The First Step in Starting a Business: The Vision Statement

Every company that you’ve heard of has a vision statement. Some might call it a mission statement, others might use some other combination of words, but this isn’t a coincidence. Every organization, regardless of size, should have a vision. In fact, it should be the first task on the to-do list of forming a company. If you’ve started a business or plan to, create your vision statement right away. A vision statement summarizes the purpose of your business. Depending on the industry, it also expresses where you’d like to see your company in 10 years. Here are some thoughts about this process:

It gives you focus. Once you have your vision statement finalized and you’re positive it accurately communicates your purpose, it keeps you on track, especially if your business is relatively new. It creates a point of reference to justify future actions. Any time you’re ready to spend money on growing or promoting your business, ask yourself if that expenditure not only supports your vision, but will help you attain it. It could save you from wasting your precious capital on something that might sound spur-of-the-moment great, but won’t give you value in the long-term.

Your initial vision might not be your final vision. This happened to me. I came up with my vision statement rather quickly and didn’t think twice about it. That is, until, I started writing up the content for my website. My initial vision was “to see everyone become their own accountant”. But, when I started jotting down my service offerings, they didn’t support that vision at all. I then recalled conversations I’ve had with numerous people about that idea. It suddenly occurred to me that most people really don’t want to be their own accountant. They’d rather hire one and not deal with accounting-type issues (e.g. tax returns, bookkeeping). Before I continued developing content for my website, I had to go back and rethink my vision.

Keep your vision short and succinct. Details of how you’re going to achieve your vision are covered in your mission statement. Small business vision statements should be relatively terse unless you’re entering a complicated industry. One of my current clients, a pair of very talented women, loves to cook and wants to start making healthy food and selling it at events via a booth or food truck. They also want to get into catering and sell prepackaged goods via retail outlets. When I gave them the exercise of creating their vision, they listed that all out and also added that they eventually want to start a nonprofit to educate low-income families on eating healthy on a budget. It made for quite a long vision statement. At the end of the day, it transformed into this: To increase the awareness and availability of healthy eating options to the public. Short, sweet, and to the point AND it covered all the bases.

It’s just one short sentence, usually, but a vision statement truly is the guiding light that reminds you of why you wanted to start your business in the first place.