Vision and MIssion Statements

The purpose of mission and vision statements is to communicate the intention of your business. Without a mission and vision the organization won't have a specific direction and it will lose the meaning of why they are in business. When writing the mission and vision statement we have to keep in mind that all the goals we list have to be reachable; if not, there is no reason to write them. Even though they both serve as a tool to pass an idea to people inside and outside your organization, they send two different messages.

Vision:
Before a company starts analyzing their main goals and purpose, someone had a vision or dream about the business. Someone came up with the idea and started visualizing where the company will be.
A vision statement communicates the overall purpose and values of the organization. In other words, a vision specifies the long-term goals of the company. It serves as a motivation or inspiration for people inside and outside the organization. If the vision statement is followed as it should, the business will not lose track of their main purpose for existing.
Vision statements describe the desired future of the company.

Mission:
The mission statement is created in order to communicate the purpose and goals of the organization. A mission statement must answer three main questions:

 What does the company do?
 Who is targeted?
 What is the benefit?

The mission statement states what products or services your company offers and what will make them different from the competition. In other words, we want to tell individuals (prospect customers) what type of company we are and why they should choose us over other companies offering the same services or products.
A mission statement reflects the short-term goals of the company.
Example
Key features of a catering business are: customer satisfaction and affordable prices, therefore the mission statement would read:

To become the catering company of choice in the Westchester area by providing customers with a service beyond their expectations at a price they can easily afford.

This mission statement answers the three key questions. We are letting people know what type of business we are, what area we serve or in other words what area is our target and the benefits they would have if they chose us.