The Boas Knows » 2009

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Tags: Coaching, entrepreneurs, Goals, Leadership, Mission, Objectives, Strategic Plan, Success, Values, Vision
Posted in Best Practices, Managing Your Business | No Comments »

Your Coach Follow-Up - Mission Possible!

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

I want to start off by wishing everyone who had been dealing with the storms in the southeast/west safe travels and recovery. The storms here is Atlanta were like nothing I have ever experienced, and I was through Hurricane Andrew in Florida.

That said, it provided you extra time to really focus on your company’s Vision and Mission that was posted out to you as a challenge over the last couple of weeks.

If you have been working on defining them, FANTASTIC, you are that much closer to reaching and exceeding your business goals.

If you have not, YOU HAVE TIME. No time like the present to review the posts preceding this one and working on your own company Vision and Mission.

Believe me, the minute you begin to get out of your head and onto paper all of the ideas, dreams, goals, challenges, risks, tasks and activities you have for business (and yourself), you will have found the fountain of energy, motivation and focus, you have always looked for.

I GUARANTEE IT!

For those that have been following, how did you do in defining the MISSION or purpose your business serves that is aligned to the Vision that you defined earlier?

Remember, you did not open the doors to your business without reason or purpose for a solution to a customer’s need. What is it? What is the problem that you are solving with your product or service?

Even if it were for example as simple as:

Vision - I want to establish a prosperous and well known cookie /bakery business within 10 years.

Now, I would hope that your vision is much more specific and well rounded (i.e. what does your business in 5, 10 or 15 years look like specifically, what is it doing for you, how are you going to get there)

Moving on, your MISSION for that same business could be:

‘ to provide every one of our customers with tasty treats that will satisfy their sweet tooth!’

Keep in mind, I am being very simplistic here, though there are companies, one in particular, that their mission is real simple “Put a PC on every desk”. You cannot get much simplier than that, but it speaks volumes to both the vision and mission of that company.

Whether your mission is grand or simple it just needs to establish the purpose and result you have for your business. Once it does, everyone that works for you or with you, and those customers that come to you, all know what purpose you have for being in business. It is a measure of your ability to serve a need of your customer and tells them what they can expect from you.

Now, look yours over and determine what your SPECIFIC vision and mission are. And if you have not started it, you now can and still continue forward with us as we move on to defining the Values of your business.

Good luck everyone, Bernadette

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Tags: Coaching, Mission, Strategic Plan, Success, Vision
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Mission POSSIBLE! Your Purpose, Your Desire!

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

We continue moving forward defining your Strategic Plan for your business that will provide you a road map for pursuing your goals to great success over the next several months, and even into 2010.

Your first step was defining and documenting your VISION for your business. How did that go? Do you now have clarity as to where you are going and when you want to get there?

Now we want to focus on the purpose or MISSION you are in the business you are, doing what you are doing, serving the customers that you are serving.

To define your MISSION or purpose for your business, ask yourself the following questions, write them out, and get it down to a few sentences that are clear to you, and would give your team, partners/vendors, suppliers, even family the reason they are all in the business they are in:

Why are you in the business you are in?
What are you trying to accomplish from it?
What is your passion or drive for being in the business you are in?
Who specifically are you serving (your customers)?
What is the value or benefit you are providing to your customer?
What can they expect from you and your business?

As noted on Suite101.com:

Here is the Coca-Cola Company’s mission statement for Stakeholders which is published in Jeffrey Abrahams’ new book, 101 Mission Statements From Top Companies (Ten Speed Press, 2007):

“The Coca-Cola Promise: The Coca-Cola Company exists to benefit and refresh everyone it touches. The basic proposition of our business is simple, solid, and timeless. When we bring refreshment, value, joy and fun to our stakeholders, then we successfully nurture and protect our brands, particularly Coca-Cola. That is the key to fulfilling our ultimate obligation to provide consistently attractive returns to the owners of our business.” (p. 40)

The audience for this mission is specifically for the stakeholder.

The values here are stated explicitly: refreshment, value, joy, fun, and attractive returns. These words were obviously carefully chosen by those who crafted this mission statement. The “ultimate obligation” of “attractive returns” is a powerful way to state the company’s vision and keeps the values stated in context.

A separate mission statement is published on The Coca-Cola Company’s website for access by the general public:

“Everything we do is inspired by our enduring mission:

To Refresh the World… in body, mind, and spirit.
To Inspire Moments of Optimism… through our brands and our actions.
To Create Value and Make a Difference… everywhere we engage.”

———————————————————————————————————-

Mission statements can be for your company or the public, and as noted here they could be slightly different, but overall reflect the core values and purpose for the business.

The value of publishing this mission is endless: it provides direction, expectations, accountability, focus and clarity to what it is the business is in business to accomplish. A huge leverage point for you as CEO/Business Owner.

Take some ENTREPRENEURIAL time this week to sit down, think through the questions above, and to write out what your MISSION is. Then feel free to have others contribute to the process of defining it - it will certainly create buy in of it.

Once you have both your VISION and MISSION all of your business activities, decisions, commitments and investments can then be executed easily, not only by you but all of your team members.

Good luck and please let me know if you have any questions.

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Tags: Business Owner, CEO, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Mission, Strategy, Vision
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Checking In - How is your VISION coming?

Sunday, September 13th, 2009

Happy Sunday everyone.

Here is your first of several check-in’s from your Prosperity Coach.

I am here to help you move forward with your strategic plan that we started just last week. This plan will help you create a path to your success by year’s end, as well prepare you for 2010.

The first assignment was for you to take some ‘entrepreneurial’ time to think through the VISION you have for your business.

What do you want to achieve with your business - specifically?

What does it look like: dollars, property, lifestyle, size of business, size of home, security, freedom, and so much more.

Where and when do you want to accomplish your goals? You have to COMMIT to it in order to realize it. And to do that you have to document it and own it. It CANNOT live in your head, or it is just a hope or wish. And we all know that ‘hope is not a strategy’.

If you are struggling with this don’t beat yourself up. It is not so easy to really lay out what you want to accomplish. What if you do not make it once it is written out?

You WILL make it if you have it laid out, you have a plan to work toward it, and you work diligently toward it. We will work on that.

For now, finish defining your VISION for your business and we will move on tomorrow to look at the MISSION of your business.

Bernadette, your Prosperity Coach

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