Writing A Business Plan Mission Statement
In the early stages of figuring out what your business is
, deciding on a mission statement which will serve the business both now and in the future, meeting the needs of funders, employees, and customers, is difficult. The challenge is to make the mission statement specific enough that it is clear that it is for your business alone and would not work just as well for another business or a competitor, while making it general enough to allow for your strategy to develop over time.Though the mission statement can be changed in the future, it is not recommended to plan to have to do this multiple times. It should be relatively stable so that all of the stakeholders think of the company as a steady and reliable provider.
Components of a Mission Statement
A mission statement generally explains what customers the company serves, through what means, and with what intended results for the company and customers. The customers that are described here should be the broader target market you seek to serve, even if the initial focus is on smaller niches. The means should be the products or services the company creates, defined broadly enough to include future expansion of the product line. The intended results include the need that is solved for customers and any non-financial goals of the company. Financial goals such as maximizing profit or maximizing shareholder value are generally shared across almost all for profit businesses. While they remind shareholders of the financial focus of the business, they are not necessary to be included in an externally communicated mission statement. By stating the goal of helping customers, your statement describes the primary means for the company to achieve the greater financial goals of profit and value.
Strategy and the Mission Statement
Strategy may be a major part of your business plan, described in the marketing and operations plans especially. However, strategy is, by its nature, flexible, and will evolve as you learn more and see the results of years of implementation. The mission statement must rise above strategic decisions by being broad about how the company will serve customers, while specific enough to differentiate the business from competitors trying to solve the same customer problem.
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