Have you ever thought about your writing as a small business? Do you see yourself as an entrepreneur?
I’ve been writing, ummm… pretty much since I could hold a crayon. On the playground I corralled my closest friends together with a story we could act out during recess. In middle school when our English teacher gave group assignments, I usually found a way to make a story out of it, whether it was a group writing project or some way we could write a script to bring the project alive.
I remember the day when I realized that a wonderful way to organize my non-fiction books was to apply the main stages of a fiction story. See, I can’t do much of anything without thinking about story.
If you’re a writer, you know what I’m talking about. It comes naturally to us. However, sorting out the business side does not come so easily to some of us. For me, I would much rather spend the afternoon with my characters than balancing accounts and working in a spreadsheet.
Whether you’re published with a traditional or hybrid publisher—or if you are an indie writer—you and I can’t escape the business side of writing.
Recently, I joined the National Association of Christian Women Entrepreneurs [NACWE]. I needed help with the business side of things and decided this organization, with its many classrooms full of lessons about building a strong business, was a good fit for me.
This week on a members only video call, the speaker, Karen Bourg, led us in an activity that helped us take one step toward defining our businesses—create a mission statement.
I learned about mission statements in college. I’ve read various things Google has to teach me on the subject. I have written mission statements and filed them away somewhere, although I haven’t the faintest idea where to find them. The NACWE video class walked me through an assignment step by step that ended with a mission statement I won’t lose.
But before I share the assignment with you, let me take a minute to explain why I think the mission stamens is useful to writers.
According to the BusinessDictionary.com a mission statement is:
A written declaration of an organization’s core purpose and focus that normally remains unchanged over time. Properly crafted mission statements
- Serve as filters to separate what is important from what is not
- Clearly state which markets will be served and how
- Communicate a sense of intended direction to the entire organization.
That’s a mouthful, and you may be thinking as I once did, I’m a writer. I write books. What’s the big deal?
- On the writing side, a mission statement can solidify your themes and genre.
- On the business side, a mission statement can point you to the readers you want to serve. The whole world may end up reading your book, but you need a narrower aim when you market your books. A mission statement helps us understand our readers and streamline our work outside of creating our stories.
Here’s what you’ve been waiting for.
5 Steps for Writing a Mission Statement
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- Set a timer for 1 minute. Write down three words that describe why you do what you do. This was my toughest step. I have different reasons for doing one task and another. It’s okay if you write more than three before the timer goes off. DING!
- Set a timer for 1 minute. Answer this question with three descriptive words. Who are you? Who do your friends say you are? Again, if you write more than three words we’ll deal with that at the end. DING!
- Set the timer and answer this questions with three words: Who is your reader? DING! Of course, if you need more time for this exercise, that is perfectly fine. There is no magic to the amount of time. The short amount of time gets the job done, and that’s good if you ever struggle with procrastination as I do in some areas.
- Set the timer one last time for 1 minute. Analyze your three lists of words. Circle the best, most descriptive, and the truest three words in each category. DING! We could take this one more step by imagining what our readers will feel after they’ve read our books, but this is more in line with writing a vision statement. Maybe we can do that on another day.
- Set at timer for 1 minute. Write a clunky first draft simply by combining all nine words. Later, take your first draft and revise it to your liking.
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I wrote a mission statement for my side business: SOS (Strategize, Organize and Streamline)—which means that I help folks design solutions by listening to their ideas, desires, and hopes when they feel overwhelmed, insecure and/or alone when trying to solve their problems. I absolutely love the look of satisfaction on their faces and the confident tone in their voices when they share what they have accomplished.
I believe the answers are already inside of us, and we just need a partner or helper for a time until we get our feet underneath us.
Here’s my mission statement for SOS:
SOS will help, encourage and build people up by analyzing, organizing and streamlining solution steps when they feel inadequate, overwhelmed or alone.
I wrote a second mission statement for my business as a writer:
I am compelled to share hope and help readers by enlightening and encouraging them to believe that their past is redeemable by writing entertaining stories as a distraction from their present reality.
As a writer do you see yourself as a business owner? An entrepreneur? Would developing a mission statement help you know your reader better?
If you would like help setting up your business, join us at National Association of Christian Women Entrepreneurs. We’d love to have you!
