13 Why

Conventional business thinking starts with an assessment of the current market conditions: is there an unmet need in the market?  Do the skills of an entrepreneur match some way of delivering value to market segments?  In the arts, the art itself may be more valuable to the artist than some arbitrary assessment of how much the world “needs” their art; but, an artist can firmly believe in the artistic merit of their work and at the same time craft a message about how the world can benefit from their art—or perhaps forge a connection between an unmet need of society at large and the meaning behind a piece of art.  The message can be codified in the mission statement, in what could be considered the most important question any business should be able to answer: why does the business exist?

The mission statement should clearly state what the business, venture, or artist does: what kind of product or service does the entity produce?

If an entrepreneur cares enough about their skill or idea to consider starting a business around it, there may be more write than the one or two sentences afforded by a concise, powerful mission statement.  Expanding on exactly what the business will do and how it plans to do so is a valuable task, and if coming up with just the right words for a mission statement proves to challenging a task, it may be prudent to start with the more detailed version and whittle down to the most meaningful core components.

This longer, detailed, expanded mission statement marks the beginning of a formal business plan, or a detailed written document codifying the people involved in a venture, means of operation, market analysis including potential competition, and financial projections.  Maddeningly, there is no one “right way” of drafting a business plan; but, a slew of agencies make resources available to budding entrepreneurs, including the federal Small Business Administration (SBA), which publishes—among many other resources—a guide for several different types of written business plans, replete with writing advice and example documents.