WHEN WRITING your business plan, one imperative thing that you will be required to write is a vision statement.  This is a step that can help or guide you to success as you grow your business as a vision statement can simply be used to describe what you really need for your business.  

Many people confuse the vision statement with the mission statement, the primary difference being that the vision statement defines what you want your business to achieve or become, while your mission statement articulates how you desire to conduct business to achieve your goals.  Your vision statement is a tool used for motivating your employees toward achieving a common goal as you prove that you are heading to the most conducive direction for success.  The process of writing a vision statement is very simple and with enough knowledge and research, you can come up with a truly impactful one.

First and foremost, you need to review the readily available vision statement drafts and the statements used by your competition in order to get a clue on all that they entail before you write one for your own company.  By studying your competition, you can ensure to surpass them. These statements will differ from one company to another, but you should ensure that you look at the many designs available.  The Internet can also act as a great source for this information.

Secondly, you need to create a list of your company’s goals and principles as this should be your first and most crucial step when it comes to how to write a vision statement of your own.  To come up with an overall vision statement, you need to know your goals and all the benchmarks that you set aside for the future growth of your business.  You need to write down all the goals you plan to achieve with your business and share them with anyone involved in the business planning process.

Another substantial step is to speak with any other key players involved with the company in order to learn more about their vision for the company.  You need to agree on certain achievements for the company and also agree on unifying the statements your have made before carrying on with any other business activity.

The next step is to develop sample version statements that will fit your specific goals and the profile that you want to create for your clients, suppliers and the public in general.  You can come up with four or five statements that will allow you a broad spectrum and get one that works best for you, the business, and also for any other promotional material, investor documents, and print material that you may have.

After coming up with the draft versions of your vision statement, you need to conduct a market test that will help you discover the impact of your vision statements on your target market.  You can also utilize your friends, family and any other helpful person to test the effectiveness of your vision statement and see whether it will attract a larger number of clients.

Lastly, once you decide on the final version of your vision statement, you need to promote it within your organization on every distribution document that you have in your company, as well as any business or marketing plans that you draft in the future.