Writing a Business Plan - Part 1 of a 4-Part Series

 Crafting Effective Vision and Mission Statements

By Jeri T Denniston, Chief Markteting Stratgist

Do you find crafting a vision statement for your small business or department a challenging exercise? Many clients I work with find this one of the most difficult aspects of writing a business plan. Part of the reason is that it addresses the concept of WHY. Why we are in business and Why our clients or customers choose us rather than our competitors. The vision also encompasses the future strategic desired state we want to achieve in perhaps 1 to 3 years, a concept that is difficult for many to imagine. If we haven’t given much thought to what we want to accomplish 6 months from now, how can we imagine something that’s 12 months or farther in the future?

I am using a time window of 1 to 3 years here intended for small, young businesses. Larger, well-established businesses have these struggles too, and they may look at 5 to 10-year time windows.

We usually have a good idea of our mission. It’s based on what problem we solve for our customers, what we do, and who we serve. Although, even the “who we serve” can be a concept many entrepreneurs struggle with. Some say it’s everyone, especially if they offer products and/or services that serve several demographics. But when you begin to analyze WHO is your best customer, you begin to form a demographic profile of the primary decision-maker. That person is your primary target customer and your marketing needs to address that person’s primary needs and reasons for choosing you. Your marketing strategies also need to address what makes your business unique in that customer’s eyes that causes them to choose you. Understanding your WHY helps to address these areas.

But I digress. Let’s get back to the vision and mission statements.

Recently, I’ve started working with clients using Jim Horan’s The One Page Business Plan for the Creative Entrepreneur. Initially, I found the vision and mission statements somewhat out of sync with the Systems Thinking Approach® we adopted from The Haines Centre for Strategic Management. However, I see now that the vision statement may be more easily attainable for solopreneurs, small businesses with fewer than 20 employees, and even small departments within larger organizations.

The vision statement in Horan’s book incorporates strategic growth goals that include geographic scope, revenue, customer, and employees as well as the ideal customer’s needs and which products or services address those needs. Below is one example.

Within the next 3 years grow East Way Yoga into a $10 million Northern California provider of on-site workplace yoga classes, inspiring companies and their employees to create a satisfying and fulfilling work/life experience by transforming their moment-to-moment awareness. We will also create and sell new yoga-related DVDs, locally and online, to support the ongoing practice of living life more fully through yoga.

Wow! That first sentence is a mouthful! But it incorporates all the key components. Using a Systems Thinking Approach®, we might boil that down to the following statement listing the revenue goal as one of the strategic measures that answer the question, “How will I know when I get there?” (The vision statement addresses the question, “Where do I want to be at some future date?”) The what and how are addressed in the mission statement from a systems thinking perspective.

Within the next 3 years grow East Way Yoga into a Northern California provider of on-site workplace yoga classes, inspiring companies and their employees to live life more fully through yoga.

The Mission Statement

The mission statement in Horan’s book addresses more of Why the business exists rather than What the business does. It also addresses the ideal customer’s needs and how the business solves those needs. One of the exercises incorporates a detailed description of the ideal customer, basically filling out a Buyer Persona with demographic details of age, education, ethnicity, sex, income, etc. Another covers more detail about why the ideal customer buys or uses your product or service, what passion you are trying to satisfy in building the business, the beliefs that drive you, the values that drive your behavior, the highest good that will be achieved, and who will benefit. That’s a lot to cover in a mission statement.

In the Systems Thinking Approach®, the mission describes what we do, who we serve, and how we run the business; the values are considered separate from the mission and equally important because they drive behavior in the company. The values create the culture.

Horan’s book uses a series of questions that help to drive your thinking when crafting both the vision and the mission statements. I’ve copied them below and turned them into a separate document that my clients can download and use. Having worked in the journalism field in the past, I especially like the way he categorizes the questions for the vision statement. In journalism, the who, what, where, how, and why are the main aspects of writing a story and, in particular, crafting the lede paragraph in 30 words or less. 😊

Vision Statement questions:

WHAT
1.    Services or products? Or both? How many?
2.    Company image: what will this company be known for?
3.    Owner’s role: what is your role? How will you spend your time?

WHERE
1.    Company: local, regional, national, or international?
2.    Clients/Recipients: where are they? What cities, states, countries?
3.    Business Operations: Headquarters, offices, program locations, etc.?

WHO
1.    Customers: What are they? What needs do they have?
2.    Staff: Who needs to be on your team?
3.    Strategic Alliances: Who can you partner with?
4.    Advisors: Who can provide professional and strategic advice to help you grow this business properly?

WHEN
1.    Start-Up: When will this business be operational?
2.    Facilities: When will office/manufacturing/distribution space be required?
3.    Systems: When must they be selected, tested, and operational?

WHY
1.    Owner: Why am I creating this business?
2.    Customers/Clients: Why will they buy these products or services?
3.    Investors/Bankers: Why will they fund this business?

HOW
1.    Funding How will this business be funded?
2.    Culture: How do I want to interact with customers, employees, vendors?
3.    Personal Beliefs: How will your personal beliefs impact this business?

The Mission addresses the following questions:
•    Why does this business exist?
•    What are we committed to providing to our customers?
•    What promise are we making to our clients and customers?
•    What wants, needs, desires, pain, or problems do our products and services solve?
•    What is our unique selling proposition?

Each section of the book includes examples of vision and mission statements which may be helpful as you start to craft your own. The mission statement section includes a simple formula for writing a mission statement:

The ideal customer description + goal/benefit of your products or services

In both sections, the objective is to write a statement of between 35-50 words that addresses the questions in each section. This may take several iterations to come up with the final vision and mission statements you like. Using AI tools such as Google Gemini, Microsoft Bing or ChatGPT may help you make the statements more succinct once you have written your initial drafts. When you do have statements you like, share them with your business colleagues and/or advisors to get feedback. Sometimes, having a second or third set of eyes can help to clarify your thinking.

Ultimately, it’s a process and an exercise you should review yearly to address any carefully considered and necessary adjustments based on changes in outside areas such as the economy, your marketplace, your industry, or customer behavior.

If you want a copy of the vision and mission questions document, click here.