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How to Write a Business Plan Mission and Vision Statement [Sample Template]

Are you currently writing a business plan? If YES, here’s an in-depth guide and sample template on how to write a workable mission & vision statement for a business. A vision and mission statement are some of the most important requisite for business success and sustainability, but unfortunately, most entrepreneurs and small business owners run their business without these two thing out of ignorance.

What is a Mission and Vision Statement?

A mission and vision statement ( more commonly called a mission statement or a vision statement ) is a brief sentence that declares the goals that a business plans to achieve in the future. Like a compass guides a ship, it guides a business to success by providing continuously inspiring its stakeholders in their daily operations and strategic moves.

A mission statement helps you plan your business effectively. It provides the destination for your journey to business success. Of course, without a destination, you can’t plan a route. Before we discuss the steps involved in developing a mission statement for your business, let’s look at the components of a mission statement and why you really need a mission statement for your business.

Today, I will be sharing with you an underground secret to building a business from scratch. This secret is one of the contributing factors to the success of any business; yet, it’s often ignored. This secret is nothing more than a “ Business Mission Statement. ”

“The thing I really care about is the mission; making the world open.” – Mark Zuckerberg

The importance of a mission statement can never be over emphasized. I have seen so many startups without a mission; even some established firms also make the mistake of operating without a mission.

“Being an entrepreneur, I have come to realize that all successful businesses are driven by three fundamentals. One is the cash flow, two is the team and three is the mission. Of these three, the mission is the most important.” – Ajaero Tony Martins

Now what has a mission statement got to do with building a business? What’s the impact of a mission statement on an entrepreneur undergoing the entrepreneurial process? Is a mission statement a source of ? While I am not going to answer these questions directly, the following points will help you further understand why you need to develop a mission statement for your business?

Why Your Business needs a Mission Statement

1. The mission is the foundation on which your business will be built. It’s the true purpose of your business and that purpose is reflected in the mission statement. Without a strong mission statement, you don’t have a true business. All you have is just a profit making venture that will soon be wiped out with time.

“To turn really interesting ideas and fledging ideas into a company that can continue to innovate for years, it requires a lot of disciplines.” – Steve Jobs

2. The entrepreneurial spirit is found in the mission statement. When I look at the mission statement of any business, I get a peep into the life of the entrepreneur that founded that business. The entrepreneurial spirit is what drives the entrepreneur forward. If the mission is strong, your spirit will be strong towards the pursuit of your goal.

“The IKEA spirit is strong and living reality. Simplicity in our behavior gives us strength. Simplicity and humbleness characterize us in our relations with each others, our suppliers and our customers.” – Ingvar Kamprad

3. Your mission statement is the bond binding you, your team, employees and your customers to the business. Take away the mission and other key elements will fall apart. Your mission also has the power to attract other like-minded individuals and entities to your cause. The reason is that people with the same mission align together; more like birds of the same feather flocking together.

4. With a strong mission, your business will weather any storm. Take a look at businesses that has been around for over 100 years and you will see businesses with a strong mission. As an example:

• General Electric has stood the test of time because the spirit of its founder “ Thomas Edison ” continues to guide the company through its mission.
• Henry Ford’s mission statement was: “ To democratize the automobile ” and that mission has kept the Ford Motor Company going.
• Aliko Dangote’s mission statement goes: “ Providing your basic need ” and this mission drives the Dangote Group to dominate the commodities market of
• The Rich Dad Company; founded by Robert Kiyosaki keeps waxing strong because of its mission, which is “ To elevate the financial well being of humanity .”

By contrast; I have come to observe that when a company forgets its mission, its starts to lose its relevance. The bond holding the business will be broken and good customers will leave, employees will resign and the business will dwindle. Just as the case of the Dot com burst, many profitable Dot com companies went under because they forgot their mission.

3 Components of a Mission and Vision Statement

1.  a vision.

This, simply put, states the impact you envision your business having on the world in years to come. You can have more than a single statement in here, but don’t go beyond three. Gloss it over to make sure anyone who reads it feels at least one of inspiration, hope, commitment, and awe.

In addition, your vision statement must be compelling, detailed, and reflective of the intended end outcome. Avoid one that is bland, generic, uninspiring, or unreasonable. An example of a good vision statement is that of Amazon:

“Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”

2.  A mission statement

This is a brief statement that states the important goal or purpose that your business is poised to achieve. In other words, it’s a single sentence stating why your business exists in a convincing manner. Keep your mission statement specific and concise ( the shorter it is, the better ), make it connect with both employees and stakeholders, and make it highlight your value proposition. Don’t make it too long, generic, or confusing. An example of a good mission statement is that of Nike:

“To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”

Here’s another example of a mission statement:

“To contribute to development of value-added agricultural businesses . ”

3. Core values

These outline the principles and values that the stakeholders in a business will follow in their bid to achieve their vision. They also specify the bounds or limits that the stakeholders must watch while trying to actualize the mission. The following are examples of core values:

• Respect and protect the environment
• Offer high quality products that are safe for consumers
• Meet the ever-changing needs of consumers
• Practice highly ethical business standards

If your business is going to stand the test of time, then you will have to build it upon a strong mission. With the above in mind, let’s now look at the steps involved in developing a mission and visions statement.

How to Write a Mission and Vision Statement for a Business Plan

Please bear in mind that you are learning as much of yourself each day as you are about your customer. So, don’t feel that anything you state here is etched in stone and cannot be changed. The more you understand your customer and the market, the more necessary it would become for you to shift grounds accordingly. But you need to state here what you have to offer at the moment. This will be a starting point for any changes you may need to effect later ( as your business grows ).

1.  Sit down in a quiet spot and reflect upon your thoughts

Ask yourself what drives you forward? What keeps you motivated? When you have figured out the answer to these questions, put it down in writing.

2.  Ask yourself how best you can serve your customers

What will your business stand for in the heart of your customers? What will be the ultimate benefit your customers can derive from your business? When you figure the answer to these questions out, put it down in writing.

3. Brainstorm for your vision statement

The vision is the most important component of your mission statement. Simply put, this is a picture or idea of what you plan to achieve in future . A vision statement is always concise and easy to remember, and for this reason, every stakeholder in a business can easily focus on it; and their decisions and activities are directed towards achieving the vision. Here is a good example of a vision statement:

“ Creating a vibrant rural economy driven by value-added agriculture. “

Once you get one down, then getting other components becomes very easy. To find the best vision statement for your business, simply ask yourself the question, “Why does this business exist?” Present answers from various angles, and you will find your mission statement among them.

4.  Get down your mission statement

As stated earlier, your mission statement is that action sentence that describes how you will achieve your vision. Finding this is much easier once you have found your vision statement. If you are stuck, just do it this way: If your vision is “A diabetes-free society” , then simply add the word “ To ” and another suitable verb to convert it to an action sentence. And there you will have your mission statement.

Using the same vision, you will get “To bring about a diabetes-free society .” You can go further by tweaking it, so that you will have something like: “To manufacture products that can cure diabetes effectively and permanently.” You get it now?

5.  List your core values

First off, you need to clarify your values. This means taking into account all the various stakeholders that your business is ( or will be ) accountable to—including investors, customers, employees, and suppliers. Now, consider how you would like to ideally conduct business with each of these stakeholders. Start making a list and your core values should start to emerge.

These are the various steps you will follow in your quest to achieve your vision. Brainstorm for as many as possible, list them down, and the prune your list down to as few as possible without leaving out any important ones. Now, let’s look at some additional tips that you will need to keep in mind when preparing your mission and vision statement.

4 Extra Success Tips for Developing a Business Plan Mission and Vision Statement

• Your mission statement must be brief and simple. Being succinct as demanded by a mission statement isn’t easy. And you may need to go through several hours of tweaking and editing before arriving at the perfect sentence. Though short, your mission statement must capture the very essence of what your business plans to achieve. The fewer words the better. Use just only the few words needed to pass the message without leaving out any vital details.
• Your mission statement must be in tune with your vision, and both sentences must blend to form a single thought.
• There’s no rule that says you must get it perfectly at once. You can keep review your mission statement later, if necessary.
• Your mission and vision statements must give the reader an insight, a covert one, at least into what you offer. This is more important if the name of your business doesn’t suggest what products or services you’re offering.

If you follow the guidelines I shared in this post, you will prepare a perfect vision and mission statement that will drive your business to success. Now I want you to know that no one can help you develop a mission statement. You alone can develop your mission and as a final note, it’s worthwhile you know that of the entire business system, the mission is the most important.

• Go to Chapter 8 Part C: Writing your Business Plans Goals and Objectives
• Go Back to Chapter 7 : H ow to Write a Business Plan Executive Summary
• Go Back to Introduction and Table of Content

More on Business Plans

More Like this

52 mission statement examples that rock + free mission guide.

In this article, we will define ‘what is a mission statement’, briefly highlight the essentials of creating a strong mission statement and show you some of the best mission statement examples from top organizations around the world.

What is a mission statement and its purpose?

Remember that a mission statement explains why your organization exists . It is a foundational element of your plan that establishes your core purpose and who you serve! A great mission statement stands the test of time, guiding more temporary and time-specific goals and plans. This, paired with a bold vision statement will serve as a strong foundation to your strategic plan.

For a mission statement to provide clarity, we recommend writing it with concrete language. We recommend avoiding abstract fluff that might sound good on the surface but does not help your team understand the “why” behind their work. We also recommend writing it in the present tense. This differentiates it from a vision statement, which is focused on the future. A mission statement should be timeless (or as close to it as possible). Writing it in the present tense helps capture that.

What are the benefits of a mission statement?

When it comes to strategic planning for your organization, you can’t underestimate the importance of having a clear and concise mission statement. Not only does it help provide direction and focus for your team and tells your customer base and community who you are and what you stand for. A well-crafted mission statement is the foundation for your overall strategy and decision-making.

By outlining your mission statement, you’re laying the groundwork for everything that follows. You’re setting the tone for your vision for your organization and the values you want to uphold. That can be a powerful tool for making decisions and setting priorities for the company’s future.

So, if you haven’t already drafted a mission statement, now is the time to start! It may take some time and thought, but the benefits will be well worth it in the long run.

What makes a great mission statement?

OnStrategy strongly believes in creating a mission statement that speaks to who you are and why you exist as an organization. We believe great mission statements should be audacious, motivating, and memorable.

This is because, as we’ve stated before, your mission statement reflects the best of you and serves as the foundation of your business or organization. Mission statements boldly state why you exist and do what you do – not only for your team and those doing the work but for your community and customers whose support you’re striving to capture.

We’ve crafted a mission statement cheat sheet that outlines the four criteria that every mission statement should meet:

• Your mission statement should be foundational
• Your mission statement should be original
• All mission statements should be memorable
• And bonus points if your mission statement is something you’d want represented on a t-shirt!

Pulling Together Your Mission Statement with the Help of OnStrategy’s Cheat Sheet [With Examples]

Check out our mission statement cheat sheet below for a downloadable guide to build your mission statement.

Video Transcript – How to Write a Mission Statement- The Virtual Strategist

Hi, my name’s Erica Olsen. Today’s whiteboard session is on how to write a mission statement. Mission statements are foundational to any strategic plan. You normally build one after you develop your SWAT and before you go into the rest of your planning process. It’s foundational because it answers the question, why do we exist?

It (a mission statement) clearly explains the space that we play and what’s in and what’s out of what we do, and it’s not where we’re going, which is vision. So let’s break it down. We use this example to explain the components of a mission statement. We use this checklist to talk about what makes a good mission statement, and we’ll walk through a simple process to create yours.

So let’s jump in. The example we have up here is Google’s, and we love using Google’s, Google’s examples because they’re, they’re great and why not [00:01:00] borrow from the best? So starting with our mission, I’d like to start it with our mission cuz it gives us a place to, to go and keeps us thinking about mission.

You might get rid of it later, but start it there. Uh, it has a verb with present tense to organize. We explain what we do, organize the world’s information for whom, in this case, the world, and what’s the benefit to us existing? What’s the benefit to the world to make? Information universally accessible and useful, really straightforward.

We know mission statements are not that easy to write, so here’s a checklist to make sure that yours is great. Starting with it needs to be original. This is really clearly original to Google. They didn’t rip it off from somebody else. It doesn’t sound like anybody else’s mission statement or company vision statement. If it sounds like Google’s mission statement, so make sure yours is original.

It’s foundational. I already mentioned that, but you don’t wanna change it. All the time. Maybe a few word tweaks, but ideally [00:02:00] not. You want a mission statement that sustains over time, so it needs to be foundational. Connect with staff a great mission statement, and you know, yours is great. When every single staff member wakes up in the morning and knows that their purpose and the reason they come to work every day is expressed in your mission statement, and to do that, it needs to be memorable.

Memorable means short and concise, and of course, that’s the balance to strike with a great mission statement. So here’s your litmus test. It needs to fit on a T-shirt, and your staff would wear it if it achieves those two goals. You know, you’ve got a great mission statement, so how do you write one?

Sometimes it can be hard, so it’s great to get input or ideas from your organization. So gather staff input if you’d like, via survey or maybe focus groups. Take all that information, synthesize it down, and create a couple of versions. You can do it yourself. Or use one of those folks in your organization who loves to copyright and have them write a [00:03:00] couple of different versions.

Take those versions and either have your planning team pick one or put them out to your organization and have people vote on them. So that simple process will help you not, uh, go in all kinds of different directions and spend forever doing mission statement development. With that, I hope this helps you write yours. [00:03:21] Thanks for tuning in.

If you want to learn more on determining what is a mission statement that’s effective and how to write a mission statement that inspires, check out our guide!

Anatomy of an Effective Mission Statement

A mission statement is a powerful way to tell your board members, team and your customers who you are and why you exist – ideally in two sentences or less! Your company’s mission statement describes, essentially, your company’s core values and company’s purpose for existing today.

Maybe your organization believes that your business exists to provide outstanding customer service to all who walk through your door. Your employees will now know that your company’s identity revolves around providing the best customer service possible.

This process of creating a compelling mission statement may feel daunting, but don’t worry! By following our simple anatomy of a mission statement, you can easily put one together that truly defines your mission and purpose.

Every mission statement must have these five basic elements:

• A label such as, “Our mission…”
• A verb in the present tense.
• For whom you’re doing this for.
• A result or benefit of the work you do.
• What you do and how you do it.

For example, yours may end up looking like this: “Our mission is to make our clients successful by merging remarkable digital design and goal-focused usability.

Read our free canvas and guide for a deeper dive into the topic!

Mission Statement Versus Vision Statement Versus Values Statement: What’s the difference?

Vision statement.

A vision statement describes your clear vision of the future; your ambitions. Vision statements clearly state what your organization looks like in the future. Vision statement focuses on the big picture outcome, usually 5+ years in the future. [Check out our vision statement examples here. ]

Mission Statements

A good mission statement clearly explains why you exist and what your organization’s purpose for existing is. A company mission statement also expressly states who you serve and how potential customers benefit from your work.

Values Statements

Values statements are an expression about how you expect your team to behave. They explain the values, beliefs, and experiences you expect to create within your organization.

Using Your Mission Statements, Vision Statements, and Values Statements Together

These three important plan elements aren’t meant to live as standalone items. They are designed to be used together! Mission and vision statements help your organization clearly articulate why you exist, who you serve, and where you’re going in the future. Your values statements help support your own mission and vision statment by expressing how you expect your organization to behave along the journey! When in doubt, remember these three tips:

• Mission statement = why you exist.
• Vision statement = where you’re going in the future.
• Values statements = set of behaviors you expect from your team. you expect your team to behave.

When to know it’s time to update your mission statement?

As you move forward on your strategic planning process, maybe you’ve decided to revisit your mission statement. If you read it and thought, “Wait, that doesn’t really align with what we’re doing anymore, ” it may be time for an update. And that’s okay! It happens more often than you might think.

Your company constantly evolves and grows, so your mission statement must reflect those changes. Some signs that it’s time to hit refresh on your mission statement include:

• Huge shifts in your customer or target audience
• Major changes in your organization’s goals and approach
• A total rebrand

Remember, your mission statement should guide and inspire your business, so it’s essential to keep it relevant and meaningful! They have a shelf life of about 10-15 years.

A clear and concise mission statement can give your employees and customers a sense of direction and purpose. So, if you feel like your current mission statement is a little outdated or doesn’t reflect who you are as an organization, it might be time for a refresh.

Check out our 52 mission statement examples from some of the world’s best companies and organizations for inspiration!

52 Mission Statement Examples

Learning general principles for how to write a mission statement is helpful. However, these principles can become clearer by looking at some examples of mission statements. As you check out some of these mission statement examples from various types of organizations, notice how there are various ways to make your mission statement unique while sharing the tried-and-true principles of good mission statements:

Example Mission Statements for For-Profit Companies

Tesla: “Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to renewable energy.”

Starbucks “To inspire and nurture the human spirit- one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.”

Coca-Cola: “The Coca-Cola Company exists to benefit and refresh everyone who is touched by our business.”

The Home Depot: “The Home Depot is in the home improvement business, and our goal is to provide the highest level of service, the broadest selection of products, and the most competitive prices.”

The Boeing Company, Africa Division: “Our mission is to establish a powerful presence and positive image of The Boeing Company with governments, businesses, and community leaders.”

Nike: “Our mission is to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. *If you have a body, you are an athlete.”

John Deere: “Double and Double Again the John Deere Experience of Genuine Value for Employees, Customers and Shareholders.”

Publix: “Our Mission at Publix is to be the premier quality food retailer in the world.”

Aveda: “Our mission at Aveda is to care for the world we live in, from the products we make to the ways in which we give back to society. At Aveda, we strive to set an example for environmental leadership and responsibility, not just in the world of beauty but around the world.”

General Motors: “General Motors’ corporate mission is to earn customers for life by building brands that inspire passion and loyalty through not only breakthrough technologies but also by serving and improving the communities in which we live and work around the world.”

New Leaf Paper: “The mission of New Leaf Paper is to be the leading national source for environmentally responsible, economically sound paper.”

Nordstrom: “Our mission is to continue our dedication to providing a unique range of products, exceptional customer service, and great experiences.”

Seventh Generation: “Seventh Generation is the nation’s leading brand of non-toxic and environmentally safe household products.”

Get the Free Guide and Canvas to Build a Mission that Sticks

Example mission statements for non-profits.

UNICEF: “UNICEF promotes the rights and well-being of every child, in everything we do.”

ACLU of San Diego: “To protect and expand fairness, equity, and freedom through community engagement, building power, policy advocacy, and impact litigation.”

Red Cross: “To provide compassionate care to victims of disasters.”

TED Talk: “Spread ideas. Make great ideas accessible and spark conversation.”

Girl Scouts of America: “Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.”

Operation Underground Railroad: “We exist to rescue children from sex trafficking and sexual exploitation.”

Goodwill: “To enhance the dignity and quality of life of individuals and families by strengthening communities, eliminating barriers to opportunity, and helping people in need reach their full potential through learning and the power of work.”

Alzheimer’s Association: “Through our many initiatives and worldwide reach, the Alzheimer’s Association leads the charge in Alzheimer’s care, support, research and advocacy.”

Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts: “To cultivate exceptional performing arts experiences in our historic venue and throughout the region.”

ASPCA, The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals: “To provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States.”

Mission Statement Examples for Software Companies

OnStrategy: “Our mission is to create strategy that matters and drive the culture to execute it.”

LinkedIn: “To connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.”

Equifax Business Services: “To serve our customers by utilizing information and technology that provide real-time answers to increasingly complex questions.”

Google: “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Amazon: “We strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost convenience.”

Duolingo: “We’re here to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available. Our global team works together to make language learning fun, free, and effective for anyone who wants to learn, wherever they are.”

Hulu: “To help people find and enjoy the world’s premium video content when, where and how they want it.”

Microsoft: “Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”

TikTok “ Our mission is to capture and present the world’s creativity, knowledge, and moments that matter in everyday life.”

Vivint: “Vivint helps families live intelligently in safer, smarter homes.”

Example Mission Statements for Healthcare Organizations

CVS: “Helping people on their path to better health.”

Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center of Northern Nevada: “To deliver compassionate, quality care to patients and better healthcare to communities.”

Northern Nevada Hopes: “Our mission is to build a healthier community by providing affordable, high-quality medical, behavioral health, and support services for all.”

Pfizer Pharmaceuticals: “We will become the world’s most valued company to patients, customers, colleagues, investors, business partners, and the communities where we work and live.”

The WellPoint Companies: “The WellPoint Companies provide health security by offering a choice of quality branded health and related financial services designed to meet the changing expectations of individuals, families, and their sponsors throughout a lifelong relationship.”

New York-Presbyterian Hospital: “It is the mission of New York-Presbyterian Hospital to be a leader in the provision of world-class patient care, teaching, research, and service to local, state, national, and international communities.”

The Center for Disease Control: “CDC works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety, and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same.”

Valley OB/GYN: “At Valley OBGYN, we strive to provide quality comprehensive patient-centered women’s care here in Spokane Valley.”

The American Psychological Association: “Our mission is to promote the advancement, communication, and application of psychological science and knowledge to benefit society and improve lives.”

Dentistry for Children: “Dentistry for Children believes that good dental health starts in infancy. Our dedicated pediatric dentists and teen dental specialists promote cavity prevention and good dental habits to help create a positive experience at an early age and into their adolescent years.”

Mission Statement Examples for Governments and/or Government Entities

The City of Windsor, Canada: “The City of Windsor, with the involvement of its citizens, will deliver effective and responsive municipal services, and will mobilize innovative community partnerships.”

Cliffside Park, New Jersey Police Department: “The Cliffside Park Police Department is committed to providing a safe and peaceful environment in the Borough of Cliffside Park through effective and impartial law enforcement.”

Fire Department New York: “As first responders to fires, public safety and medical emergencies, disasters, and terrorist acts, FDNY protects the lives and property of New York City residents and visitors. The Department advances public safety through its fire prevention, investigation, and education programs. The timely delivery of these services enables the FDNY to make significant contributions to the safety of New York City and homeland security efforts.”

Municipal Court of Lakeview, Texas: “Our mission is to provide an impartial, unbiased, fair, and respectful forum for the trials of all Class C misdemeanor Penal Code offenses, Health and Safety Code offenses, Alcoholic Beverage Code offenses, City Ordinance offenses, as well as to preside over administrative and civil proceedings, as authorized by state law.”

Albany, Georgia: “The City of Albany delivers fiscally responsible, highly dependable services to the citizens in the community and the region with integrity and professionalism.”

Chicago Public Library: “We welcome and support all people in their enjoyment of reading and pursuit of lifelong learning. Working together, we strive to provide equal access to information, ideas, and knowledge through books, programs, and other resources.”

Seattle, Washington City Clerk: “Provide consistent high-level services which promote and strengthen a world-class government prepared to meet the emerging needs of the 21st century. Ultimately, improving the quality of life for individuals (and the community at large) by being one of the top-tier local government agencies in our nation and by building on our interdisciplinary strengths.”

Michigan Civil Service Commission: “To provide innovative, effective, and timely HR consultation and services to attract, develop, and retain a workforce that is diverse, flexible, creative, and competent to meet the ever-changing needs of state government.”

City of Reno: “Creating a community that people are proud to call home.”

For a deep dive on Mission Statements, check out our post on all things mission.

What are the 5 components of a mission statement?

What is the purpose of a mission statement?

Remember that a mission statement explains why your organization exists. It is a foundational element of your plan that establishes your core purpose and who you serve!

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35 Mission Statement Examples That Define Companies and Inspire Customers

Plus a guide on how to write a mission statement.

Some skeptics are eager to criticize mission statements. They see them as generic and platitudinous , another startup box that founders need to check.

 Turns out, though, a mission statement’s success depends on how it’s written.

What Is a Mission Statement?

In his influential 1998 research article , consultant and business professor Chris Bart found “a significant and positive correlation” between organizational performance and mission statements when managers were satisfied with those statements . He also found a correlation between performance and the process used to develop statements. Simply having a mission statement was a non-factor, but one created with real buy-in delivered the goods.

Related Reading Tips for Effective Business Storytelling

Mission Statement Examples

Later, we’ll tease out what exactly makes a mission statement effective and explore tips for writing one. But first, here are some examples to fuel your inspiration.

• Apple: “To bring the best user experience to customers through innovative hardware, software and services.”
• Procter & Gamble: “To provide branded products and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world’s consumers, now and for generations to come.”
• Reddit: “To bring community and belonging to everyone in the world.”
• Nike: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body, you are an athlete.”

GameChanger

Mission statement:  “Help families elevate the next generation through sports.”

Mission statement:  “We exist to advance the economic power of people living and working in the real world.”

Mission statement: “Always with you, building a more confident future. MetLife contributes to a more confident future as an employer, an investor and a provider of financial solutions and expertise. Our purpose is at the heart of our virtuous circle of delivering for our colleagues, our communities, our customers and our shareholders.”

Mission statement:  “We bring together brands and their audience to make connections that matter.”

Mission statement:  “For over a decade, we’ve been building tech for food people, so restaurant owners can save money, staff members can save time, and diners can order better. Because when restaurants thrive, they can keep serving food that gives your community its unique flavor. We want to keep it that way.”

MobilityWare

Mission statement: “Bringing joy to others one game at a time.”

Mission statement:  “We empower everyday people to move forward on the path to a better financial future.”

First Entertainment Credit Union

Mission statement:  “We build lifelong financial relationships with the people in entertainment based on a deep understanding of how they live and work.”

Mission statement: “Our mission is to rebuild the infrastructure of the travel industry in order to bring freedom, simplicity, and trust to travelers everywhere. We are bringing change to an industry that has been held back by outdated technology and complicated financial incentives that solve for the needs of middlemen instead of providing the best experience to users. Travel matters when communication is essential to building trust, commitment, and a shared sense of purpose. In essence, business travel is a necessity any time success depends on the strength of human connections.”

PatientPoint

Mission statement:  “ PatientPoint is on a mission to make every doctor-patient engagement better, and that goal is at the core of everything we do. We are the patient engagement platform for every point of care. Our digital solutions impact 750 million patient visits every year, helping drive better health outcomes that enable people to live longer, healthier lives.”

Mission Statement:  “At Trupanion , we’re on a mission to help loving, responsible pet owners budget and care for their pets.”

Mission Statement :  “We’re on a mission to simplify the complexities of payments to help you grow.”

Mission Statement : “Our mission is to bring the best user experience to customers through innovative hardware, software and services.”

Mission Statement : “To help humanity thrive by enabling the world's teams to work together effortlessly.”

Mission Statement : “To be the most trusted and convenient destination for pet parents (and partners), everywhere.”

Mission Statement : “Our mission is to increase economic freedom in the world. Everyone deserves access to financial services that can help empower them to create a better life for themselves and their families. If the world economy ran on a common set of standards that could not be manipulated by any company or country, the world would be a more fair and free place, and human progress would accelerate.”

Mission Statement : “DoorDash is a technology company that connects people with the best of their neighborhoods across the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Germany. We enable local businesses to meet consumers’ needs of ease and convenience, and, in turn, generate new ways for people to earn, work, and live. By building the last-mile logistics infrastructure for local commerce, we’re fulfilling our mission to grow and empower local economies.”

Mission Statement : “Our mission is to design a more enlightened way of working. Dropbox helps people be organized, stay focused and get in sync with their teams.”

Bright Horizons

Mission Statement :  “Dedicated to the highest quality education and care; making a lasting difference, one child, one student, one teacher, one family, and one employer at a time.”

EFFECT Photonics

Mission Statement : “To interconnect humanity through fast, affordable, sustainable, and effective communication technologies.”

Mission Statement:  “Our mission is to build the most popular car subscription platform. Our aim is to help anyone who loves driving a car of their own but fears the struggle, commitment, and intransparent costs associated with ownership to get behind the wheel.”

Mission Statement : “The Fivetran mission is to make access to data as simple and reliable as electricity. The invention of the lightbulb spawned generations to change the world through electricity, creating millions of new products, devices and services. We’re empowering future ‘Thomas Edison’s’ to transform the way the world makes decisions through our always-on access to accurate data. This helps drive better data-driven decisions in pursuits like discovering new drugs, serving humanity in ways big and small (think: banking the underbanked, keeping hospital records up to date, and more!), and enabling social good organizations to do what they do best by improving lives everywhere.”

Mission Statement : “It is GitLab’s mission to make it so that everyone can contribute. When everyone can contribute, users become contributors and we greatly increase the rate of innovation.”

Intel Corporation

Mission Statement : “We create world-changing technology that improves the life of every person on the planet.”

Mission Statement : “Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”

Mission Statement : “Our mission is to ensure the Internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all. An Internet that truly puts people first, where individuals can shape their own experience and are empowered, safe and independent.”

NBCUniversal

Mission Statement : “To be the premier content provider for television and digital platforms, spanning all television.”

Mission Statement : “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world.

*If you have a body, you are an athlete.”

The Pokémon Company International

Mission Statement : “At Pokémon, our mission is to become an entertainment leader and bring the fun of Pokémon to people around the world!”

Procter & Gamble

Mission Statement : “We will provide branded products and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world’s consumers, now and for generations to come. As a result, consumers will reward us with leadership sales, profit and value creation, allowing our people, our shareholders and the communities in which we live and work to prosper.”

Mission Statement : “Our mission is to bring community and belonging to everyone in the world.”

Mission Statement : “We help people achieve independence by making it easier to start, run, and grow a business. We believe the future of commerce has more voices, not fewer, so we’re reducing the barriers to business ownership to make commerce better for everyone.”

Mission Statement : “At Smartsheet, our mission is to empower anyone to drive meaningful change — for themselves, their businesses and even for the world.”

Warby Parker

Mission Statement : “To inspire and impact the world with vision, purpose, and style.”

Mission Statement : “We’re empowering everyone to create for the web — and leading impactful, fulfilling lives while we do it.”

How to Write a Mission Statement

When it comes time to draft your company’s mission statement, consider the following:

Tips for Writing a Mission Statement

• Make it simple, aspirational and memorable.
• Direct it toward stakeholders, but don’t prioritize shareholders.
• Keep employees — current and future — top of mind.
• Avoid saying you’re “the best.”
• Leave room for the mission to evolve.

Make it Simple, Aspirational and Memorable

A successful mission statement has three important traits, according to Jeffrey Abrahams, author of 101 Mission Statements From Top Companies . They are simplicity, aspiration and memorability.

There’s no magic word count, but experts agree that concision is best. Abrahams recommends aiming for a single-sentence statement. “That has greater impact and can be communicated easily, both within the company and to the target audience,” he said.

Bart, meanwhile, recommends capping at around 70 words. And Inés Alegre, a professor at the business school of the University of Navarra who led a 2018 review of mission-statement research, told Built In that three sentences or so is appropriate.

Your precise mileage may vary, but the “KISS” recommendation put forward by Bart in his 1998 paper still seems appropriate: Keep it simple and straightforward.

It’s common to find an organization’s mission statement posted on an “About” page, but it doesn’t have to be merely descriptive; incorporate some ambition, Abrahams suggested. He invoked Microsoft’s statement: “Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”

Memorability

Action verbs, wariness of jargon and bizspeak — these are a CEO’s allies when drafting a statement. It should be organization-specific, too. 

“If the mission statement could be used by a number of companies, especially competitors, it’s not going to be either memorable or serve the company very well,” said Abrahams. “You want it to be distinctive.”

Direct It Toward Stakeholders

“Missions describe why an organization exists, but in particular, they should describe the relationships that the organization wants to have with the stakeholders upon whom it depends for survival, growth and sustainability,” Bart said.

According to him, an effective mission statement should at least speak to two audiences: customers and employees. He cited Southwest Airlines as an illustrative example:

“The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride and company spirit.   To our employees: We are committed to provide our employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. Above all, employees will be provided the same concern, respect and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest customer.”

In addition to customers and employees, a strong statement will also often address shareholders and the community at large, Bart said. Here’s one he helped draft for a casino resort that directly targets all four groups:

“Our mission is to provide every guest with a ‘blow away experience’ that is inspired by a celebration of the sea and the myth of a lost civilization. We accomplish this by bringing the myth of Atlantis to life by offering warm, positive, engaging service.   At Atlantis, we are a team of individuals who are passionate and committed in everything that we do. We continuously strive for perfection. We are proud to work at Atlantis because we are a caring and learning organization, which rewards accomplishment and promotes teamwork, respect and innovation.   At Atlantis, we are the pride of our community while providing enduring value for our shareholders. When Atlantis succeeds, we succeed as individuals, and we contribute to the success of the Bahamas.”

… But Avoid Prioritizing Shareholders

It may be more obvious today — after the rise of sustainable investing , office-perk culture that caters to employee happiness and the fact that we’re in the midst of a job seekers’ market — but the thrust of the mission can’t simply be shareholder yield.

Statements that center the returns of the investor class will align approximately zero employees to an organization’s mission. “Shareholder value was the typical mission in the nineties — not anymore,” said Alegre.

One possible symptom of such misalignment? Jargon creep. “When buzzwords and platitudes happen, they usually happen when the focus of the company moves from customer to shareholder,” wrote entrepreneur and Built In expert contributor Joe Procopio.

Read Next 3 Reasons to Prioritize Mission Over Profit in Tech

Resist the Superlatives

As mentioned, mission statements should have an air of the aspirational. But, especially in this era of superlative fatigue , beware of “the biggest,” “the boldest” and “the best.” They’ll inspire more shrugs than hearts, especially when unsupported.

“When a company says its mission statement is to be the best [category here] company in the world — the best steel company in the world or the best clothing company in the world, it’s too general,” said Abrahams. “It needs to be backed up by strongly worded core values, a vision, and guiding principles and beliefs.”

Think of It as a Management Tool

Even though mission statements address multiple audiences, they shouldn’t pretend to think each audience is listening with equal attention.

“There’s a question of prioritization of stakeholders — is it the clients, employees, suppliers, investors? You probably cannot satisfy all at the same level,” said Alegre.

That begs a question: Should companies think of mission statements more as an internal compass for culture and strategy, or an external branding — or even recruiting — element? That is, are they management or marketing? 

“My answer is yes,” said Abrahams. 

Ideally, it can serve as both, experts told Built In, but it should be considered first and foremost a management tool. (Indeed, most research on the topic is published in management, not marketing, journals.) “My impression is that it’s much more useful as an internal alignment tool than external branding,” said Alegre.

Think of the statement primarily as something for employees, Bart said, a true north against which the workforce can always orient itself.

Reinforce the Mission Statement in All Your Communications

Once the statement is finalized, think of it as a muscle: Exercise it often to prevent it from losing definition. Reference the mission during onboardings, training, team meetings, board reviews of key projects and wherever else reinforcement makes sense. Post it on your website, of course, but also your wall. “I work in a business school where the first thing you see after the entrance is the mission,” Alegre said.

Mission statements are especially important during times of uncertainty, such as early in an organization’s life or during growth pushes, Alegre said. Still, lean on them in times of greater stability, too. That provides room for the mission to organically evolve.

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• Inspiration , Operations

Mission statement examples: 16 of the best to inspire you

• 15 Jun 2021

More than just a planning exercise, a mission statement focuses your leadership team, inspires employees, and communicates your core values to the larger world.

All in a single sentence. Magic.

A mission statement is one of the most important documents in your company’s arsenal, but it’s also one of the most difficult to craft. We’ve gathered 16 of the best company mission statement examples to help get your creativity flowing.

Level up with a mission statement video:  Deliver your mission statement with the most engaging communication medium — video. Turn your company’s mission statement into a video with Biteable. Start with a brandable  mission statement video template  and let Biteable’s smart editing features do all the heavy lifting for you.

Create videos that drive action

Activate your audience with impactful, on-brand videos. Create them simply and collaboratively with Biteable.

What is a mission statement?

A mission statement sums up the core of who your company is and why it exists. It’s  raison d’etre , if you want to get fancy and speak a little French.

Company mission statements are typically short and sweet, only a sentence or two. And the best mission statements are anything but boring.

When done right, your company’s mission statement acts as a powerful driver that informs every aspect of your organization, from daily operations, to customer loyalty, to employee satisfaction. When done wrong, a mission statement is just another line of jargon everyone pretty much ignores.

Take the Starbucks company mission statement as an example:  To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.

Starbucks could have said:  To challenge the predominant infrastructure of coffee culture and develop a network of coffeehouses in every major market.

Did your eyes glaze over on that second one? Ours too. While technically true, our made-up example of a company mission statement is full of dreaded corporate-speak. It belongs deep in the bowels of a strategic plan, not as it’s headline.

On the other hand, the real Starbucks mission statement makes us want to be a part of it all. And even more than that, it conveys a sense of the beating heart behind the company.

The best mission statements do just this — clearly convey a company’s reason for existing, in language that is exceedingly human.

Mission statements vs. vision statements — what’s the diff?

It’s easy to confuse vision statements and mission statements. But there are a few important differences.

A vision statement is aspirational. It outlines where your company strives to be in the future — whether that is one year from now or ten. In contrast, a mission statement spells out where your company is right now.

Think of your company’s vision statement as a long-term goal post. The end point towards which you are working. If your vision statement is a goal post, then your mission statement is what drives you toward that goal post.

Why your company mission statement is important

You’ll probably write your company mission statement during your strategic planning because it’s a valuable tool that helps your leadership team make big-picture decisions. Chances are, you’ll even look at examples of other company mission statements to help you craft your own.

But the purpose of a mission statement goes far beyond strategic planning.

Consumers value mission-driven companies

It’s no secret that today’s consumer values a company with, well, values. These values don’t have to be centered around saving the world. But they do need to be clear, focused, and genuine.

A 2020 study  by global communications agency Zeno Group found that if consumers think a company has a strong purpose, they are:

• 4 times  more likely to purchase from the company
• 4.5 times  more likely to recommend the company to family and friends
• 6 times  more likely to defend the company in the wake of public criticism

Think about this in terms of your personal life. The more you connect with a person, the more likely you are to invite them over for coffee, introduce them to your other friends, and come to their defense. The same is true for the companies we buy from.

We humans value connection and a shared sense of purpose. All things equal, your company’s mission statement can be a powerful differentiator.

Employees want a sense of purpose

Just as your company mission statement makes an impact on consumer sentiment, the same can be said about employee sentiment.

According to a recent Gallup poll  Gen Z and millennials (who make up nearly half of the full-time workforce in the US) value belonging to a company with a strong moral compass. They appreciate ethical leadership, and they want to know that their own work has a positive impact on the world at large.

The more effectively human resources and the rest of the leadership team communicates the company’s mission to rank and file employees, the better.

But it doesn’t stop there. It is equally important to put your money where your mouth is, so to speak. If your company mission places value on the environment, do you give your employees opportunities to act upon these values in their everyday work life?

The most effective company mission statements are clear and actionable, from the products a company makes all the way down to the food in the employee cafeteria.

How to write an effective mission statement without a lot of headache

Understanding mission statements is one thing. Actually sitting down to write your company’s own mission statement is quite another.

But if you take the time to do it right, the process is a really useful exercise. Think of this as a chance to clarify and fine tune your purpose so you can point the company in the right direction for years to come.

Brainstorming your company mission statement

To get started, gather your leadership team and brainstorm answers to these four questions. If you are the solo founder of a fledgling company, gather key stakeholders or a handful of your professional mentors instead.

Aim for a short paragraph on each question.

• Why does our company exist?
• What value do our products or services bring to consumers?
• What core beliefs guide our work?
• What makes our company different, better, or more inspiring than our competitors?

After you brainstorm answers to these questions, review your answers and highlight the concepts that are central to your company. You might also pick a few company mission statement examples from businesses you admire and use those to help guide you.

If this brainstorming discussion took place with a group of people, now’s the time to send one or two individuals off to winnow the answers down to a couple of sentences.

Task this pair with writing several drafts of a mission statement, so the final decision makers have choices to work with.

This group process might seem cumbersome, but remember, your company mission statement is a core document. It should reflect the thought processes of as many stakeholders as possible.

Finalizing your work

After you land on a mission statement, do one final check to make sure it meets these criteria:

Plausibility:  Your mission statement is big-picture, but it should ultimately tie back to your everyday business operations. At least in a broad sense.

Readability:  No corporate speak or jargon. Avoid unnecessarily big words or complex sentences. Keep it simple.

• Voice:  Now isn’t the time to be dry and boring. Use language that’s active and compelling. Your mission statement should reflect the unique voice and culture of your company.

Pro-tip:  Give your mission statement more reach by creating both a text and video version. The video can be simple, just an eye-catching background, animated text, and a soundtrack.

Include your mission statement video as part of hiring announcements or other  HR video communications . Or send it over to your marketing team to use as a Facebook cover, website content, and more.

Company mission statement examples: 16 of the best

How do other leading companies tackle their mission statements? We searched far and wide for the best company mission statement examples.

1. Starbucks: Inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.

The Seattle-based coffee giant originated in 1971 and has since become ubiquitous around the world.

Starbucks mission statement :   Inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.

Why it works:  We touched on the Starbucks mission statement earlier, but we’ll elaborate more here. We included this example of the Starbucks company mission statement because it works well for two reasons: it’s ambitious without being overreaching, and it uses down-to-earth language.

Inspiring and nurturing the human spirit isn’t directly related to coffee. But considering the role the company played in reviving coffee house culture in the US, the human spirit and a sense of community doesn’t seem like too big of a stretch. The second part of the statement is exceedingly tangible. It paints a small-scale picture of the company and its work.

2. Honest Company: Meaningful transparency and thoughtful design. We’re on a mission to change the world, one product at a time.

Honest Company made headlines when it went public in mid-2021, with founder Jessica Alba as the youngest-ever Latina to list a company on the New York Stock Exchange.

Honest Company mission statement :   Meaningful transparency and thoughtful design. We’re on a mission to change the world, one product at a time.

Why it works:  As a company committed to creating “clean” baby products, a mission of meaningful transparency and thoughtful design is two-fold. It’s a necessary part of their business practices, and it also speaks to consumers looking for a higher standard in their products.

Being on a “mission to change the world” might be a bit of a stretch. But considering the  baby products market  is projected to be worth $88.72 billion US dollars worldwide by 2026, maybe it isn’t such a huge stretch after all.

3. Patagonia: We’re in business to save our home planet

The outdoor apparel and equipment company is known for its social and environmental activism.

Patagonia mission statement :   We’re in business to save our home planet.

Why it works:  Patagonia is often used as a good company mission statement example, and for a reason. Although it’s wildly lofty, the company really does put their money where their mouth is.

Patagonia originally began as a scrappy company specializing in steel pitons for rock climbing. But when the founders realized their gear damaged the rock face they so loved, they pivoted to low-impact aluminum chocks.

From the moment Patagonia pivoted to aluminum chocks, it became an environment-first company with far-reaching efforts built into every aspect of their business practices.

4. Microsoft: To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more

The software giant is currently valued at  approaching $2 trillion .

Microsoft mission statement :   To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Why it works:  Notice, Microsoft’s company mission statement makes no mention of software, or PCs, or technology at any level.

This isn’t to say the company is focused on something other than tech. But by concentrating on the “why” not the “what” of the business, this mission statement example remains flexible and agile. No matter where the market moves, Microsoft aims to increase productivity with it’s products.

5. Square: Everyone should be able to participate and thrive in the economy.

Square’s point-of-sale and online payment platforms came out on top during the pandemic. But even before that time, the company was a leader in POS products.

Square mission statement :   Everyone should be able to participate and thrive in the economy.

Why it works:  The company’s extended mission statement goes on to say: No one should be left out of the economy because the cost is too great or the technology too complex.

Similar to Microsoft’s mission statement, Square leaves room for agility here. It aims to produce simple, low-cost payment products, regardless of where the market takes it. We also appreciate Square’s focus on who the company serves and why.

6. Pinterest: Bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love.

Ah, Pinterest. Inspiration central for crafters everywhere, but also a valuable tool for businesses looking for new marketing platforms.

Pinterest mission statement :   Bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love.

Why it works:  More than the words it uses, we appreciate how Pinterest discusses the ways its mission evolved along with the company.

According to Pinterest, the platform was originally conceived as “a tool to help people collect the things they were passionate about online.” It quickly became clear that people most enjoy using the site to get inspiration from others. And with this, Pinterest’s current mission was born.

7. Target: Help all families discover the joy of everyday life

Fun fact: According to Target’s website, 75% of the US population lives within 10 miles of a store. And why not? Everyone loves a trip to good old Target.

Target mission statement :   Help all families discover the joy of everyday life.

Why it works:  This company mission statement example is equal parts broad and super-specific, depending on how you look at it.

It speaks to Target’s affordable products, geared toward everyday people. But this mission statement can also easily extend to the company’s focus on community giving, corporate responsibility, and creating a positive employee experience.

8. Southwest Airlines: Connect people to what’s important in their lives through friendly, reliable, and low-cost air travel

The smallest of the “big four” US airlines, Southwest is known for its friendly crew and affordable ticket prices.

Southwest Airlines mission statement :   Connect people to what’s important in their lives through friendly, reliable, and low-cost air travel.

Why it works:  Maybe you can chalk it up to the company’s southern roots, but Southwest consistently ranks high for customer service. Its mission of connecting people to what’s important in their lives touches on this value.

Southwest sees itself as doing more than just moving people from point A to point B.

9. Spotify: To unlock the potential of human creativity — by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it

The Swedish audio streaming platform currently has 356 million users across 178 markets.

Spotify mission statement :   To unlock the potential of human creativity — by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it.

Why it works:  We included this example because, technically speaking, this is a mission statement and a vision statement combined into one.

When you write your mission statement, it’s important not to confuse the two. But for marketing purposes, wrapping a mission statement and a vision statement up into one shiny package sometimes works very well.

10. Google: Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful

This one needs no introduction. After all, to Google is officially listed in Merriam-Webster as a transitive verb. If that isn’t a sign of a powerful company, we don’t know what is.

Google mission statement :   Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Why it works:  Google’s effectiveness is centered around its algorithms. At its heart, an algorithm is a system for organizing information. So Google pretty much nailed it here.

We also appreciate the focus on making information “universally accessible and useful.” Google is arguably the most powerful search engine in the world, yet it’s simple enough for anyone to use. Universally accessible and useful sums that up nicely.

11. Nike: Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body, you are an athlete

The Oregon-based footwear, apparel, and sports equipment company was founded in 1964 and is now synonymous with athletics.

Nike mission statement :   Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body, you are an athlete.

Why it works:  We admit, we like the asterisk more than we like the actual mission statement. Nike outfits some of the biggest names in professional sports, but its mission specifies “if you have a body, you are an athlete.” The word “inclusion” doesn’t appear in the company’s mission statement, but it says it — and then some — in so many words.

12. CVS: Helping people on their path to better health

Founded as a drugstore in 1963 by brothers Stanley and Sidney Goldstein and partner Ralph Hoagland, CVS bills itself as a “health care innovation company that is reinventing pharmacy.”

CVS mission statement :   Helping people on their path to better health.

Why it works:  This isn’t one of the most inventive examples of a company mission statement, and it also seems somewhat obvious for a drugstore. But CVS embodies its mission in some pretty bold ways. In 2014, it became the  first national pharmacy in the US  to stop selling cigarettes and tobacco products.

13. Harley Davidson: More than building machines, we stand for the timeless pursuit of adventure. Freedom for the soul

Harley-Davidson was founded in Milwaukee in 1903, and it remains one of the most popular motorcycle brands.

Harley Davidson mission statement :   More than building machines, we stand for the timeless pursuit of adventure. Freedom for the soul.

Why it works:  Harley-Davidson is known not only for its iconic design and distinctive engine sound, but also for the unique subculture of Harley riders.

Although Harley enthusiasts might balk at the idea, the company is as much a lifestyle brand as it is a motorcycle manufacturer. And that lifestyle delivers just what is promised in the company’s mission statement: adventure and freedom. And a whole lot of leather.

14. Dove: Help women everywhere develop a positive relationship with the way they look, helping them raise their self-esteem and realize their full potential

What started as a single product — the Dove Beauty Bar — grew into a major line of personal care products used by women around the world.

Dove mission statement :   Help women everywhere develop a positive relationship with the way they look, helping them raise their self-esteem and realize their full potential.

Why it works:  The company’s mission statement combines seamlessly with their vision statement, which says, “We believe beauty should be a source of confidence, and not anxiety.”

Dove delivers on this promise with its far-reaching body positivity campaigns, research initiatives, and self-esteem projects.

15. Livestrong: Which everyday cancer problem will we fix today?

Livestrong is a nonprofit organization that supports people living with or affected by cancer.

Livestrong mission statement :   Which everyday cancer problem will we fix today?

Why it works:  Because selling products and services to consumers isn’t part of the equation, nonprofit mission statements differ from those of their for-profit counterparts. But we included Livestrong here, because it has such a unique mission statement.

Very few mission statements are in the form of a question. This was very intentional on the part of Livestrong. As the company puts it on their mission page, “We have a Mission Question, not a Mission Statement, because we believe that we can only achieve the best solutions through asking the right questions.”

16. TED: Spread ideas.

The media company solicits keynote-style talks from some of the best minds and makes these available, for free, via video and through their podcast,

Ted mission statement :   Spread ideas.

Why it works:  This is another company mission statement example that makes the rounds on the best-of lists. You can almost imagine the lengthy thought process that transpired as TED execs winnowed their mission statement down to just two words. Two words! But that’s all they need.

This mission statement doesn’t say they are “creating opportunities for…” or “gathering the brightest minds to…” They do all of these things as well. But at the very core of the organization, their mission is to spread ideas.

In those two words, they say it all.

FAQs about company mission statements

These company mission statement examples are just a sample of what’s possible when a company really takes the time to craft a thoughtful mission statement. To help you write yours, here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about mission statements.

What should a company mission statement include?

A company mission statement should include one or two strong, well-written sentences that talk about why a company exists, the value it brings to its customers, the core beliefs that drive its work, and what sets it apart from other companies doing similar work.

What are the 3 parts of a mission statement?

The three parts of a mission statement are:

• Mission and purpose:  the main reason a company exists. Its purpose in a broad sense.
• Values:  the core values that drive everyday decisions and behavior in the company.
• Goals:  what the company hopes to achieve by sticking close to its mission and values.

What is a strong mission statement?

A strong mission statement is short and actionable. The strongest company mission statements are written in accessible language (no corporate speak) that reflects a company’s unique culture and voice. A good mission statement is lofty, but also ties back to a company’s everyday business practices.

What is Coca Cola’s mission statement?

Coca Cola’s mission statement is  “to refresh the world in mind, body, and spirit, to inspire moments of optimism and happiness through our brands and actions, and to create value and make a difference.”

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• Business strategy |
• How to write an effective mission state ...

How to write an effective mission statement (with free template)

A mission statement explains your company’s purpose. You should write a mission statement when starting a business so you have a clear idea of what you stand for. Read on to learn how to write an effective mission statement that can help you tackle company goals.

It’s natural to face challenges when leading teams and managing projects, and one way to push forward despite the hard times is to remember your “why.” Your company mission defines why you do what you do, who you do it for, and the impact you’ll create by doing it. When you know your mission, you’ll feel good about where your company is going, even through ups and downs. 

What is a mission statement?

A mission statement is a brief declaration of your company’s what, who, and why. You should share this statement with everyone in your organization so team members understand your collective goals. While a mission statement isn’t specifically for marketing, you’ll likely share it externally as well. This is why it’s important to write it eloquently.

Your mission statement is a foundational piece of content you can use as a jumping-off point for various other materials, including:

Value propositions

Business plans

Company vision statement

Once you’ve solidified your core values and initiatives, you’ll have an easier time expanding on those ideas and getting the message out to your audience.

5 steps to write a mission statement

Your mission statement isn’t something you can craft by yourself. Before you sit down to draft it, recruit other senior and executive leaders at your company who have a sense of what you’re aiming for. Together, use the steps below to get to the root of what your company stands for and the message you want to spread.

1. Answer fundamental questions

To figure out what your mission statement should say, you’ll need to answer fundamental questions about your business. 

What do we do?

What do we create?

Who is our audience?

How do we make a difference?

Once you’ve answered the basics, consider questions that can help you craft a strong mission statement.

How do we differ from others in the industry?

How can we make our mission statement stand out from our competitors?

Can we use other mission statements for inspiration?

Consider having each member of your mission statement tiger team answer these questions separately, then pool your answers together. Your mission statement should be evergreen, so think about it in a way that incorporates business growth. It’s important to consider what your company’s purpose is in the context of what your future might be. 

2. Use your answers to brainstorm copy

Now that you have the ideas for your mission statement, you need the right words. Use brainstorming techniques to help you and the other leaders at your company come with creative ways to express yourselves. The goal is to inspire your team without sounding cliché or overly complex.

Some helpful brainstorming techniques include:

Mind-mapping: Mind mapping is a visual brainstorming technique you can use on your own or with your team. Start with one word or idea and use it to inspire other ideas. You’ll need a large piece of paper or whiteboard to write down a topic. Then, draw lines connecting tangential words or ideas to it.

Brain-netting: Brain-netting is great for remote collaboration , and it involves brain dumping ideas virtually, whether on a Slack channel, Google Doc, or through your project management tool . Team members can add ideas whenever inspiration strikes, and the list will be ever-evolving. 

3. Write your first draft

Now that you have solid ideas about what to put in your mission statement and creative ways to express those ideas, you can start experimenting with what sounds best. The following formulas can help you get started:

To [contribution/goal] so [impact] .

Our mission is to [contribution/goal] by [what you offer/how you do it] for [target audience] so [impact] .

To build/offer [what you offer/how you do it] for [target audience] to [contribution/goal] and [impact] .

For example, if you work for a content marketing company, here’s how your first draft might look:

To increase the value and visibility of content so companies can build strong relationships with their audiences . 

Our mission is to increase the value and visibility of content by offering content marketing services for companies so they can build strong relationships with their audiences . 

To offer content marketing services for companies to increase the value and visibility of their content and help them build strong relationships with their audiences. 

4. Ask for feedback

Draft a few versions of your mission statement so you can ask for feedback from current team members. Because the mission statement applies to everyone, it’s nice to include everyone in the feedback process—even if executive feedback gets slightly more weight. Don’t rush through the writing process. Take your time and get your mission statement to a place everyone is comfortable with.

Collaborate with your team by holding a Q&A session or by sending out surveys to ask which version of the mission statement resonates with them most. That way, once you complete your statement, you’ll feel confident that the result was a team effort. 

5. Revise and share

After collecting feedback, revise your mission statement as needed. Then, finalize it and share it with the rest of the organization. You can also include it in your business plan and share it on your website. 

Your mission statement explains your company’s purpose to those working for the company, stakeholders who may get involved with the company, and customers or clients who may spend money at the company. While you shouldn’t craft your mission statement for selling, it’s something you should be proud of and will likely want to display.

Examples of mission statements

Most companies share their mission statements with the public, either front and center on their websites, or in an easily searchable location. By making your mission statement visible to the clients and customers, companies show what they stand for and what they strive to achieve—both as an internal workforce and with the products or services they sell.

“To help humanity thrive by enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly.” 

At Asana , our mission statement explains who we serve and what we want our impact to be on the world. While we have various goals we work toward as a company, our mission statement is our guiding principle among all others. 

Let's do great things together. Join our team.

“To build the web’s most convenient, secure, cost-effective payment solution.” 

PayPal’s statement is more product-focused, but it’s still effective. Businesses may imply the impact they hope to make by explaining the unique features of their product offering. PayPal’s mission is to create the best product possible for customers because doing so will improve lives.

3. Patagonia

“Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” 

Patagonia’s mission statement is complex, but it shows that their company has many layers beyond the clothing they sell. While on the surface, Patagonia offers outdoor gear, they set themselves apart from other companies by keeping the environment front of mind in all they do. 

Free mission statement template

Using a mission statement template can help you centralize your company’s most important information. Below, you’ll see how a content marketing company would’ve answered fundamental questions about their business and used those answers to design their mission statement with the provided formula.

Use the free mission statement template below to answer relevant questions about your company’s values and goals.

Why is a mission statement important?

Your mission statement is a building block for everything your team does. When you get it right, it leads to a stronger team dynamic in the workplace , more successful projects, and happier customers. Your mission statement should:

Define your brand to team members: Give your team clarity on what product you’re creating, why you’re creating it, and who you’re creating it for.

Present your brand to others: Tell others outside of your company what your team strives for everyday. 

Uphold values and objectives: Refer to your mission statement when you need to hold yourself and your team accountable to your ultimate goals.

Mission statement vs. vision statement

Many people use a mission statement and vision statement interchangeably, and while some companies combine the two, they have different meanings. A mission statement is your company’s “why” statement—in other words, your company’s purpose. Consider your mission statement as what you’re currently trying to achieve.

A vision statement can be a “how” statement or a future-focused statement. It should paint a broad picture of how you want to achieve your mission. Sometimes, companies incorporate the vision statement within their mission statement so they can state and explain their mission simultaneously. 

For example, Google's combined mission and vision statement is:

“To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” 

Mission statement: To organize the world’s information…

Vision statement: ...and make it universally accessible and useful.

While LinkedIn has separate mission and vision statements:

Mission statement: Connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.

Vision statement: Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.

Use a mission statement to drive company success

Your mission statement is the launchpad for your company’s success. It states what you want to achieve and serves as a constant reminder of your purpose. But the only way to accomplish your mission is with small, everyday actions. A goal is just a dream until you put a process in place.

With work management software , you can set up workflows , schedules, and tasks that align with your mission statement and make your purpose a reality. Asana helps you create a purposeful and productive work experience for all your team members by giving them the clarity they need to achieve their goals.

Related resources

Grant management: A nonprofit’s guide

How Asana uses work management for organizational planning

How Asana uses work management to optimize resource planning

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How to Write a Mission Statement (Definition & Examples Included)

Table of Contents

What is a mission statement, mission statement vs. vision statement.

• How to Write a Mission Statement

25 Best Mission Statement Examples

Mission statements faq.

• ProjectManager & Mission Statements

When you’re creating a company or working on a business plan , the first thing you should do is create a mission statement. Your mission statement is the base for your company values, vision statement, slogan, value proposition and everything else.

A mission statement is a short action-based declaration that describes the purpose of an organization. Mission statements explain what companies do and are a very important part of their culture, along with the core values and vision statement . Mission statements are an internal guide for organizations, but they also need to be appealing to customers.

Before we learn how to write a mission statement, let’s explain the difference between a mission statement and a vision statement, two very important parts of a business plan.

There are several differences between a mission statement and a vision statement. The main difference between them is that a mission statement explains the purpose of a company, while the vision statement indicates where the company wants to accomplish in the future. Mission statements and vision statements are different but they need to complement each other to provide a clear base for strategic planning.

If you need help creating and delivering a plan for your business, then consider a project management software like ProjectManager . ProjectManager helps organizations plan, execute and track projects and tasks across teams. Make a long term plan on a roadmap, then execute the day-to-day tasks on task lists or kanban boards. It’s easy to collaborate, stay aligned and reach your goals. Get started today for free.

How to Write a Mission Statement in 6 Steps

We know that every organization needs a mission statement, but how do you create one? There’s no standardized method to writing a mission statement, but there are some guidelines that you should consider.

Follow these steps to help you with the process of writing a mission statement.

1. Define your Company Culture

The mission and vision statements are elements of your company culture. For this reason, before writing your company mission statement, you’ll need to define the core values or guiding principles of your company culture. Don’t forget to ask yourself what your team members expect from the company too.

Related: Free Team Charter Template

2. Set Goals

Your company mission defines the purpose of your organization, and where it stands now, but that’s only part of the business plan. You’ll also need to define company goals and a long-term company vision.

3. Define your Ideal Customer Profile

It’s impossible to think about a business that doesn’t care about its customers. Before writing a mission statement or a business plan altogether, you need to understand who are your customers and how you can help them. That’s why you must define your ideal customer profile through market research .

4. Create a Value Proposition

Once you have a clear idea of what your ideal customer profile looks like, you need to think about the value proposition that will differentiate you from your competitors.

5. Select a Type of Mission Statement

Every mission statement is unique, but there are some recognizable types of mission statements. The most common ones are:

• Customer-oriented mission statements
• Socially conscious mission statements
• Environmentally conscious mission statements
• Product-oriented mission statements

6. Add the Mission Statement to Your Business Plan

Now that you’ve thought about all these key aspects of your business, you can start drafting a mission statement for your business plan. Remember to think about how that company mission fits with the other elements of your business plan.

You probably know a lot of mission statements without realizing it. We’ve gathered 25 of the best mission statement examples available in the world to help you create a great mission statement for your business plan.

1. Microsoft

“To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”

“To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

3. Facebook

“To give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.”

4. Southwest Airlines

“Dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit.”

5. LinkedIn

“To connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.”

“To entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe.”

“To continually raise the bar of the customer experience by using the internet and technology to help consumers find, discover and buy anything, and empower businesses and content creators to maximize their success. We aim to be Earth’s most customer-centric company.”

8. Patagonia

“We’re In Business To Save Our Home Planet.”

9. Life is Good

“To spread the power of optimism”

10. Coca-Cola

“To refresh the world, to inspire moments of optimism and happiness, and to create value and make a difference.”

11. The Humane Society

“Creating animals, confronting cruelty.”

“We reach for new heights and reveal the unknown for the benefit of humankind.”

13. Smithsonian

“The increase and diffusion of knowledge.”

14. American Express

“We work hard every day to make American Express the world’s most respected service brand.”

15. Nordstrom

“To give customers the most compelling shopping experience possible.”

16. JetBlue

“To inspire humanity – both in the air and on the ground.”

“To build the web’s most convenient, secure, cost-effective payment solutions.”

18. Kickstarter

“To help bring creative projects to life.”

“To deliver information on the people, ideas and technologies changing the world to our community of affluent business decision-makers.”

“To be a company that inspires and fulfills your curiosity.”

“Shape the future of the internet by creating unprecedented value and opportunity for our customers, employees, investors and ecosystem partners.”

“To attract and attain customers with high-value products and services and the most satisfying ownership experience in America.”

“To create a better everyday life for the many people.”

“To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”

1. How long Should a Mission Statement be?

A good mission statement is short, to the point and memorable. It’s like a tagline in advertising, something that sticks with a person when they hear or read it. In a true sense, the mission statement is an ad in that it identifies your company as one that a customer would want to work with or support.

2. What Is the Difference Between a Mission Statement and a Vision Statement?

Vision statements are about the future. Mission statements stay firmly in the present: who you are and what’s important to you, now. Be timely, explain who you are today and do so clearly.

ProjectManager Turns Your Mission Statement Into a Reality

A mission statement is an idea, but to get there, you need a plan. ProjectManager  is an award-winning tool that organizes your teams and projects to work more effectively. Use our cloud-based software to get real-time data and make your mission statement a mission accomplished.

Build Action Plans with Gantt Charts

Once you have a project approved, you can use the online Gantt chart to schedule your tasks. It’s a visual tool that creates a timeline that shows you the entire project in one place. Some tasks are dependent on others to start or finish. Use our tool to link these task dependencies and avoid having them cause bottlenecks later on in the project.

Track Progress with Dashboards & Reports

Another way to monitor your progress and performance is with our real-time dashboard. It’s made up of six project metrics displayed in easy-to-read graphs and charts. Our tool automatically calculates time, workload, costs and more and gives you a high-level instant status report to help you meet the goals of your mission statement.

ProjectManager has a company mission too. It’s to deliver reliable project management software that helps managers and their teams plan, monitor and report with ease for high levels of efficiency. Our cloud-based tool has a real-time dashboard for live data reporting,  online Gantt charts for effective scheduling and a collaborative platform that frees teams to work more productively. See how it can help your mission by taking this free 30-day trial .

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Starting a Business | Tip List

16 Small Business Mission Statement Examples & Why They Inspire

Published April 17, 2023

Published Apr 17, 2023

REVIEWED BY: Elizabeth Kraus

WRITTEN BY: Audrey Rawnie Rico

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Starting A Business?

• 1 Asimi Studio
• 2 Rumble Coffee
• 3 Curbside Landscape
• 6 Ocean House
• 7 Ivory & Deene
• 8 Mermaid Car Wash
• 9 Mission Pawsible
• 10 Axiology
• 11 Studio 7 Interior Design
• 12 Naturepedic
• 13 Courtney Carolyn Photography
• 15 Ventana Surfboards & Supplies
• 16 Grounds & Greens
• 17 Mission Statement Best Practices
• 18 Frequently Asked Questions

A mission statement is a short, meaningful summary of the primary purpose of your business; in other words, why you do what you do. The best examples showcase a brand’s identity, resonate with the target audience, and can even be used to guide business decisions. We rounded up over a dozen of the best small business mission statement examples to inspire you and explain why they work.

1. Asimi Studio

Mission statement: “Curating timeless pieces that empower and fill you with confidence.” Why it works : It taps into human emotions.

Asimi Studio’s mission statement (Source: Asimi Studio )

Independent jewelry brand Asimi Jewellery designs jewelry pieces, but the company’s mission goes beyond just creating accessories. As their website states, the brand’s mission is to create pieces that empower their customers and bring them confidence.

It works because it taps into fundamental human emotions. This is especially helpful for products like jewelry, which often carry sentimental value. As a creative enterprise, it can also help guide everything from jewelry creation to how the brand communicates with customers. On a public-facing level, it also influences the brand story and supports its marketing strategies.

2. Rumble Coffee

Mission statement: “Creating a sustainable future for coffee.” Why it works: It’s concise, ambitious, and altruistic.

Rumble Coffee’s mission statement (Source: Rumble Coffee )

This small business mission statement example above acts as the guiding principle for the entire organization at Rumble Coffee. It’s straightforward but ambitious and altruistic in the intent to support earth-friendly coffee-growing practices. This also serves as the company’s central grounding principle, guiding the rest of the business’ traits, ethics, and standards of operation.

It works by keeping things simple and clear while setting a long-term goal to motivate employees. It creates a strong identity for the brand, helping it stand out from other coffee businesses while attracting team members and customers who align with the brand’s mission and driving principles.

3. Curbside Landscape

Mission statement: “To be recognized for quality, creativity, and, above all, fairness in the delivery of professional service.” Why it works : It sets expectations for the customer experience.

Curbside Landscape’s mission statement (Source: Curbside Landscape )

For service-based businesses, the best company mission statement examples clearly show the top-notch services customers can expect. This is demonstrated in the landscaping business Curbside Landscape’s value-driven goal: to be recognized for quality, creativity, and fairness.

This precise statement sets a clear goal for how the company performs its services. Similarly, it gives customers an equally clear expectation of the outcome they can expect from the business, which helps build brand recognition and affinity.

Mission statement: We take everyday boring items and—with a bit of magic and extreme imagination—turn them into lifestyle & fashion accessories you’ll be psyched to wear. Why it works: It creates anticipation with the customer.

Burga’s mission statement (Source: Burga )

Burga has one of the best small business mission statement examples as far as a conversational language that paints a picture. It explains that the company can take otherwise mundane gadgets and accessories and turn them into products customers are excited to use and wear.

The tone reflects the company’s fun, youthful brand voice, directly appealing to its target audience of young adults. Overall, Burga’s mission statement is an excellent combination of company description, business goal, and brand personality, all in a single, memorable sentence.

Mission statement : “To provide a “Next Level” superior brand of functional, healthy, natural tea-based products crafted to appeal to and to assist today’s health-conscious, on-the-go consumer in achieving the healthy body” Why it works: It clearly defines the target audience.

FitTea’s mission statement (Source: FitTea )

If you have a product that caters to a specific customer persona , identifying them in your branding can help you connect with them more easily, like with FitTea’s example. FitTea’s target consumers are health-conscious individuals looking for products to create a healthier diet and lifestyle, and this is clearly reflected in the company’s mission statement.

Beyond clearly defining who the business’ products are aimed at, the mission statement also demonstrates that the company cares about its customers first and foremost. This makes the mission statement extra useful when crafting marketing strategies.

6. Ocean House

Mission statement: “ Ocean House, with its unique sense of history and place, is devoted to creating enduring relationships with our guests and members by providing highly personalized service and gracious hospitality in an informally elegant setting.” Why it works: It outlines the business’ unique selling points (USPs).

Ocean House’s mission statement (Source: Ocean House )

Your mission is an integral part of your brand identity that can help your business stand out from the competition. This is especially true for service businesses, like the Rhode Island-based Ocean House hotel. The area has hundreds of hotels and resorts, so Ocean House distinctly outlines the company’s goal: to create enduring relationships with guests via personalized service.

As with all good mission statement examples, Ocean House’s statement applies to both their staff members and customers. It provides a clear guideline for their team’s service quality and gives customers an overview of what they can expect from the establishment.

Not sure what your brand’s unique selling point is? Read our guide with examples and a free template to help you develop a unique selling proposition for your small business.

7. Ivory & Deene

Mission statement: “Collaborating with you to curate beautiful spaces for your people. Rooms where memories are woven, ideas are birthed, and joy is deepened.” Why it works: It speaks directly to customers’ aspirations for beautiful, distinctive home furnishings and decor.

Ivory & Deene’s mission statement (Source: Ivory & Deene )

Furniture and decor store Ivory & Deene showcases another example of how to bring out the human-relatable aspects of a company. Essentially, the company curates affordable luxury home furniture, and its mission illustrates why this is meaningful—to create beautiful spaces where families can connect and share memories.

This taps into relatable human experiences, keeping customers interested in their brand. It also speaks directly to readers, allowing them to connect easier with site visitors and convert them into potential leads . Finally, it’s also action-oriented and aspirational in tone, giving customers a glimpse into the dream lifestyle they can achieve with the brand.

8. Mermaid Car Wash

Mission statement: “To provide the best car wash experience at the best value possible” Why it works: It communicates the product provides a high value for the cost.

Mermaid Car Wash’s mission statement (Source: Mermaid Car Wash )

As the saying goes, “money talks.” Value-oriented statements can be seen in many of the best company mission statement examples. Mermaid Car Wash is a prime instance of communicating a clear and attainable goal that the company can easily follow and operate on to provide the best possible product for the money.

Not only does it serve as a clear driving purpose for employees, but it’s also helpful as a grounding principle to guide business decisions. It’s simple, no-frills, and easy to remember—which also boosts the service’s credibility and trustworthiness to customers.

9. Mission Pawsible

Mission statement: “ To create beautifully hand-crafted pet products that support the local community through employment and ethical supply chains and animals in need. “ Why it works: It emphasizes community impact and corporate social responsibility.

Mission Pawsible’s mission statement (Source: Mission Pawsible )

Your mission is also a great place to communicate your brand’s community impact and social responsibility. It demonstrates that your business is principled, follows best practices, and is willing to invest in the well-being of the community served as well as the industry overall.

Like many of the best company mission statement examples, Mission Pawsible says what it does in a concise way: creating handcrafted pet products. However, it stands out by emphasizing its ethical and social responsibility, which underlines the brand’s relevance to its community.

10. Axiology

Mission statement: “ To end plastic waste in beauty” Why it works: It’s anchored in eco-friendly advocacy.

Axiology’s mission statement (Source: Axiology )

As with highlighting community impact, your small business mission statement can also be anchored on wider advocacy, as with the sustainable beauty brand Axiology. With today’s customers growing more eco-conscious than ever in their buying habits— 44% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands committed to sustainability—more brands are shifting toward an environmentally-friendly approach to business.

If you have an underlying advocacy behind your small business, leading with it in your mission statement accentuates your social relevance and differentiates you from others in the market. Finally, it also helps connect you with similar-minded consumers who can act as ambassadors for your brand and your advocacy.

11. Studio 7 Interior Design

Mission statement: “Studio 7 Interior Design is dedicated to creating interiors that reflect our client’s personality and lifestyle, by capturing their design dreams and making them a reality.” Why it works: It provides a bridge that gets the customer from where they are to where they want to be.

Studio 7 Interior Design’s mission statement (Source: Studio 7 Interior design )

Good mission statements are instantly understandable and relatable to a brand’s target audience, especially for small businesses. Because it’s a significant part of your brand’s public identity, it must immediately relate to your target customers. One of the best company mission statement examples that exemplify this is that of Studio 7 Interior Design.

Their mission statement is straightforward and comprehensive. However, it stands out by directly addressing their target clients’ desires and ambitions and centers on them as the brand’s driving purpose. It can help potential customers achieve the vision they want for interior spaces or results the customer wants but knows they can’t achieve on their own.

12. Naturepedic

Mission statement: “To transform the lives of our customers through safer, healthier sleep.” Why it works: It speaks to improving a fundamental and universal aspect of health and well-being.

Naturepedic’s mission statement (Source: Naturepedic )

Naturepedic offers a good example of how to outline the essential benefits customers get with your product. The Naturepedic company produces organic mattresses, which is a niche product; however, the brand’s mission talks about how it benefits people—in this case, by improving the safety and health of the customer.

With this, the brand appeals to everyday people by demonstrating how their lives can improve with the product, which is also how it captures people’s interests. Internally, it also serves as a guiding principle for the company’s operations and product standards.

13. Courtney Carolyn Photography

Mission statement: “To provide tangible evidence of the love that exists in people’s lives through beautiful imagery.” Why it works: It gives the personal brand a unique identity.

Courtney Carolyn Photography’s mission statement (Source: Courtney Carolyn Photography )

For personal brands like photographers, having a distinctive goal behind the work communicates what they can do and what makes their work special. An example of this is photographer Courtney Carolyn. As a photographer, customers are already familiar with the services they can expect; however, with a mission statement, she can build a unique identity for her brand.

The idea that you can capture the “true love” of a family, couple, or friends in imagery and turn it into lasting proof is a powerful one. For those just launching out together in life or celebrating important milestones, it’s a compelling reason to choose this photographer over other options.

Mission statement: “We want to give people with kinky, curly hair gentle, effective solutions for dry scalp and brittle hair.” Why it works: It calls out the customer’s pain point and offers a solution.

LivSo’s mission statement (Source: LivSo )

People like to feel seen and understood by the brands they buy from. If your brand serves a niche market, you can speak directly to them in your corporate and product messaging. This is another example of how you can call out human aspects of your brand that will be the most relatable part of the business to customers.

Haircare brand LivSo’s mission statement is an excellent example of this. It directly attracts the target audience by identifying specific pain points and then offering attainable solutions. It’s a value proposition that’s instantly empathetic and accessible to customers. Plus, it shows the brand places high value on delivering a good customer experience.

15. Ventana Surfboards & Supplies

Mission statement: “To be the most environmentally responsible surf company on the planet” Why it works: It identifies its niche and sticks to it.

Ventana Surfboards & Supplies mission statement (Source: Ventana Surfboards & Supplies )

Staying ahead of the competition is tough for any small business, but identifying what makes yours unique in marketing slogans is a guaranteed way to stand out. This is precisely what makes Ventana Surfboards a perfect addition to this list of the best small business mission statement examples.

It’s concise and stands out by identifying its specific niche audience—environmentally responsible surfers—and strives to be the best in it. This makes it easy to remember while giving the company a substantive and relevant goal to work toward. It also gives customers a clear idea of the company’s identity, purpose, and values.

16. Grounds & Greens

Mission statement: Dedicated to building a community that will embrace a plant-based lifestyle Why it works: It defines a specific aspirational lifestyle.

Grounds & Greens’ mission statement (Source: Grounds & Greens )

While it doesn’t explicitly mention dietary designations like Vegans and Vegetarians, Grounds & Greens’ mission still effectively speaks to a specific audience. It does this by defining a specific kind of aspirational lifestyle—in this case, those looking to live a plant-based lifestyle.

This differs from other brand slogans that directly mention the target market, in the sense that it’s more inclusive. Instead of identifying particular traits, the brand projects a particular aspirational way of living that customers can align themselves to and therefore become part of their target market.

Your mission statement is just one of the guiding principles you’ll need to write as you build your brand. Check out the others you’ll have to complete, as well:

• Vision Statement :  an aspirational goal you and your employees strive towards
• Brand Positioning Statement :  the summary of how your brand stands out in the market, including your unique selling position

Mission Statement Example Takeaways

Your mission should play an influential role in shaping your business identity, both internally and in public. As illustrated by the small business mission statement examples above, you can use some specific takeaways to craft a compelling one for your brand:

• Keep it straightforward and brief: Readers should be able to understand your mission at first read. Stick to your one overarching goal, use simple, clear language, and don’t crowd it with unnecessary details.
• Highlight relevance: Whether your business’ relevance applies to your target audience, your local community, or the environment, include it in your statement. This tells the reader “what’s in it” for them.
• Help your audience self-identify: If your audience is a specific one, identifying them directly in your mission makes it easier for them to know they’ve found the right brand to do business with.
• Identify what makes you unique: If your business has unique traits that help you stand out from others, such as specialty services or particular advocacies, including them in your mission statement helps you build a stronger brand and identity for your business.
• Be action-oriented: Your mission should motivate your team to pursue a particular goal. Make it action-oriented and include at least one action word, e.g., “to create,” “to change,” “to provide,” and so on.
• Keep it specific: Even if your mission is ambitious and long term, keep it as specific as possible. The more specific your mission statement is, the more influential it becomes and the more attainable it is to your team members.
• Make it aspirational: Conveying a non-business purpose for your company’s existence can be powerful in persuading prospects to choose you over your competitors. Examples include motivations like sustainability, givebacks, social responsibility, eco or earth-friendliness, and so on.

Pro tip: Don’t have a clear mission statement for your business yet? Check out our guide on how to write a mission statement , along with a free template you can download and use.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes a good mission statement.

A good mission statement conveys a clear and achievable goal, why it matters, a sense of action, and compelling motivation—all wrapped up in a concise, memorable phrase. Other characteristics often reflected in good company mission statement examples include a defined target audience, a human or emotional aspect, or socially relevant advocacy, among others.

What are the parts of a mission statement?

The parts of a mission statement are the business’ purpose or overarching goal, what it does to achieve that goal, and its relevance to others (e.g., customers, community, society, industry, nation, world, and so on). While mission statements can also include other parts and characteristics, these three components are the most essential to craft an effective business mission statement.

How do I write a mission statement?

To write a mission statement, identify your driving purpose by answering questions and gathering ideas about your business. Then, create a draft of your statement that includes your purpose, as well as your business’ actions and its relevance. Gather feedback and edit your statement until it’s polished, then share it with your team members and the public. Follow more detailed steps on how to write a mission statement with our step-by-step guide and template.

Bottom Line

A mission statement is a must-have for any small business. They are essential components of your brand’s identity and can help guide everything from internal operations to how you interact with customers and your company’s short and long-term business decisions. The examples above exemplify all these to inspire you as you write your own.

About the Author

Find Audrey Rawnie On LinkedIn

Audrey Rawnie Rico

Audrey is always thrilled to help small businesses in their marketing efforts. She has spent the past five years doing content marketing, content writing, and video production for startups and small businesses around the globe. She’s passionate about helping small businesses grow their online brand presence through digital marketing.

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6 Top Mission Statement Examples For Your Business Plan

Free Mission and Vision Statement Templates

Aayushi Mistry

• December 11, 2023

Example 1: A Mission Statement by Hubspot

There’s this notion that to grow a business, you have to be ruthless. But we know there’s a better way to grow. One where what’s good for the bottom line is also good for customers. We believe businesses can grow with a conscience, and succeed with a soul — and that they can do it with inbound. That’s why we’ve created a platform uniting software, education, and community to help businesses grow better every day.

Want to Generate a Mission Statement for your Business?

Craft a strong and purposeful mission statement in minutes with our easy-to-use Free AI Mission Statement Generator .

Hubspot is a company that develops and offers a fully functioning systematic platform for sales, marketing, and CRM management. They also offer the right measures to grow your business through consultations and courses.

Expert’s rating on the mission statement: 4 / 5

• Adding the emotional touch.
• Comparison with the traditional business.
• Clear about what they stand for.
• Clear about what they do.

Some of you might find this statement a little longer than usual. But what’s best is that they managed to add all the values, ethics, and culture with a friendly vocabulary. All of it, in just 4 to 5 sentences. And if you look closely, it’s not so long.

Example 2: A Mission Statement by Microsoft

Empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more.

Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology company. It develops, manufactures, licenses key supports, and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services.

Expert’s rating on the mission statement: 5 / 5

• It is the simplest and boldest mission statement .
• Very clear in communicating the value and ethics.
• It has a tinge of empowering emotion. It makes you want to know and have Microsoft right away.
• Most importantly, it is a one-liner with the best use of vocabulary. Hence, easy to remember.

Example 3: A Mission Statement from Tesla

To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

Tesla, Inc. is an American electric vehicle and clean energy company based in Palo Alto, California. Tesla’s current products include electric cars, battery energy storage from home to grid-scale, solar panels, and solar roof tiles, as well as other related products and services.

• You can already sense the speed and change in the mission statement.
• You can relate the statement to the founder, Elon Musk .
• Clear about what they want to accomplish
• Short, simple, and catchy enough for you to never forget it.

Example 4: A Mission Statement by Asos

To become the number 1 fashion destination for 20-somethings globally.

ASOS plc is a British online fashion and cosmetic retailer. The company was founded in 2000 in London, primarily aimed at young adults. The website sells over 850 brands as well as its own range of clothing and accessories, and ships to all 196 countries from fulfillment centers in the UK, Subcontinent, and Europe.

Their ambition, their service, and their target audience, everything put together in one sentence. The statement can’t get clearer than this!

Example 5: A Mission Statement by Disney

To be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information, using its portfolio of brands to differentiate its content, services and consumer products.

The Walt Disney Company , commonly known as Disney, is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California.

Expert’s rating on the mission statement: 3 / 5

• The mission statement is longer than required.
• It is not relevant to the grand and creative world of Disney.
• It has no emotional touch.
• It is clear what they do and offers.

Example 6: A Mission Statement by Sony

To be a company that inspires and fulfills your curiosity.

Sony Corporation is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Konan, Minato, Tokyo.

• It is not relevant to the grand, colorful sets of Sony
• Unclear with what they do and offer.

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17 Seriously Inspiring Mission and Vision Statement Examples (2024)

Money is a by-product of value .

So, to thrive in the long run, businesses must remain focused on producing value.

However, it’s easy to lose sight of value creation and get sidetracked by other things like profit margins, expanding your product catalogs , or competitors.

To become a runaway success, businesses must have a purpose that unites and inspires people – “make more money” won’t do the trick. As the author Simon Sinek said , “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

This is why organizations create mission and vision statements.

These statements unify the organization and keep everyone focused on what really matters – because if you get these things right, the profits will follow.

This post will give you an introduction to the two statements. Plus, we’ll share some great mission and vision statement examples to help inspire your own. 

Now, let’s dive in.

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What is a Mission Statement?

A mission statement is a short summary of an organization’s core purpose, focus, and aims. This usually includes a brief description of what the organization does and its key objectives.

What is a Vision Statement?

A vision statement is a short description of an organization’s aspirations and the wider impact it aims to create. It should be a guiding beacon to everyone within the organization and something which underpins internal decision-making and determines the intended direction of the organization.

Mission Statement vs Vision Statement: What’s The Difference?

In short: The mission is the “ what ” and the “ how ,” and the vision is the “ why .”

The mission statement defines what an organization does and includes tangible goals which the organization strives to accomplish. The vision statement, meanwhile, should clarify the aspirations of the organization and define the direction it’s heading in.

Many organizations combine the two statements to form one clearly defined reason for existing that unites the efforts of everyone involved.

Does Your Business Need Mission and Vision Statements?

Mission and vision statements are signposts.

Effective mission and vision statements will unify the focus of an organization – for the organization and their target audience .

Okay, but what if you’re only just starting a business ?

Well, whether you’re a massive corporation or a solopreneur , you can use mission and vision statements to gain clarity and ensure that you consistently make decisions in line with your ultimate goals.

These statements also help you develop a stronger brand that differentiates you from the competition.

Now, let’s look at some examples.

Mission and Vision Statement Examples

For quick reference, here are 17 examples of mission and vision statements from highly successful businesses:

• Tesla : To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
• Nike : Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. *If you have a body, you are an athlete.
• MVMT : Style shouldn’t break the bank.
• Warby Parker : To offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses.
• Shopify : Make commerce better for everyone, so businesses can focus on what they do best: building and selling their products.
• Patagonia : Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
• IKEA : To create a better everyday life for the many people.
• TED : Spread ideas.
• Amazon : To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.
• Southwest Airlines : To become the world’s most loved, most flown, and most profitable airline.
• Google : To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
• Asos : Become the world’s number-one destination for fashion-loving 20-somethings.
• Loreal : To provide the best in cosmetics innovation to women and men around the world with respect for their diversity.
• Bulletproof : Help people perform better, think faster, and live better.
• Honest Tea : Create and promote great-tasting, healthy, organic beverages.
• Starbucks: To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.
• Passionfruit: Create inclusive clothing and accessories that enable you to show your pride all year round while giving back to our community.

17 Inspiring Mission and Vision Statements Explained

Now you know what they are and how they serve organizations, let’s take a closer look at these mission and vision statement examples and draw out the key components.

Mission statement: To create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles.

Vision statement: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

Tesla’s mission and vision statements are a class act.

Their mission statement clearly defines their core goal: “To create the most compelling car company of the 21st century.” Then it tells you how they intend to accomplish that goal: “By driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles.”

It’s simple and it works.

However, it’s Tesla’s vision statement that stands out.

The car company’s clever use of the world “accelerate” helps to enliven their lofty aspiration. This vision statement also showcases their drive (pun intended) for sustainable energy and how it steers (pun intended) the business.

It also allows them room to explore and develop their other set of energy solutions, Powerwall, Powerpack and Solar Roof.

All in all, Tesla’s vision for sustainable energy is one that resonates with countless people around the world.

Mission statement: Create groundbreaking sports innovations, make our products sustainably, build a creative and diverse global team, and make a positive impact in communities where we live and work.

Vision statement: Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world.

*If you have a body, you are an athlete.

Nike’s mission statement might sound run-of-the-mill, but it effectively sums up what they aim to do and how they aim to do it.

Take note of the words that declare Nike’s underlying company values: Innovation, sustainability, diversity, and community.

However, it’s Nike’s vision statement that has captured the hearts of millions.

“To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world” sounds a little vague at first. It’s Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman’s addition that hits you right in the feels: “If you have a body, you are an athlete.”

Bowerman’s statement staunchly stands up against body-shaming and is a powerful call for inclusion. And it’s not hard to see this shape Nike’s philosophy and marketing:

As a result, Nike’s vision statement is transformed into a moving sentiment that impacts every person who reads it. It’s also one of the best vision statement examples for business owners to use for inspiration.

Mission and vision statement: We were founded on the belief that style shouldn’t break the bank. Our goal is to change the way you think about fashion by delivering premium designs at radically fair prices.

MVMT have combined their company mission statement and vision statement and addressed it directly to customers.

It begins with the vision: “Style shouldn’t break the bank.”

This business vision statement cuts straight to the point and perfectly sums up MVMT’s key selling proposition of high-quality fashion watches at low prices.

The statement then goes on to explain the mission.

First, they tell you what they aim to achieve: “Change the way you think about fashion.” Then, they tell you how they intend to do it: “By delivering premium designs at radically fair prices.”

It’s short, punchy, and music to customers’ ears.

4.  Warby Parker

Mission statement: Warby Parker was founded with a rebellious spirit and a lofty objective: To offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses.

Vision statement: We believe that buying glasses should be easy and fun. It should leave you happy and good-looking, with money in your pocket. We also believe that everyone has the right to see.

Warby Parker’s mission statement reminds us of why it was founded and then reveals its aims for a better future.

Note their core business aim: “Offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price.”

In the vision statement, they address the core problems consumers face when purchasing glasses: It can be annoying, boring, costly, and still leave you anxious about whether or not they look good.

Instead, they aim to solve these problems and make buying glasses easy, fun, pleasing, and inexpensive.

Both statements also mention Warby Parker's dedication to providing glasses to people in need around the world.

Vision statement: Make commerce better for everyone, so businesses can focus on what they do best: building and selling their products.

Shopify’s vision statement begins with their overarching vision: to make commerce better for everyone.

Then they promote the reason why they’re driven to remove the hassle and complications of managing an ecommerce website: so businesses can focus on what’s most important to them.

Shopify’s business mission statement and vision are clear: empower businesses.

6. Patagonia

Mission and vision statement: Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.

Patagonia starts with the basis of their success in business: high-quality products .

Then they explain their environmental stance in three points which explain their aim to make their business as environmentally friendly as possible and actively combat the environmental crisis.

Patagonia goes on to say, “a love of wild and beautiful places demands participation in the fight to save them.”

And the business isn’t afraid to put their money where their mouth is. The company donates at least 1% of its sales to hundreds of grassroots environmental groups around the world.

If you’re looking for vision and statement examples that clearly articulate a company’s values and goals, this is one right here.

Mission statement: Offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them.

Vision statement: To create a better everyday life for the many people.

IKEA’s mission statement is clear and to the point.

Note the use of the words, “wide range,” “well-designed,” “functional,” and “prices so low.” If you’ve ever been to IKEA you’ll know how well they’ve managed to embody these attributes.

IKEA’s vision statement focuses their mission statement into one singular purpose: “To create a better everyday life for the many people.”

Both statements use inclusive phrasing that solidifies IKEA’s commitment to being accessible to “as many people as possible.”

Mission statement: Spread ideas.

Vision statement: We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world.

TED , which stands for “technology, education, and design,” managed to boil down their entire mission into two simple, yet powerful words: “Spread ideas.”

With such a simple, highly focused mission, it’s easy to see how the TED brand has become a global phenomenon in recent years.

It’s a truly great mission statement that focuses all of their efforts.

“Everything we do – from our Conferences to our TED Talks to the projects sparked by The Audacious Project, from the global TEDx community to the TED-Ed lesson series – is driven by this goal: How can we best spread great ideas?”

In what could be considered their vision statement, TED goes on to explain that they “believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world.”

Mission statement: We strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost convenience.

Vision statement: To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.

Amazon ’s mission statement sums up the three things that have made them loved by millions: low prices, a huge selection, and incredible convenience.

Like all great mission statements, it shines a light on the values that bring success.

Amazon’s vision statement brings these elements together into one unified goal: “To be Earth’s most customer-centric company.”

10. Southwest Airlines

Mission statement: The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit.

Vision statement: To become the world’s most loved, most flown, and most profitable airline.

Southwest Airlines is all about customer service .

Their mission statement summarizes this dedication to customers and highlights the importance of one-to-one interactions between staff and customers.

So it’s no surprise that Southwest’s vision statement is “to become the world’s most loved, most flown airline.”

However, although they heavily emphasize customer service , they don’t forget to mention the thing which allows the company to exist in the first place: profit.

Google’s mission statement perfectly summarizes what they aim to do.

Take note of the last word: “useful.”

Google understands that it doesn’t matter how well organized or accessible information is if it can’t be readily applied in life.

Their mission statement is brilliant.

But unfortunately, Google doesn’t seem to have a vision statement that clarifies the reasons why they want to organize the world’s information for everyone to use.

Mission statement: Become the world’s number-one destination for fashion-loving 20-somethings.

Asos’ mission statement solidifies their purpose by voicing exactly what they want to achieve.

In what could be considered their vision statement, they go on to say, “We focus on fashion as a force for good, inspiring young people to express their best selves and achieve amazing things. We believe fashion thrives on individuality and should be fun for everyone.”

The addition gets a little vague in places, such as wanting young people to “achieve amazing things” – I mean, don’t we all?

However, it successfully showcases their brand image and their passion for individuality and expression .

Mission statement: To provide the best in cosmetics innovation to women and men around the world with respect for their diversity.

Loreal’s mission statement comprises two key parts.

The first lays out their dedication to providing the best in cosmetics innovation. The second is all about inclusivity.

This is key.

They aim to include people from all over the world, “with respect for their diversity.”

And despite most companies marketing cosmetics solely to women, Loreal is looking to the future as gender stereotypes break down.

This type of sensitivity and awareness will position Loreal for long-term success.

14. Bulletproof

Mission and vision statement: “Help people perform better, think faster, and live better using a proven blend of ancient knowledge and brand new technologies, tempered by research, science, and measured results from our customers, top athletes, and medical professionals.”

Bulletproof has combined their vision and mission in one short paragraph.

It starts with their purpose: “Help people perform better, think faster, and live better.” Then it goes on to explain exactly how they plan to do it: Using ancient knowledge, brand new technologies, and science.

Sure, it’s a little wordy.

But it gets to the heart of why Bulletproof exists and how they plan to make an impact on the world as a business.

As a result, Bulletproof’s mission and vision statement is well-suited to unify everyone in the company and guide their decisions.

15. Honest Tea

Mission statement: Honest Tea seeks to create and promote great-tasting, healthy, organic beverages. We strive to grow our business with the same honesty and integrity we use to craft our recipes, with sustainability and great taste for all.

Honest Tea’s mission statement aims to live up to their brand name.

It starts by explaining what it is they do, and by doing so, they also tell you what they don’t do: chemical-laden, artificially produced beverages.

They’re talking directly to their target market and conferring their key selling proposition: beverages that are great-tasting and healthy.

They go on to showcase their values by using words like honesty, integrity, and sustainability.

And this brand doesn’t just talk the talk – they walk the walk.

Each year, the company publishes a Mission Report in an effort to be transparent about their business practices.

16. Starbucks

Mission statement: To inspire and nurture the human spirit—one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.

Another short and sweet mission statement that tells a lot about the company.

Starbucks doesn’t use big sentences or fancy words to communicate its goals. It uses clear, simple, and direct language to express what the company wants to be and for whom.  

They aspire to be known for more than just coffee by creating a culture of warmth and exclusivity.

In other words, Starbucks wants to ensure that anyone who comes through its doors feels welcomed and at home.

17. Passionfruit

Mission statement : We strive to create inclusive clothing and accessories that enable you to show your pride all year round while giving back to our community.

The folks at Passionfruit strive to promote the idea that pride is not just a one-day event.

Rather than making their mission statement about trendy clothes for the LBGTQ+ community, they promote the idea that pride is an everyday expression of oneself.

And by doing so, they remind people that the brand is aligned with LBGTQ+ values and supports the community by giving back.

All in all, it’s clear that Passionfruit wants everyone to recognize the truth for the queer community and spread inspiration – we’ll take it.

Done right, mission and vision statements are powerful things.

They can unify an entire organization’s efforts and be the signpost that continually focuses everyone’s efforts on the things that truly matter.

The key to great mission and vision statements is clarity.

Remember, a mission statement is the “ what ” and the “ how ,” and the vision statement is the “ why .”

Plus, it doesn’t matter how large or small your business is, every business can benefit from strong mission and vision statements.

If you’re considering writing a mission or vision statement for your business, start with your core values. Then, consider the wider impact you hope to have on the world through your customers.

What’s your business’s mission or vision statement? Let us know in the comments below!

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How to Write a Business Plan (Plus Examples & Templates)

May 24, 2021

Have you ever wondered how to write a business plan step by step? Mike Andes, told us: 

This guide will help you write a business plan to impress investors.

Throughout this process, we’ll get information from Mike Andes, who started Augusta Lawn Care Services when he was 12 and turned it into a franchise with over 90 locations. He has gone on to help others learn how to write business plans and start businesses.  He knows a thing or two about writing  business plans!

We’ll start by discussing the definition of a business plan. Then we’ll discuss how to come up with the idea, how to do the market research, and then the important elements in the business plan format. Keep reading to start your journey!

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is simply a road map of what you are trying to achieve with your business and how you will go about achieving it. It should cover all elements of your business including: 

• Finding customers
• Plans for developing a team
•  Competition
• Legal structures
• Key milestones you are pursuing

If you aren’t quite ready to create a business plan, consider starting by reading our business startup guide .

Get a Business Idea

Before you can write a business plan, you have to have a business idea. You may see a problem that needs to be solved and have an idea how to solve it, or you might start by evaluating your interests and skills. 

Mike told us, “The three things I suggest asking yourself when thinking about starting a business are:

• What am I good at?
• What would I enjoy doing?
• What can I get paid for?”

If all three of these questions don’t lead to at least one common answer, it will probably be a much harder road to success. Either there is not much market for it, you won’t be good at it, or you won’t enjoy doing it. 

As Mike told us, “There’s enough stress starting and running a business that if you don’t like it or aren’t good at it, it’s hard to succeed.”

If you’d like to hear more about Mike’s approach to starting a business, check out our YouTube video

Conduct Market Analysis

Market analysis is focused on establishing if there is a target market for your products and services, how large the target market is, and identifying the demographics of people or businesses that would be interested in the product or service. The goal here is to establish how much money your business concept can make.

Product and Service Demand

A search engine is your best friend when trying to figure out if there is demand for your products and services. Personally, I love using presearch.org because it lets you directly search on a ton of different platforms including Google, Youtube, Twitter, and more. Check out the screenshot for the full list of search options.

With quick web searches, you can find out how many competitors you have, look through their reviews, and see if there are common complaints about the competitors. Bad reviews are a great place to find opportunities to offer better products or services. 

If there are no similar products or services, you may have stumbled upon something new, or there may just be no demand for it. To find out, go talk to your most honest friend about the idea and see what they think. If they tell you it’s dumb or stare at you vacantly, there’s probably no market for it.

You can also conduct a survey through social media to get public opinion on your idea. Using Facebook Business Manager , you could get a feel for who would be interested in your product or service.

 I ran a quick test of how many people between 18-65  you could reach in the U.S. during a week. It returned an estimated 700-2,000 for the total number of leads, which is enough to do a fairly accurate statistical analysis.

Identify Demographics of Target Market

Depending on what type of business you want to run, your target market will be different. The narrower the demographic, the fewer potential customers you’ll have. If you did a survey, you’ll be able to use that data to help define your target audience. Some considerations you’ll want to consider are:

• Other Interests
• Marital Status
• Do they have kids?

Once you have this information, it can help you narrow down your options for location and help define your marketing further. One resource that Mike recommended using is the Census Bureau’s Quick Facts Map . He told us,  

“It helps you quickly evaluate what the best areas are for your business to be located.”

How to Write a Business Plan

Now that you’ve developed your idea a little and established there is a market for it, you can begin writing a business plan. Getting started is easier with the business plan template we created for you to download. I strongly recommend using it as it is updated to make it easier to create an action plan. 

Each of the following should be a section of your business plan:

• Business Plan Cover Page
• Table of Contents
• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Description of Products and Services

SWOT Analysis

• Competitor Data
• Competitive Analysis
• Marketing Expenses Strategy 

Pricing Strategy

• Distribution Channel Assessment
• Operational Plan
• Management and Organizational Strategy
• Financial Statements and/or Financial Projections

We’ll look into each of these. Don’t forget to download our free business plan template (mentioned just above) so you can follow along as we go. 

How to Write a Business Plan Step 1. Create a Cover Page

The first thing investors will see is the cover page for your business plan. Make sure it looks professional. A great cover page shows that you think about first impressions.

A good business plan should have the following elements on a cover page:

• Professionally designed logo
• Company name
• Mission or Vision Statement
• Contact Info

Basically, think of a cover page for your business plan like a giant business card. It is meant to capture people’s attention but be quickly processed.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 2. Create a Table of Contents

Most people are busy enough that they don’t have a lot of time. Providing a table of contents makes it easy for them to find the pages of your plan that are meaningful to them.

A table of contents will be immediately after the cover page, but you can include it after the executive summary. Including the table of contents immediately after the executive summary will help investors know what section of your business plan they want to review more thoroughly.

Check out Canva’s article about creating a  table of contents . It has a ton of great information about creating easy access to each section of your business plan. Just remember that you’ll want to use different strategies for digital and hard copy business plans.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 3. Write an Executive Summary

An executive summary is where your business plan should catch the readers interest.  It doesn’t need to be long, but should be quick and easy to read.

Mike told us,

How long should an executive summary bein an informal business plan?

For casual use, an executive summary should be similar to an elevator pitch, no more than 150-160 words, just enough to get them interested and wanting more. Indeed has a great article on elevator pitches .  This can also be used for the content of emails to get readers’ attention.

It consists of three basic parts:

• An introduction to you and your business.
• What your business is about.
• A call to action

Example of an informal executive summary 

One of the best elevator pitches I’ve used is:

So far that pitch has achieved a 100% success rate in getting partnerships for the business.

What should I include in an executive summary for investors?

Investors are going to need a more detailed executive summary if you want to secure financing or sell equity. The executive summary should be a brief overview of your entire business plan and include:

• Introduction of yourself and company.
• An origin story (Recognition of a problem and how you came to solution)
• An introduction to your products or services.
• Your unique value proposition. Make sure to include intellectual property.
• Where you are in the business life cycle
• Request and why you need it.

Successful business plan examples

The owner of Urbanity told us he spent 2 months writing a 75-page business plan and received a $250,000 loan from the bank when he was 23. Make your business plan as detailed as possible when looking for financing. We’ve provided a template to help you prepare the portions of a business plan that banks expect.

Here’s the interview with the owner of Urbanity:

When to write an executive summary?

Even though the summary is near the beginning of a business plan, you should write it after you complete the rest of a business plan. You can’t talk about revenue, profits, and expected expenditures if you haven’t done the market research and created a financial plan.

What mistakes do people make when writing an executive summary?

Business owners commonly go into too much detail about the following items in an executive summary:

• Marketing and sales processes
• Financial statements
• Organizational structure
• Market analysis

These are things that people will want to know later, but they don’t hook the reader. They won’t spark interest in your small business, but they’ll close the deal.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 4. Company Description

Every business plan should include a company description. A great business plan will include the following elements while describing the company:

• Mission statement
• Philosophy and vision
• Company goals

Target market

• Legal structure

Let’s take a look at what each section includes in a good business plan.

Mission Statement

A mission statement is a brief explanation of why you started the company and what the company’s main focus is. It should be no more than one or two sentences. Check out HubSpot’s article 27 Inspiring Mission Statement for a great read on informative and inspiring mission and vision statements. 

Company Philosophy and Vision

The company philosophy is what drives your company. You’ll normally hear them called core values.  These are the building blocks that make your company different. You want to communicate your values to customers, business owners, and investors as often as possible to build a company culture, but make sure to back them up.

What makes your company different?

Each company is different. Your new business should rise above the standard company lines of honesty, integrity, fun, innovation, and community when communicating your business values. The standard answers are corporate jargon and lack authenticity. 

Examples of core values

One of my clients decided to add a core values page to their website. As a tech company they emphasized the values:

•  Prioritize communication.
•  Never stop learning.
•  Be transparent.
•  Start small and grow incrementally.

These values communicate how the owner and the rest of the company operate. They also show a value proposition and competitive advantage because they specifically focus on delivering business value from the start. These values also genuinely show what the company is about and customers recognize the sincerity. Indeed has a great blog about how to identify your core values .

What is a vision statement?

A vision statement communicate the long lasting change a business pursues. The vision helps investors and customers understand what your company is trying to accomplish. The vision statement goes beyond a mission statement to provide something meaningful to the community, customer’s lives, or even the world.

Example vision statements

The Alzheimer’s Association is a great example of a vision statement:

A world without Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementia.

It clearly tells how they want to change the world. A world without Alzheimers might be unachievable, but that means they always have room for improvement.

Business Goals

You have to measure success against goals for a business plan to be meaningful. A business plan helps guide a company similar to how your GPS provides a road map to your favorite travel destination. A goal to make as much money as possible is not inspirational and sounds greedy.

Sure, business owners want to increase their profits and improve customer service, but they need to present an overview of what they consider success. The goals should help everyone prioritize their work.

How far in advance should a business plan?

Business planning should be done at least one year in advance, but many banks and investors prefer three to five year business plans. Longer plans show investors that the management team  understands the market and knows the business is operating in a constantly shifting market. In addition, a plan helps businesses to adjust to changes because they have already considered how to handle them.

Example of great business goals

My all time-favorite long-term company goals are included in Tesla’s Master Plan, Part Deux . These goals were written in 2016 and drive the company’s decisions through 2026. They are the reason that investors are so forgiving when Elon Musk continually fails to meet his quarterly and annual goals.

If the progress aligns with the business plan investors are likely to continue to believe in the company. Just make sure the goals are reasonable or you’ll be discredited (unless you’re Elon Musk).

You did target market research before creating a business plan. Now it’s time to add it to the plan so others understand what your ideal customer looks like. As a new business owner, you may not be considered an expert in your field yet, so document everything. Make sure the references you use are from respectable sources. 

Use information from the specific lender when you are applying for lending. Most lenders provide industry research reports and using their data can strengthen the position of your business plan.

A small business plan should include a section on the external environment. Understanding the industry is crucial because we don’t plan a business in a vacuum. Make sure to research the industry trends, competitors, and forecasts. I personally prefer IBIS World for my business research. Make sure to answer questions like:

• What is the industry outlook long-term and short-term?
• How will your business take advantage of projected industry changes and trends?
• What might happen to your competitors and how will your business successfully compete?

Industry resources

Some helpful resources to help you establish more about your industry are:

• Trade Associations
• Federal Reserve
• Bureau of Labor Statistics

Legal Structure

There are five basic types of legal structures that most people will utilize:

• Sole proprietorships
• Limited Liability Companies (LLC)

Partnerships

Corporations.

• Franchises.

Each business structure has their pros and cons. An LLC is the most common legal structure due to its protection of personal assets and ease of setting up. Make sure to specify how ownership is divided and what roles each owner plays when you have more than one business owner.

You’ll have to decide which structure is best for you, but we’ve gathered information on each to make it easier.

Sole Proprietorship

A sole proprietorship is the easiest legal structure to set up but doesn’t protect the owner’s personal assets from legal issues. That means if something goes wrong, you could lose both your company and your home.

To start a sole proprietorship, fill out a special tax form called a  Schedule C . Sole proprietors can also join the American Independent Business Alliance .

Limited Liability Company (LLC)

An LLC is the most common business structure used in the United States because an LLC protects the owner’s personal assets. It’s similar to partnerships and corporations, but can be a single-member LLC in most states. An LLC requires a document called an operating agreement.

Each state has different requirements. Here’s a link to find your state’s requirements . Delaware and Nevada are common states to file an LLC because they are really business-friendly. Here’s a blog on the top 10 states to get an LLC.

Partnerships are typically for legal firms. If you choose to use a partnership choose a Limited Liability Partnership. Alternatively, you can just use an LLC.

Corporations are typically for massive organizations. Corporations have taxes on both corporate and income tax so unless you plan on selling stock, you are better off considering an LLC with S-Corp status . Investopedia has good information corporations here .

There are several opportunities to purchase successful franchises. TopFranchise.com has a list of companies in a variety of industries that offer franchise opportunities. This makes it where an entrepreneur can benefit from the reputation of an established business that has already worked out many of the kinks of starting from scratch.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 5. Products and Services

This section of the business plan should focus on what you sell, how you source it, and how you sell it. You should include:

• Unique features that differentiate your business products from competitors
• Intellectual property
• Your supply chain
• Cost and pricing structure 

Questions to answer about your products and services

Mike gave us a list  of the most important questions to answer about your product and services:

• How will you be selling the product? (in person, ecommerce, wholesale, direct to consumer)?
• How do you let them know they need a product?
• How do you communicate the message?
• How will you do transactions?
• How much will you be selling it for?
• How many do you think you’ll sell and why?

Make sure to use the worksheet on our business plan template .

How to Write a Business Plan Step 6. Sales and Marketing Plan

The marketing and sales plan is focused on the strategy to bring awareness to your company and guides how you will get the product to the consumer.  It should contain the following sections:

SWOT Analysis stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Not only do you want to identify them, but you also want to document how the business plans to deal with them.

Business owners need to do a thorough job documenting how their service or product stacks up against the competition.

If proper research isn’t done, investors will be able to tell that the owner hasn’t researched the competition and is less likely to believe that the team can protect its service from threats by the more well-established competition. This is one of the most common parts of a presentation that trips up business owners presenting on Shark Tank .

SWOT Examples

Examples of strengths and weaknesses could be things like the lack of cash flow, intellectual property ownership, high costs of suppliers, and customers’ expectations on shipping times.

Opportunities could be ways to capitalize on your strengths or improve your weaknesses, but may also be gaps in the industry. This includes:

• Adding offerings that fit with your current small business
• Increase sales to current customers
• Reducing costs through bulk ordering
• Finding ways to reduce inventory
•  And other areas you can improve

Threats will normally come from outside of the company but could also be things like losing a key member of the team. Threats normally come from competition, regulations, taxes, and unforeseen events.

The management team should use the SWOT analysis to guide other areas of business planning, but it absolutely has to be done before a business owner starts marketing. 

Include Competitor Data in Your Business Plan

When you plan a business, taking into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of the competition is key to navigating the field. Providing an overview of your competition and where they are headed shows that you are invested in understanding the industry.

For smaller businesses, you’ll want to search both the company and the owners names to see what they are working on. For publicly held corporations, you can find their quarterly and annual reports on the SEC website .

What another business plans to do can impact your business. Make sure to include things that might make it attractive for bigger companies to outsource to a small business.

Marketing Strategy

The marketing and sales part of business plans should be focused on how you are going to make potential customers aware of your business and then sell to them.

If you haven’t already included it, Mike recommends:

“They’ll want to know about Demographics, ages, and wealth of your target market.”

Make sure to include the Total addressable market .  The term refers to the value if you captured 100% of the market.

Advertising Strategy

You’ll explain what formats of advertising you’ll be using. Some possibilities are:

• Online: Facebook and Google are the big names to work with here.
• Print : Print can be used to reach broad groups or targeted markets. Check out this for tips .
• Radio : iHeartMedia is one of the best ways to advertise on the radio
• Cable television : High priced, hard to measure ROI, but here’s an explanation of the process
• Billboards: Attracting customers with billboards can be beneficial in high traffic areas.

You’ll want to define how you’ll be using each including frequency, duration, and cost. If you have the materials already created, including pictures or links to the marketing to show creative assets.

Mike told us “Most businesses are marketing digitally now due to Covid, but that’s not always the right answer.”

Make sure the marketing strategy will help team members or external marketing agencies stay within the brand guidelines .

This section of a business plan should be focused on pricing. There are a ton of pricing strategies that may work for different business plans. Which one will work for you depends on what kind of a business you run.

Some common pricing strategies are:

• Value-based pricing – Commonly used with home buying and selling or other products that are status symbols.
• Skimming pricing – Commonly seen in video game consoles, price starts off high to recoup expenses quickly, then reduces over time.
• Competition-based pricing – Pricing based on competitors’ pricing is commonly seen at gas stations.
• Freemium services –  Commonly used for software, where there is a free plan, then purchase options for more functionality.

HubSpot has a great calculator and blog on pricing strategies.

Beyond explaining what strategy your business plans to use, you should include references for how you came to this pricing strategy and how it will impact your cash flow.

Distribution Plan

This part of a business plan is focused on how the product or service is going to go through the supply chain. These may include multiple divisions or multiple companies. Make sure to include any parts of the workflow that are automated so investors can see where cost savings are expected and when.

Supply Chain Examples

For instance, lawn care companies  would need to cover aspects such as:

• Suppliers for lawn care equipment and tools
• Any chemicals or treatments needed
• Repair parts for sprinkler systems
• Vehicles to transport equipment and employees
• Insurance to protect the company vehicles and people.

Examples of Supply Chains

These are fairly flat supply chains compared to something like a clothing designer where the clothes would go through multiple vendors. A clothing company might have the following supply chain:

• Raw materials
• Shipping of raw materials
• Converting of raw materials to thread
• Shipping thread to produce garments
• Garment producer
• Shipping to company
• Company storage
• Shipping to retail stores

There have been advances such as print on demand that eliminate many of these steps. If you are designing completely custom clothing, all of this would need to be planned to keep from having business disruptions.

The main thing to include in the business plan is the list of suppliers, the path the supply chain follows, the time from order to the customer’s home, and the costs associated with each step of the process.

According to BizPlanReview , a business plan without this information is likely to get rejected because they have failed to research the key elements necessary to make sales to the customer.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 7. Company Organization and Operational Plan

This part of the business plan is focused on how the business model will function while serving customers.  The business plan should provide an overview of  how the team will manage the following aspects:

Quality Control

• Legal environment

Let’s look at each for some insight.

Production has already been discussed in previous sections so I won’t go into it much. When writing a business plan for investors, try to avoid repetition as it creates a more simple business plan.

If the organizational plan will be used by the team as an overview of how to perform the best services for the customer, then redundancy makes more sense as it communicates what is important to the business.

Quality control policies help to keep the team focused on how to verify that the company adheres to the business plan and meets or exceeds customer expectations.

Quality control can be anything from a standard that says “all labels on shirts can be no more than 1/16″ off center” to a defined checklist of steps that should be performed and filled out for every customer.

There are a variety of organizations that help define quality control including:

• International Organization for Standardization – Quality standards for energy, technology, food, production environments, and cybersecurity
• AICPA – Standard defined for accounting.
• The Joint Commission – Healthcare
• ASHRAE – HVAC best practices

You can find lists of the organizations that contribute most to the government regulation of industries on Open Secrets . Research what the leaders in your field are doing. Follow their example and implement it in your quality control plan.

For location, you should use information from the market research to establish where the location will be. Make sure to include the following in the location documentation.

• The size of your location
• The type of building (retail, industrial, commercial, etc.)
• Zoning restrictions – Urban Wire has a good map on how zoning works in each state
• Accessibility – Does it meet ADA requirements?
• Costs including rent, maintenance, utilities, insurance and any buildout or remodeling costs
• Utilities – b.e.f. has a good energy calculator .

Legal Environment

The legal requirement section is focused on defining how to meet the legal requirements for your industry. A good business plan should include all of the following:

• Any licenses and/or permits that are needed and whether you’ve obtained them
• Any trademarks, copyrights, or patents that you have or are in the process of applying for
• The insurance coverage your business requires and how much it costs
• Any environmental, health, or workplace regulations affecting your business
• Any special regulations affecting your industry
• Bonding requirements, if applicable

Your local SBA office can help you establish requirements in your area. I strongly recommend using them. They are a great resource.

Your business plan should include a plan for company organization and hiring. While you may be the only person with the company right now, down the road you’ll need more people. Make sure to consider and document the answers to the following questions:

• What is the current leadership structure and what will it look like in the future?
• What types of employees will you have? Are there any licensing or educational requirements?
• How many employees will you need?
• Will you ever hire freelancers or independent contractors?
• What is each position’s job description?
• What is the pay structure (hourly, salaried, base plus commission, etc.)?
• How do you plan to find qualified employees and contractors?

One of the most crucial parts of a business plan is the organizational chart. This simply shows the positions the company will need, who is in charge of them and the relationship of each of them. It will look similar to this:

Our small business plan template has a much more in-depth organizational chart you can edit to include when you include the organizational chart in your business plan.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 8. Financial Statements 

No business plan is complete without financial statements or financial projections. The business plan format will be different based on whether you are writing a business plan to expand a business or a startup business plan. Let’s dig deeper into each.

Provide All Financial Income from an Existing Business

An existing business should use their past financial documents including the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement to find trends to estimate the next 3-5 years.

You can create easy trendlines in excel to predict future revenue, profit and loss, cash flow, and other changes in year-over-year performance. This will show your expected performance assuming business continues as normal.

If you are seeking an investment, then the business is probably not going to continue as normal. Depending on the financial plan and the purpose of getting financing, adjustments may be needed to the following:

• Higher Revenue if expanding business
• Lower Cost of Goods Sold if purchasing inventory with bulk discounts
• Adding interest if utilizing financing (not equity deal)
• Changes in expenses
• Addition of financing information to the cash flow statement
• Changes in Earnings per Share on the balance sheet

Financial modeling is a challenging subject, but there are plenty of low-cost courses on the subject. If you need help planning your business financial documentation take some time to watch some of them.

Make it a point to document how you calculated all the changes to the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement in your business plan so that key team members or investors can verify your research.

Financial Projections For A Startup Business Plan

Unlike an existing business, a startup doesn’t have previous success to model its future performance. In this scenario, you need to focus on how to make a business plan realistic through the use of industry research and averages.

Mike gave the following advice in his interview:

Financial Forecasting Mistakes

One of the things a lot of inexperienced people use is the argument, “If I get one percent of the market, it is worth $100 million.” If you use this, investors are likely to file the document under bad business plan examples.

Let’s use custom t-shirts as an example.

Credence Research estimated in 2018 there were 11,334,800,000 custom t-shirts sold for a total of $206.12 Billion, with a 6% compound annual growth rate.

With that data,  you can calculate that the industry will grow to $270 Billion in 2023 and that the average shirt sold creates $18.18 in revenue.

Combine that with an IBIS World estimate of 11,094 custom screen printers and that means even if you become an average seller, you’ll get .009% of the market.

Here’s a table for easier viewing of that information.

The point here is to make sure your business proposal examples make sense.

You’ll need to know industry averages such as cost of customer acquisition, revenue per customer, the average cost of goods sold, and admin costs to be able to create accurate estimates.

Our simple business plan templates walk you through most of these processes. If you follow them you’ll have a good idea of how to write a business proposal.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 9. Business Plan Example of Funding Requests

What is a business plan without a plan on how to obtain funding?

The Small Business Administration has an example for a pizza restaurant that theoretically needed nearly $20k to make it through their first month.

In our video, How to Start a $500K/Year T-Shirt Business (Pt. 1 ), Sanford Booth told us he needed about $200,000 to start his franchise and broke even after 4 months.

Freshbooks estimates it takes on average 2-3 years for a business to be profitable, which means the fictitious pizza company from the SBA could need up to $330k to make it through that time and still pay their bills for their home and pizza shop.

Not every business needs that much to start, but realistically it’s a good idea to assume that you need a fairly large cushion.

Ways to get funding for a small business

There are a variety of ways to cover this. the most common are:

• Bootstrapping – Using your savings without external funding.
• Taking out debt – loans, credit cards
• Equity, Seed Funding – Ownership of a percentage of the company in exchange for current funds
• Crowdsourcing – Promising a good for funding to create the product

Keep reading for more tips on how to write a business plan.

How funding will be used

When asking for business financing make sure to include:

• How much to get started?
• What is the minimum viable product and how soon can you make money?
• How will the money be spent?

Mike emphasized two aspects that should be included in every plan, 

How to Write a Business Plan Resources

Here are some links to a business plan sample and business plan outline. 

• Sample plan

It’s also helpful to follow some of the leading influencers in the business plan writing community. Here’s a list:

• Wise Plans –  Shares a lot of information on starting businesses and is a business plan writing company.
• Optimus Business Plans –  Another business plan writing company.
• Venture Capital – A venture capital thread that can help give you ideas.

How to Write a Business Plan: What’s Next?

We hope this guide about how to write a simple business plan step by step has been helpful. We’ve covered:

• The definition of a business plan
• Coming up with a business idea
• Performing market research
• The critical components of a business plan
• An example business plan

In addition, we provided you with a simple business plan template to assist you in the process of writing your startup business plan. The startup business plan template also includes a business model template that will be the key to your success.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of our business hub .

Have you written a business plan before? How did it impact your ability to achieve your goals?

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55 Types of Cleaning Services (You Can Offer)

How many types of cleaning are there?

1. green cleaning services.

• Environmentally friendly cleaning solution(s)
• Eco-friendly cleaning practices
• Reusable cleaning supplies (cloths instead of paper towels)
• Green Seal’s Environmental Standard for Commercial Cleaning Services ( GS-42 )
• Cleaning Industry Management Standard for Green Buildings ( CIMS-GB )
• 34% lower CO2 emissions
• 25% less energy consumption
• 11% less water consumption
• 80 million tons of waste diverted from landfills.

2. House cleaning services

• Deep cleaning service
• Airbnb cleaning service
• Move-in and move-out cleaning service
• Apartment cleaning service
• Carpet cleaning service
• Window cleaning service
• Maid service

3. Deep cleaning services

• Cleaning windows, frames, curtains, and blinds
• Washing garbage bins
• Replacing air filters and noting the date you changed it
• Clean baseboards
• Washing door frames and knobs
• Wiping light switches
• Testing fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors
• Clearing out clutter 
• Carpet cleaning

4. Airbnb cleaning services

• Higher rates than residential cleaning
• More frequent cleaning schedules than residential cleaning
• Additional revenue streams through cohosting

5. Move-in cleaning services

6. move-out cleaning services.

7. Apartment cleaning services

8. maid services.

• Doing laundry
• Making beds
• Cleaning up after pets 

9. Carpet cleaning services

• Upholstery cleaning tasks
• Odor removal
• Mold remediation
• Janitorial cleaning

10. Business cleaning services

• Office spaces
• Hotel rooms
• Restroom cleaning
• Janitorial services
• Jet washer services
• Medical cleaning
• Hazmat cleaning
• Data center cleaning

11. Curtain cleaning services

12. duct cleaning services.

13. HVAC coil cleaning services

14. Window cleaning services

15. kitchen cleaning services.

• Commercial fryers
• Exhaust fans
• Commercial grills

16. Spring cleaning services

17. wall cleaning services, 18. gutter cleaning services, 19. medical cleaning services.

• OSHA #7200 – Bloodborne Pathogen Exposure Control (7 hours)
• OSHA #7205 – Health Hazard Awareness (6 hours)
• OSHA #7210 – Pandemic Illness Preparedness (5.5 hours)

20. Office cleaning services

21. commercial cleaning services, 22. dry cleaning services, 23. upholstery cleaning services.

• Other synthetic materials

24. Leather cleaning services

25. Hoarder cleaning services

• $50 to $125 per man hour: Deciding what to trash
• $2,250 : $50 to $75 per cubic yard (27 cubic feet) for disposing of property
• $750 to $2,500 : Cleaning and disinfecting

26. Sanitization services

• Environmental Health & Safety Certification
• Biohazard Cleanup Certification (available at IJCSA )
• Pathogen Decontamination Certification

27. Portable sanitation services

28. mold remediation services.

29. Smoke remediation services

30. environmental cleanup services, 31. pressure washing services, 32. hazmat cleanup services, 33. junk removal services.

34. Laundry services

35. pool cleaning services.

36. Disaster cleaning services

37. janitorial services.

38. Car cleaning services

39. boat cleaning services, 40. data center cleaning services, 41. crime scene cleaning services.

42. Blind cleaning services

43. school cleaning services.

44. Restroom cleaning services

• Wipe down countertops
• Clean mirrors
• Clean dispensers for toilet paper and paper towels
• Refill paper towels and toilet paper
• Disinfect toilets
• Clean sinks
• Scrub showers
• Vacuum and mop floors
• Clean vacuum 
• Take out the trash

45. Sports cleaning services

• Sports equipment
• Specialized surfaces like astroturf, polished courts, or ice rinks
• Graffiti removal
• Escalator cleaning 
• And anything else that a sports center might need

46. Foreclosure cleaning services

47. construction cleaning service.

48. Street cleaning services

49. food cleaning services.

50. Cleaning services supplies vendor

51. gun cleaning services, 52. metal descaling services, 53. chimney sweeping, 54. car washes.

55. Masonry cleaning and caulking services

What is usually included in a cleaning service.

• Mirror and window washing (interior only)
• Cleaning sinks
• Sanitizing counters
• Cleaning toilets
• Mopping floors
• Cleaning Contracts
• Cleaning Checklists
• Supplies for Cleaners

What type of business is a cleaning service?

• 561720: Janitorial Services (including residential housekeeping)
• 561740: Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning Services
• 561790: Other Services to Buildings and Dwellings (including pressure washing)
• 811192: Car Washes (mobile car washing, too)

What are the most profitable cleaning services?

Which cleaning services do you offer.

The Break-Even Point Formula: Calculating the BEP

Definitions

What is a break-even point (bep), what is the sales price, what are total fixed costs.

• Monthly rent
• Property taxes
• Business licensing
• Electric bill (portion not impacted by production volume)
• Website and other software
• Executive salaries
• Benefits (if offered)

What are Variable Costs?

• Cost of the t-shirt or other items
• Costs of the screens and ink
• Labor to perform the t-shirt printing
• Product packaging
• Shipping charges
• Sales commissions
• Transaction fees
• Advertisement charged by Cost Per Action (CPA) ads
• Electricity that is directly attributable to the printing.

Fixed and Variable Costs Equal Total Costs

What is the Contribution Margin?

What is the Break-Even Point Formula?

• Break-Even Point in Units = Fixed Costs / (Sales Price - Variable Costs)
• Break-Even Point in Dollars = Break-Even Point (Units) x Sales Price[/su_note]

Example: How to Calculate Units Using the Break-Even Quantity Formula

Example: How to Calculate Total Revenue to Break Even

Example: break-even analysis to earn $200k a year, how to use the break-even formula with multiple products, adjusting sales price based on multiple products.

• Formula 1 : When you’ve already made sales
• Formula 2 : When you are forecasting using industry averages
• L: 30 percent
• M: 28 percent
• XL: 20 percent
• XXL: 12 percent
• S: 7 percent
• XXXL: 2 percent
• XS: 1 percent.

Variable Costs

Contribution Margin

• Only carry similarly priced products.
• Choose a contribution margin strategy based on a specific dollar or % profit.
• Choose the highest-cost product. In our example above, it was the 3XL at $24.95.
• Establish how much you want to make on it. I use $10 for hoodies.
• Using the Etsy Pricing Calculator provided earlier, $56.60 would be the sales price.
• Make all your products the same $56.60
• Now you have both sales dollars and contribution margins that are easy to calculate.

Asana vs Monday: Detailed Comparison (2024)

• Initial Setup
• Core Features
• Integrations
• Our overall opinion.

Asana vs Monday: Initial Setup

Asana initial setup.

• Naming the project
• Creating the checklist
• Method of marking progress
• Selecting the preferred project layout 
• Inviting team members
• Downloading the project management tool on devices

Monday Initial Setup

Monday vs asana core features.

• Different types of boards 
• Automations
• File Storage

Monday Features 

• Dashboards : This feature makes it easy to view relevant information in one place, but it’s not really intuitive. For instance, the numbers widget is really a single-number widget. You’ll have to create a different one for each number you want to track.
• Automations : I find the Monday automations difficult to set up exactly as I want. Finding the best way to write each automation can be challenging. I prefer visual process automations. These are not available in the free plan.
• Integrations : Like Monday automations, the integrations are not free. They also have some bugs that I wasn’t able to solve in a timely manner. I discussed them more in our Monday.com review.
• Gantt : This project management tool is the basis of measuring project timelines and success. I personally love these because they make it easy to view the project. The picture below shows the single project template from Monday.
• Kanban : Another way to track tasks is Kanban. It’s great for high-level overviews but lacks the ease of viewing dependencies that project managers may want. The single project template doesn’t include automation that could make it easy for automated task updating, so you’ll have to create them yourself.
• Work Docs : This feature can be used for anything from creating blog content to making checklists. The functionality is good. It’s honestly the most user-friendly portion of Monday project management software.
• Files : Files are where you can attach anything related to the task, person, or project so that anyone viewing them can also view the files. Oddly, this isn’t a default column in any of the templates I’ve used.

Asana Features

• Asana’s workflow builder uses a more logical automation process. 
• Integrations are not standardized in Asana. Some are super simple and make lots of sense, some are more complex, and some don’t seem to work. Asana should really standardize how their integrations work. The Canva and Asana one is literally explaining manual workflow management. That’s not an integration.
• The reporting generates a default report based on what you’ve created in Asana. You can also create custom reports. I like how easily this works. Here’s my default one.

Monday.com vs Asana Integrations

Monday integration and automation.

Asana Integrations and Automations

Monday.com versus Asana Security

Asana security features.

• All systems are SOC2 and SOC3 compliant.
• Accounts are General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA, upon request) compliant. 
• Asana is ISO certified.
• Backups are performed daily to protect against data loss.
• Asana provides options for specialized compliance tailored to financial, healthcare, or educational companies with the Enterprise plan.
• Enterprise plans can use Single Sign-On, 2-Factor Authentication, and other controls to protect the system.
• A team of security experts continually improves the system.
• Bug Bounty Program that rewards up to $6,500 for vulnerabilities detected.

Monday.com Security

• All systems are SOC1, SOC2, and SOC3 compliant.
• Monday is ISO certified.
• Backups are performed every five minutes to protect against data loss.
• Financial, healthcare, and educational companies can use Monday tailored for their compliance needs with the Enterprise plan.
• Works with PrivacyTeam to support security efforts.
• Users can report security flaws by submitting this form . This is also part of a Bug Bounty Program.
• Advertises it is on AWS and Google Cloud, which means they have cyber security experts from multiple agencies monitoring their security 24/7.

Asana vs Monday.com Support

Monday Support 

Asana support.

Asana or Monday: Usability

Asana vs monday pricing, how much does asana cost.

What is the price for Monday.com?

• Basic : $10 per user each month with a 3-user minimum
• Standard : $12 per user each month with a 3-user minimum
• Pro : $20 per user each month with a 3-team members minimum
• Enterprise : Contact Monday.com for a quote

Monday or Asana Apps

• Asana Download Page
• Monday.com on Android
• Monday.com on iOS

What Can I Use Instead of Monday.com?

• ClickUp , which we use at UpFlip. 
• Jira , which I’ve used with software development clients. I don’t personally like it as much, but Atlassian makes a whole suite of other tools that work really well with it for managing projects.

Which Is Best Monday.com or Asana?

Why is Asana the best?

Why is monday.com the best, is monday same as asana, asana vs monday conclusion.

• Gantt charts
• Kanban boards
• Two-factor authentication
• Timeline view
• Calendar view
• Integration with Google Drive
• Ability to attach documents to different tasks and projects

nice work https://binarychemist.com/

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24 of My Favorite Sample Business Plans & Examples For Your Inspiration

Published: February 06, 2024

I believe that reading sample business plans is essential when writing your own.

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As you explore business plan examples from real companies and brands, it’s easier for you to learn how to write a good one.

But what does a good business plan look like? And how do you write one that’s both viable and convincing. I’ll walk you through the ideal business plan format along with some examples to help you get started.

Table of Contents

Business Plan Format

Business plan types, sample business plan templates, top business plan examples.

Ask any successful sports coach how they win so many games, and they’ll tell you they have a unique plan for every single game. To me, the same logic applies to business.

If you want to build a thriving company that can pull ahead of the competition, you need to prepare for battle before breaking into a market.

Business plans guide you along the rocky journey of growing a company. And if your business plan is compelling enough, it can also convince investors to give you funding.

With so much at stake, I’m sure you’re wondering where to begin.

Free Business Plan Template

The essential document for starting a business -- custom built for your needs.

• Outline your idea.
• Pitch to investors.
• Secure funding.
• Get to work!

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Fill out the form to get your free template.

First, you’ll want to nail down your formatting. Most business plans include the following sections.

1. Executive Summary

I’d say the executive summary is the most important section of the entire business plan. 

Why? Essentially, it's the overview or introduction, written in a way to grab readers' attention and guide them through the rest of the business plan. This is important, because a business plan can be dozens or hundreds of pages long.

There are two main elements I’d recommend including in your executive summary:

Company Description

This is the perfect space to highlight your company’s mission statement and goals, a brief overview of your history and leadership, and your top accomplishments as a business.

Tell potential investors who you are and why what you do matters. Naturally, they’re going to want to know who they’re getting into business with up front, and this is a great opportunity to showcase your impact.

Need some extra help firming up those business goals? Check out HubSpot Academy’s free course to help you set goals that matter — I’d highly recommend it

Products and Services

To piggyback off of the company description, be sure to incorporate an overview of your offerings. This doesn’t have to be extensive — just another chance to introduce your industry and overall purpose as a business.

In addition to the items above, I recommend including some information about your financial projections and competitive advantage here too.:

Keep in mind you'll cover many of these topics in more detail later on in the business plan. So, keep the executive summary clear and brief, and only include the most important takeaways.

Executive Summary Business Plan Examples

This example was created with HubSpot’s business plan template:

This executive summary is so good to me because it tells potential investors a short story while still covering all of the most important details.

Image Source

Tips for Writing Your Executive Summary

• Start with a strong introduction of your company, showcase your mission and impact, and outline the products and services you provide.
• Clearly define a problem, and explain how your product solves that problem, and show why the market needs your business.
• Be sure to highlight your value proposition, market opportunity, and growth potential.
• Keep it concise and support ideas with data.
• Customize your summary to your audience. For example, emphasize finances and return on investment for venture capitalists.

Check out our tips for writing an effective executive summary for more guidance.

2. Market Opportunity

This is where you'll detail the opportunity in the market.

The main question I’d ask myself here is this: Where is the gap in the current industry, and how will my product fill that gap?

More specifically, here’s what I’d include in this section:

• The size of the market
• Current or potential market share
• Trends in the industry and consumer behavior
• Where the gap is
• What caused the gap
• How you intend to fill it

To get a thorough understanding of the market opportunity, you'll want to conduct a TAM, SAM, and SOM analysis and perform market research on your industry.

You may also benefit from creating a SWOT analysis to get some of the insights for this section.

Market Opportunity Business Plan Example

I like this example because it uses critical data to underline the size of the potential market and what part of that market this service hopes to capture.

Tips for Writing Your Market Opportunity Section

• Focus on demand and potential for growth.
• Use market research, surveys, and industry trend data to support your market forecast and projections.
• Add a review of regulation shifts, tech advances, and consumer behavior changes.
• Refer to reliable sources.
• Showcase how your business can make the most of this opportunity.

3. Competitive Landscape

Since we’re already speaking of market share, you'll also need to create a section that shares details on who the top competitors are.

After all, your customers likely have more than one brand to choose from, and you'll want to understand exactly why they might choose one over another.

My favorite part of performing a competitive analysis is that it can help you uncover:

• Industry trends that other brands may not be utilizing
• Strengths in your competition that may be obstacles to handle
• Weaknesses in your competition that may help you develop selling points
• The unique proposition you bring to the market that may resonate with customers

Competitive Landscape Business Plan Example

I like how the competitive landscape section of this business plan below shows a clear outline of who the top competitors are.

It also highlights specific industry knowledge and the importance of location, which shows useful experience in this specific industry. 

This can help build trust in your ability to execute your business plan.

Tips for Writing Your Competitive Landscape

• Complete in-depth research, then emphasize your most important findings.
• Compare your unique selling proposition (USP) to your direct and indirect competitors.
• Show a clear and realistic plan for product and brand differentiation.
• Look for specific advantages and barriers in the competitive landscape. Then, highlight how that information could impact your business.
• Outline growth opportunities from a competitive perspective.
• Add customer feedback and insights to support your competitive analysis.

4. Target Audience

Use this section to describe who your customer segments are in detail. What is the demographic and psychographic information of your audience?

If your immediate answer is "everyone," you'll need to dig deeper. Here are some questions I’d ask myself here:

• What demographics will most likely need/buy your product or service?
• What are the psychographics of this audience? (Desires, triggering events, etc.)
• Why are your offerings valuable to them?

I’d also recommend building a buyer persona to get in the mindset of your ideal customers and be clear on why you're targeting them.

Target Audience Business Plan Example

I like the example below because it uses in-depth research to draw conclusions about audience priorities. It also analyzes how to create the right content for this audience.

Tips for Writing Your Target Audience Section

• Include details on the size and growth potential of your target audience.
• Figure out and refine the pain points for your target audience , then show why your product is a useful solution.
• Describe your targeted customer acquisition strategy in detail.
• Share anticipated challenges your business may face in acquiring customers and how you plan to address them.
• Add case studies, testimonials, and other data to support your target audience ideas.
• Remember to consider niche audiences and segments of your target audience in your business plan.

5. Marketing Strategy

Here, you'll discuss how you'll acquire new customers with your marketing strategy. I’d suggest including information:

• Your brand positioning vision and how you'll cultivate it
• The goal targets you aim to achieve
• The metrics you'll use to measure success
• The channels and distribution tactics you'll use

I think it’s helpful to have a marketing plan built out in advance to make this part of your business plan easier.

Marketing Strategy Business Plan Example

This business plan example includes the marketing strategy for the town of Gawler.

In my opinion, it really works because it offers a comprehensive picture of how they plan to use digital marketing to promote the community.

Tips for Writing Your Marketing Strategy

• Include a section about how you believe your brand vision will appeal to customers.
• Add the budget and resources you'll need to put your plan in place.
• Outline strategies for specific marketing segments.
• Connect strategies to earlier sections like target audience and competitive analysis.
• Review how your marketing strategy will scale with the growth of your business.
• Cover a range of channels and tactics to highlight your ability to adapt your plan in the face of change.

6. Key Features and Benefits

At some point in your business plan, you'll need to review the key features and benefits of your products and/or services.

Laying these out can give readers an idea of how you're positioning yourself in the market and the messaging you're likely to use. It can even help them gain better insight into your business model.

Key Features and Benefits Business Plan Example

In my opinion, the example below does a great job outlining products and services for this business, along with why these qualities will attract the audience.

Tips for Writing Your Key Features and Benefits

• Emphasize why and how your product or service offers value to customers.
• Use metrics and testimonials to support the ideas in this section.
• Talk about how your products and services have the potential to scale.
• Think about including a product roadmap.
• Focus on customer needs, and how the features and benefits you are sharing meet those needs.
• Offer proof of concept for your ideas, like case studies or pilot program feedback.
• Proofread this section carefully, and remove any jargon or complex language.

7. Pricing and Revenue

This is where you'll discuss your cost structure and various revenue streams. Your pricing strategy must be solid enough to turn a profit while staying competitive in the industry. 

For this reason, here’s what I’d might outline in this section:

• The specific pricing breakdowns per product or service
• Why your pricing is higher or lower than your competition's
• (If higher) Why customers would be willing to pay more
• (If lower) How you're able to offer your products or services at a lower cost
• When you expect to break even, what margins do you expect, etc?

Pricing and Revenue Business Plan Example

I like how this business plan example begins with an overview of the business revenue model, then shows proposed pricing for key products.

Tips for Writing Your Pricing and Revenue Section

• Get specific about your pricing strategy. Specifically, how you connect that strategy to customer needs and product value.
• If you are asking a premium price, share unique features or innovations that justify that price point.
• Show how you plan to communicate pricing to customers.
• Create an overview of every revenue stream for your business and how each stream adds to your business model as a whole.
• Share plans to develop new revenue streams in the future.
• Show how and whether pricing will vary by customer segment and how pricing aligns with marketing strategies.
• Restate your value proposition and explain how it aligns with your revenue model.

8. Financials

To me, this section is particularly informative for investors and leadership teams to figure out funding strategies, investment opportunities, and more.

 According to Forbes , you'll want to include three main things:

• Profit/Loss Statement - This answers the question of whether your business is currently profitable.
• Cash Flow Statement - This details exactly how much cash is incoming and outgoing to give insight into how much cash a business has on hand.
• Balance Sheet - This outlines assets, liabilities, and equity, which gives insight into how much a business is worth.

While some business plans might include more or less information, these are the key details I’d include in this section.

Financials Business Plan Example

This balance sheet is a great example of level of detail you’ll need to include in the financials section of your business plan.

Tips for Writing Your Financials Section

• Growth potential is important in this section too. Using your data, create a forecast of financial performance in the next three to five years.
• Include any data that supports your projections to assure investors of the credibility of your proposal.
• Add a break-even analysis to show that your business plan is financially practical. This information can also help you pivot quickly as your business grows.
• Consider adding a section that reviews potential risks and how sensitive your plan is to changes in the market.
• Triple-check all financial information in your plan for accuracy.
• Show how any proposed funding needs align with your plans for growth.

As you create your business plan, keep in mind that each of these sections will be formatted differently. Some may be in paragraph format, while others could be charts or graphs.

The formats above apply to most types of business plans. That said, the format and structure of your plan will vary by your goals for that plan. 

So, I’ve added a quick review of different business plan types. For a more detailed overview, check out this post .

1. Startups

Startup business plans are for proposing new business ideas.

If you’re planning to start a small business, preparing a business plan is crucial. The plan should include all the major factors of your business.

You can check out this guide for more detailed business plan inspiration .

2. Feasibility Studies

Feasibility business plans focus on that business's product or service. Feasibility plans are sometimes added to startup business plans. They can also be a new business plan for an already thriving organization.

3. Internal Use

You can use internal business plans to share goals, strategies, or performance updates with stakeholders. In my opinion, internal business plans are useful for alignment and building support for ambitious goals.

4. Strategic Initiatives

Another business plan that's often for sharing internally is a strategic business plan. This plan covers long-term business objectives that might not have been included in the startup business plan.

5. Business Acquisition or Repositioning

When a business is moving forward with an acquisition or repositioning, it may need extra structure and support. These types of business plans expand on a company's acquisition or repositioning strategy.

Growth sometimes just happens as a business continues operations. But more often, a business needs to create a structure with specific targets to meet set goals for expansion. This business plan type can help a business focus on short-term growth goals and align resources with those goals.

Now that you know what's included and how to format a business plan, let's review some of my favorite templates.

1. HubSpot's One-Page Business Plan

Download a free, editable one-page business plan template..

The business plan linked above was created here at HubSpot and is perfect for businesses of any size — no matter how many strategies we still have to develop.

Fields such as Company Description, Required Funding, and Implementation Timeline give this one-page business plan a framework for how to build your brand and what tasks to keep track of as you grow.

Then, as the business matures, you can expand on your original business plan with a new iteration of the above document.

Why I Like It

This one-page business plan is a fantastic choice for the new business owner who doesn’t have the time or resources to draft a full-blown business plan. It includes all the essential sections in an accessible, bullet-point-friendly format. That way, you can get the broad strokes down before honing in on the details.

2. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

We also created a business plan template for entrepreneurs.

The template is designed as a guide and checklist for starting your own business. You’ll learn what to include in each section of your business plan and how to do it.

There’s also a list for you to check off when you finish each section of your business plan.

Strong game plans help coaches win games and help businesses rocket to the top of their industries. So if you dedicate the time and effort required to write a workable and convincing business plan, you’ll boost your chances of success and even dominance in your market.

This business plan kit is essential for the budding entrepreneur who needs a more extensive document to share with investors and other stakeholders.

It not only includes sections for your executive summary, product line, market analysis, marketing plan, and sales plan, but it also offers hands-on guidance for filling out those sections.

3. LiveFlow’s Financial Planning Template with built-in automation

This free template from LiveFlow aims to make it easy for businesses to create a financial plan and track their progress on a monthly basis.

The P&L Budget versus Actual format allows users to track their revenue, cost of sales, operating expenses, operating profit margin, net profit, and more.

The summary dashboard aggregates all of the data put into the financial plan sheet and will automatically update when changes are made.

Instead of wasting hours manually importing your data to your spreadsheet, LiveFlow can also help you to automatically connect your accounting and banking data directly to your spreadsheet, so your numbers are always up-to-date.

With the dashboard, you can view your runway, cash balance, burn rate, gross margins, and other metrics. Having a simple way to track everything in one place will make it easier to complete the financials section of your business plan.

This is a fantastic template to track performance and alignment internally and to create a dependable process for documenting financial information across the business. It’s highly versatile and beginner-friendly.

It’s especially useful if you don’t have an accountant on the team. (I always recommend you do, but for new businesses, having one might not be possible.)

4. ThoughtCo’s Sample Business Plan

One of the more financially oriented sample business plans in this list, BPlan’s free business plan template dedicates many of its pages to your business’s financial plan and financial statements.

After filling this business plan out, your company will truly understand its financial health and the steps you need to take to maintain or improve it.

I absolutely love this business plan template because of its ease-of-use and hands-on instructions (in addition to its finance-centric components). If you feel overwhelmed by the thought of writing an entire business plan, consider using this template to help you with the process.

6. Harvard Business Review’s "How to Write a Winning Business Plan"

Most sample business plans teach you what to include in your business plan, but this Harvard Business Review article will take your business plan to the next level — it teaches you the why and how behind writing a business plan.

With the guidance of Stanley Rich and Richard Gumpert, co-authors of " Business Plans That Win: Lessons From the MIT Enterprise Forum ", you'll learn how to write a convincing business plan that emphasizes the market demand for your product or service.

You’ll also learn the financial benefits investors can reap from putting money into your venture rather than trying to sell them on how great your product or service is.

This business plan guide focuses less on the individual parts of a business plan, and more on the overarching goal of writing one. For that reason, it’s one of my favorites to supplement any template you choose to use. Harvard Business Review’s guide is instrumental for both new and seasoned business owners.

7. HubSpot’s Complete Guide to Starting a Business

If you’re an entrepreneur, you know writing a business plan is one of the most challenging first steps to starting a business.

Fortunately, with HubSpot's comprehensive guide to starting a business, you'll learn how to map out all the details by understanding what to include in your business plan and why it’s important to include them. The guide also fleshes out an entire sample business plan for you.

If you need further guidance on starting a business, HubSpot's guide can teach you how to make your business legal, choose and register your business name, and fund your business. It will also give small business tax information and includes marketing, sales, and service tips.

This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process of starting a business, in addition to writing your business plan, with a high level of exactitude and detail. So if you’re in the midst of starting your business, this is an excellent guide for you.

It also offers other resources you might need, such as market analysis templates.

8. Panda Doc’s Free Business Plan Template

PandaDoc’s free business plan template is one of the more detailed and fleshed-out sample business plans on this list. It describes what you should include in each section, so you don't have to come up with everything from scratch.

Once you fill it out, you’ll fully understand your business’ nitty-gritty details and how all of its moving parts should work together to contribute to its success.

This template has two things I love: comprehensiveness and in-depth instructions. Plus, it’s synced with PandaDoc’s e-signature software so that you and other stakeholders can sign it with ease. For that reason, I especially love it for those starting a business with a partner or with a board of directors.

9. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers several free business plan templates that can be used to inspire your own plan.

Before you get started, you can decide what type of business plan you need — a traditional or lean start-up plan.

Then, you can review the format for both of those plans and view examples of what they might look like.

We love both of the SBA’s templates because of their versatility. You can choose between two options and use the existing content in the templates to flesh out your own plan. Plus, if needed, you can get a free business counselor to help you along the way.

I’ve compiled some completed business plan samples to help you get an idea of how to customize a plan for your business.

I chose different types of business plan ideas to expand your imagination. Some are extensive, while others are fairly simple.

Let’s take a look.

1. LiveFlow

One of the major business expenses is marketing. How you handle your marketing reflects your company’s revenue.

I included this business plan to show you how you can ensure your marketing team is aligned with your overall business plan to get results. The plan also shows you how to track even the smallest metrics of your campaigns, like ROI and payback periods instead of just focusing on big metrics like gross and revenue.

Fintech startup, LiveFlow, allows users to sync real-time data from its accounting services, payment platforms, and banks into custom reports. This eliminates the task of pulling reports together manually, saving teams time and helping automate workflows.

"Using this framework over a traditional marketing plan will help you set a profitable marketing strategy taking things like CAC, LTV, Payback period, and P&L into consideration," explains LiveFlow co-founder, Lasse Kalkar .

When it came to including marketing strategy in its business plan, LiveFlow created a separate marketing profit and loss statement (P&L) to track how well the company was doing with its marketing initiatives.

This is a great approach, allowing businesses to focus on where their marketing dollars are making the most impact. Having this information handy will enable you to build out your business plan’s marketing section with confidence. LiveFlow has shared the template here . You can test it for yourself.

2. Lula Body

Sometimes all you need is a solid mission statement and core values to guide you on how to go about everything. You do this by creating a business plan revolving around how to fulfill your statement best.

For example, Patagonia is an eco-friendly company, so their plan discusses how to make the best environmentally friendly products without causing harm.

A good mission statement  should not only resonate with consumers but should also serve as a core value compass for employees as well.

Patagonia has one of the most compelling mission statements I’ve seen:

"Together, let’s prioritise purpose over profit and protect this wondrous planet, our only home."

It reels you in from the start, and the environmentally friendly theme continues throughout the rest of the statement.

This mission goes on to explain that they are out to "Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to protect nature."

Their mission statement is compelling and detailed, with each section outlining how they will accomplish their goal.

4. Vesta Home Automation

This executive summary for a smart home device startup is part of a business plan created by students at Mount Royal University .

While it lacks some of the sleek visuals of the templates above, its executive summary does a great job of demonstrating how invested they are in the business.

Right away, they mention they’ve invested $200,000 into the company already, which shows investors they have skin in the game and aren’t just looking for someone else to foot the bill.

This is the kind of business plan you need when applying for business funds. It clearly illustrates the expected future of the company and how the business has been coming along over the years.

5. NALB Creative Center

This fictional business plan for an art supply store includes everything one might need in a business plan: an executive summary, a company summary, a list of services, a market analysis summary, and more.

One of its most notable sections is its market analysis summary, which includes an overview of the population growth in the business’ target geographical area, as well as a breakdown of the types of potential customers they expect to welcome at the store. 

This sort of granular insight is essential for understanding and communicating your business’s growth potential. Plus, it lays a strong foundation for creating relevant and useful buyer personas .

It’s essential to keep this information up-to-date as your market and target buyer changes. For that reason, you should carry out market research as often as possible to ensure that you’re targeting the correct audience and sharing accurate information with your investors.

Due to its comprehensiveness, it’s an excellent example to follow if you’re opening a brick-and-mortar store and need to get external funding to start your business .

6. Curriculum Companion Suites (CSS)

If you’re looking for a SaaS business plan example, look no further than this business plan for a fictional educational software company called Curriculum Companion Suites. 

Like the business plan for the NALB Creative Center, it includes plenty of information for prospective investors and other key stakeholders in the business.

One of the most notable features of this business plan is the executive summary, which includes an overview of the product, market, and mission.

The first two are essential for software companies because the product offering is so often at the forefront of the company’s strategy. Without that information being immediately available to investors and executives, then you risk writing an unfocused business plan.

It’s essential to front-load your company’s mission if it explains your "Why?" and this example does just that. In other words, why do you do what you do, and why should stakeholders care? This is an important section to include if you feel that your mission will drive interest in the business and its offerings.

7. Culina Sample Business Plan

Culina's sample business plan is an excellent example of how to lay out your business plan so that it flows naturally, engages readers, and provides the critical information investors and stakeholders need. 

You can use this template as a guide while you're gathering important information for your own business plan. You'll have a better understanding of the data and research you need to do since Culina’s plan outlines these details so flawlessly for inspiration.

8. Plum Sample Business Plan

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550+ Business Plan Examples to Launch Your Business

Need help writing your business plan? Explore over 550 industry-specific business plan examples for inspiration.

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Business plan template: There's an easier way to get your business plan done.

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Finish your plan faster with step-by-step guidance, financial wizards, and a proven format.

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Example business plan format

Before you start exploring our library of business plan examples, it's worth taking the time to understand the traditional business plan format . You'll find that the plans in this library and most investor-approved business plans will include the following sections:

Executive summary

The executive summary is an overview of your business and your plans. It comes first in your plan and is ideally only one to two pages. You should also plan to write this section last after you've written your full business plan.

Your executive summary should include a summary of the problem you are solving, a description of your product or service, an overview of your target market, a brief description of your team, a summary of your financials, and your funding requirements (if you are raising money).

Products & services

The products & services chapter of your business plan is where the real meat of your plan lives. It includes information about the problem that you're solving, your solution, and any traction that proves that it truly meets the need you identified.

This is your chance to explain why you're in business and that people care about what you offer. It needs to go beyond a simple product or service description and get to the heart of why your business works and benefits your customers.

Market analysis

Conducting a market analysis ensures that you fully understand the market that you're entering and who you'll be selling to. This section is where you will showcase all of the information about your potential customers. You'll cover your target market as well as information about the growth of your market and your industry. Focus on outlining why the market you're entering is viable and creating a realistic persona for your ideal customer base.

Competition

Part of defining your opportunity is determining what your competitive advantage may be. To do this effectively you need to get to know your competitors just as well as your target customers. Every business will have competition, if you don't then you're either in a very young industry or there's a good reason no one is pursuing this specific venture.

To succeed, you want to be sure you know who your competitors are, how they operate, necessary financial benchmarks, and how you're business will be positioned. Start by identifying who your competitors are or will be during your market research. Then leverage competitive analysis tools like the competitive matrix and positioning map to solidify where your business stands in relation to the competition.

Marketing & sales

The marketing and sales plan section of your business plan details how you plan to reach your target market segments. You'll address how you plan on selling to those target markets, what your pricing plan is, and what types of activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success.

The operations section covers the day-to-day workflows for your business to deliver your product or service. What's included here fully depends on the type of business. Typically you can expect to add details on your business location, sourcing and fulfillment, use of technology, and any partnerships or agreements that are in place.

Milestones & metrics

The milestones section is where you lay out strategic milestones to reach your business goals.

A good milestone clearly lays out the parameters of the task at hand and sets expectations for its execution. You'll want to include a description of the task, a proposed due date, who is responsible, and eventually a budget that's attached. You don't need extensive project planning in this section, just key milestones that you want to hit and when you plan to hit them.

You should also discuss key metrics, which are the numbers you will track to determine your success. Some common data points worth tracking include conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, profit, etc.

Company & team

Use this section to describe your current team and who you need to hire. If you intend to pursue funding, you'll need to highlight the relevant experience of your team members. Basically, this is where you prove that this is the right team to successfully start and grow the business. You will also need to provide a quick overview of your legal structure and history if you're already up and running.

Financial projections

Your financial plan should include a sales and revenue forecast, profit and loss statement, cash flow statement, and a balance sheet. You may not have established financials of any kind at this stage. Not to worry, rather than getting all of the details ironed out, focus on making projections and strategic forecasts for your business. You can always update your financial statements as you begin operations and start bringing in actual accounting data.

Now, if you intend to pitch to investors or submit a loan application, you'll also need a "use of funds" report in this section. This outlines how you intend to leverage any funding for your business and how much you're looking to acquire. Like the rest of your financials, this can always be updated later on.

The appendix isn't a required element of your business plan. However, it is a useful place to add any charts, tables, definitions, legal notes, or other critical information that supports your plan. These are often lengthier or out-of-place information that simply didn't work naturally into the structure of your plan. You'll notice that in these business plan examples, the appendix mainly includes extended financial statements.

Types of business plans explained

While all business plans cover similar categories, the style and function fully depend on how you intend to use your plan. To get the most out of your plan, it's best to find a format that suits your needs. Here are a few common business plan types worth considering.

Traditional business plan

The tried-and-true traditional business plan is a formal document meant to be used for external purposes. Typically this is the type of plan you'll need when applying for funding or pitching to investors. It can also be used when training or hiring employees, working with vendors, or in any other situation where the full details of your business must be understood by another individual.

Business model canvas

The business model canvas is a one-page template designed to demystify the business planning process. It removes the need for a traditional, copy-heavy business plan, in favor of a single-page outline that can help you and outside parties better explore your business idea.

The structure ditches a linear format in favor of a cell-based template. It encourages you to build connections between every element of your business. It's faster to write out and update, and much easier for you, your team, and anyone else to visualize your business operations.

One-page business plan

The true middle ground between the business model canvas and a traditional business plan is the one-page business plan . This format is a simplified version of the traditional plan that focuses on the core aspects of your business.

By starting with a one-page plan , you give yourself a minimal document to build from. You'll typically stick with bullet points and single sentences making it much easier to elaborate or expand sections into a longer-form business plan.

Growth planning

Growth planning is more than a specific type of business plan. It's a methodology. It takes the simplicity and styling of the one-page business plan and turns it into a process for you to continuously plan, forecast, review, and refine based on your performance.

It holds all of the benefits of the single-page plan, including the potential to complete it in as little as 27 minutes . However, it's even easier to convert into a more detailed plan thanks to how heavily it's tied to your financials. The overall goal of growth planning isn't to just produce documents that you use once and shelve. Instead, the growth planning process helps you build a healthier company that thrives in times of growth and remain stable through times of crisis.

It's faster, keeps your plan concise, and ensures that your plan is always up-to-date.

Download a free sample business plan template

Ready to start writing your own plan but aren't sure where to start? Download our free business plan template that's been updated for 2024.

This simple, modern, investor-approved business plan template is designed to make planning easy. It's a proven format that has helped over 1 million businesses write business plans for bank loans, funding pitches, business expansion, and even business sales. It includes additional instructions for how to write each section and is formatted to be SBA-lender approved. All you need to do is fill in the blanks.

How to use an example business plan to help you write your own

How do you know what elements need to be included in your business plan, especially if you've never written one before? Looking at examples can help you visualize what a full, traditional plan looks like, so you know what you're aiming for before you get started. Here's how to get the most out of a sample business plan.

Choose a business plan example from a similar type of company

You don't need to find an example business plan that's an exact fit for your business. Your business location, target market, and even your particular product or service may not match up exactly with the plans in our gallery. But, you don't need an exact match for it to be helpful. Instead, look for a plan that's related to the type of business you're starting.

For example, if you want to start a vegetarian restaurant, a plan for a steakhouse can be a great match. While the specifics of your actual startup will differ, the elements you'd want to include in your restaurant's business plan are likely to be very similar.

Use a business plan example as a guide

Every startup and small business is unique, so you'll want to avoid copying an example business plan word for word. It just won't be as helpful, since each business is unique. You want your plan to be a useful tool for starting a business —and getting funding if you need it.

One of the key benefits of writing a business plan is simply going through the process. When you sit down to write, you'll naturally think through important pieces, like your startup costs, your target market , and any market analysis or research you'll need to do to be successful.

You'll also look at where you stand among your competition (and everyone has competition), and lay out your goals and the milestones you'll need to meet. Looking at an example business plan's financials section can be helpful because you can see what should be included, but take them with a grain of salt. Don't assume that financial projections for a sample company will fit your own small business.

If you're looking for more resources to help you get started, our business planning guide is a good place to start. You can also download our free business plan template .

Think of business planning as a process, instead of a document

Think about business planning as something you do often , rather than a document you create once and never look at again. If you take the time to write a plan that really fits your own company, it will be a better, more useful tool to grow your business. It should also make it easier to share your vision and strategy so everyone on your team is on the same page.

Adjust your plan regularly to use it as a business management tool

Keep in mind that businesses that use their plan as a management tool to help run their business grow 30 percent faster than those businesses that don't. For that to be true for your company, you'll think of a part of your business planning process as tracking your actual results against your financial forecast on a regular basis.

If things are going well, your plan will help you think about how you can re-invest in your business. If you find that you're not meeting goals, you might need to adjust your budgets or your sales forecast. Either way, tracking your progress compared to your plan can help you adjust quickly when you identify challenges and opportunities—it's one of the most powerful things you can do to grow your business.

Prepare to pitch your business

If you're planning to pitch your business to investors or seek out any funding, you'll need a pitch deck to accompany your business plan. A pitch deck is designed to inform people about your business. You want your pitch deck to be short and easy to follow, so it's best to keep your presentation under 20 slides.

Your pitch deck and pitch presentation are likely some of the first things that an investor will see to learn more about your company. So, you need to be informative and pique their interest. Luckily we have a round-up of real-world pitch deck examples used by successful startups that you can review and reference as you build your pitch.

For more resources, check out our full Business Pitch Guide .

Ready to get started?

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Manufacturing Business Plan PDF Example

• May 7, 2024
• Business Plan

Creating a comprehensive business plan is crucial for launching and running a successful manufacturing business. This plan serves as your roadmap, detailing your vision, operational strategies, and financial plan. It helps establish your manufacturing business’s identity, navigate the competitive market, and secure funding for growth.

This article not only breaks down the critical components of a manufacturing business plan, but also provides an example of a business plan to help you craft your own.

Whether you’re an experienced entrepreneur or new to the manufacturing industry, this guide, complete with a business plan example, lays the groundwork for turning your manufacturing business concept into reality. Let’s dive in!

Our manufacturing business plan covers all essential aspects necessary for a comprehensive strategy. It details operations, marketing strategy , market environment, competitors, management team, and financial forecasts.

• Executive Summary : Provides an overview of the manufacturing company’s business concept, market analysis , management, and financial strategy.
• Facilities & Equipment: Describes the facility’s capabilities, machinery, and technological advancements.
• Operations & Supply: Outlines the production processes, supply chain logistics, and inventory management.
• Key Stats: Offers data on industry size , growth trends, and market positioning.
• Key Trends: Highlights significant trends impacting the industry, such as automation and localization.
• Key Competitors : Analyzes primary competitors and differentiates the company from these rivals.
• SWOT: Analyzes strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
• Marketing Plan : Outlines tactics for attracting new contracts and maintaining client relationships.
• Timeline : Sets out key milestones from inception through the first year of operations.
• Management: Information on the management team and their roles within the company.
• Financial Plan: Projects the company’s financial performance over the next five years, detailing revenue, profits, and anticipated expenses.

Manufacturing Business Plan

Fully editable 30+ slides Powerpoint presentation business plan template.

Download an expert-built 30+ slides Powerpoint business plan template

Executive Summary

The Executive Summary introduces your manufacturing business plan, offering a concise overview of your manufacturing facility and its products. It should detail your market positioning, the range of products manufactured, the production process, its location, size, and an outline of day-to-day operations.

This section should also explore how your manufacturing business will integrate into the local and broader markets, including the number of direct competitors within the area, identifying who they are, along with your business’s unique selling points that differentiate it from these competitors.

Furthermore, you should include information about the management and co-founding team, detailing their roles and contributions to the business’s success. Additionally, a summary of your financial projections, including revenue and profits over the next five years, should be presented here to provide a clear picture of your business’s financial plan.

Make sure to cover here _ Business Overview _ Market Overview _ Management Team _ Financial Plan

Dive deeper into Executive Summary

Business Overview

Facilities & equipment.

Describe your manufacturing facility. Highlight its design, capacity, and technology. Mention the location, emphasizing accessibility to transport routes. Discuss advantages for efficiency and cost management. Detail essential equipment and its capabilities.

Operations & Supply Chain

Detail product range. Outline your operations strategy for efficiency and scalability. Discuss supply chain management. Highlight sourcing of materials, inventory control, and logistics. Emphasize strong partnerships with suppliers and distributors.

Make sure to cover here _ Facilities & Equipment _ Operations & Supplies

Market Overview

Industry size & growth.

Start by examining the size of the manufacturing industry relevant to your products and its growth potential. This analysis is crucial for understanding the market’s scope and identifying expansion opportunities.

Key Market Trends

Proceed to discuss recent market trends , such as the increasing demand for sustainable manufacturing processes, automation, and advanced materials. For example, highlight the demand for products that utilize eco-friendly materials or energy-efficient production techniques, alongside the rising popularity of smart manufacturing.

Key Competitors

Then, consider the competitive landscape, which includes a range of manufacturers from large-scale enterprises to niche firms. For example, emphasize what makes your business distinctive, whether it’s through advanced technology, superior product quality, or specialization in certain manufacturing niches. This section will help articulate the demand for your products, the competitive environment, and how your business is positioned to thrive within this dynamic market.

Make sure to cover here _ Industry size & growth _ Key competitors _ Key market trends

Dive deeper into Key competitors

First, conduct a SWOT analysis for your manufacturing business. Highlight Strengths such as advanced production technology and a skilled workforce. Address Weaknesses, including potential supply chain vulnerabilities or high production costs. Identify Opportunities like emerging markets for your products or potential for innovation in production processes. Consider Threats such as global competition or economic downturns that may impact demand for your products.

Marketing Plan

Next, develop a marketing strategy that outlines how to attract and retain customers through targeted advertising, trade shows, digital marketing, and strategic partnerships. Emphasize the importance of showcasing product quality and technological advantages to differentiate your business in the market.

Finally, create a detailed timeline that outlines critical milestones for your manufacturing business’s launch, marketing initiatives, customer acquisition, and expansion goals. Ensure the business progresses with clear direction and purpose, setting specific dates for achieving key operational and sales targets.

Make sure to cover here _ SWOT _ Marketing Plan _ Timeline

Dive deeper into SWOT

Dive deeper into Marketing Plan

The Management section focuses on the manufacturing business’s management and their direct roles in daily operations and strategic direction. This part is crucial for understanding who is responsible for making key decisions and driving the manufacturing business toward its financial and operational goals.

For your manufacturing business plan, list the core team members, their specific responsibilities, and how their expertise supports the business.

Financial Plan

The Financial Plan section is a comprehensive analysis of your financial projections for revenue, expenses, and profitability. It lays out your manufacturing business’s approach to securing funding, managing cash flow, and achieving breakeven.

This section typically includes detailed forecasts for the first 5 years of operation, highlighting expected revenue, operating costs and capital expenditures.

For your manufacturing business plan, provide a snapshot of your financial statement (profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow statement), as well as your key assumptions (e.g. number of customers and prices, expenses, etc.).

Make sure to cover here _ Profit and Loss _ Cash Flow Statement _ Balance Sheet _ Use of Funds

Privacy Overview

Nonprofit Business Plan

Business plans  are the foundation of nonprofit organizations. Without it, nonprofit organizations would not really prosper and serve their ultimate purpose since they will have a hard time obtaining support from external donors. Simply put, a business plan for non-profit organizations  describes the company, recognizes and addresses gaps, and creates a course of action for the organization over the next few years. The process of designing a business plan alone helps you to understand your organization better, which, in turn, will contribute to its further development. So how do you formulate a substantial business plan? Scroll down below to check out our examples.

10+ Nonprofit Business Plan Examples

1. general nonprofit business plan template.

• Google Docs

Size: US Letter, A4 + Bleed

2. Contemporary Business Plan

Size: 483.9 KB

3. Formal Nonprofit Business Plan

Size: 807.5 KB

4. Infographic Business Plan

5. Mary Robinson Foundation Business Plan for Climate Justice

Size: 323.7 KB

6. Modern Nonprofit Business Plan

Size: 876.1 KB

7. New Events and Opportunities Nonprofit Business Plan

Size: 2.1 MB

8. Nonprofit Business Plan for Harvest of Hope

Size: 363.6 KB

9. Nonprofit Business Plan for Orphanages

Size: 2.6 MB

10. Nonprofit Business Plan Sample with Guide

Size: 1.3 MB

11. Short Nonprofit Business Plan Example

Size: 180.8 KB

What Is a Non-Profit Business Plan?

Are you aware that 25% of small businesses begin operations without any financing whatsoever? It takes a leap of faith to get started in that manner, but many more businesses and organizations do have to come up with a plan for their own good. If you’re aware of what a company business plan  is and what it’s for, then it won’t take long for you to guess what the non-profit business plan is. This document serves as the culmination of your research, the epitome of your will, and the written word of your message. Even a non-profit organization business needs this not just for guidance, but to get the right loans, donors, and grants needed.

How to Create a Non-Profit Business Plan

If downloading a one-page non-profit business plan template isn’t in the cards, then you’ll have to create your own. Coming up with a non-profit blueprint does not have to be overly complicated. Whether it is a non-profit housing business plan or a non-profit ministry business plan, the steps below are sure to be of use.

Step 1: Specify Your Organization’s Goals

The key to any plan, especially something like a non-profit strategic plan , is to be clear with one’s goals. Take this opportunity to spell out what you intend to achieve through your organization.

Step 2: Articulate Your Mission Statement and Core Values

For the next step, explain what your non-profit mission statement is, along with the core values that you intend to follow. What you come up with does not have to be overly long or complex. Take for example the mission statement of UNICEF, which is only three hundred words long.

Step 3: Continue With the Outline

For the third step, this is the part where you push through with your written outline. What this comprises of will include parts of the plan that you have yet to discuss or divulge. This may involve sections like how you want to go about with your human resources , the budget that your organization will need, as well as any marketing efforts that you will have to put in. This is important because it can serve as your roadmap of sorts. There’s no need to go too much into detail here since many of the specifics will be explored later on.

Step 4: Talk About Your Services, Products, or Programs

This is the part where you describe in detail what your non-profit organization actually does. Talk about the specific services that you want to make available to others, the programs you want to start, and the products that you plan on offering. In this step, you may get into your  product marketing  for a bit, because it can tie into the next step.

Step 5: Work on Your Marketing, Operations, and Financial Plans

For the penultimate step, you must brush up on what your  marketing plan  is, along with your organization’s financial and operational plans . All will play a significant role in your non-profit going forward, so it pays to keep close attention to detail to each one. The specifics of these plans may change over time, as your organization evolves.

Step 6: Wrap Up With the Appendix

The last part is often reserved for the appendix where you can cite helpful information that may not otherwise have a suitable spot on the plan. Among the information you may put here includes your organizational flow chart , the list of your company’s board of directions, the balance sheets, and others.

What are examples of non-profit businesses?

Prime examples are churches, national charities, and foundations. Universities and hospitals also count, but only in select cases.

How much does it cost to start a non-profit?

Since a non-profit organization often operates as a business would, you need to consider where your capital comes from. Create a non-profit layout so you can map out how that capital will be spent and on what. There won’t be any set amount; instead, determine it according to your plans for the organization. If you are set on finding out specific costs, take note that you will still have to apply to the IRS for non-profit status. Once you do that, you’ll have to spend on forms like Form 1023, which costs $750. Those with projected revenue under $40,000 will see that fee reduced to a mere $400.

Is it possible to make money with a non-profit business?

Those who start non-profit businesses aren’t allowed or entitled to any profit from their organization’s net earnings. However, there are still other ways to make money, both for the individual and the company. For the latter, income can come from somebody’s fundraiser budget and corporate sponsorship.

Let it be said that plans are what makes amazing things happen, regardless if you get profit out of it or not. Like learning how to create a  non-profit proposal , coming with a non-profit business plan is one of the most important things you’ll ever do for your organization. Download a template or create your own; what matters is that you get your plans done right. So don’t waste another moment and browse through our collection of templates right now!

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