SBS Zoom minutes for 2026-07-02

Thoughts on purpose, mission, and vision statements

In yesterday's Small Business Zoom call, as well as continuing our system-review experiment,1 we had a chat about purpose, mission, and vision statements. In the corporate world these are often cheesy and pointless, but are they useful in a small business? We don't have this kind of thing yet so we're looking for advice.

Don2 showed us a one-page statement from their office manual that is a kind of mash-up of what they do, why, and how. It's clearly written in normal, human words, and conveys a lot of information and personality.

On the first read I totally get what they do for a living, their values, and what would be expected of me as an employee. There's also a "short" and "really short" version of this page that, I'm guessing, is handy for marketing and other low-word-count situations.

And if you have staff, his advice for writing internal policies was to keep them simple and clear so they don't need to be policed.3 Drinking at work? No. Dress code? Wear clothes. Understood!

Writing these statements can help you define and carve out your niche.

Jeff4 told us how he's been working on his statements with a couple of other local business owners. He said it's been a worthwhile exercise for a few reasons. Jeff's family business has been running for about 10 years and it's given him a fresh focus on what they do and why. And it's helped him "define their niche" more clearly by thinking about all the reasons they're different from their competitors.

At JDHQ, we've been wondering if we could use this type of statement to help us make better decisions around time management. Before throwing ourselves head first into a new project or product, can we use it to stop and think:

  • How does it serve the business?
  • Does it align with our values and goals?
  • Is it a good use of our limited time or should we park the idea?

We'll have a go at writing something soon, which will be filed in 11.31 Internal policies. And we'll keep Don and Jeff's thoughts in mind. Although I already know that the dress code will be Uniqlo.

If you have the Small Business System, the next call for this fortnight is Tuesday the 7 July5 - email us your questions, mission statements, or cries for help!

Footnotes

  1. Where over the course of a year, we all commit to touching every part of our Small Business System, filing and neatening as we go. Here's a video that talks about the idea. Email Johnny if you'd like a copy of the Baserow prototype. ↩

  2. Old Structures Engineering. ↩

  3. On this note, Johnny came across this quote this morning: “Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior.” Aka The Hock Principle. ↩

  4. Lovett Sundries. ↩

  5. Subscribe to the events calendar to see upcoming calls. ↩