Business Plan Mission And Vision
Without a mission and a vision, you’re just another product on a shelf! Last week we talked about Why You Should Write A Business Plan.
This week we continue the series and discuss mission and vision. Now, I can tell you that I’ve had everyone and their brother argue with me on the definitions of mission and vision.
For the sake of this post, mission is what God is telling you that you’re supposed to do, and vision is where you’re going. If you don’t agree with that, it’s ok. You can be wrong, I don’t mind.
When it comes to writing a business plan, I believe it is imperative for you know what it is you’re supposed to do. If you’re a believer, then you should be spending countless hours in prayer asking for God to show you exactly what it is that He wants His business to do.
Notice that I said HIS business. You see, you have to make a choice. Is it YOUR business, or HIS? If it’s yours, do whatever you want. If it’s His, you might want to follow His lead and make your mission about what He’s telling you. If you’re not a believer, then follow your heart to the best of your ability and make sure it’s about helping people. You can’t go wrong there.
Career coach Dan Miller says your mission should be about:
- Your Skills and Abilities
- Personality Traits
- Dreams and Passions
Write out exactly what your top qualities are in each of these areas, and then work hard at forming a sentence with those exact words. Try making it no more than 12 – 14 words so it’s easily memorable.
Work to craft that into a viable Mission Statement that represents you well (keeping in mind its not chiseled in stone). A mission statement is viable as long as that’s what God is telling you to do.
When it comes to vision, you have to realize a couple things:
- Vision is where you are headed. It’s not a dream, it’s not a goal, it’s the destination you’re moving toward until you have a new destination.
- Proverbs 29:18 reads, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” I have done a word study on perish to find that it means to be set out in a dessert with no food, no water, and no possible way back to civilization. You literally just wither away and die. I think we can all claim a former job where we felt that way. If you don’t have a vision, YOU, YOUR COMPANY, AND YOUR TEAM ARE PERISHING!!
Therefore, it is vital to have a vision that you share repeatedly. To discover your vision, write down where you are right now as a company. Then, write down where you are headed. Finally, write down how you will get there.
With this, formulate your vision according to where you are going. This gives you and your team something to aim at.
Adding these to your business plan will help you to see that you have more than just an idea. It’ll show that you have a direction and a future.
We’ve been in a series on business plans and have covered:
Business Plan Goals and Selling Strategies
Business Plan: Open Door Phase
Business Plan Mission and Vision
Question: How important is mission and vision to YOUR success?
By the way, we’ve had a couple coaching spots open up for next week. If you’re interested click here.
Mission: What you are going to do.
“This is a clear, concise statement of the mission essential task(s) to be accomplished by the unit (team) and the purpose to be achieved.
The mission statement will state WHO, WHAT (the task), WHEN (the critical time), WHERE (usually a grid coordinate), and WHY
(the purpose the unit must achieve).”
-Pg. 22 of US Army Ranger Handbook.
Vision: What reality will look like when you complete your mission (outcome).
Example: An English teacher at a high-school where only 75% of the students graduate (currently) has a vision where 100% of students graduate (in the future). The teacher’s mission will be derived from his vision. I want this outcome, I must execute these action plans to achieve this outcome.
An over-arching mission can be broken into smaller missions in order to achieve an outcome that you envision. imo
It is exclusively important! I believe as a blogger and teaching in the music industry that even though I may be blogging for others I am generally receiving from God on what to write to help others, but at the same time I am casting a vision, His vision, and my vision being that they are all one an intertwined. So I love going back to read my own blogs because they fire my passion of Christ to keep moving towards the goal. Everything I do concerning my music business is according to the vision. I try to NOT do anything that doesn’t have anything to do with it and only what I do concerning my best work to fulfill the vision and mission.
This is so true! I saw this in action when I worked for the Navy. We had a mission and vision. The problem was that we, not the Navy in whole, just my small department within a department, did not follow the vision. Instead, we were all over the place. In the end, losing the focus hurt us.
As I start my new business, I’ve taken this lesson learned first hand and mapped out my mission and vision.
Excellent post Chris. Thank you.
We’re getting back to vision with our youth group and it feels good! We now have a clear direction of where we want to go and what we need to do to get there. So mission and vision is critical.
I can state authoritatively that experimental test pilots around the world are cheering at Chris’s correct definition of vision and mission.
I’m sure that there are plenty of ways to get to where you’re going without knowing the destination or knowing what you’re supposed to do. Not.
Without God’s mission and a clear vision, you won’t be able to make a definitive step in the right direction.
preach it brother!!!
This is something I am trying to create for myself and family. As I’ve been considering this I’ve really re-focused on my need for maps, and picturing a destination. I’m not interested in wandering aimlessly any longer. Thanks for the call to action in your post.
printing this post out!! and I love the line, “you can be wrong, I don’t mind.”
to your question, simply, “vison” gives me excitement. It is also a tool for me to use to keep, centered/level or on point. Vision also gives me definition on the “why” I do what I do, too.
Great timing on this post. Thanks
Chris, I know this is an older article but…
I have been searching the web for example mission and vision statements and truthfully they are rather lame. Most of them sound like they were put together by a committee. They come across as drab and meaningless.
I would love to see examples of some of the more thoughtful statements you have encountered.