HOW TO WRITE A MISSION STATEMENT

WRITE A MISSION STATEMENT IN 3 EASY STEPS

By Susan Ward

The mission statement articulates a company's purpose. It announces to the world at large why your company exists.

So you can think of a mission statement as a combination of what your company does and how and why it does it, expressed in a way that encapsulates the values that are important to you. Here's how to write a mission statement in three easy steps.

1) Describe what your company does.

No need to be fancy here. Just say it, for the moment.

Sample Mission Statements

My company's purpose is to:

·         Sell shoes

·         Provide educational services

·         Grow market vegetables

2) Describe how you do it.

This is the tricky part, because we're not looking for a detailed description of your business's physical operations here; we're looking for a description of how your business operates generally. For most people, this means incorporating one or more of your core values into your description.

So take a moment to think of/list the core values that are important to you that are expressed in your business. Here are some sample values that might be important to you and the way you do business that you may want to use when you write a mission statement:

Sample Values

·         Provide high product quality

·         Provide superior customer service

·         Protect the quality of the environment

·         Ensure equal access to resources

·         Encourage innovation/creativity

·         Practice sustainable development

It might be helpful to focus on your business's core competencies when you're considering which values are worthy of being a part of your mission statement. Once you've decided which core values are most important, add one (or two at the most) to your description of what your company does.

Sample Mission Statements

My company's purpose is to:

·         Sell shoes of the highest quality

·         Provide educational services that allow all children to experience learning success

·         Grow market vegetables using organic, sustainable farming practices

3) Add why.

When you write a mission statement, this is the part that describes your spark, or the passion behind your business.

Why does your business do what it does? For some people, it helps to think back on why they started their business in the first place.

Sample Mission Statements

My company's purpose is to:

·         Sell shoes of the highest quality so every customer can find a pair of shoes they actually love to wear.

·         Provide educational services that allow all children to experience learning success and become life-long learners and contributing members of our community.

·         Grow market vegetables using organic, sustainable farming practices to give people safe and healthy food choices.

When you're finished, have another look at your mission statement and see if it says what you want to say or if there's a better way of phrasing it. Be sure to change the phrase "my company's purpose" to the name of your company.

For example;

"My company's purpose is to grow market vegetables using organic, sustainable farming practices to give people safe and healthy food choices",

might be rephrased to produce this finished mission statement:

"At Earth's Bounty, we grow market vegetables in a way that's good for the earth and good for the table".

4) Put your mission statement to work.

Besides directing your business planning, you want your mission statement to be front and centre in the minds of everyone who works in your business and communicated to customers and/or clients. As the statement of why you exist, it's also the statement that explains to them why they would want to do business with you.

Some businesses go so far as to make their mission statements the themes of their advertising campaigns. If you do nothing else, you should make sure your mission statement is highly visible in your business premises, on your website if you have one, and on all your marketing materials.

A good mission statement isn't just a slogan, it's an operations manual and it can't provide the guidance it's intended to provide if people aren't familiar with it.