Tips and tricks for making an effective vision statement

Vision statements are a critical part of the strategic plans that we have as a business.

And they are important because the strategic plans are about making a different future. And that different future is articulated in your vision statement. Therefore, your vision statement needs to be clear, and everyone should understand that it should describe the different future you want to achieve as a business and why you want to be there.

Key things in your vision statement

If you can do that, you have a very powerful tool because now everyone in the organization knows where they are going and what they need to do to help get the business there. So, when you are writing your vision statement, it needs to be clear-cut, it needs to be concise and needs to describe the different future that you want to achieve.

  • Now, there are a few key things that you need to remember when you are writing your vision statement. The first thing is that it needs to be realistic. You can’t have a vision statement that says you want to be the biggest company in the world if you are a small company because that’s unrealistic. You need to have a vision statement that is achievable and that you can work towards.
  • The second thing is that your vision statement needs to be inspiring. It needs to be something that people can get behind and believe in. If your vision statement is boring or mundane, then no one will be inspired by it, and it’s not going to do anything for your business.
  • The third thing is that your vision statement needs to be actionable. It needs to be something that you can do something about. If your vision statement is just words on paper, it will not do anything for you. You need to have a vision statement that is something that you can take action on and that you can achieve.

Remember, your vision statement is the cornerstone of your entire strategic plan. It’s what drives everything that you do as a business. So, ensure it is clear, concise, inspiring, and actionable.

Types of vision statements and which one you should opt for

Three types of vision statements are mostly used in the business world. These are competitive, quantitative, and superlative. As the name suggests, competitive is about the vision of competing for counterparts, quantitative is the vision of achieving a quantifiable number, and superlative is the vision of being the best.

Let’s look at the choice of the vision statement. Firstly, you should have a full understanding of what your specialty is. You think that you are very competitive with your counterparts, and your vision is about beating your competition. You can opt for the competitive one. If you think of yourself as the leader in a particular niche, you can opt for the superlative one. And if you have a quantitative vision, like you want to achieve a certain revenue amount or a certain stake in the market or target a certain amount of people, then a quantitative one is for you. Before deciding anything, you as a business owner must know the advantages and disadvantages of every type, and for an example point of view, you can look at the vision statement of the various other brands in the market that have achieved good results and some which are failed.

How to create a vision statement that speaks to you

As you have opted for a vision statement type according to your vision or goals, now is the time to write it down. Still, before starting to write down your vision statement as a business or startup owner, one must clearly understand what one wants from his startup or business. Suppose you are unsure and need clarification and depend on what we might become a beneficial startup in case things around us remain stable, etc. In that case, you must come up with a clear statement with no ifs and bits. And one that is actionable.

Now that you have a clear understanding and an overview of what you want, you must write it. Now, this is a draft of your vision statement. Let’s, for example, you want your business to achieve a stake of whatever percentage in the clothing niche in the upcoming years. And you want to make your brand a premier one in your niche. To make this draft an accrual statement of vision, you have to pass your vision statement through a checklist. Firstly, it should be time-bound, and you as a business should allocate a minimum of 5 years for this purpose. It means you want to achieve all this in the next five years.

The next checklist is that it must be in the future tense as obvious and must be directional. Directional means that we are not there but want to go there so it must provide a direction to the readers. Now the next part is that it must be audacious. Audacious means that the vision statement must be big but actionable simultaneously. You can also think of it as you must not limit your target and look for the bigger picture; the last on the list is descriptive. What descriptive means is that it must describe the main point of your business. It must be able to paint a picture of what you want so that others can easily understand.

Layout

Now mainly, what must be the layout of your vision statement? Firstly, it starts with a line that we envision, or our vision is to, etc., and then it contains the impact that it will have on the world. And lastly, what the world looks like afterward. So, this is the basic layout of what must be in your vision statement. By following these basic tips, you can start working and trying to create some vision statements; try them out and look out for the best possible statement you can make and then use that as your vision statement.

March 2, 2023
Ash Brown
Empiraa Founder & CEO