How to Write Your Mission Statement

How to Write Your Mission Statement

·         Mission statement explains what our business must do day-to-day to make our vision statement a reality. It is practical and rooted in the present.

·         Because it has a practical focus, a mission statement is easier to write than a vision statement.

·         Here's how to write a mission statement for your business:

Step 1: What Is a Mission Statement?

·         The phrase “mission statement” has many different meanings depending on who you ask. For our purposes, a mission statement is a few short sentences or paragraphs outlining what your business does to achieve its vision statement.

Step 2: Get Familiar with Your Vision Statement

·         To write a mission statement, you must first create a vision statement. If you haven't done so already, go write yours now.

Step 3: Write Your Mission Statement

·         With your vision statement to hand, ask yourself, “What must I do to make this happen?” Mission statements tend to be customer-focused, so another way of asking the question is: “What must I do for my customers to make this vision a reality?”

·         The easiest way to see how this is done is to use an example.

·         Let's take my vision statement:

·         I write awesome articles for business blogs that give their readers an “aha!” moment and keep readers coming back for more.

·         And see how this would become a mission statement:

·         I network with bloggers and business owners. I aim to brighten the day of everyone who contacts me by being a fun person to work with. I write great content that gives me an “aha!” feeling as I write it. I read a lot, online and offline, to keep my blogging ideas fresh.

·         As you can see, my mission statement doesn't cover everything my business does. There's a lot of paddling beneath the surface - bookkeeping and other admin. But it does cover most of what I do, from my marketing (networking and being fun to be around) to my core work (writing great articles) to giving people a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes (reading a lot). If ever I feel stuck, I can go back to my mission statement to remind me of exactly what I should be doing.

Step 4: Continually Review

·         As with your vision statement, your mission statement should be under continual review. As your vision statement changes, your mission statement will need to change, too.