The difference between vision, mission and values in business
Do you have the foundations set out in your business plan? The reason why you started your business. The vision statement, mission and values? What does this look like? What are the differences between these three elements and how can they help you in business?
Keep reading. We have some things to unpack.
What is a business vision?
The business vision, how I like to see it is your true north star. The primary objective is to inspire yourself, your team, your community, your client and create a shared sense of purpose throughout your business. It might also scare you!
If you don’t have a vision, why are you doing what you are doing? This is your WHY. We always start with the why.
For example, my business vision is: “a world where women entrepreneurs stop burning out while growing their million dollar impact driven businesses”.
This comes from my WHY. My own story of burnout. Now I help others. What is your why?
Ask yourself:
Why did I start my business? What do I want it to look like in the next 5,10 or 15 years?
What is a business mission?
This is the overarching objective of the business. It should be measurable, achievable, and ideally inspirational.
Make it brief, easy to remember, it shouldn't require follow-up clarifying questions when first presented.
Ideally proves to be uniquely identifiable to the company.
Creating a mission for your business helps you to clearly and concisely explain what exactly you do, who exactly you serve, what exactly your process is, and how exactly you provide a transformation to your ideal clients.
For example, my business mission:
“A leading consulting firm that blends strategy and energetics for women entrepreneurs to achieve sustainable success while staying in alignment with their unique energy, values and vision”.
Create your own business mission statement. Remember you can make edits. Have a play around and ask people for feedback.
If you want to be inspired, check out 21 powerful mission statements.
What is a business value?
The values are the principles that guide the business’s day-to- day decisions; a defining component of your culture.
Essential shift three key values are led by my key values as a founder:
Community: true heart led connections
Impact: positive impact on people and planet, sustainable growth and results for people working with us
Transparency: no BS, clear ethics, no fake promises
Whenever I am set to make decisions or business choices, I will always go back to my values.
Exercise: Create a list of your 5 top values in the business and what they mean to you! Search a list of values and choose 15, narrow it to 10 and then 5. Write statements for each.
Final thoughts
What’s next? Create your strategy based around these three areas in your business. The vision, mission and values.
Think of the differences like this:
Vision: Why
Mission: What, Who
Values: How
Document these down and refer back to them whenever you need to make choices within your business. You also want to review these from time to time. Make sure you are in alignment with them. If you want to build more foundations in business, let’s build on those within this blog article: “The 6 foundations you need to grow your business sustainably”.