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The mission statement is the most important document of your company or nonprofit. It’s what sets you apart from other organizations, and it guides everything about how you run your business for success.
The “sample mission statement template” is a six-step process to writing your own mission statement. It includes a sample mission statement and a template for you to use.
A mission statement is a concise, meaningful sentence that encapsulates the motivation behind your company. Your mission statement, like your company’s vision (the “what”) and values (the “how”), answers the question of why you do what you do.
To create your company mission statement, we’ll walk you through a straightforward six-step procedure. We’ll also provide you a template and some samples to get you started.
Consider putting your firm mission statement on your website after you’ve finished it.
Template for a Mission Statement
Here’s a Template for a Mission Statement that will take you through the process described below to create your business mission statement in six steps.
Consider your mission statement as a haiku or a tweet as you go through the template.
- Download the template in DOC or PDF format.
Here are six steps to help you establish a mission statement for your business.
Step 1: Start by asking questions.
You may accomplish this on your own, with a company partner, or with a group of trusted advisers, such as your top managers, business coach, accountant, or even your spouse. The objective is to start thinking about what your company does and why it does it.
Ask yourself and your team fundamental questions about your firm, such as these:
- What exactly do we do?
- What are we going to make?
- What difference does it make?
- To whom does it matter?
- What difference does it make?
Please take your time. In fact, scheduling a meeting or two to achieve this may be the best option. In one meeting, for example, you could wish to go through the mission statements of different companies. Look for firms that you respect or that conduct comparable work to yours on the internet.
Then ask yourself and your advisers these questions:
- What sets our company apart from the competition?
- How can we improve on the mission statements of others?
- Which mission statements are most meaningful to us?
- What type of description would be appropriate for our company?
Here’s an illustration:
Let’s imagine you’re the owner of a tire shop and you’re trying to come up with a goal statement for your company. These are some possible responses to the questions above:
- What exactly do we do? Install tires
- What are we going to make? Safer vehicles
- What difference does it make? Fewer accidents
- To whom does it matter? Vehicle owners and their families like parents of teen drivers
- What difference does it make? We make traveling within our community safer
There is no mention of how much money you earn or how many tires you sell in those questions or replies. As a mission statement should be, they’re focused on your clients’ requirements.
After that, pose the following questions to your competitors:
- What sets our company apart from the competition? We’re locally owned
- How can we improve on the mission statements of others? Example: Big O’s mission is to offer better service than customers can get anywhere else; we could say instead that we care about you and your safety
- Which mission statements are most meaningful to us? Superior Tire in California says, “Value pricing and feel-good customer service.”
- What type of description would be appropriate for our company? One that focuses on keeping your family safe providing hometown service
Step 2: Create a brainstorming list based on your responses.
This may seem to be the simplest step, but it may be challenging since individuals are prone to self-editing. Rather, just write. Start repeating words or short sentences out loud to yourself or your team. Some of the phrases and concepts will be brilliant, while others will be ridiculous. Don’t pass judgment.
In fact, while you’re brainstorming, don’t edit at all. Simply jot down the words that come to mind in yours or theirs. Exactly what they say should be written. If you paraphrase their thoughts, they will stop sharing and you will miss the nugget of their contribution.
This is merely a data collection phase. You’ll wind up with a few common emotion words or short phrases that start to make sense and connect with both you and others.
Step 3: Trim Your Word List
If you’re coming up with the words on your own (which isn’t encouraged), it’s simple to amend simply crossing off the keywords you don’t like or don’t fit. However, doing this in a meeting or group environment and allowing participants to “vote” on terms or phrases they like is a fun way to accomplish it.
Consider putting the words on a chart or paper and allowing your team to vote on their favorites by placing stars or checkmarks next to the keywords or adjectives they like most. This feedback has the added advantage of gaining your employees’ “buy-in,” which we’ll address later in this piece.
This approach will narrow down your selection of terms to the ones that are most indicative of your business and most crucial in describing what you do and why you do it.
Step 4: Make a rough draft
This is the step in the process that you, your marketing, public relations, or human resources department, or another creative-writing resource, should take responsibility of. It’s better done alone, rather than in a group. Here’s an example of five first-draft mission statement suggestions for a tire firm.
You may condense your ideas into a single first-draft goal statement. Alternatively, you might start with a few rough goal statements and build from there. The goal is to write out your mission statement or statements. You may make changes later.
Step 5: Get some feedback
Surprisingly, numerous company entrepreneurs overlook this crucial step. It’s crucial since you want to ensure that people understand what you’re trying to express. If you post your mission statement without first seeking feedback from others, you may wind up with something that only you find inspiring. Another blunder is allowing a PR or HR professional to write your mission statement without your or anybody else’s participation. Take your time with it since it’s your mission statement and should represent your personality.
A meeting is effective once more. You may also enter your mission statement and distribute it around your workplace. Customers, staff, and other company owners may all provide comments. Pay attention to what they have to say about how the mission statement makes them feel.
Because they don’t want to hurt your emotions, some individuals may merely nod and say, “It’s alright.” The following are some helpful questions to ask to urge people to open up and provide honest feedback:
- What does this say about our firm to you?
- What changes would you make to the wording?
- What about this sentence does not appeal to you?
- What’s lacking from it?
Steps four and five may need to be repeated until everyone agrees that the company has a purpose and that they can buy into it. Brandon Peele, the author, explains why:
‘Planet on Purpose,’ by Brandon Peele
“People who are linked to their greater purpose are four times more likely to be engaged and five times more productive than those who are not.” This and more studies (on the impact of purpose in the workplace, on health, and on society) may be found at http://scienceofpurpose.org.”
Continue to revise and solicit feedback until you and others you trust agree that you’ve nailed it.
Step 6: Finalize & Share It
It’s time to formalize your mission statement after you’ve solidified it. Once you’ve decided, “this is it – this is our goal statement,” you’ll probably feel relieved. Make a note of it someplace so you don’t forget what you said, since the next stage is to start incorporating your goal statement into corporate communications.
Example:
Our Tires & Service Keep You & Your Family Safe on All Wheels
Your company’s mission statement should be communicated.
There are a variety of methods to express your mission statement, so we’ll go through a few of the more popular. Keep in mind that you’re speaking to several people. Employees should be aware of your mission statement. It’s also a good idea to share it with your customers and perhaps even vendor partners.
Multiple audiences may be served by the communication vehicles you select to deliver your mission statement. Consider the following two examples:
- Workplace posters, your business manual, offer letters, your company jobs website, and employee paycheck stubs are all good places to include your goal statement. Include it in job postings and on company swag such as t-shirts, caps, and coffee mugs.
On a coffee cup, there is a mission statement. Pinterest is the source of this information.
- Customer-facing materials: Your mission statement may be printed on business cards, product brochures, business proposals, your company website, billboards, mailers, and even vinyl decals for corporate vehicles.
On business cards, mission statements Pinterest is the source of this information.
Document the location of your mission statement.
Make a note of every time your company’s mission statement is shown, conveyed, or demonstrated. If you change anything, make sure it’s updated consistently wherever it’s used.
3 Mission Statement Examples from Leading Companies
We enlisted the help of top business gurus to come up with mission statements that motivate them. We hope these three mission statement examples have given you an idea of how one should be written. Take note of how they make you feel about the company. Take a look at them:
1. Investor Reward: Bring humanity to business and help people reclaim time for what matters to them.
Breyer Home Buyers owner Shawn Breyer
Trevor Mauch’s at Investor Carrot has the greatest one I’ve seen.
“Help individuals reclaim time for the things that matter by bringing empathy to business.”
2. Tesla: To Hasten the Transition to Sustainable Energy Around the World
BeLucent’s CEO, Luke Vincent
Tesla’s mission statement is the greatest I’ve ever read:
“To hasten the transition to sustainable energy across the globe.”
What’s so remarkable about this is how unselfish it is. The firm is first and foremost concerned with doing good, and later with making a profit. It has discovered a genuine issue in the world and is focusing its whole business on resolving it. As a consequence, it sold 250,000 Model 3s in the first week without spending any money on promotion, and it has already outperformed Porsche in terms of market capitalization.
3. Nike’s mission is to inspire and innovate for every athlete* on the planet.
Diefendorff, Inc. CEO James Reeves
I nearly always think of Nike when I think about strong mission statements:
“To inspire and innovate for every athlete* on the planet.”
“*You are an athlete if you have a body.”
From the perspective of a client, I appreciate it since it is true in a variety of ways. To begin with, it’s matched by excellent advertising – how can anybody with a pulse not be motivated by a Nike commercial?
Second, it creates a psychological impact of inclusion via tribalism in the statement’s second sentence. It confirms my opinion that I don’t need a six-pack to be a competitive athlete. Being an athlete is a cerebral process, not a physical one. This is especially beneficial to me now that I am 40, but I digress…
Finally, it’s excellent from the aspect of corporate strategy. You’ll note that “sneakers” and “apparel” aren’t mentioned at all. This frees them from the confines of their expanding sector and enables them to branch out into technology and applications. Furthermore, Nike has been a pioneer in sustainable design and social responsibility for decades, having learned from its 1990s missteps. It permits it to explore new materials and procedures by incorporating the term “innovation” (not as a cliché, but as a genuine thing), which it has done to great advantage.
The Advantages of Having a Mission Statement
Your mission statement may be used to attract consumers and workers to your firm in addition to helping you express the goal of your organization and functioning as a branding strategy. Branding on the inside may be used to motivate your staff. Use it as a kind of Branding on the Outside to persuade clients to contact you rather than the competitors.
Branding on the inside
Your mission statement may assist you in establishing your employment brand and attracting top people to your organization. If workers believe in your mission statement, it may inspire and engage them.
It’s fairly unusual for workers to tell their friends and relatives where they work. Their passion spreads well beyond your four walls thanks to social media. If you’re fortunate, they’ll tell their friends about what they enjoy about your firm and its objective, boosting your brand’s reputation. Here’s an illustration.
An employee’s explanation of why she enjoys working at Zendesk.
Branding on the Outside
Your mission statement is another another marketing weapon in your toolbox. It may be used to advertise your business, run social media campaigns, and communicate with your community.
Church Campaign Services (source)
Most Commonly Asked Questions
1. What is the purpose of writing out a mission statement?
Your mission statement is already public. It is real. It’s simply not written down, and people who aren’t familiar with your industry are misinterpreting it. To put it another way, if you don’t offer your staff and consumers the words or phrases to represent your objective, they’ll do it on their own. You have control over the message by putting out your mission statement. You are in charge of the brand.
2. What is the best way to communicate my purpose statement?
Get creative when it comes to expressing your mission statement on your website, business cards, job listings, and the side of company vehicles. Ask your staff where they want your mission statement to be displayed. On the inside rear pockets of their work jackets? What do they put on their buttons? On the packing slips that come with the boxes they send? When and when you engage with people, you may communicate your mission statement. Have you ever attended a trade show? There are mission statements all over the place.
3. What if my goal statement morphs into something else?
It’s possible that you’ll discover a better approach to communicate your purpose, or that your company’s objective may shift entirely. Consider all of the locations it’s shown, from your employee handbook to a highway billboard. You’ve already recorded all the areas where your goal statement may be accessed if you followed step six above.
Make all of the modifications at the same time. It’s possible that updating your mission statement may need issuing a press release to promote your new objective. You could also want to remind staff of your mission statement at a business meeting and in a customer letter (to clients). If you take advantage of that chance to explain why the adjustment was made, you may gain even more respect and loyalty.
4. How does developing a personal mission statement vary from writing a business purpose statement?
Rather of concentrating on what the company does and why, concentrate on what you do and why. Otherwise, developing a personal purpose statement follows a similar pattern. The only variation from the six-step method above is that your advisory board may be tiny — you and your spouse, you and your business coach, or just you.
Here are two examples of personal purpose statements, one from a corporate leader and the other from a sports great.
Oprah Winfrey: I’d want to teach.
Slideshare.net is the source of this information.
Merlin J Olson: My life’s emphasis starts at home with my family…
The Solopreneur Life is the source for this information.
5. How does developing a mission statement for a nonprofit organization vary from writing a mission statement for a for-profit firm?
A nonprofit mission statement will concentrate on the nonprofit product or services rather than the business’s for-profit goods and services. Nonprofit and for-profit mission statements are quite similar in that they are both externally oriented (on people they serve) and may be written using the same six processes outlined above.
One of our nonprofit donors has supplied two examples below:
Amanda J. Ponzar, Community Health Charities’ Chief Marketing Officer
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has by far the finest mission statement:
“We are impatient optimists seeking to remove inequity: all lives have equal worth.”
I’m not sure what more to say. That is very inspirational.
Also, Sarah Adolphson’s organization, The Artemis Agency; I just spoke with her about her celebrity clients who are cause ambassadors. Her mission is to:
“Assisting customers in actively changing the world.”
The first time I read it, it impacted me.
Final Thoughts
A mission statement is nothing more than a collection of words. They must be your own words. They characterize your company – why it exists, what it does, who it serves, and why it is important. We hope you and your team come up with a mission statement that motivates you and your customers. Will you share your mission statement with us in the comments after you’ve finished it?
The “how to write vision and mission statements pdf” is a guide that will help you write your own. The steps in the article are easy to follow and it includes a template.
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