Starting and running your own business can offer lots of opportunities. However, running a business involves a lot of effort and to be successful means that you need to set clear goals and plans to do them. Business owners and entrepreneurs need to identify what exactly it is that they want to achieve by owning their own business. Is it financial independence? How about flexibility? Freedom?
Ironically although many business owners set out to start a business for this reason, they often find themselves overworked, underfunded and overwhelmed by their day-to-day activities. This is where setting and clarifying your expectations for the business need to be stated. This is why it is important to create a strategic plan as well as a mission, vision statement. A strategic plan will allow you to create a roadmap for the business to follow. Here you will identify what your capabilities are, who your customers are and how you plan to reach them. You will also set long-term and short-term goals. It will allow you to check the opportunities that are available to you and decide if your business is practical or achievable. Strategic plans don’t have to be long. They can be summarized within a few pages. Established businesses or businesses with many employees usually need more detailed strategic plans. A mission statement allows you to find the purpose of your business. A vision statement allows you to look toward the future and identify where you would the business like to be. A value statement identifies your organisation’s core beliefs and boundaries as well as how you will behave while conducting business. A mission, vision and value statement are very important for all business owners, and are sometimes overlooked during the startup phase. These statements establish an organisation’s ethics, which are extremely important in today’s world where businesses and organisations are increasingly being held accountable for their actions.
Creating a strategic plan, mission, vision and value statement will serve as a guide and a blueprint for a business. It will allow a business owner to access where they stand on every issue and how to handle difficult situations as they arrive. Having this will also allow you to state what you expect from yourself, your employees, vendors and customers. These are valuable tools in today’s ever changing marketplace.
