On Monday, we talked about Passion, Purpose, and Vocation, and I hope that inspired you to make your purpose your career. Today, I am going to guide you in writing a mission statement for your business. This is incredibly important because it is like a compass to guide your way. Five or ten years down the line, it will be easy to forget why you started or what your original intent was if you do not have one. Mission statements serve the purpose of explaining your company’s reason for existence.

 

Step 1: Ask Questions

 

The most important part of a mission statement is clarifying your mission. To do this, you must ask yourself specific questions, and be specific with the answers.

1. What service do you provide?
2. Who do you provide it to?
3. What is your differentiating factor?
4. Why do you do what you do?

There are not many questions, but I really need you to think about them in-depth. If you don’t have a good foundation for starting your business, it could crumble. I will give you WealthBuilders’ mission statement here, and you see if you can identify the questions above.

We provide financial and business education to Christian entreprenuers and investors. Unlike secular educational and motivational companies, we offer a biblical kindom context for making sense of making money for making a difference. 

In two sentences, we have defined our purpose, our customer segment, our blue ocean, and our mission. Now you can see why it is so important to have a mission statement!

 

Step 2: Edit and Revise

 

Let me tell you, that mission statement was not my first draft. It used to be six or four sentences long, and it was not quite as eloquent. I had to narrow down what was most important to me in my business, and that was really hard. I encourage you to spend some time clipping and editing your statement until it is only a few sentences long.

After that, ask your employees or people close to you what they think of it. My wife was instrumental in writing our mission statements. She really understands the heart of our organizations, and she has a way with words. I asked her to collaborate with me in the process, and it improved my draft statements tenfold! If you already have employees, it’s important to ask them, too. They may see some things about your impact and activities than you do. Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate.

Lastly, spice up the words. Don’t just say that you teach people about money, say you provide financial and business education. Do you see the difference? Grab a thesaurus (or google one) and find creative, professional ways to convey what you do. Don’t get too far as to drift away from your original intent, but make it sound good. You want both your employees and customers to know it, so make it sound interesting.

 

Step 3: Put the Pencil Down

 

Once you have done a couple rounds of editing and you are content with what you have, drop the pen or pencil. As I cautioned earlier, you don’t want to edit so much that you get away from your original mission, and you want to make it sound cohesive. Over-editing won’t allow for that.

Perfect is the enemy of good

-Voltaire

If you are satisfied, and your mission statement clearly defines why your company exists, then go with it. You can always update it later if you feel you need to, but you likely won’t.

If you have a business, write your mission statement in the comment section! I’d love to look at it, and hear what you all do!

 

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My annual WealthBuilders conference is coming up in early 2018! We are going to start selling Earlybird tickets, so keep your eyes open! If you aren’t subscribed to our email list already, do so here so you can stay updated on this event and everything else that is going on here!