Writing Your Business Plan Series, Week 1: The Mission Statement

Japanese Garden, a photo by TheGirlsNY on Flickr.

After many changes in writing just my marketing plan and my desire to be able to say: "I have a complete business plan", I've decided to use my blog as a platform to get it done. Every week, I'll cover a different section of a business plan, share my experiences and ask for your opinion, at times.

Let's start with the mission statement. The mission statement is part of the Executive Summary. Since the executive summary summarizes a completed plan, it might be best to do that part last. I'm going to isolate the mission statement from the executive summary, for now, to provide focus. I'm structuring my business based on Robert Kiyosaki's B-I Triangle. The base of this triangle, really a tetrahedron, is the mission statement. I'm inspired that the foundation of a truly successful business is its philosophical or spiritual foundation. 

According to a bplans.com article "How To Write a Mission Statement", the statement should only be about three sentences and full of substance. It's also about you, your company and your ideals. Just don't follow their link to Dilbert's Mission Statement Generator, since the folks at Dilbert have taken down the page. (OK, you can follow it if you like, the comic for the error page is worth it.)

In Garrett Sutton's book, Writing Winning Business Plans, he poses the all-important question each business owner ought to ask themselves: "Why are you in business?" He suggests taking a few weeks to journal about this and other questions before writing your business plan. For a moment, I found myself getting indignant, only because I've spent months, years even, doing just that. I was indignant until I realized this series will serve as a more definitive journal for my business plan.

I love what Sutton states comparing mission statements and goal setting: "If you think of your mission as a compass, you can consider your goals the map." As I further define both my personal and business goals, I get the sense I'll need to be flexible and open, given the fluid nature of a business plan. He also asks "can you now summarize your mission statement in one sentence?" That's different from bplans.com advice. I took Sutton's advice and went with the one sentence statement. Here's what I've come up with:

Flow Properties is a real estate investment company that uses Feng Shui to provide harmonious homes in urban areas.

I like it. Let's see how or if it changes during the series. What's your mission statement? Have you written a business plan? If so, where did you start? Until next week...

Walking Through the Frozen

frozen lake & reeds, prospect park, a photo by katinalynn on Flickr. 
I chose this picture because even though Spring is officially here, it doesn't feel like it. Plus much of my business progress is frozen under the surface.

I'm a little frustrated this week. Working on my mobile app, and subsequently, my website is taking much longer than expected. Seems I need to come at this from a different angle, set some new parameters.  I prefer a list for lots of things, a template so to speak. I gravitate towards that type of structure and direction so I am free to focus on other things. Like my wardrobe: fashion tells me what's in style, what types of clothes look best on me, how much of each I need, I'll choose what I like and love based on another form of inspiration.

I need that with my website, too. My previous web hosting company, although good, made compiling the different elements similar to a right-handed person using their left hand for the first time.  Nothing bad, just different and needed some time getting used to. Wix.com seems to make it easier. I started creating my online store and mobile site. (Hurray!) But more is needed. I need to do more planning, writing, rewriting and walking. Yes, walking. The hardest aspect of writing is getting your thoughts onto paper. Walking helps me do that.

Julia Cameron in The Vein of Gold says: "Walking opens us up. It feeds us. Image by image, it spoons up for us a broth or soup of soul food, which sustains us as we do the work necessary to shape and reshape our lives. In other words, we can walk our way out of  'problem' and into 'solution.' If I am snagged on a story line, I walk it out. If I am stymied about what to work on next, I walk until it comes to me. When I am tangled in the plot lines of my work or my life, I take a walk and allow the walk to sort things out."

Thankfully, I walked for an hour today. I'm racking up minutes for my GirlTrek Challenge, but to be honest, I'm falling short. I ought to be walking daily. Instead I'm using the cold weather as an excuse. And that just goes to show me I'm getting out of this experience what I'm putting into it. Time to step it up!

Until next week, answer the poll at the top of the page. Let me know how you deal with the tangles in your life.