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Mission statements: 10 tips to guide your firm

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20th Aug 2012
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More and more firms of accountants have mission statements. Mark Lee explores how to make yours meaningful rather than meaningless.

Not all accountants are sold on mission statements. Equally we’re not all agreed on the idea of an elevator pitch, the value of Twitter, the need to keep timesheets or many other topics.

What I hope we can all agree on though is that if you have a destination in mind, you may reach it one day. If you just travel around aimlessly, you may get bored, dizzy or lost. You may like where you end up or you may decide that you’re just settling for something less than your dreams.

It’s the same with your accountancy practice. If you just let it be, it may grow, it may shrink, it may attract the right sort of clients or it may attract a hotchpotch of people, some of whom you might prefer not to have as clients; but beggars can’t be choosers.

What is a mission statement?

Despite my preamble, a mission statement is quite separate to your plans and ambitions. But it is an essential pre-requisite.

A mission statement provides a guide for you, your staff and your plans in good times and in bad. Some mission statements are supported by more detailed statements of values, client care charters and employee engagement principles. Together these demonstrate to your clients, business associates and potential staff something about you and your firm, your standards, principles and objectives.  Mission statements also provide a guide for your more detailed plans and ambitions.

As a judge for this year’s Practice Excellence Awards I have seen plenty of accountants’ mission statements in the last few weeks. Firms were asked to share these as part of their entries. Some of the statements I read were more impressive than others, but few scored especially well.

Ten tips

Based on weakspots in the documents I’ve seen, here are 10 tips for crafting your firm’s mission statement. Not all of these points will be relevant in every case, but they are all worth thinking about:

  1. Start with the key questions – Why are we in practice? What do we want to achieve? What impression do we want to give to clients and staff? What underlying philosophies and values guide us?
  2. Focus on your clients – Be clear who and where they are. Some sort of geographical limit on your ambitions is more credible than one that is more general. Can you reference a niche or focus as well as a specific marketplace?
  3. Include reference to your people – Make clear that they are important too. What difference do you want to make?
  4. Be ambitious, but be realistic too – Where is the business going?
  5. Avoid being too general – I have written many times about the value of being different and that this is more credible than claiming to be better than everyone else.
  6. Keep it simple – Just one or two paragraphs. Show it to your spouse or parent. If they don’t understand it, try again.
  7. Polish the language -  Ensure it is written in good English and is error free. Try to use more active than passive verbs. Keep your sentences to 15-20 words.
  8. Get buy in – involve staff and colleagues. Brainstorm ideas. Get their “buy-in”. You cannot easily impose a mission statement unilaterally except possibly on new recruits.
  9. Make it distinct – This is, perhaps, the most difficult of these tips. What could your mission statement say that is specific to your practice? What can you say that would stop the statement being equally applicable to the firms down the road?
  10. Ensure it inspires you – You want to feel good about the firm when you read or talk about your mission statement. It needs to be honest and true (and fair!). You will want it to inspire others too, those who work in the firm, those who join the firm and those who work with or are served by the firm.

What to do with it

Once your mission statement is complete, start sharing it as appropriate.

Confirm to your staff and colleagues the final version (reflecting their input and your final decisions).

Display it prominently on your website, as well as in any marketing materials you produce.

Some businesses include their mission statements on the reverse side of business cards. And some include it as part of their email footer.

Most importantly though ensure that your mission statement guides your plans for the future. By clarifying your thoughts up front you will have set some principles that can help you evaluate any strategic decisions facing the practice.

Review it

Your mission statement, as wonderful as it might sound now, and as challenging as it was to agree, should not be set in stone. As the practice grows and changes, so too might your preferred mission.

Revisit and review your mission statement at least once a year and consider whether it should be revised or updated. If you've hit the nail on the head the first time around, you probably shouldn't have to alter it significantly as time goes by.

Feedback

If I were a betting man I would wager a few pounds that the usual suspects will add comments below to challenge the value of mission statements for accountancy practices. Each to their own.

It would be good to also hear from firms that have crafted mission statements. And also their experiences, the reactions of others and the consequences that have ensued.

Mark Lee is Consultant Practice Editor of AccountingWEB and writes the BookMarkLee blog to help accountants build more successful practices more enjoyably. He is also chairman of the Tax Advice Network of independent tax consultants.

Replies (3)

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By ThornyIssues
21st Aug 2012 07:10

I would think .....

That a popular mission statement of readers on here is ..... "to reduce my par"".

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Locutus of Borg
By Locutus
21st Aug 2012 22:34

Mission statements

Slightly off topic, but one bugbear that I have is when I find generic mission statements on CVs.  If I get to meet the person I always ask the question "so Mr X explain how you are a proactive goal-orientated career focused achiever". I always get a blank look.  I continue "errr ... I see from your CV that it's your mission statement".

Going back on topic, I suppose this highlights the importance of the mission statement being meaningful.  If it is just some meaningless, generic marketing blurb then it is probably better not to have one (in my humble opinion).

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By dstickl
22nd Aug 2012 06:47

Does this count as a Mission Statement: "Don't run out of ..."?

Once, when I had been made redundant, I set up as an OMB (Owner Managed Business) consultant, with just one motto that I shared [as "do as I do" statement] with a slow paying client - e.g. when chasing for my invoices to be paid - of:  "Don't run out of ... CASH".    

Does this count as a Mission Statement?    [The follow up Ho-Ho was:  "At least it keeps me out of the Missionary Position", which sometimes shortened the payment delay when the payer giggled!] 

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