Don't Mess With A Missionary Man - Small Business With Attitude

INTRODUCTION:

We've all heard of mission statements but what are the actually for and are they useful? According to Investopedia, A mission statement is a short sentence or paragraph used by a company to explain, in simple and concise terms, its purposes for being.

I've seen many statements that are vague, general and quite wishy washy. They do not actually give a clear indication of an organisation's "why".

A mission statement should be brief and be able to be read in 30 seconds or less and ideally state what it can do for its customers, employees and its owners.

What are some of the benefits of having mission statements?

Figure 1: What is your company's purpose?

1. They Assist With Marketing

Mission statements are often used in marketing. Being able to accurately and concisely tell your reason for being can often ring true with your potential customers.

If I want to do business with someone, a business that has a statement that tells me what they stand for and what they aim to achieve can often be the difference between buying or leaving when making a decision to deal with them or not.

I also like to get a feel for a company's culture.

2. Can Set The Tone For A Business Plan

I believe that starting with your purpose and clearly defining your overall objective in a couple of paragraphs including profitability and or revenue, will go a long way to helping you create an effective business planning process. As small business accountants Sydney and Dubbo. We often ask our clients what it is they actually wish to accomplish financially and non-financially. Often they cannot really tell us.

Investors, bankers and potential employees will all get a better picture when making decisions on whether to be part of your dream when they look at your statement.

Have you actually shown any of these yours?

3. Direction Providing Statements

A great mission statement will provide direction on where the company wants to head with profits, products and how they are going to solve a customer's problem. Such a statement should keep everybody on track.

Figure 2: Defining a brief outline of your objective can keep you on track for success.

4. Examples

It's easy to find some examples if you are struggling to come up with some ideas and how to format your overall objectives. I like Mercedes'.

• To delight our customers in everything we are doing;
• To continually improve the effectiveness of our Quality Management System and our business processes;
• To continually improve the quality of our products and services;
• To have a team-oriented and open minded corporate culture involving employees through leadership and individual acceptance of delegated responsibility;
• To be aware of our environment;
• To have a professional relationship with our business partners.

Toyota and Microsoft's are also good which you can Google.

For small business I like to see some profit and revenue goals on there as well as:

• what you stand for;
• what product or services you offer;
• who will benefit from your products and services;
• how they benefit from your product or services;
• why somebody would want to work for you.

CONCLUSION:

If you don't have a mission statement that is ok but can you state very briefly what your end game is to anyone that asks?

If you have a business plan, have a look at it and see if it reflects your overall objectives.

Such a revision might just make a difference to anyone who might want to deal with you meaning better customers, employees, profits and a higher small business valuation.