How to Write a Mission Statement
Understanding how to write a mission statement is imperative for every business person. A mission statement is an important business tool that captures the essence of your philosophies and business goals.
It also defines the soul and heart of a company in a memorable and engaging way and your opportunity to create a lasting impression of your company for the world to see. Hence, it is essential to brainstorm on what the statement should include craft and perfect it to suit your needs.
5 steps on how to write a mission statement
Brainstorm
A brainstorming session is very crucial when writing a statement as it helps you to answer important questions including who are your clients and why are you in the business? The latter is a significant question that defines the content and tone of the statement.
Questions that help you to develop an ideal statement and address your concerns on What do we do in the field
- Who are the people you wish to help and
- What is your role in the field?
- Why do we serve clients in the way we do and how do we do it?
- Who are we in the industry and
- What image do we want to create for our business.
As you answer the above questions, you need to identify the defining features of your company. The tone should reflect the culture and style of the organization as well as the personality if you can. Figure out the perception of clients and relevant competitors of your organization and list down the traits that you think best sell the company.
It is equally essential to refer to guidelines to writing a mission statement to ask yourself whether your company is solid, conservative or the one that aims at achieving a cutting edge against relevant competitors or groundbreaking when writing a mission statement.
Do you want to paint a picture to the world as a company that is playful or has sense of humor, professional or unprofessional?
Ask yourself what the culture of your company is like; is there a specific dress code for the company, workplace formality or employees are allowed to dress in jeans?
Similarly, it is essential to determine what sets the company a part from the others when writing your statement. This is an important guideline to writing mission statement. It enables you to craft a statement that expresses your goals and style clearly even if it’s not shocking or unique.
Even so, when trying to work on something extra ordinary with your establishment, ensure this is reflected in your statement. Therefore, write down anything that will make your company special. In many cases, company goals sets an organization apart and you may want to launch a new innovative product be the best for value, enhance service delivery to clients or maximize on sales.
At this point, it is wise to write down your goals and recommendations to write a mission statement that includes one or two solid objectives or goals. Ask yourself what are your long term and short term objectives for the organization and what is the most crucial goal you wish to achieve?
As you craft the statement ensure your objectives focused on clients, customer service, being the market leader and enhancing the lives of people with your products and services and much more. It is also essential to focus on the personality of the company when writing your goals and they should reflect each other.
Write a mission statement that best suits your business
After brainstorming you should define the company by an achievable or actionable objective. Narrow down all the listed ideas and settle for the most interesting and the best to reach the heart of the company and what it has to offer. In a sentence, tell your audience what defines your organization and its goals. For example
Example 1…
At this kinesisinc.com page you will find an example of a powerful statement by Starbucks Company
Starbucks Mission Statement: To inspire and nurture the human spirit, one cup, one person and one neighborhood at a time.
Example 2…
‘’Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected’ ’Facebook.
Click here to view the whole statement.
Example 3…
Allenburg’s food and Gas: ‘to offer commuters on Highway 310 competitive gas prices and excellent food. The company will make a healthy food for its owners and provide rewarding work environ for its staff’’ bplans.com.
When crafting your statement, include solid and quantifiable features. Avoid writing a mission statement with idealistic and big vision that is not based on anything solid. This is why you should focus on these guidelines on how to write a mission statement to avoid painting the wrong picture of your company in the minds of target audience. The statement should be realistic and should not appear like it was copied from a mission statement generator.
Playing with language is also an important write a mission statement recommendation to focus on. This means that you should add some personality and style in the statement. Whether your company is conservative or formal, your language used should reflect the same. Use creative language if your organization is centered on fun or is playful.
Focus on your brainstorming session, choose your words wisely and structure your mission statement to ensure your points are clear. You may consider using one word that encapsulates the mission statement and emphasize on it using a sentence or two.
Consider having smaller mission statements for instance that address questions such as, what is your mission in relevance to your products and what is your customer service mission? If you want to emphasize on a given area for example, the image of your organization, you can do it and in an enticing manner.
Avoid fluff
Having a meaningful mission statement is a plus for any business. In this case, avoid fluff in your writing. Therefore, be careful on the choice of words you settle for on your vision and mission statement. Consider worlds that are meaningful to the organization and to you. Note that the purpose of a statement is to clearly communicate the truth about your organization, hence, write what you know.
The mission statement should additionally be concise and clear. A short paragraph is the way to go about writing a mission statement as it makes it easy to read repeat, copy and showcase for your global target audience to see. Avoid wordy statements as it makes it difficult to explain to someone or to elaborate when need arise. The best way to go about your statement is making it a slogan.
Finalize the company’s mission statement
Finalizing a statement is a crucial part to writing a mission statement. This is the point where you should engage other members of the organization. They should have a say in the statement hence, the need to ensure that it reflects the vision of the people for the organization.
Avoid writing statements that are off track. Writing a mission statement is not hard as long as you stay
- Focused
- Honest and
- Accurate
Have someone else to proofread it to get rid of possible spelling and grammar errors.
Focus on how to write a mission statement that is error free
The last but not the least guideline to writing a mission statement is testing and revising it. It is a highly significant in today’s world of advanced technology. Share the statement to interested parties and see what their reactions are. If the feedback from the mission statement is positive, then it will serve its purpose right. If not, consider revising it once again. Note that a good mission statement should lead target audience to asking intellectual questions. They would want to learn or know more about your company.
When revising the mission statement, keep in mind that your company evolves over time and so should the statement. In this relevance, it is imperative to avoid statements that can easily be outdated, dated or full of details that are no longer significant to the present or future situation of the company.
Most importantly, settle for strategies to writing a mission statement that will enable you develop a statement that will remain fresh for many years to come. You write from scratch and if not, always focus on a good idea or point that will always evaluate whether the statement still defines or reveals the soul and heart of your organization.
It is also good to be flexible and open to great ideas when writing your statement. Avoid being stagnant and adjust to changes. Incorporate and embrace new opportunities that the current market trend offers by making your statement new with a clear vision and purpose.
Do not state the obvious or pride on how ideal your company is.
Last but not least, craft a statement that is not limiting or highly expansive in its content. Instead, have a statement that is more realistic, current and instills a sense of purpose while having a cutting or a leading edge towards the company’s tomorrow’s vision and mission.
With the above guidelines on how to write a mission statement, it’s our hope that crafting an ideal one will not be a problem to you.
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Sources
http://articles.bplans.com/writing-a-mission-statement/
http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Mission-Statement
http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/businessplanning/ss/How-to-Write-a-Mission-Statement.htm