Vision and Mission Statements & What They Can Do for You

Have you ever worked for a company and known exactly what they stand for and what they want to achieve? Mission and vision statements communicate exactly that.

Customers are more inclined to trust, and employees are more inclined to care about a business that lets you know that it cares about some things more than pure profit.

What are Mission or Vision Statements?

Mission and vision statements are short sentences that a business will write up with the intention of communicating its company ethos. However, they do work in slightly different ways.

A vision statement speaks of your overall goal for your business’s future.  For example, here at Little Pig Consulting, our vision statement is: “Be the leading, trusted resource for small businesses in the region.”

A mission statement, on the other hand, is an explanation of what your business is doing right now to achieve this goal. At Little Pig Consulting our mission statement is: “Providing innovative tools, resources and advice to assist businesses to build their tenacity.”

How to Write Your Vision Statement

Your vision statement should display your company’s goals as well as its values for your employees to look upon and understand.

When writing your vision statement the first thing you need to identify is your company’s goal. What do you want your company to have achieved in five years’ time? Are you aiming to be the biggest business in your field, whether that be in your area, your country or even the entire world? Or perhaps you instead mean to keep your company small and focus on delivering the best service for the customers you already have?

Either way, your vision for your company should incorporate the values you want to see in your employees. For example, here at Little Pig Consulting we want to be the “leading, trusted resource”. From this vision statement, this simple sentence, our employees know that while we want to be the best, integrity is our core value.

Some other successful examples of vision statements of companies include:

Amazon: “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: “To make the best products on earth, and to leave the world better than we found it.”

Google: “To provide access to the world's information in one click.”

How to Write Your Mission Statement

When writing your mission statement, you want to outline your promise to the world and exactly what your business will do to achieve its vision. A mission statement is a promise, to both itself and its customers.

Your mission statement should let people know why your company exists. More than that, it should give an idea of why it is different from others. In Little Pig Consulting’s mission statement, we say that we want to ‘assist businesses in building their tenacity.’ This sets us apart from other companies that may take a different approach.

Some other examples of mission statements of companies are:

Amazon: “Our mission is to continually raise the bar of the customer experience by using the internet and technology to help consumers find, discover and buy anything, and empower businesses and content creators to maximise their success. We aim to be Earth's most customer centric company.”

Apple: “Our mission is to bring the best personal computing products and support to students, educators, designers, scientists, engineers, businesspersons and consumers in over 140 countries around the world.”

Google: “Our company mission is to organise the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

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In Summary

If you can accurately communicate your company's vision and mission, you can install a sense of purpose and belonging in your employees.

Want to learn more about how to write a vision or mission statement? No problem! Book a free 45-minute consultation and talk to the best business coach near you. For more information on other tools for small business, read our blog on capability statements here.