Why Should I Care About a Vision, Mission, and Values for My Business?

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You Need More Than Just A Great Idea

Starting a business because of a great idea is not enough to keep a business going. Yes you may have awesome skills and passion that you used to start it, but you might be feeling a little stuck right now. 

A lack of direction, no clear description of what your business does, and an absence of a company culture can negatively impact the growth of your company. You might be wondering why those things matter because you know that your business is a great idea. 

For starters, those are key things that you need to help you develop an effective and unique strategic plan for your business. Remember that a strategic plan still needs to be executed. So knowing those three things will also help you with implementing your strategic plan. This is because those three things are related to your vision, mission, and values for your business.

These past few weeks, I have been working with clients on the importance of knowing each of these three things and connecting them to their strategic plan. That has helped with gaining clarity on their organizational and personal goals, making hiring decisions, making staff development decisions, developing appropriate partnerships, and increasing their efficiency ...just for starters.

So since a vision, mission, and values can help with so many key areas in our business, let’s talk about each of these three things individually to get a better idea of how each helps our overall company.

What is a Vision Statement?

One of the first things that you need to know is where do you want your business to go. Put differently, that would be the vision that we have for your company. 

Your vision statement should provide a road map and capture what your company values the most. Bear in mind that you ARE a business owner. This means that you own a business. As a business owner, you may be running the company. So the vision for your company should be giving you the a future direction in which you want to run your company.

The vision for your company is not your personal vision. You are going to be using your company’s vision to communicate the meaning and purpose of your business to potential employees, vendors, investors, partners, and other stakeholders. So your vision statement should be reflecting a long-term result of the efforts of your company.

Just in case you are wondering why your vision statement is important for your company, there is research that Joseph Folkman shared on Forbes.com that showed that 68% of employees have high levels of engagement when they find the organization’s vision to have meaning that they can relate to!

What is a Mission Statement?

So a vision and mission statement are not the same. However, you may find several companies that list their vision and mission statement combined on their website. 

Your mission statement reflects the purpose of your company. According to Investopedia and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), your mission statement should let others know why your company exists. Mission statements, similar to vision statements, can serve to motivate your employees and provide some type of reassurance to investors on the sustainability of the company.

Your mission statement for your company supports your vision. It communicates both the purpose and the direction for your company.

What Your Company Needs Values?

According to the SHRM, your company’s values are used to guide decision-making by you and your employees. Your company's values are internal to your company and should be unique to your company.

Your values help to set the standard for the conduct of you and your employees. Your company’s values should be supported by the accountability systems that you have created.

Your values should not just be things that you list on your website. As the business owner, CEO, or founder, you should model incorporating the values into your actions and interactions. This would increase the likelihood that your team members will buy-into your value system.

To continue to embed the values into your company culture, there are various actions that you can take. Recognition is one such action.

So, Why Should You Care About a Vision, Mission, and Values for Your Business?

When you invest the time into integrating your values with your vision and mission, you will be much better at scaling your business and you will see the profits that you desire. This is why you should care about the vision, mission, and values for your company. 

If you are ready to get started with aligning the vision, mission, and values in your company, submit your coaching application and see if you qualify for a customized coaching program to meet your specific needs.

Thank you for taking the time to read my article.

Regards,

Dr. Priscilla "Dr. P" Kucer

Solutions+Actions=Results! (SoAR!)