One of the more often overlooked aspects of the business plan is creating a mission statement that is appropriate for your business and to a potential funding source. The key thing when developing a mission statement is to clearly identify what you’re trying to accomplish beyond just developing a profitable business.
For smaller businesses, this can be as simple as providing outstanding services to a local market while providing a pricing advantage over every other area competitors. For specialized technology businesses were large corporations, this can include providing outstanding services while also creating a substantial amount of employment. One of the things that many people do when they are developing a mission statement is to focus heavily on how the community will benefit by this business existing. This is important know to make especially since many lenders, investors, and private investors are going to want to see what specifically will be driving the mission of the business throughout the life of its operations. Of course, from time to time – many entrepreneurs will seek to change their mission statement once they accomplish their initial goals. In some case from mission follow the business through its first five years of operation.
Often done in conjunction with the mission statement is the development of the vision statement. This documentation usually focuses on where the entrepreneur sees the business in a three year to five year timeframe. Usually, a vision statement does include a tertiary overview of what the expected revenues will be once the business reaches three years old, four years old, and five years old.
Although this is one of the aspects of the a business plan is to always be included, an entrepreneur does not really need to focus too heavily on developing a overly concrete mission statement. This is primarily due to the fact that most investors and funding sources are going to want to see that the business is most importantly going to become profitable within a 12 month to 24 month timeframe. One of the key focuses as it relates to the mission statement of the business can also be to have the business reach profitability rather quickly.
One of the most important aspects of a not-for-profit business plan, however, is the development of a mission statement that very clearly focuses on what the benefit to the community will be through the development of this type of business. This is often overlooked by some individuals that are looking to establish not-for-profit entities. However, it is very important that these entities have a very clear and outstandingly written mission statement so they can generate interest from potential donors and under their funding sources that are actively engaged with not-for-profit institutions.