Vision accelerates the growth of the startup

Why you need a VISION for the growth of your startup?

2/11/2016

It is very important to have a meaningful vision for the growth of your small business. If I explain the term vision in the simple words, then it is an image of my future organization which I can foresee (future), based on my emotions & the present circumstances. A well crafted vision statement effectively communicates the business goals, facilitates in setting the strong culture and helps in designing the right business strategy.

Being an entrepreneur, you are the creator, leader and the facilitator of your enterprise and you need to make the path clear by drafting a strong and meaningful vision statement for yourself and your employees.
A well crafted vision statement helps in answering the following questions:

Where I see my business going?
What is the reason of existence of my business?
What problems my company is going to solve or offer?
What my company is going to achieve?
What is my target customer base?
What I want to do for them?

A vision statement is future based which is directive in nature and is meant to inspire and motivate the employees. As an entrepreneur you need to understand your vision as it helps in doing the things better and inspire your employees. A right and the more meaningful statement helps in increasing the productivity of the employees by making them engage in their work.

(1) Your vision is the source of motivation which increases the productivity

When my vision statement is rightly stated, clears the self doubt and the uncertainty in the mind of the employees and provides them the motivation to go in that direction with confidence. The clear vision statement makes it easier for the employees to contribute positively. As the vision statement is clearly defined, it is more likely that the company will sail through and survive in the difficult times or the economic downturn. When the vision statement is engaged and meaningful, the employee’s productivity increases and helps in the growth of the company.

Welcome to the small business success

(2) A meaningful vision accelerates the change

The change is one of the foremost business risk in any organization. Let me say that ABC ltd is running an institute whose vision is to teach 1 million students by 2025 and it is using traditional classroom method to teach the students. It cannot achieve its goal just by teaching students in this fashion. The company’s vision of teaching 1 million students by 2025 motivates the employees to re-shape, re-align, modify or change the present working style to accelerate the teaching process so that the goal is achieved in the given time period. In the quest to realize the vision, the ABC ltd adopts latest technological changes like webinar, e-education to reach more students in the given time period.

(3) The vision gives shape to the strong corporate culture

The meaningful vision creates well-defined rules and regulations which are the foundation of the strong corporate culture. Now, your every employee understands the reason behind following these rules and the regulations and it helps in shaping the strong identity of your enterprise in the society. The strong identity instills confidence in the minds of others and your startup attracts more customers, stakeholders and the suppliers, leading to the growth of your organization and realization of the goal.

(4) It helps in designing the right strategy

A meaningful vision supports the designing of right strategy which helps in achieving the goal. The vision of ABC ltd is to teach 1 million students by 2025, formulates a strategy of teaching and offering online courses. This strategy offers dual benefit of low setup cost and the wider reach, making more students enrollment for the courses.

(5) Vision helps in the effective communication and it directs the actual growth

It is an effective internal communication tool among its employees in the organization which helps them to understand and mutually share the work for the realization of the common goal. You should be able to communicate your vision from top to bottom to all the employees of the company whenever you get a chance to do it. You can communicate it through various channels like e-mails, conferences, in the annual report, personal meetings or you do in every gathering which you feel that it should be discussed. Although, it may seem frivolous sometime, but it makes people to understand you and your vision and gradually they will align themselves with the vision of the company.

(6) It helps in choosing the right people and the right process

It helps in choosing the right people and the right processA well defined vision is inspiring, shared, mutual and directive. It energizes the employee to achieve the purpose of the organization and in this quest he makes efforts to search and hire the right talent which can contribute towards the growth of the organization.

(7) How to put your vision into reality?

We need to understand the following points before crafting a vision statement for our startups:

Make it concise, crisp, daring, distinct and explicit
The effective vision symbolizes strength, values and give direction to the company
The behavior of the management should be consistent with the vision of the company
The crafting of vision should be realistic and it should take into account the surrounding environment, inherent capabilities of the employees and the problems of the organization
Vision created in vacuum, without the participation of other employees in the organization, will lead no where
Vision is a future thing, therefore you need to set some measurable and the milestones on the short term basis so that your vision can become a reality
The vision of the company also induces the personal growth of an individual
Your vision should not be a general statement as it gives the mediocre results rather it should be a specific one, leading to better results.
Keep on improving your vision statement with time and make it more interesting and challenging by re-designing the strategy