Most companies have a mission statement that gives people an idea of their overall goals for the organization. These statements may be generated and passed out to employees, included in the employee handbook or manual and posted for the world to see on the company website. While it may simply seem like good marketing to have one, there are important reasons for having a mission statement.
The mission statement sums up your company's direction and outlines goals for what you and your management team hope to accomplish, both in the business and the industry you serve. This statement may span a short paragraph or several of them and give a clear objective for why you do what you do. If you sell a product, your mission statement will explain why you sell that product and what you hope to accomplish with those sales.
Just as you want to establish your direction as a business, it is equally important to establish it for the public. Consumers, industry partners, media professionals and more should all be able to read your mission statement and understand your direction as a company and why you've chosen that focus. The mission statement should communicate why your goals were established and why they are important to your company's overall direction.
Take your time when drafting a mission statement and consider your company's core goals. If you don't have a professional writer on your staff, consider hiring one or getting a freelancer to write the statement for you. This statement will go on countless company documents, your website and plenty of other collateral, so it needs to be clear, concise and well-written.
It may be tempting to draft a company mission statement that sounds more like a press release or gesture of goodwill. However, a mission statement that is all fluff simply doesn't sound genuine and serves no purpose. When writing it, get to the heart of your organization's goal and why these goals are important to you and your management team. While you may think that people reading the statement want to know about the goodwill you want to extend, it is also important to include sound business goals in your mission statement.