Writing a mission statement is an act of definition.

Writing a mission statement

Writing a mission statement is an act of self-definition. This statement is an expression of your inner vision or life purpose: who you are now and where you wish to be in the future.

When you develop a business plan, funding proposal or other document that requires you to state your intentions, your mission statement will appear at the very beginning of this document.

It will be short, consisting of one or two sentences. If you’ve been browsing on my website or if you’ve already downloaded and read my free ebook on writing, you will already know that writing a mission statement follows the same important “5-W” rule that I stress for all types of writing:

"who," "what," "where," "when" and "why"… with the "how" following shortly after.

When I was writing a mission statement for a business plan to raise money for my publishing company, Dandelion Books, I focused on the company’s uniqueness because I knew that was one of the important selling points for any investor.

I started my mission statement: “Known as ‘the author’s publisher...'” and then proceeded to describe who we are and what we do. I deliberately used the verb, “dedicated,” which is closely aligned with “commitment” and emphasizes the concept of “carrying out a mission”:

Known as “The Author’s Publisher,” Dandelion Books is

dedicated to producing and marketing quality books

that are informative, engaging, inspiring, entertaining and

enlightening, using the latest production and delivery

technologies and paying the highest possible royalties

to its authors.

My target reader of the business plan was an investor, so I focused on what they would want to know about my company that would give them a vote of confidence that we had something unique to offer.

Also, since we’re living in a digital age, I wanted to make sure they realized, as part of my “what,” that we were on the cutting edge. Therefore, we were positioning ourselves for growth and we understood flexibility as well as the importance of keeping up with a rapidly changing world. For an investor, these are important facts they will want to know before they write the check.

A mission statement describes who we are, what we do and how we do it. The “where” and “when” are implicit, and the “why” is, of course, to achieve our goals or get the required results. Built into choice of words for Dandelion Books as a boutique publisher was my desire to emphasize quality.

For more information about writing a mission statement, click here.
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