When it comes to keeping yourself motivated, inspired, and driven to achieve your business goals, as well as inspiring and motivating others, the keys are to:
In recent posts we have focused on the importance of your big ‘why’. For example, in ‘Unlock Your ‘Why’ to Ignite Your Life and Your Business’ we discussed the importance of knowing your ‘why’, with one of the reasons being that it inspires, motivates and drives you.
The next step is to have a vision statement for your business. Your big ‘why’ links into this as your ‘vision’ demonstrates the fulfilment of your big “why”.
Here’s a quote from Steven Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”:
“How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and, keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most.”
Just as ‘knowing your why’ is a motivator and driver for you, a written vision statement is a great way to provide clarity and maintain focus with your personal vision, and it follows that having a written vision statement is important for your business for the same reasons.
Here is a quote from an article titled “The 101 Most Inspiring Vision Statement Examples For 2022!” by Tom Wright, on Jan 16, 2022 and published at https://www.cascade.app/blog/examples-good-vision-statements
“A vision statement is an aspirational statement made by an organization that articulates what they would like to achieve. Furthermore, the vision guides the direction of the organization’s efforts.”
This article also speaks about the difference between Vision Statements and Mission Statements: “There can be some confusion when it comes to what the difference between vision and mission statements is. Simply put, A company’s vision statement represents the future position the company desires to be in. Whereas, a company’s mission statement is a definition of the company’s business state and objectives in the present.”
They then list 101 up-to-date vision statements in all kinds of industry, and I recommend reading the article.
Over my years in business and sitting on non-profit boards, I have been involved in quite a number of sessions where consultants have taken us through a process to develop a vision statement for the organization.
So, if you have tried this and ended up totally confused, I feel your pain!
Here are my thoughts for a small business.
For example, our vision is that the Self Employed Business Academy is the premier community for self employed small business owners.
How did we come up with that?
Well, we reflected on the Hedgehog Concept introduced by Jim Collins in his book ‘Good to Great’. The Hedgehog Concept is based on 3 questions:
These answers were them summarized into the vision statement above, with an expanded version you can read on our About Us page.
Here your action plan for this week is to answer these questions:
We’ll see you next week for the final instalment in this series when we will focus on your Core Business Values.
“I started my own business in 1995. The Self Employed Business Academy gets it. Clear, concise, and actionable information. You may be in business for yourself, but with the self Employed Business Academy at your fingertips, you won't be by yourself"
Ed Carey, AMG, LLC