Think Mission and Vision Statements Are Overrated? Not If You Want To Grow

Writing down your mission and vision is the best thing you can do for your business. Why? Because you’re not investing your blood, sweat, and tears to simply sell products to customers. You’ve got a bigger picture in mind.

You’re likely starting a business because you’ve identified that there is a problem to be solved or a need to do something better. You’re taking a big risk to invest your time into creating something and it’s probably not just about selling one product to as many customers as you can find. We bet you have a bigger vision for your business but have you defined it? And, do you take a step back to refer to your big picture on a regular basis?

You may think that there is not much point in focusing on your overall vision while your business is still in its infancy and working hard at getting into the black. But here are some important consequences of not spending a little more time on ‘thinking big’.

 

You miss opportunities & threats

You know that saying “Can’t see the forest through the trees”? The same goes for focusing too closely on simply selling products to customers. You developed your first product or offering because you identified a need or opportunity. Hopefully, that first product was successful because you did some research to ensure that there was a broader need. But, what’s next? You can continue to push that same product until you max out your market or you can develop something else. Without taking a step back, your sales could flatline because you failed to see that there was simply no one left to buy your product. Or, you could move on to the next product too quickly without taking the time to examine the ecosystem again as a whole. Things may have changed since your initial offering. You may be making assumptions that your perspective is representative of the whole, causing your next offering to fall flat.

Many businesses end up missing the chance to develop their next offering at the right time, and more importantly, based on their customer’s evolving needs. This is when a competitor swoops in to take over their market. Not only do they fail to see the incoming competitor but they didn’t realize that it was time to develop something new to continue to meet the needs of their customer.

 

Investors will not buy in

In order to remain competitive, your business needs to be able to grow and adapt within an ever changing market. By limiting yourself to simply one service offering (ie. focusing on just one tree) you limit your revenue generating capabilities and you will likely be overtaken by a similar business with a more broad service offering. Investors want to know that there is opportunity for growth. Without a bigger vision, it is impossible for them to see how they will benefit from giving you money. If you can’t accurately describe how your business can continue to evolve then they cannot see a fruitful exit and therefore will look for somewhere else to grow their profits.

 

A well defined vision and mission helps to function as a guiding light keeping your business message and growth consistent.  To make sure you make the most of opportunities as they pop up and grow your business, remember that you need to know what your ultimate vision is, why you are making an impact on people & the world, why your business is meaningful and why you are the right person to do it. If you infuse your mission statement and vision with passion and emotion you are on track to crafting the business and life you want to lead.

One of the core modules in our First Time Founder School is called ‘Thinking Big’. Your initial reaction to this may be something like, “I’m starting a business, isn’t that ‘big’ enough?!” It sure is, but keeping your eye on the “Thinking Big”, may give you opportunities you never considered when you first started your business.  Learn about the course curriculum here or ask us questions at [email protected]