Starting a business is super risky, and I’ll be the first to say that it takes a great deal of hard work. There are some tips and tricks, however, that can help make your life easier from the start though. Today, I’m going to tell you a trick that helped us.

Am I normal? I wake up scared every single day!

Starting your own business is really scary and overwhelming. We understand that completely. Someone once told me: “As an entrepreneur, you need to wake up scared every single day”. Click to Tweet

Do you worry about what sales tactics you are going to use? Do you stress about product delivery schedules? Have you struggled to find out your target market? Are you so busy operating your business you haven’t thought about strategy or planning?

A quick tool and a little bit of thinking can get you ahead of your competitors, and let you focus on running your business – Better. Faster. Cheaper.

Entrepreneurial Strategy in 15 minutes!

Before Ruth and I started WBC we brought every Post-It Note and marker we could find and we covered the walls with our ideas and then organized them. This type of activity may seem “lame” or corporate. But it gives your organization direction.

The Mission Statement Builder Template

Our mission is to _______ (what you do) for ______ (who are your target customers) with our _________ (unique service/product) in order to ________ (achieve a result *hint: use data).

Before you start filling it out – think about these questions:

• Why are you starting this business?
• What kind of product do you want to offer?
• What do you want to be known for?
• What kind of values do you want to embrace?
• What kinds of customers do we want? How would they describe us?
• What kind of experience will our customers have when they interact with us?

Brainstorm and then prioritize them. It’s really that simple!

The next step is to communicate this mission statement to your team, your staff, and your customers so they know what you stand for.

A good strong collective strategy works better than one that no one knows about. Or one that is all things to all people. Make your business go from scary idea to reality. And that’s the first big step to being your own boss!

See you next week At the Whiteboard, Ruth will be talking about one of our favourite thought leaders, Cy Charney – and his take on leadership and management. (Enter your email below to subscribe to our mailing list.)

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @whiteboardcons to stay up to date on what we’re up to this week. Have thoughts or ideas? Use #betterfastercheaper to join the conversation!

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Nicole