affect your bottom line. So we recommend that part of your mission statement defines how your company motivates and rewards its employees. Make this very clear and live by it. Think about the following qualities: training, fairness, empowerment, diversity, tools, respect for ideas. These are not just buzzwords; they actually matter to employees and potential employees of a business. The problem is that every other business recognizes that these things are important and will add them to their mission statements. You do not want to be the same as them, but you need to accept that you will need to include certain things. You need to tell your employees in your mission statement that you are committed to paying a fair rate of compensation, you will provide good training, you will provide a healthy work environment, room to grow, and so on—even if this sounds familiar to the mission statements of other companies. One of the best reasons to do this is because it provides a powerful reminder to everyone, from the owners to the managers and the employees. Do you have a special relationship with your employees? Do you have families that work for your business, or do you encourage remote working? Get this into your mission statement. Here is what American Express included about their employees in their mission statement: "We have a mission to be the world's most respected service brand. To do this, we have established a culture that supports our team members so they can provide exceptional service to our customers."
Step 4: What does your business do for the owners? The term "owners" here also refers to shares of stock. Some businesses are private and have a single or a couple of owners; others are public and have many shareholders. If mission statements include a section about this—and a lot don't—they tend to use the same phrases, such as return on investment and share value. If you are the owner of the business, think about what is really important to you. Talk to the owners if you are writing the mission statement for them. A lot of business owners may be more interested in growth and cash flow than profits, especially in the early days. Owners could also be interested in building a business where they enjoy working and that has people that they want to work with. It is rare to find these kinds of things in mission statements, but that doesn't matter. If it is important for the owners, then add this into the mission statement.
Step 5: Discuss your mission statement and refine it. You should now have a fairly wordy mission statement that you will need to discuss with others and edit, maybe a number of times until you get it right. One thing that you should think about is having a mission statement that is for the customers and public consumption, and an internal mission statement for employees and owners. Make your mission statement or statements as concise as possible. Use bullet points as a way to break things up. The bottom line is that your mission statement needs to work for your business, otherwise there is no point in writing one in the first place.
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