The road to business success can be quite a journey and we need to be clear about where we are going. Learning how to create a business vision statement will greatly increase our chances of success.
A few years ago using the power of visioning was considered eccentric. Today, vision statements are rapidly becoming main stream and being used to great effect by top business people and professional athletes.
Yet whilst most large organisations are proud to show off their vision statements, soloists often have difficulty. There can be an urge to just get the business started, yet at the same time a paralysis in moving forward.
Creating a clear vision statement for your business and your life can be fun! Take some time out, ask yourself some key questions and allow yourself to dream.
Where you see yourself in five years time:
Personal
- How does your life look?
- Where will you be living?
- What have you achieved in this time?
- How else have you grown personally and spiritually?
- How are you a better person?
- What are doing in your non-work time?
- How do you feel about your life?
Professional
- Where are you working?
- Where in the world does your business take you?
- What hours do you work?
- Who are your clients?
- What sort of jobs, contracts or work are you doing?
- What are your relationships like with your clients?
Financial
- How big is your business?
- What is your profit?
- How much is your personal income?
Want more articles like this? Check out the setting business goals section.
As you vision your future you should feel a surge of energy and excitement. It’s the same thrill you would have felt as a child before a fun day out or an exciting holiday! If it’s not exciting, you must be missing something, or else why would you want to set out on the journey in the first place?
You can further focus your vision statement down to one year from now, and then six and three months if you like.
Some people like to create a vision board, cutting out inspiring images and words and placing them near their desk. You can also create a video of your vision using software such as Windows Movie Maker. Here you can produce a montage of images and inspirational quotations and play it back with your favourite piece of music as a powerful reminder of your vision.
Not all of us are naturally visual people. Another technique I recommend to help unlock visions is mind mapping. There are many resources available online that explain the concept of mind mapping (see Megan Hills’ article on Practical creative planning with mind mapping), as well as free software tools you can download.
For many a stumbling block when creating a vision statement can be the financial vision. Most people try to build it from the bottom upwards, which can be tricky. How much am I charging per hour, how many hours will I be working, how many contracts will I have? All of these are unknowns and are dependent on so many variables.
I encourage people to use a top-down approach to create a vision statement. What personal income do you want? What turnover do you require to generate that level of income? How many billable hours do you want to work? From there you can calculate your ideal hourly rate and the financial element at the core of your vision.
The visioning process can take time. If you get stuck, let it go. Often clarity comes to us when we least expect it. For me it is usually when I am walking on the beach!
A powerful business vision statement is often the key to success and it is never too late to create one for your business.