Business Plan – The Mission Statement

The Mission Statement seems to be another one of those declarations that everyone has in their business plan and no one knows what is in it and no one really cares. Often it contains statements such as, “We will be point of reference for the market.” Others play to the opinion that an aggressive statement such as, “We will dominate the internet space,” shows desire and high self-esteem. If you have statements like this, eliminate them. They do nothing toward helping the people around you understand what you want to do and make you lose credibility with those who might invest in your company.

The Mission Statement is an outline. Think of it as a general description of your plan of attack. It should help your employees understand what type of operations are in line with the overall objectives of the company and allow investors determine if your current strategy is in line with where you want to be.

The Mission Statement should also be synchronized with your Statement of Values and your Vision of the business environment. In other words if your differentiating factor is customer service and your Values Statement indicates that return on investment is the most important thing to the company you have a problem. It is important to think about the relationship among the various factors influencing your company. Is it possible to accomplish your mission considering your Vision of the market and the way you intend to interact with employees?

The following is an actual Mission Statement from a plan that was financed for $46 million US:

Our mission is to develop national networks for voice telephony and data transmission in European countries experiencing de-regulation and in the emerging Eastern European and Latin American markets. The company’s infrastructure exploits the technological advances in voice telephony and data transmission to offer quality services at a reasonable cost allowing our customers to become leaders in their own fields.

Think about these statements. They can help you stay on track and communicate your message to those around you.

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