A Successful Business Begins With the Right Vision

Leyla Razeghi, Ind Eng, MBA Strategy, Strategy Consultant and Coach, Toronto, ON

What is the first thing you need to start a business? Most people immediately answer: a business name, the right product, a logo and a website. While all of those are things that you do need, at the beginning, you need to focus on the basics of your business strategy.

Your purpose, mission and vision will guide you to make the right decisions, will keep you motivated in your journey and will help you distinguish yourself from your competition.

In this competitive business world, you need to start by defining what makes you different, and what motivates you. This is your purpose as a business owner and is the answer to the question: “why did you start this business?” No, the answer is not “money”, that is just a nice side effect when you’re achieving your goals!

After you have defined your purpose, you need to figure out your mission and your vision. These two concepts get confused frequently. I find that the better way to explain them is:

Mission: How things would look tomorrow or in the near future, if everything went amazingly.

Vision: Where you see yourself ideally in around 5 years. It must be very ambitious but realistic.

Your vision helps you stay motivated and make sure you are on the right path, every activity you do should take you closer to achieving this ultimate dream.

Once you have defined these basic concepts of strategic planning, you need to move forward and define specific, executable and measurable objectives that will take you closer to your vision.

Check out this Futurpreneur Canada crash course on the importance of your mentor supporting your vision and values.