One of the first things many entrepreneurs do is to create their mission statement, vision statement, and values. These three statements anchor the brand, the business plan, the map for the business itself. If you have never taken the time to define these things for your business, it’s definitely an exercise in clarity.
A surprising assignment.
I learned the importance of this exercise with UNEQ Consulting. We were late with this process though and we worked with an amazing business consultant to guide us. Since that experience I have made a point to create these three statements for every venture. But I didn’t revisit them before now. Revisiting them was an assignment from my coach.
I honestly never thought to review the “big three” statements once I got them written. I guess I always thought that was such a “corporate” thing to do. Not a small business thing. In reality, small businesses change and evolve and pivot and serve different audiences much more frequently than large corporations.
I had created this first mission statement back in October 2019 as Entre Money Coach was fully separating from my law practice and personal financial coaching business into its own entity:
“My mission is to empower and support entrepreneurs making powerful, positive changes to their money management approach, to protect and grow their businesses into the vision they were given, with understanding, enthusiasm, and without judgment.”
Niching Down
So much happened between October and March! I worked with many more people on their businesses. Through those clients I refined the process of calculating my signature Breakthrough Number approach to money management, so it was more streamlined. I definitely niched differently. I thought that start-ups would benefit from getting their financial sh*t together from the beginning, but I realized very quickly that these entrepreneurs were so excited about just, “being in business” that the money stuff hardly entered their mind.
Rather the clients calling me were entrepreneurs who have been in business for a bit, and who are making money and not keeping much of it. This segment required much more strategy to create income and increase profits. It was less about “open your operating account” and more about, “we need to change this package because you are losing money on this.” The consistent results for my clients was that they made more money and kept more profit. Financial organization and positive changes to money mechanics were byproducts of my approach. Not the reason I was being called.
Time for a Change
So mid-March I revisited my mission, and realized a lot had changed. So, I refined it, taking into account all of the stuff I already talked about above. Here is the March 2020 version of my mission statement:
“The mission of Entre Money Coach is to help small businesses make more income and keep more profit with a money management approach that starts with their Breakthrough Number and prioritizes protecting the business and paying the entrepreneur so they can grow into their business vision. We do this with understanding, enthusiasm, and without judgment.”
Much more specific as to who and how. I plan to revisit it again in October. It’s already on my calendar to take time to review. If you haven’t looked at your statement in a while, or never created one at all, I encourage you to take the time to do it this week. Happy Entrepreneuring!