Having a clear vision for your future is one of the most important steps to starting and running a business. It will be the motivation behind all of your hard work. It will be the basis for anything you put into action. There are a few definitions for it, but my favorite is, “The act or power of imagination.”
Vision
If your vision is to be retired in 10 years, then you will need to design your road map to get you there. If it is to sell your business in 5 years to an investor, then you need to start doing some research to see what investors are looking to buy and what they are paying for businesses similar to yours. If you don’t at least start this process, I can guarantee that you will never reach your full potential!
Mission
Once your vision is set, you will want to determine your mission. Your mission will help you (and your employees) determine what is important to the organization. It will also guide your daily decisions and actions. Lastly, it will help all on board have a mutual feeling of accomplishment as goals are achieved that enable your vision.
Core Values
The last step in this process is to determine your core values. These are the pillars of your foundation and will be the deciding force for many of your actions. Here are a few of ours:
Results-Driven – always work from the mindset of “helping our clients win”
Enduring Relationships – to build long-lasting, meaningful relationships, internally and externally
Sustainability – to run our business without jeopardizing future growth
To show you how powerful this is, let me give you an example. Our first core value on this list above is Results-Driven. We always assess our clients before working with them. If by chance we feel that you can get your desired results without our help, we’ll let you know before we spend any time with you. That does two things for us: 1.) It builds trust with you and shows we are not just about making another sale and 2.) It allows us to spend time with another client… one that actually needs our help and values our assistance. This will also help enable Enduring Relationships and eventually helps us with Sustainability. The more time we spend with clients that need our help, it increases our chances for referrals and helps our clients see their ROI.
To recap, your Vision, Mission and Values will determine how hard you work, give clarity to all on your team and drive the behaviors and actions for everyone in your organization to help you succeed. Before you started your business, did you take the time to create a vision of your future? Have you created a company mission statement and determined your core values? If not, you should stop what you are doing and begin this process NOW!
