From the course: Small Business Secrets

Determining your company vision

From the course: Small Business Secrets

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Determining your company vision

When it comes to motivating both yourself and other people in your small business, a powerful document to use is a company vision. A company vision is a one page description of where your business will be in the future. Think of it like a description of the destination. Once we reach this place, this is what it's going to look like. This motivates you to make decisions every day to move you closer and closer to that destination. It also motivates your employees, because they feel like they're a part of something. We're going somewhere with this business. Now some business owners already have this vision clear in their minds. Many others need a little bit of help. And what I'm going to do is take you through a process I've taken many clients through to help you create that company vision. Imagine that you and I step in to a time machine. And we go five years into the future. We step out of that time machine and walk into your business. We take some pictures. What do we see? I'm going to ask you some questions. And as I ask you these questions, I'd like you to take notes on the first impression that comes to your mind. Feel free as I ask these questions to pause the video, write down your answers, and then come back to the next question. First, what are we doing in terms of sales? How big is our business? How many locations does your business have? How many employees do you have, five years in the future? Where are your business locations, if you have multiple locations? What is your geographic reach? What kind of customers are you serving? What kind of products and services do you offer? What do your facilities look like? Do you have a certain kind of uniform or personal branding for your employees? What kind of technology does your business have? How do you attract new customers? What do your employees act like? What is the day to day culture of this future business? How do you operate to give you a competitive advantage? What other thoughts do you have about your future business? Using all of these notes, you can now create your first draft of a company vision. We've provided an example for you. It's a fictitious company. And you'll see a company vision on one page. The idea is that you can take these notes and plug them right into that example,substituting your own words if you want. Or you can create a new format. The idea, though, is to get this vision onto one page. Try to describe the future as clearly as possible so that someone else can read it and see it in their mind. The idea is that we're going to take this document and put into a prominent place, where everyone can see it and they can use it from day to day to make decisions and also be motivated. Also, you can review this vision yearly and decide if it needs updating. The vision is a powerful motivational document that you can use to establish the culture in your small business.

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