177: Why Have a Mission Statement?
Brought to you by Pet Sitters Associates
Summary
How do you know if you’re meeting your business goals? What do you do when you’re facing a tough decision? A mission statement isn’t just something to attract clients, it’s mostly used as a guardrail during decision making and for making sure all of your staff are on the same page (if you have them). A mission statement helps give your work purpose and remind us that we are working towards something larger. It also gives us a standard to hold ourselves against and to continually strive towards.
Topics on this episode:
What is a mission statement?
How do you use it?
Pitfalls to avoid
What about an elevator pitch?
Ask a Pet Biz Coach
Main takeaway: Your mission statement gives you purpose AND power to make the best decisions for your business.
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
mission statement, business, pet, clients, statement, questions, purpose, company, mission, confessional, hiring, people, decision, staff, align, personal mission statement, website, part, natasha, associates
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin, Natasha
Meghan 00:17
Hi, I'm Meghan.
Collin Funkhouser 00:18
I'm Collin. And this is Pet Sitter Confessional,
Meghan 00:21
and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Hi, welcome to Episode 177.
00:32
Hello,
Meghan 00:33
if this is your first time joining us welcome. And if you've been with us for over
Collin Funkhouser 00:39
176 episodes prior to this,
Meghan 00:41
welcome back.
Collin Funkhouser 00:42
Thank you for hanging with us and sticking with us every single week.
Meghan 00:45
Yes, we've been making episodes for almost two years now. And you can go listen to any of them at any time at petsitter confessional.com. Or in your podcast player, you can scroll back and listen to any of them. We want to thank pet sitters associates and our wonderful Patreon members for sponsoring this episode today, we are so thankful for each of our Patreon members who support us with just a few dollars every month. And if you would like to help us create more content and get the content that you want out there.
Collin Funkhouser 01:18
Yeah, to take apart of developing it and giving input and feedback and taking questions. Head on over to petsitter confessional comm forward slash support and find all the ways you can support the show there.
Meghan 01:30
So today we are talking about mission statements. Why are we talking about them?
Collin Funkhouser 01:36
Well, as we've grown, we've tried to be more and more definitional about our business, we've tried to define what our business is and who it's for, and more importantly, what we want out of it so that our business can continue to be in alignment with our personal goals.
Meghan 01:53
So it's very helpful to have a mission statement for your business. And all that is is an action based statement that declares the purpose of an organization or your business, and how you can best serve your customers. It's a statement that you can share with potential employees or independent contractors and clients as a way of seeing if they believe in it as well, and to see if it aligns with their vision for your company as well. And that goes for your staff, obviously, your clients aren't really recognizing the vision for your business. It's your business but but it really defines what your business is, why it exists. And its reason for being
Collin Funkhouser 02:34
Yeah, at a minimum, your mission statement should define who your primary customers are. Identify the products or services that you're producing, or that you're making available. And even describing the geographic location of which you're operating to get some idea of where your businesses,
Meghan 02:50
this does usually take a considerable time to develop and revise and test and see if it's something that you like, it's not really something that you can just throw together and move on. And a key part of this is that the mission statement is not really meant to be tucked away and hidden after you've written it, it's going to be used is going to be seen by others and you yourself to be a reminder of what it is that your business stands for. And we're going to talk about that.
Collin Funkhouser 03:20
So before we dive into too much of the particulars of what a mission statement is and how to develop one, let's talk through some examples. So Tesla's mission statement is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable injury. And what I really like about this one is it's kind of a play on words here to accelerate the world's transition, because they're a car company who makes really fast electric cars. Then there's Patagonia, build the best product, cars, no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
Meghan 03:53
And they're a clothing company, right?
Collin Funkhouser 03:54
Right. But they're a clothing company with an environmental purpose. So they're bringing in some of their core values into this mission statement to get the end result of what they want to be a healthier environment.
Meghan 04:07
And then if you've heard of them funky bunch, Petcare,
04:10
hey, those guys sound like fun
Meghan 04:12
to provide exceptional personalized pet care, so your pet becomes part of our family. And I actually found a mission statement generator on the internet. And so I plugged our information in. Well, and it said, our mission add funky bunch pet care is giving pet owners peace of mind with originality, pride and authenticity.
Collin Funkhouser 04:33
So you can see how there are different components of each of these of what their end goal is for not just what they're doing, but how they intend to go about it.
Meghan 04:42
And so it's all about decision making. Think of your mission statement as guardrails for the decision making process. When we have a clearly defined mission statement, an actionable statement, we can make decisions faster. So how many times have you come up against a decision that needs to be made? The end you had no idea what to do. That has happened to us many times, almost constantly. Yeah. Do you want to expand into a new area? Do you want to raise prices? Should you fire the employee? Well, each time a business decision comes up, compare it to your mission statement and see which decision gets you closer to living your mission?
Collin Funkhouser 05:21
Basically, it helps you know when to say yes, and when to say no, which we have talked a lot about, on this podcast about the power of those two words, and when to know to do it and when to say the other one. The mission statement here is very critical to that. And you're able to say those two words, yes or no, because you have more confidence in each decision, because you know, it's aligning with your core believes in the mission for your business.
Meghan 05:47
Yeah, everything you do, as a company should work toward your mission statement, does hiring someone in the next town over align with that mission, while only you know that, and you really only know that when you have the statement written out, and you start using it. And it's a reminder to you to stay true to your mission, if you have staff make sure they know the mission, this starts giving their work purpose, and lets them know that they're working towards something bigger than just their position. Obviously, we are in this for the pets and the pet care, and providing excellent service. But as staff, they want to be part of something bigger or be part of something that's going to go somewhere and it helps them see that their job duties really fit in with the larger context of your company. And if you don't have staff, the statement helps remind you of why you're doing what you're doing day in and day out, it puts the mundane tasks, the hard days, the sad times into a larger context of work and purpose. And that's really the power of the mission statement here. It gives our work purpose, it gives our staffs work purpose, and it really acts as a unifying agent, when times get tough, or there are disagreements or again, hard days, even if you and your staff disagree on a particular decision, you can all agree that everyone is working towards the mission of the company.
Collin Funkhouser 07:14
And that's really powerful. When we are able to come up to a decision or come up to a problem. And know that we have this statement over here, that's going to be our guiding principle that is going to be our guide rails for how we work and how we navigate through that. Not just by ourselves if we were solopreneur, but also on our team, it helps everybody be on the same boat on the same page working towards the same goal. The power of that is that then you are working together, you're not working against each other. And you have that commonality that you can bring people from diverse backgrounds, diverse input, diverse goals for their personal lives. And know that all that's being set aside to work towards this one mission, this one goal for the company. And when everybody's behind that you're going to reach that those goals a lot faster than you could ever have done it by yourself, or if there was nothing bringing everybody together. And when I say the word goal here, I'm talking about the goal of how we want the company to operate. This is the idealized version of the company. When we say out words of excellence and pride and exceptionality. Those are what we are striving to do and what we believe our company is founded on and the core values that we're bringing forward. So that's what we're presenting with the mission statement saying, This is what we hold true to ourselves, this is what we believe us to be. And that's what we're going to hold ourselves accountable to, and anybody who we bring on his staff moving forward, and clients can see that employees are going to be able to see that and then at the end of the day, that's us, that's what we are holding ourselves accountable to as we move forward in our business.
Meghan 08:48
Okay, now we're going to get into the nuts and bolts of what exactly your mission statement should include. So it's important to remember that it doesn't have to be clever. It doesn't have to be catchy. It doesn't have to rhyme or to be fancy or to have a play on words. But it does have to be accurate and be true to your business. And there are really three major components to every mission statement. What do you do? How do you do it? And why do you do it? So the what? Again, don't overcomplicate it here, you provide pet care, or you provide dog walks or training or pet sitting, whatever it is that you do,
Collin Funkhouser 09:24
yeah, whatever you do, including not just services but if you have products that you're especially proud of or that you are yourself developing and putting out there on the market, include those in the mission statement as well.
Meghan 09:36
Yeah, subscription box or dog treats or whatever it is. And the second part is how here is where you start adding those descriptive words that we all love. Things like provide high product quality, provide superior customer service, protect the quality of the environment, encourage innovation or creativity, originality, Authenticity, all of those discretion. have words, then go into the how part of the statement.
Collin Funkhouser 10:03
This is those goals that were in the standard that we are holding ourselves accountable to, and how we want to be seen and how we want to act while we're going about our business. While we are providing pet care, we are doing it with excellence. That's what we are holding ourselves accountable to. And then there's the why. Think of this as your secret sauce to spark it makes it's what makes you and your business unique. Think back to why you started in the first place and why you started petsitting or dog walking. So some examples here is I started petsitting we started pet saying to give peace of mind to the owners. And you could also add in your target demographic. So like a millennial dog, mom or retired golden retriever owners start honing in and becoming really specific here. So that this mission statement stays true to your beliefs, why you started doing this. And so you can start targeting those who you're really going to align with your mission both of the customers and any staff that you bring on in the end.
Meghan 11:00
When making your mission statement, it's probably not necessary to include your insurance. But as pet care professionals, your clients trust you to care for their furry family members and pet sitters associates is here to help for over 20 years they have provided 1000s of members with quality pet care insurance. So if you work in the pet care industry, you can take your career to the next level with flexible coverage options, client connections and complete freedom when running your business. Learn why pet sitters associates is the perfect fit for you and get a free quote today. At pets@llc.com. You can get a discount when joining by clicking membership petsitter confessional and use the discount code confessional at checkout to get $10 off today, check out the benefits of membership and insurance once again, at pets@llc.com. When crafting your mission statement, it is important to know who is it for. So it's mostly for you for making decisions. But you also need to share it with your staff if you have them. And if you have staff and you don't have a mission statement, reach out to them. ask them for help when making one. ask them why they work for the company, why they think they have a purpose in your business and how they fit into it. It's not really for your clients necessarily, although you can absolutely share it with them and use it on your website.
Collin Funkhouser 12:18
Yeah, there is an increasing trend of companies sharing their mission statement sharing their core values with potential clients to make sure that they are all in alignment. When we had Jane Harrell on back on episode 99, she really talked about how clients seek out values and they seek out a purpose in a business that they can connect with and that they really know and enjoy and that aligns with their personal values. So that may be something to consider of having a public facing mission statement as well, so that people can connect with that, as well as sharing it with both you and your staff.
Meghan 12:53
But as with anything, there are some things to avoid when creating it. So it's not a vision statement. A vision statement is about where you want your company to go in the future. So a mission statement is more about what you are currently doing here and now. But it's important not to leave out your personality. When making your mission statement. Make it yours. The way you phrase your sentences, or the words you use become part of the personality and the mission of your business. It doesn't have to be a dry list of the services you provide. Because as we've said, it needs to have those descriptive words and the values that you have in your business. So don't be afraid to put your personality into it. But it is tempting, though, to create a mission statement that presents your company as a professional in serious organization. But it's more important and ultimately more beneficial to reflect the culture that makes your company unique. And I think last week's question from Natasha was how to create culture in your business.
Collin Funkhouser 13:53
And this last one to avoid here really isn't so much of a problem in the pet care space. But it is important to remind ourselves to try and avoid using too much jargon or too much industry specific lingo. This can make it confusing for new hires or clients who see that if they're not fully recognizing exactly what's going on, or they're not familiar with the kind of terms that you're using can be off putting to them and can make it seem more alien or less personal.
Meghan 14:19
But if you have it on your website, it can be pretty easy to just stuff keywords in for SEO. Right?
Collin Funkhouser 14:26
Yeah, part of this is when I think we can fall into this trap. When we start trying to make our mission statement. And fill it with buzzwords like we are trying to optimize for SEO search engine optimization on our website. These tend to be hard to read and lack the personality that Megan just talked about. The best possible mission statements consist of simple, clear language that directly communicates our purpose to us, to our clients and to our staff.
Meghan 14:55
And so part of this is having, we're talking about a business mission statement, but also Though you can have a personal mission statement for your personal life, right. And obviously, as the business owner and as a person, the two statements will be related. And you can view your business as a way to meet your personal mission statement.
Collin Funkhouser 15:15
And all the things that we've talked about about the do's and don'ts for a business mission statement, also go in line with your personal mission statement. They help you in making decisions in your personal life, should you do things? Should you not do them? Who should you bring on? What's your next step? How do you want to be seen? How do you want to be held accountable? All of those go for our personal lives as well. So when we have a personal mission statement, and a business mission statement, and they're working in tandem, when they're in alignment, that's something we've talked about a lot is your business aligned with your personal goals with your personal values. If your business mission statement is aligned with your personal mission statement, it's a lot easier to make decisions to make sure that you're continuing to progress forward, and you're being consistent across all areas of your life.
Meghan 15:58
And then once you have that mission statement, what do you do now, we've already talked about making it part of the decision making process and business planning for the future. But you can also make it part of any marketing or advertising that you do, you can have it on your social media, you can have it on your website, you don't have to. But it's something that you can if you want to do that. And to keep it from just becoming a meaningless slogan, start integrating that statement into how everyone works. If you have staff or if it's just you, when you set goals for staff or for yourself, have them define how those help meet the mission.
Collin Funkhouser 16:37
Again, this is bringing us back to understanding the purpose of our work and how it meets the business mission statement, when we set our goals for ourselves. And we can directly link them back line by line to the mission statement, we see that we're in alignment there, again, that the power of purpose, there is key, we can't overstate that too much here. Because in those mundane days, despite all of that, when we know that the work that we're doing has a higher purpose than just the day to day operations and helps us to push through as well as our staff.
Meghan 17:07
Once you have your mission statement, it's very important to revisit it frequently. Does it align with where markets are headed? The pet care industry took a huge hit last year, but we are seeing it boom again. And that's great. So does your mission statement align with where you are now in your business? And where you want to go? Is it still getting you the clients that you want? Is it still your passion? Don't be afraid to change it again, last year was crazy. But do you want to change it? When the mission is clearly lined out, you will be better at making clear decisions faster. Part of this discussion is also your elevator pitch. So this is usually two sentences, 1520 seconds of why someone should use your business. And this can be done at the meet and greet or when you meet somebody at the dog park. But usually at the meet and greet you shouldn't be selling yourself. If your social media and your website have done a good job of communicating you communicating your business and the general vibe of your company. You shouldn't have to sell yourself at the mean great.
Collin Funkhouser 18:13
Yeah, you can talk to your clients about area 51. And how many times each of them have been married instead, as happened to me recently.
Meghan 18:22
So the meet and greet isn't a time for the hard sell. It's a time for addressing any questions and through how you present yourself at the meet and greet you will be selling yourself. But again, it's not a time for the hard sell. It's more for passively selling through your actions through your questions through your interaction.
Collin Funkhouser 18:40
So the difference here, the mission statement is your Why? Why do I do what I do? What's the purpose? What's my mission in life? And then for my business? Why am I doing this work? The elevator pitch is for potential clients. It's more about the how how you do your business and convincing them again pitching yourself to convince them to sign on. So when we use them in tandem, we get a holistic picture of what our business is and why we do what we do and how we do it.
Meghan 19:06
If you already have a mission statement or have never thought about this at all, we would love to know what you come up with. Or if you've had one for a long time we'd love to know that too. How did you develop it? How do you use it? How does it guide your business? You can let us know on Facebook and Instagram at pet sitter confessional we also have a Facebook group sitter confessionals where you can ask questions of other pet care providers or you can give us a call 636-364-8260 this week's question for Natasha talks about hiring someone to fit your business culture
Collin Funkhouser 19:40
for a lot of people in their businesses. They may be currently solo right and they may be looking to hire. So how can they How can they take that next step and start hiring for those kind of intangibles so that there'll be a good fit for the culture that they want to build.
Natasha 19:54
Absolutely. So it all starts with knowing your zone of genius, okay, so when you know What you do really well, you want to identify all the people that can complement what you don't do well, I hear it all the time. They're like, I hire like people who act like me. And I was like, that's the worst thing you don't want to do. You don't need a whole bunch of us walking around. I'm like a variety. I need diversity. You know, I don't like doing this. And I don't like doing that. So find out your zone of genius. Write out all the things that you really enjoy doing that you would actually like to keep doing. I get asked all the time is why am I bottlenecking? My business? Yes, you all are the bottleneck, because you have to improve everything, you have to look at everything, you have to say everything right. So if you empower, you know, your team, your people, you won't be the bottleneck anymore. So how to do that, as a solo writer, you start off solo, you write out your zone of genius, first of all the things that I'm great at, okay? Remember that that fifth grade worksheet needs to do all the pros, and then all the cons. So on the left side, all the things that I'm amazing at, on the right side, all the things that I'm terrible at and be honest, because we're terrible at a lot of things I know I am. And so all the things that I'm terrible at that is what I start to look for. And I say I want to get this done, I want to get this done, what's your thoughts, and you start bringing people in that they are in their natural zone of genius, and they thrive the best there. Secondly, with that being said, with that being said, with having their zone of genius, it's just more so like playing off of each other, you know, getting each other's feedback. And I think that's the best place to start.
Collin Funkhouser 21:42
Yeah, really doing some assessments of who exactly you're bringing on and start filling the gaps of where you need, where the weaknesses are, and kind of build that full puzzle before, you can see that full picture that you have of your business. And, you know, again, asking questions about what they like to do, or just being observant of where they see these tendencies where the strengths are, and then giving them more of that responsibility by empowering them to make those kind of decisions.
Natasha 22:08
Absolutely, and you'll realize you're going to grow so much faster, when you do have those bullets in there. I would always say like, my biggest mistake or weakness in my business is actually trying to learn new skills that I know daggone Well, that I will not going to learn, like, I'll just sit in front of the computer trying to figure something out. And I'm like, I probably could be doing this probably could be doing that. But this task is gonna sit here for life, because this is my weakness. And I'm terrible at it. So stop trying to go to college on every single thing and just find people who are already amazing at it. And you'd be surprised how fast or you're like, boom, that's done next. Okay, cool. We didn't bottleneck this situation. And, and now we can keep going. So
Collin Funkhouser 22:53
well, when we talk about intangibles of an employee, sometimes, again, that just takes observing them or asking some simple questions about their interests. You know, you can't you might not know exactly what to line out for your questions when hiring each individual position. But, you know, as you get to know them more, you can start to see what exactly they're going to be best at and give them those kinds of responsibilities.
Natasha 23:15
Oh, I'm so glad you said that Collin. Because that's the first like, if you were going to have a processi about this, okay, you have your hiring, add. And then when they come to the interview, you can ask them what what what do they think they could? Like? How do they think that they could help our company? What What do you think you could bring to the business that could really help where we are, and they would love that you ask them their genuine advice or where they think they could help you grow? And they'll say, like, well, I'm really good at doing emails, I'm really good at doing social media, I'm really good at talking to people, I really enjoy that part. Or you know what, I really enjoy working with the animals. I think that's where I shine the best. And I would love to lean into that more. And I would say great, what do you think you could train someone to love and to to do the secret sauce? Or the tips that you do? Do you think you could train that to someone they're like, yeah, I could do it. Well, perfect. You could stay, you know, leaning into yourself with the animals, but then you could be my trainer where you're going to train other staff members because you enjoy showing the part of the process that you love. And so just asking them what they love, what they hate, what they loved about their last job. You guys know some of my knockout questions what they hated and that'll really get you an idea of what they're looking to get other next position.
Meghan 24:34
Natasha not only runs her dog walking business in multiple states, but she is also a pet business coach. And if you would like her to coach you on your business, you can go to her website, start scale sale, calm and use the code PSC 20 for 15% off her coaching.
Collin Funkhouser 24:49
A while back we had a an episode called the gig conversation Episode 113, where we discuss the impact of rover on the industry, and an article actually written by Josh SHERMER, founder of Sparky go well, on Wednesday, we bring Josh on the show to talk about that article and talk about how as a pet care professionals, we can have a positive influence on the trajectory of this industry for the better.
Meghan 25:12
We are so appreciative that you take the time every week to listen to our episodes, whether it's the topical conversations or the interviews, we hope that they are helpful to you. And if they are, if you are an apple podcast, we would love it if you would take five seconds and just give us a positive written review that would help other people know that this podcast is something to listen to, and we appreciate you, and also pet sitters associates and our awesome patrons.
25:39
Thank you so much. Thank you
