Your Ultimate Opportunity
In the beginning, you are the most important people piece of the puzzle and that is a big responsibility. As you add key people to your business you will need to first impart your guiding principles from your vision. What is your teachable point of view within your personal business philosophy?
At the same time, you can begin relaxing your grip so your emerging workforce can become engaged around a common vision and get the satisfaction of their own contributions toward a successful workplace. Here is an excerpt (Another Shoe Drops) from our book Fortune’s Impasse which is a familiar scenario about these critical first hires.
“Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.”
– Winston Churchill
Your Vision
Vision states where we want to go with our business, our guiding principals
It reminds us about what we are trying to build and where do we want to go
The key to a good vision statement is to think of things in a long-term, broad sense, without sounding generic.
Here’s a good example: The XYZ Company will inspire its employees to be the best they can be. We will engage in sustainable practices and anticipate the needs of our customers. We will maximize return on investment and our energies while still maintaining quality in our products.
Finally: Understanding your goals and being able to state them clearly is the first step toward making them happen.
Your Purpose
Mission explains your business purpose and philosophy
Actually a Purpose statement is a better label than Mission.
Questions like: What inspires you? How did you get started doing the thing you do? What do you love about the things you create? What is important to you in your business? What do you hope your customers will find in your product/service?
Questions like these should all be part of your thinking when crafting your Purpose statement.
Some of our favourite examples:
“Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
“We create happiness by providing the finest in entertainment for people of all ages, everywhere.”
“To build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online”
Can you guess the businesses?
And our personal favourite:
Innocent: “Make natural, delicious food and drink that helps people live well and die old”