Last week we looked back at 2020 and assessed what we did right, what we did wrong and what we need to improve on next year. This week, it’s time to look forward to 2021 and develop our mission statement and vision for the coming year, utilising the takeaways from last week’s self-assessment.
So, taking into account our work on points, before we develop our vision and mission, we first have to find our values. This may be something you’ve not done before, it’s a worthwhile task to have a meeting with yourself and discover what your values are. Once you ascertain what’s personally important to you, begin to build them into your business; your values form the bedrock of your vision and mission.
We’ve got our values, now let’s look at our vision. What does a good 2021 look like for you? It could be something physical like you want to renovate your store, or it could be something a little more intangible, such as your values state you’re a caring person, therefore you want to provide exceptional, personal, customer service. Whatever it may be, just remember to base it around last week’s weaknesses and this week’s values, incorporate it all.
We’ve got our vision in place so now onto the mission. A good way to look at this is to say “so what?”, a little like this:
“My vision is to be an environment where people trust me and feel safe”
“So what?”
“So my business will strive to provide, exceptional customer service, putting the wants and needs of our clients first”
There’s a small mission statement. It’s basic, but it’s workable. A mission shouldn’t go on for paragraphs on end, you want a few small sentences which perfectly describe what your business is about and what you are setting out to achieve.
Next week, we’ll look at how to achieve these by setting goals.