How To Write A Mission Statement In 5 Easy Steps

When you set-up a business, defining your mission statement is one of the first few essential things that need to be done. It gives a purpose to the organisation and creates a roadmap for the accomplishment of business goals. Your company can become directionless without a mission.

The statement entails describing the reason behind the existence of your company and its plans. It helps your competitors, clients, associates, suppliers and vendors to understand the underlying belief of the organisation. It helps in creating a connecting link between the various departments and makes all the employees work towards the fulfilment of the mission.

Thus the bottom line is that the mission statement must outline what is the company doing and why. So when you launch a new venture or purchase an existing profitable business for sale in South Africa, you will have to write a mission statement.

It can become tricky to surmise the purpose in a few sentences, but you must not go wrong with it as the foundation and the future of your company depend on it. Here is a step-by-step guide to writing a focussed mission statement. Take a look.

Consider The Vital Information

The first step is to identify the necessary information that will help people to understand what your business stands for and why it has been established in the first place. To answer this pertinent question, you will have to ask the same question to yourself and put it down in easily comprehensible words.

The answer lies in your own aim and vision to start a venture or the intention behind the acquisition of an established enterprise. You can add more information by defining the attributes of the company, such as its work culture and target audience. Besides the qualities, you need to determine the unique selling point of your business, which will help in creating a niche in the market.

So when you have collated all this information, you need to create a synopsis that must be written in a professional language. At times, people use humour to make it more attention-grabbing. You can decide on the tone of the statement on the basis of the work culture of your organisation. If it is an ad agency, you can be casual, and if it is a national daily, you must be professional.

Include The Business Operations

Since the first step defined what you do, the next step is to state how you do it. However, you don’t have to go into the details. Just an overview of the business operations will do the job. You can include your corporate values into this step to give it an appealing touch.

For instance, if you are going to have an eco-friendly production mechanism at your warehouse, then you must use words like organic and natural to your mission statement. It will instantly help people understand how you are running the operations. Other values that can be incorporated into the statement are industry-standard quality, complete customer satisfaction, constant innovation, etc. Pick the ones that will help in distinguishing your company from the competitors.

3. Incorporate The Team At Work

The mission statement is not only essential for the customers and competitors but is also equally relevant for the employees who will be using it as a driving force. So it must describe what it has in store for the workers. You must include a few more values, such as integrity, development, training, technological advancement, team spirit, etc.

The primary thing to consider here is that such qualities are enlisted by almost every company. So in order to make it enticing to get the right people onboard, you must write a few lines from the point of view of the employees and keep their aspirations in mind.

You can talk about offering the best work-life balance and opportunities to grow within the organisation that are usually the first priority of job seekers. Since most mission statements are written for customers, including a few phrases for the employees will help in making it unique and all-inclusive.

4. Pay Attention To The Customers

As stated above, most mission statements are customer-centric as the sales come from the customers. So you need to identify the desire of your target audience which you aim to fulfil and specify it clearly in your mission statement. You need to describe how your offering can enrich or add value to the lives of the customers.

Also, put emphasis on your service quality as the target audience is won over by the service extended to the customers. Finding customers is one of the common challenges faced by small business owners in South Africa, so you must be aware of their needs to grab their attention.

Try to include the perceived customer experience into the statement which will tell them how they are going to feel about the service. It must give them a solution to their problem so that they can feel associated with it. You must be empathetic while considering their viewpoint and voice their needs coherently.

5. Review, Revise And Sum Up The Story

Once you have surmised all the information, the next step is to create a few interesting lines that can grab the attention of all the people related to the organisation. Don’t make it too long as no one will read an elongated copy. Keep it short, crisp and to the point.

For example, when we combine all the steps mentioned above. We can come up with a mission statement like - The Company aims to provide organic food products grown in a sustainable environment under the supervision of highly trained farmers to propagate healthy living choices.

Thus you have covered the healthy eating need of your customer, the training need of your employees, the sustainable organisation need for defining work culture and the purpose of the company by talking about selling organic food products.

Endnote

Your mission statement offers a peek into the world of the organisation that makes people aware of its core competencies. So if you are planning to purchase a business for sale in South Africa, you must brainstorm effectively to create a perfect statement that goes a long way in cementing your position in the marketplace.