Creating a Vision, Mission & Values Statement

If you are thinking of starting up a new business, it is important to get the basics right. In this article, we explore why building a clear Vision, Mission and Value statement will benefit your business and help you to achieve your goals.

 

What is a Vision, Mission & Values Statement?

A Vision, Mission and Values statement (VMV) is a way to bring together everything you want your business to be in a clear, articulate way. It is a path to follow when you have decisions to make, and you are not sure which way to go. It will define how you deal with suppliers,  branding, your ethos and your pricing so that every choice you make is working towards your end goal with clarity and precision.

 

Why is it important?

Businesses must take the time to take a step back and be clear about who they are. Your VMV really does define who you are as a business and how you operate. Every element of how you operate should follow the theme set initially.

“Over the years I have seen so many clients come my way with new business ideas that have changed dramatically as soon as they have gone live or failed after a short period of time. Real life experience of dealing with these situations does bring a level of integrity which enables us to help clients to choose the right path to ensure they take their business forward.

It is a known fact that around 80% of new businesses fail within 5 years. Laying strong foundations in the early days via a strong Vision, Mission and Values (and sticking to it!), in my opinion really helps secure future success. Of course, things change over time and the business will evolve but they should always be done strategically and not in a scatter gun approach.”

Katie Bullon (Founder and Strategy/Planning, Bull Solutions)

 

Where to Begin.

How do you define your VMV? The best way to start is by identifying where you are now.

You will need to research and fully explore all elements of your business by asking lots of questions. For example:

• What are your strengths/weaknesses?
• What sets you apart from competitors?
• What do competitors do better than you?
• Do you need to strive to improve or decide that you take a different and more differentiated approach, for example?
• What do your customers think of you? What do they like?
• What are the market conditions?
•  Is there a need for a certain element of your business?
•  Does the 80/20 rule apply? 
• Is your business operating efficiently?
•  Which elements of your business bring in the most revenue?
• Does that part which takes the most effort offer the most profitability?

Do not just rely on what you think you know about your business, your opinion is not the only one and this stage is the perfect opportunity to gather information from lots of other sources such as focus groups, customer surveys, staff discussions and social media opinion polls to get a well-rounded look at where you are.

In addition to a collection of opinions, you should also look at and analyse any data that you have available. Look at sales data, financial records, website statistics, keyword research and search engine ranking positions for both your business and for that of your competitors.

Once you have all the information about your business, you then need to be concise and clear as to your Vision.

 

Vision

To understand your Vision, you need to take all the information and research from identifying where you are now and then work out where you want to be in the future. That way, you can identify your long-term strategic objectives.

Do you have a clear idea of your main business goal?

Our Vision for activ digital marketing is to:

“Support small to medium-sized businesses all over the UK to realize their potential in a digital world.”

What does this Vision look like to us? It is defined by happy clients that give glowing testimonials of our work because they appreciate our skill set and what we do, they trust us to deliver and help their business grow with well-structured marketing strategies.

 

Mission

The Mission statement declares what your business intends to accomplish. At activ digital marketing

“Our Mission is to be recognized as a leading digital marketing specialist in the UK, for businesses that want local support with national backing.”

The Mission statement should focus on what your business can do every day to achieve your Vision.

To achieve our Mission statement, we constantly put ourselves in our client’s shoes. It sounds cliché, but your business is our business. We are constantly looking for ways to improve the support we give by measuring the website analytics, social media statistics and search engine ranking positions.

 

Values

Lastly, you should lay out a set of principles and Values that yourself and employees can work to that define your beliefs and that will help to accelerate your progress together.

The Values that we work to at activ digital marketing are:

• Champion smaller business

Ensure excellent digital marketing solutions are achievable and effective.

• Keep it simple

For clients and for their customers, make it easy to digest and jargon free.

• Communication is key

Let’s talk about ways to improve, ways to support, and ways to grow.

When you have a clearly defined VMV statement, you can then use it to build a business strategy.

At activ digital marketing we can work with you to help you achieve your goals.  Together we can break down your long-term strategy into smaller short-term strategies with specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time bound objectives.

Every business had to start somewhere. I asked Bull Solutions owner Katie Bullon If she had had a VMV for her business when she first started and what she has learnt along the way…

“I started my business through the Activ franchise. This meant that by becoming a franchisee I already had a defined VMV statement to work to. I knew that my strengths were in marketing, but I was quite ‘green’ in my level of understanding of my new customers. In my last employed role, I had been working as a Marketing Manager in a B2C consumer role. I had gone from dealing with major national UK retailers as my customers (TESCO, ASDA, Superdrug etc) through to my more local customer base. It was still marketing but it was totally different in terms of approach, price, offering etc.

Starting my business as a franchisee, gave me the support and successful business model that I needed to get up and running. The VMV for Bull Solutions has since evolved to now include my own marketing services. Being part of Activ has been a real help and probably the main reason that nearly 7 years later Bull is thriving.”

Katie Bullon (Founder and Strategy/Planning, Bull Solutions)

From working with many types of SME’s and from our own experience we now have a wealth of knowledge and advice that we are happy to share with you.

If you would like to know more about building a Vision, Mission and Values statement for your business or would like to work with us to achieve your strategic objectives then please get in touch.