Creating a Mission Statement for Your Business or Not-for-Profit
"What I try to tell young people is that if you come together with a mission, and its grounded with love and a sense of community, you can make the impossible possible."
- John Lewis, Politician & Civil Rights Leader
Mission statement definition
A mission statement is a concise summary statement describing what your company does, the problem you solve and for whom.
Difference between purpose and mission statements
There is an important distinction between purpose statements and mission statements. Purpose statements
answer the question - why does your business exists? In other words, what is the motivation or inspiration?
On the other hand, mission statements answer the question - what does your business do, i.e. what is the primary activity and for whom?
Benefits of a mission statement
There are three core benefits derived from a well-considered mission statement. They are:
- Communication: Efficiently introduce your business to customers, investors, team members and other stakeholders while attracting further interest.
- Alignment:
Coalesce resources and effort around shared goals and execution.
- Focus: Clarity in scope provides helpful parameters for strategy, planning and execution.
Framework for drafting a mission statement
One favorite approach when drafting a mission statement is to consider it in four distinct parts that are then joined together -
- What are your core activities?
- Who is your ideal customer?
- What problem is solved by your products or services?
- How do you solve the problem?
Mission statement example
The following example demonstrates how the Protellus mission statement is constructed using the suggested framework.
| What are the Core Activities? | Who is Ideal Customer? | What is the Problem Solved? | How is Problem Solved? |
|---|---|---|---|
| We provide digital marketing and consulting solutions | Entrepreneurs motivated by purpose | Worry about marketing. Not enough time for other aspects of their business. Want to grow business. |
Implement a sustainable marketing approach that attracts and converts more ideal customers, stimulates repeat purchases, recommendations and referrals. |
Now pull the elements together and do some minor tweaks to get the mission statement -
"We provide digital marketing and consulting solutions to entrepreneurs motivated by purpose which removes their worry about marketing, frees up more time for them to focus on other aspects of their business and enables them to realize their growth objective.
We do it by implementing a sustainable marketing approach that attracts and converts more ideal customers, stimulates repeat purchases, recommendations and referrals."
If you have questions or need help, please don't hesitate to contact us using the green email or chat circle in the lower right.
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