A group program participant confessed she believed creating a vision and mission statement for her business wasn’t going to add much value to her day to day operations. She’d heard of them, but had no clue how to write a vision and mission statement or even what differentiated them.

Once you understand your value proposition, it’s easier to know how to create your vision and mission statement for business. That was the case for this client who not only found creating her statements easier, but admitted that she now felt more connected to her business. Before, it was merely a job she’d created for herself. Now it had purpose and she had the motivation to want to create great outcomes within her brand.

In this post, I want to share the difference between a vision and mission statement, how to write it and some examples to inspire you.

What is the difference between a vision and a mission?

One of the confusions that comes with a vision and mission statement is knowing the differences between the two. It’s easier to first think about your vision and mission as “goals”. They provide direction for your business.

A vision is the long-term goal your business is aiming to achieve, while the mission is how you’re going to get there.

The best explanation I’ve heard of this was that the

Vision: Is the Why

Mission: the What and the How.

There’s little point having a vision, if you can’t back it up with a mission statement. And a mission statement doesn’t hold much weight without a vision that it’s moving towards.

As you can see, the two are very different but also work together.

Why the vision and mission statements are important

There are really 3 key reasons you want to create a vision and mission statement.

1. Decision making

When it comes to making decisions within your business, you can run them through your mission and vision to ensure they align. As a business owner, you can come up with plenty of great ideas, but sometimes those ideas can take you down a road that’s not leading to the destination you originally set.

These statements will help you make smarter decisions for your business.

2. Giving you a purpose

We all have those days when our business feels all too hard. As humans, we’re very good at focusing on the one bad thing that happened within a week, rather than the 10 good things. That one negative can plant seeds of doubt about your ability to do this business, whether people really want what you have to offer, and whether you’re equipped to be a business leader.

On those days, your vision and mission remind you of why you started your business and why you should keep going.

3. A stronger focus on the future

You can think of your vision as what you want your business to become. We’re not talking a full page monologue, but rather a short statement that paints a picture of your business in the future. The mission is more detailed and will set out the roadmap of how you’re going to get there.

These mental pictures will connect you more deeply to your business and give staff, partners and yourself greater focus.

What is a vision statement?

Let’s dive a little deeper into each, starting with your vision. What makes a good vision statement is a clear sentence or two that articulates why you exist or your business’s purpose.

The client mentioned earlier was great at the day to day operations of the business. She knew how to provide a quality service to her clients and was achieving good money. But there was no goal for growth. As a personality type who’s good at looking at the detail, she struggles with seeing the big picture of her business. This isn’t uncommon. Often we’re great at seeing the big picture, but struggle with how we’re going to bring that vision to life. Or we’re the opposite – we can bring a vision to life, but we’re just not sure what that vision should be.

A few years back, one of my own mastermind coaches highlighted that I had the ability to do both for others. Apparently I’m rare (or odd!!). If you have the ability to do both, you’re fortunate indeed.

But if you know you’re someone who struggles with the vision, reach out to someone who can help draw out what you most want for your business. Because you then have the skillset to make it happen.

Once you have your vision statement, it will help guide you and your team on how you operate, enhance your marketing copy and if you’ve going through a branding overhaul it will help highlight how your brand should show up.

So, your goal here is to understand who you are and what you want to accomplish with your business.

It’s important for each of the statements to be clear and concise.

What is a mission statement?

Your mission statement is the guiding principle of your business. This one can include a little more detail, including:

• Who you are
• What you offer and why you exist
• How you operate
• Your values

If you found creating your vision easy, then you may find your mission statement a little more challenging. A lot of the clients I attract tend to be great at seeing the big picture of their business. They’re super clear on where it is they want to go. Their challenge is that often they don’t know how to take action to make it happen.

Can you guess what happens to this type of client? They come up with endless ideas for brilliant projects, and may even get some of them started. But they never finish the project. Their virtual shelf is full of fabulous ideas that never see the light.

Like the detailed person, if you struggle to figure out how it is you’re going to bring your vision to life, then work with someone who can help create that roadmap with you.

Your mission statement doesn’t need to be long, but it does need to share the “what” and “how” of your business.

How to create a vision and mission statement for business in 3 steps

Now it’s time to develop a mission and vision statement for your business. Rather than staring at a blank screen and hoping for inspiration, I’m a big fan of using a framework to work within. Even if the first draft is not what you want, it at least gives you something to edit.

Which brings me to the next point: writing a vision and mission statement is challenging for everyone. Don’t expect you’ll have the perfect statements first time. In fact, they’ll likely evolve over time as you have more conversations with ideal clients, work with more clients, and have experiences that show you what you DON’T want (I often think this give us more clues than anything!).

So let’s begin…

How to write a mission statement: Step 1 and 2

I highly encourage you to write your mission statement first. When you see the formula as a whole, you’ll see why.

So, firstly remember that the Mission is:

• The Core Goal
• The What and How

Our mission statement formula therefore is:

STEP 1:

What do you want to achieve? This is the “What”

STEP 2:

How will you achieve it? This is the “How”.

The statement then becomes

To (WHAT you want to achieve) by (HOW you will achieve it)

Let’s look at an example using the electric, solar and clean energy car company Tesla:

To create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles.

Now it’s your turn. See if you can use the formula to create your first draft.

How to write a vision statement

In this part you’re answering why your business matters. What might the world look like once you realise your purpose?

STEP 3:

What is your vision or purpose for your business and why is it important?

The statement then becomes:

So that (WHY you want to achieve it – your greater vision or purpose)

Let’s bring the Tesla one all together now. While Tesla doesn’t use the words “so that we can” as seen in the brackets below, I want you to replace the word “to” in the vision with “so that we can” to help you see how the two support each other. You may want to use these extra words when you’re first creating your own, and then delete them out for your final version.

To create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles.

(So that we can) To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

Your final three-part formula is:

To (what you want to achieve) by (how you will achieve it) so that (why you want to achieve it – your greater vision or purpose).

You may find it easier to write your vision AFTER you’ve first written your mission. Or your brain may work better the other way around. There’s no rules here – just guideposts.

Now you try…

Here are a few vision and mission statement examples

If you’d like to see what’s the difference between mission and vision through real-life examples, then these brands should help. By reading others, you’ll see what makes a good vision and mission statement too.

What you may find as you search the internet for examples is that many businesses have one statement. By using the Vision and Mission Formula created here, you could realistically turn this into one statement. What you do and how you present it is completely up to you.

Kellie O’Brien Media

MISSION: To help 10,000 service-based business owners build fulfilling brands that generate consistent income and create time to do what lights them up, by learning the art of blending storytelling, strategies and systems through marketing.

VISION: To empower women to build a legacy business that repays them and their families long into the future.

The vision is about building businesses that don’t just repay women with a monetary outcome but with a time outcome too. Female businesses traditionally generate less than men, which can often come back to our own limiting beliefs. But if we can get the mindset and the marketing right, we can earn our true value.

The way we’re going to achieve that is through the mission, which is creating systems that can leverage our time, using smart strategies we can rely on long term, and wrapping it all in storytelling so we never feel like sleazy sales people. Instead, we allow people to lean in, listen and then see the value in what we have to offer.

One thing I will add here is that mine isn’t perfect. I know that. But as I mentioned, it will evolve over time. And likely be shortened.

TED

MISSION: Spread ideas.

VISION: We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world.

I really love the simplicity of the mission here. If staff or the business owner is looking to bring a new element into the business and isn’t sure whether it’s the right decision or not, they can easily ask the question of: “is this helping us to spread ideas?”.

Optus

MISSION: Our mission is to enable communication by breaking barriers and building bonds.

This ties beautifully into our formula and doesn’t overcomplicate the statement. Optus’s “WHAT” is to enable communication” and it’s “HOW” is by breaking barriers and building bonds. This highlights that you don’t need to get too fancy when you create a vision and mission statement.

Jetstar

MISSION: We set the standard for low fares, fun travel and great value.

VISION: Our vision is to make the world more accessible.

Jetstar, which is Australia’s budget airline that sits within the Qantas brand, knows how to develop a vision and mission statement that aligns with its value proposition. Its vision and mission, along with culture and values, proudly display on its website under the page “What Drives Us“. I think that page title perfectly sums up why you want to firstly create these and secondly, share with your ideal clients.

Jetstar knows who it is and what its goal is, and it certainly lives by its vision and mission.

Access business principles, including how to create a vision and mission statement 

I hope you can now see how you can create a mission and vision statement for your business that can be the driver for you and your team.

I am accepting applications for the next intake of The Online Marketing Mastermind. This is designed for business owners who have been in business a couple of years, but want to

• master the foundational elements of business,
• create a clear marketing strategy,
• establish systems to help leverage their time and better serve their clients, and finally
• wrap their marketing in storytelling so they can attract rather than repel their most aligned clients.

Is that you? Learn more.