Vision: What is it and why do you need one for your business?

Running a business can be emotionally exhausting. One day, you’ve had lots of orders, a celebrity shares your product, some great PR and you feel on top of the world. A week later, no one is engaging on your social media posts, your orders have gone quiet and you can’t help but ask yourself why you are bothering.

 

Add to the roller-coaster of emotions, being a mother. Only being able to work during certain times of time, needing to take unexpected time away from work to look after poorly children or attend a school assembly. All this, meaning that you can’t always run with what your ideas and your business when the inspiration takes you.

It’s no easy gig being a small business owner and a mother.

But, get it right and it can be incredibly rewarding. You can create a flexible lifestyle, one that works around family commitments. You can earn money on your terms. You can feel a great sense of achievement and pride when something you have created sells. It really is worth it. That’s where having a vision comes in.

 

A vision will help you through the tough days, keep you motivated, guide you to make healthy decisions for you and your business and move you closer towards creating the life and business that you desire.

 

A vision can change over time but shouldn’t change every day. It’s a long-term goal.

Your vision for your business should guide your day to day decisions, how you spend your time and keep you motivated. If you have a team, it should be shared. If you have an office, plaster it on the wall.

 

Your vision:

• No complex jargon. Just simply what you want your business to achieve for you and for the world
• Let everyone know what you are working towards. Be proud!
• You need to know what you are working towards by heart.
• If you look at your vision and it deosnt inspire you to keep going on the tough days, you’ve not got it right. Make sure it comes from a place of passion and encompasses something you care about.
• Far reaching. Your vision is a thing of the future. It doesn’t need to be something you are going to achieve by next week. It needs meaningful and it needs to be scalable.

 

Your vision is not the same as your mission.

When writing your vision think about what changes you want to see in the world. What world do you want to create for your business to live in. 

Spend some time thinking about your vision for your business.

 

Some example of great brand visions:

Alzheimer’s Association: A world without Alzheimer’s disease.

Disney: to make people happy

Google: to organise the world’s information and make it universally acceptable and useful

Tesla: to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy

 

You can try this exercise:

Start by thinking about your ‘why’. Why did you start your business? What purpose does it serve you and how does it serve your customers? Note down what you want to achieve. Financial freedom? A small business you can put down during school holidays. A brand that becomes a household name? How does your ideal day look? This will all help you to work out what you want from your business. Then, think about what impact you want your brand to have on your customers lives. Why have you chosen to start this specific type of business? Is there a social cause? Finish off by writing a statement about your vision for your brand.

 

Once you’ve written your vision. Don’t keep it a secret. Wear that badge proudly. Share it with your customers. Put it at the heart of your brand.

 

Not only will it guide you through the difficult days, it will help you to find the right audience for your brand and connect with them on an emotional level.

 

Share your brand visions with us @allbymamanetwork

 

 

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