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...