You may have seen some companies’ publications with statements they refer to as their vision statement. It is now a common practice for businesses to have a well-spelt-out vision statement. More than it is just a common practice, there are so many benefits you will stand to gain by having a vision statement for your business, even if it’s a small business.
In a previous post, I wrote about what a personal vision statement is, why it is important and how you can create one for yourself. A vision statement is also important for you to have for your business. In this post, I will be helping you understand what a vision statement is, why you need one and how to craft one for your business.
What Is A Vision Statement?
A vision statement summarizes in an inspiring tone, what an organization or business seeks to achieve for itself in the future. It helps one understand why the company exists and why they do what they do. A good vision statement must be unambiguous and must be able to inspire belief.
Why Vision Statement
Companies don’t just create vision statements for the sake of creating one. There are several reasons why they do, and these include:
Direction and Focus
An organization’s vision statement helps give the organization direction and focus on its goals and objectives. This is because a vision statement tells of a future that the organization wishes for itself and as such, helps the organization’s leaders and workers understand what they believe in aiming to achieve.
Motivate
By telling of the future of an organization, a vision statement helps keep the staff and leaders of an organization motivated and inspired in the work they do. It gives them a sense of purpose in the work they do within the organization. And the truth is that people are looking for what to believe in.
Inspire Interest in Your Business
An organization’s vision statement does not only do an internal function, it also helps inspire the interests of people outside of the organization in the organization. Such external persons include prospective employees, customers, investors, and partners.
Steps To Crafting A Vision Statement For Your Business
Having now understood what a Vision Statement is and why you need one for your business, it is now time to craft one for your business. To do this, take out a sheet of paper and follow the steps below. You could do this alone or in the company of partners or key personnel if your business is already existing.
Define and clarify the “Why” of your business
What was the reason you decided to start a business? What was that problem you saw and you felt a strong desire to come up with your idea to solve it? These are what make up the “WHY” of your business and you need to, first of all, define and clarify this before you can craft a compelling vision statement.
One important thing you must understand is that your “WHY” as a business is so essential that Simon Sinek believes people don’t buy what you do but why you do it.
Clarify the present and future goals you have for your business
What are the goals you have set for your business? Both current and future ones. Maybe you want your business to be recognized as a leading producer or dealer within the industry it is operating. Write all of these out as they will help you in understanding what exactly you want to achieve through your business.
Clarify What Success Means For Your Business
What does success mean for you in your business and how will you know you have achieved it?
Craft Your Vision Statement
After going through the first three steps, the next thing to do is to put pen to paper and bring all the ideas you now have together in a way that inspires action. There is no rule as to how short or how long a vision statement should be but it must be concise enough for you, your staff and your customers to remember them.
Before you craft yours or after you have come up with your first draft, you may wish to compare it with those of other companies, especially those in the same industry as yours.
Conclusion
Even after reading this, you may still not appreciate the need to have a vision statement for your business, and that’s okay. No rule states you must have one to be a profitable business. But the benefits of having one for your business far outweigh your reasons not to. So get it done.
