Author John C. Maxwell once said: Change is inevitable; growth is optional.
As Vibe celebrated its 2nd birthday in January of 2022, we took this to heart. After all, 21.5% of startups fail in their first year while 30% fail in their second; avoiding stagnation seemed an appropriate reason to proactively evaluate our company’s progress. Startups are bound to change, especially within their first few years of operation. And while pausing to evaluate those changes and how they impact a company’s purpose is optional…it’s optional in the kind of way that eating vegetables is optional. You should probably, definitely do it for the health of your business.
For us, growth is not optional.
As you may suspect, it turns out the mission and vision we had set for ourselves just two years before didn’t fully reflect the company we’ve become 🤷♀️ It was time to rethink: why are we here at Vibe, and what do we aim to achieve?
We thought about our successes and our failures, our best and worst times. We thought about what puts the good vibes in Vibe Creative Marketing. And we eventually agreed upon our new purpose at Vibe.
Based on our experience, here are 3 tips to help you reevaluate your company’s mission and vision.
Starting fresh can be intimidating and may seem like a lot more work than editing what you already have. However, holding onto what you already have may also hold you back from what you could be! Try scrapping your current purpose statement and starting with a clean slate.
In the process, you may find yourself returning to some of your existing verbiage. That’s okay! It’s just a reconfirmation that what you set out to achieve before still rings true today.
Unless you’re the only one doing any work at your business, getting buy-in and input from your entire team is important so that, ultimately, you can achieve your mission and vision! As important stakeholders in your company, your team will have great ideas toward this exercise. Plus, they’ll feel even more dedicated towards your shared goals if they had a hand in creating them.
So you’ve refreshed your company’s purpose…congrats! The work doesn’t stop there. Writing out a shiny, new mission and vision is just one step towards implementing it.
Think about tangible ways to reinforce your values. Can you incorporate your purpose into your new hire orientation? How about your staff’s monthly meeting? Having regular reminders about your purpose will only help to instill it within your entire team.
Oops, did we say we had 3 tips? Here’s the bonus…
Change. Doesn’t. Stop! Be ready to repeat this exercise in another few years, or whenever you feel your company has outgrown its purpose. Remember: change is inevitable; improvement doesn’t have to be.
