What is Your Mission?

The mission statement for small businesses is important part on the road to entrepreneurial success. However, there are many problems that many entrepreneurs don’t see.

It seems so simple, but small businesses are so much dependent on that sentence.

I do not believe that there is a company that has no mission. At least most of them have a special web page on their website that stated that sentence.

It is not the problem that we have a mission statement on the web site. The problem is more substantial and based on the following truths:

• Many mission statements don’t reflect the reality of the business and
• Importance of the mission statement is underestimated from entrepreneurs.

So, why we need such a statement.

The business mission should define what the business wants to make at least for four categories:

• Customers,
• Employees,
• Owners and
• Society.

In simpler words, the mission is the reason for the existence of your business.

And now we can see many mission statements as the following:

Our mission is to provide the best quality, cutting-edge products and services from our industry for our customers.

This is a short version. It can have several sentences, but most are blah, blah, blah…

Often when I ask entrepreneurs for whom they will provide their products and services? They say for our customers. I continue with the question: Who are they? Again, the answer is our customers. Tell me something more specific about them? And then there is the biggest problem when they say: anyone, what’s a matter?

The thinking behind this answer is that everyone who can become a customer is welcomed. However, this thinking is so wrong and can be really terrific for an small-business owner.

You can’t satisfy everyone! You need to know exactly who you want to satisfy.

Who are your customers?

Do you know them well enough?

It seems that key questions to don’t have an appropriate answer.

Want to meet their needs? You have to know much more things about them. When you know them better, you need to specify your mission statement when it comes to your customers. It is not only for you. It is for everyone else in your business, and also for your external environment.