How to Create a Company Mission and Core Values

Deciding on your company’s mission and values is one of those “someday” tasks that business owners often put off for too long.

Or even worse – we decide on our company mission and values, but they remain on a random page in an old notebook and never actually get implemented into the way your company operates.

Once our company decided on our Core Values and Mission Statement – it changed everything – from how we operated day-to-day to how we hired.

You see – a clear Mission Statement is how you get buy-in from your team. It’s how you communicate what you do and why you do it. It’s why you wake up in the morning to serve in your business. It is the WHAT and the WHY.

Core Values – they are the HOW. Core Values are the principles by which your company treats your internal team and your clients/customers/prospects.

So – let’s dive into how to create your company’s Mission Statement and Core Values.

How to Create a Company Mission Statement

A mission statement is a short and clear statement that outlines what your company does and why it exists. It’s meant to guide your actions as a business owner and help you make decisions that align with your company’s goals.

Examples of company mission statements

Here are examples of mission statements from businesses you may know:

“To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” – Google

“To bring people together for the experience of a lifetime.” – Airbnb

“Make every moment special.” – 1-800-Flowers

“To make people happy.” – Shake Shack

“To make working out something people look forward to.” – Peloton

“To make the freedom life possible” – HelloSavvy

As you can see, a good mission statement is concise and to the point. It doesn’t try to be everything to everyone – instead, it focuses on a specific goal or outcome.

Tips for writing an effective company mission statement

Keep it short and sweet.

Your mission statement should be brief; after all, you want it to be something that employees can easily remember and recite. Aim for no more than one or two sentences.

Make it specific.

Vague statements like “we’re the best” or “we’re the leading provider” aren’t going to cut it; instead, focus on specifics like your target customer and what problem you’re solving for them.

Incorporate your values.

Your Company Mission Statement should reflect your Core Values as a business. These values should guide everything you do, from your products or services to how you treat your customers and employees.

Avoid jargon.

People outside your industry won’t know what terms like “synergies” or “competitive landscape” mean, so avoid using them in your mission statement. Instead, opt for language that’s easy for everyone to understand.

Make it actionable.

Your mission statement should inspire employees to take action and help them understand how their work fits into the bigger picture. It should clarify each employee’s role in achieving the company’s goals.

Make sure it’s achievable.

Setting ambitious goals for your business is essential, but those goals should still be realistic; otherwise, employees will become frustrated when they can’t meet them. Make sure your mission statement sets achievable objectives that everyone can get behind.

It’s time to write your mission statement!

Are you ready? It’s time to start drafting your company mission statement!

When writing your own mission statement, start by thinking about what you want your business to achieve.

What problem are you solving?

Who are you helping?

What pain points does your product or service solve?

Then, craft a short sentence or phrase that captures the essence of your business. If you can’t condense your Company Mission to a single sentence, that’s okay – just make sure it’s still concise and easy to understand.

Once you have a draft of your mission statement, share it with your team and get their feedback. Ask them if they think it accurately reflects the business’s goals and whether they would be proud to stand behind it.

How to Create Company Core Values

Company Core Values are the guiding principles that will help you make big and small decisions within your organization. They should reflect your company’s culture and the kind of work you want to do. Most importantly, they should be values you can stand behind—values you would be proud to live and work by.

Why Core Values Are Important

It is vital within a company to have defined core values. For one, they can help you attract and retain the right employees. If your core values align with employees’ personal values, they’re much more likely to be engaged in their work and committed to your company. Additionally, well-defined core values can help shape your company culture and make it easier for new employees to assimilate.

Your company’s core values can also guide you when making tough decisions—decisions about everything from what projects to take on to how to handle conflict within the team. When faced with a difficult situation, you can ask yourself, “Does this align with our core values?” If the answer is no, it’s probably not the right decision for your company.

Finally, having strong core values can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. If your customers know what your company stands for and believe in those values, they will likely continue doing business with you.

Start Crafting Your Company’s Core Values

The first step in defining your company’s core values is understanding what values are important to you as a business owner.

Your company core values are usually a series of 5-7 short, memorable phrases that your team can quickly memorize.

Here are some examples:

We put our customers first.
We work as a team.
We’re creative and innovative.
We’re passionate about what we do.
We act with integrity.
We’re always learning and growing.
We have fun!

My recommendation is to set a timer for 10 minutes and get alone with a blank piece of paper. Begin writing out everything that YOU value by answering the following questions:

What do you believe in?

What kind of work do you want to be doing?

What do you want your company culture to be like?

Once the 10 minutes are over, look at what you’ve written. Circle the 5-7 values that stand out to you the most.

If you have a team, this is an excellent time to bring your 5-7 values to them to talk over them. They can even help you craft the wording of them to help make them more “catchy” and/or memorable.

How to Incorporate Your Company Mission and Core Values

Your mission and values should be more than just words on a piece of paper; they should guide everything you do as a company.

Make sure they’re reflected in how you treat employees and customers, your products or services, and every decision you make as a business owner. If everyone in the company is aware of and committed to living by the mission and values, they will be an integral part of your success as a business owner.

Here are a few practical ways to begin living out your Company Mission and Core Values:

Write them down and hang them up in a visible spot in your office. We created a fun plaque that we send out to all new employees with our Core Values.
Reference them often during team meetings and company-wide initiatives. We go over our Core Values and Mission in every team meeting and ask for an example of one of our Core Values in action from the past week.
Refer to them when interviewing job candidates to see if they would fit your company culture well. This is one of the reasons we created HelloSavvy – so that you can hire mission-minded freelancers.
Celebrate your core values and mission in action regularly. We created a Slack channel called “Core Values.” Our employees often will post in that channel about client wins, how another employee treated them kindly, or an example of how they were able to live the “Freedom Life” (our company mission) personally that day.

When you’re living your mission and values every day, it becomes a part of who you are as a company. It’s no longer just something you check the box on; it becomes a way of life.

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