I get calls from people who say they think they want to start their own business and they want my help. Of course I can help them, but there are some steps they should go through first.
Before you even get to the point of deciding on a business name, or whether you should be a corporation or a partnership or a whatever, you first need to develop a mission statement and a business plan.
Let’s start with a mission statement.
A mission statement is a short, one paragraph statement of what your company will be. Think about where you want to be in 3 to 5 years and what you want people to say about your company. Do you want to be the ‘global leader’ in something? or do you want to be ‘the place where local people ….’? By clearly writing your mission statement, you are setting a goal for where you want your company to go.
It’s kind of like getting in the car to go on a drive, first you need to have a goal or you won’t know what direction to go first. If you want to end up in New York, you’ll drive North (from here in Virginia). But if you want to end up in Florida, you’ll drive South. Those are in opposite directions! So if you don’t know where you want to go, you might be driving a long time in the wrong direction.
You don’t want to do that with your new business.
So start with a goal. And formalize that goal by writing a mission statement.
Tags: Business, Incorporate, Lawyer, LLC, Virginia