The next step in developing your strategy in your business plan is developing your Mission Statement. Whether you are starting up a new business or running an existing business you must identify the fundamental reason for your business to exist. Making money is an obvious choice but this is not a good enough reason alone for the business to exist.
The reason for your business to exist is your “mission” and this should be summarised in a maximum of 30 words.
What problem(s) does your business solve? The answer to this question is usually your mission.
You should include in your mission statement:
- The purpose of your business (what your company does)
- Why it needs to exist (problems your company solves)
- The values your company believes in.
Examples of Mission Statements
Amazon: Amazon’s vision is to be earth’s most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.
Apple: Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings.
Dell: Dell’s mission is to be the most successful computer company in the world at delivering the best customer experience in markets we serve.
Facebook: Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.
Google: Google’s mission is to organise the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Microsoft: Microsoft’s mission is to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realise their full potential.
Skype: Skype’s mission is to be the fabric of real-time communication on the web.
Twitter: “We want to instantly connect people everywhere to what’s most important to them.”
Yahoo!: Yahoo!’s mission is to be the most essential global Internet service for consumers and businesses
YouTube: YouTube’s mission is to provide fast and easy video access and the ability to share videos frequently
Tesco: “Creating value for customers, to earn their lifetime loyalty”
As you can see above, some of the world’s most successful companies have very brief mission statements some but they all convey a clear message about how they intend to conduct business. You should try to do something similar, remember you should be able to inspire people with your mission statement.
If you are just starting your business plan do not spend too much time on the mission statement as you will amend it as you progress through your plan.
Below is a good video explaining the importance of your mission statement and how to come up with one.
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