I have taken some time to observe Nigerian businesses and while some of them are doing so well, others are a tale of woes. It becomes a worrisome situation when you consider how new businesses are created daily and eventually close up without either creating any genuine wealth or outliving the entrepreneur. This is a trend that is easily noticed in Africa and has not helped the people rise above poverty. The question is, are there ways we can build businesses that create wealth over lifetimes and become brands like Coca-cola and Pepsi and thrive for generations? The answer is yes. The answer lies in vision.

 

Talk of businesses without vision

There are a number of reasons why many African businesses do not do so well in the long run. I will dedicate a number of posts to share with you what I have learnt over the years. A brief interaction with any businessman in the streets of Lagos will draw your mind to a very simple reality. This reality is that many business people still run based on survivalist instincts. If you asked a business person why he or she was in business. You might hear a thing like; ‘I want to run a business so that I can make money and expand my operations, give jobs, etc. These may sound like interesting goals or motivations, maybe. Unfortunately, many can provide enough funds to sustain the business for a while.

Talk about business experimentation here and there. Note that I am not talking about the illiterate businessman in the village. I am talking about graduates who might have attended some fancy training here and there, designed to help them succeed. Many entrepreneurs are highly motivated at the point they want to start a business. These motivations wither over time till the business ends as another failed project. So my mission is to help you overcome that.

While motivation might seem like an interesting thing to have for your business to grow, having a vision is better. Vision is what keeps you motivated when the chips are down. So let’s delve a bit into our subject.

 

What is a vision?

A vision is a picture of the future you want for your business or organization. This is not as easy as it sounds. It is expected to have everything in it that you hope to accomplish. Just Like the popular saying about a picture being worth a thousand words, that’s how visions are conceived. One of the most common errors people make in developing visions is identifying a thing or an objective you can achieve in a single way. For instance, a person might say; ‘the vision of my business is to produce books for secondary schools’. That is not a vision, that’s a poorly written objective. So a business built on this objective is likely to fail fast eventually.

 

What vision should really do?

A vision should say clearly the main thing you hope to achieve. Vision is not a single ideal you can achieve in one way but should be an ideal you can achieve in so many different ways. If I set up a business with a vision to improve learning experiences for students in a particular school age; that is a good one. I can achieve it through providing or outsourcing teachers who use innovative teaching techniques to schools, or providing training to teachers employed in schools, developing teaching aids, developing/producing/supplying instructional materials, researching about, designing and building improved learning spaces in schools, etc.

The good thing about a good vision is that it helps you adapt to situations and stay in business. Adequate strategy development processes can help business people improve operations over time. A vision talks about all the things you hope to accomplish in your business keeps you focused and ensures you succeed. I hope you now understand the role a good vision plays in every business.

 

HOW TO WRITE A VISION STATEMENT FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Whether you are running a small, medium or large business, it is important to have a great vision Statement. A vision is what helps you stay motivated in any business you venture into. A Vision is a picture of what you want to accomplish in a business and should incorporate an ideal you can achieve in so many different ways. So many individuals have heard of visions and are aware that organizations usually have vision statements in websites and other organizational documents, but what they may not understand is how vision helps your business grow.

Big corporations have their visions displayed at vantage points within their organizations. This is for a simple reason. They want their staff to always have the vision of the organization before them. This is a good practice if the staff understand this. The more in tune an organization is with their vision, the better they perform. Your vision is the one thing that determines if your business is going to be one of the businesses or the business.

 

 

Articulating a good vision statement

To write a good vision, you must have a good understanding of what you intend to achieve. When I want to develop a vision, I write down all the things I would like to accomplish in the new business. This can be a tasking activity, as it requires you to go somewhere really quiet if that works for you. This does not have to be a fancy place where you play dress-up like corporate moguls, it could be a coffee shop, park or your bedroom What you do is write down everything that comes to mind no matter how silly they may be. Then separate the ideas into groups bearing in mind that all products and services target different groups of individuals.

What do the products and services have in common and what are their differences? The key here is to find the constants. I assume that because all ideals you have come from one mind, they should have similarities. This assumption should also be true if you are working with friends with whom you have common interests and plan to start a business as joint owners. In all you have written down, find the one expression that defines them all. It could be nutrition, education, information, development, fashion or whatever it might be. Therefore, your first step is determining your focus for the business.

 

Good vision statements have a customer focus

Then you have to identify your target group. This can be done in several ways in consideration of age, gender, geographical location, socioeconomic potential, religious affiliations or profession. Age entails whether you are targeting youths, the aged or children. Gender can be male or female (I think). Geographical location is also important because some products and services are localized. Some products may be useful in temperate regions but not in the tropics.

The socioeconomic potentials of target groups are very important too. You might want to provide a service to a target group that is not accessible or who can’t afford it. It is a known fact that Lamborghini cars are not for everybody but the business owner must know this from the beginning. While some products and services are suitable to practitioners of a religion, others might apply to some professionals. The application, Sage 50 is available in the market but targets people in the financial and accounting professions. So that when you know what you want to do and to whom it is best suited for then you will have constructs such as Nutrition for babies, education for rural girls, and information for medical professionals.

Next is to include a location in your vision. This is basically, where you want to conduct your business. It could have a local scope, for example: Owerri, Abidjan or Soweto. Businesses may also have national scopes or beyond but you must have the strategy and resources to at least pursue it. When location is added, we now have Nutrition for babies in Soweto, education for rural girls in Abidjan, and information for medical professionals in Owerri.

 

Writing it down is the easy part.

The last part is very important because this is where you qualify the vision. You tell us how you see all you have written down happening. Using one of our prior examples on education: ‘To be the source of quality education for rural girls in Abidjan’. Does that say anything to you? An organization with that vision is likely to be a school for girls, a gender-focused teacher training institution or nonprofits working with schools in Abidjan. For the other examples, we may have ‘to promote the production of excellent home-made nutrition for babies in Soweto’ and ‘to create an environment of free flow and access to relevant trendy information for medical professionals in Owerri’.

Remember, the vision is always one statement but should totally explain what your business is set to achieve. The vision does not say how you achieve this. That job is for the mission statements, which will be addressed in subsequent articles.

 

GOOD VISION STATEMENT DRIVES MOTIVATION

Every day on my way to work, I see two types of businesses; big companies in towering buildings and small businesses in lowly shops and shanties. What really makes the difference between the two? I bet the various entrepreneurs were quite motivated with various prospective outcomes. Does motivation always involve having a vision statement?

 

What does it mean to be motivated?

Motivation to start a new business could mean a number of things ranging from having funds to start a business, finding an opportunity that aligns with one’s personal goals or maybe sheer determination to break away from poverty. Motivation is the drive that gets you going from scratch. A motivated person is full of energy and is willing to take risks. However, it is important to channel energy and resources appropriately and in the best possible ways. This can be achieved through a great vision statement.

 

Always use a good vision statement

To succeed in business, having a great vision statement is not only important, it is also a very necessary condition for growth and expansion. That is where the difference lies between a living prosperous business and a living-dead business. A good vision statement gives focus and direction to the work any business venture sets out to do. It does not matter if it’s a pure water business or a large real estate empire, the vision you have always reminds you that you have not arrived at the desired destination. A good vision will keep you on your feet working.

Some entrepreneurs are satisfied to merely post profits on a day-to-day basis and might even attempt some expansions. Where a good vision is lacking in a business, the owner might get comfortable feeding off the profits he makes and fail to make adequate investments to protect and grow the business as well as foster future partnerships. To protect your business, you need to set up systems that keep you focused on your organizational goals.

 

Benefits of a Good Vision Statement

To grow the business, you need to build a culture by setting standards and raising business leaders who are in tune with your vision for continuity. Ultimately, businesses should be able to upgrade the products and services they provide to brands. A good vision should aim towards this objective of creating brands that are acceptable and recognized in your local environment and eventually in other localities. Partnerships should go beyond accepting contracts and make real partners of the regular people who consume and promote your products and services daily.

It is important to note that every business idea can be fuelled by high levels of motivation. Sustaining a business must go beyond personal motivation which is instinctive and become a structured system that can be transferred from person to person whether they are staff, vendors or customers. Personal motivation can help you start a business but only a good vision can take you from that starting point to the future of your dreams. If you do not have a good vision statement, create one today using this simple approach I shared earlier. Now when you look at the big corporations and the shops in shanties on the roadside. Can you tell the difference?