Glen Rankin, a certified financial planner with Rankin Financial Planning Ltd. in Truro, N.S., had been in the industry for 11 years when he decided to develop a mission statement. He wanted to create the statement in conjunction with the launch of his website. That was five years ago.

Initially, Rankin says, he made the mistake of involving too many people in the project. “Ultimately, I threw it all out the window,” he says, “and came up with something really simple.”

Indeed, simplicity is one of the keys to an effective mission statement, say business consultants. But the process of developing one requires a lot of thought and reflection.

Suppose you’re at a cocktail party and someone asks you what you do for a living, suggests George Hartman, business coach and CEO of Market Logics Inc. in Toronto. There’s nothing wrong with simply saying that you’re a financial advisor. But don’t be surprised if your answer sends the uninspired partygoer straight to the bar.

Your response to the question of what you do is, in essence, your mission statement, according to Hartman: “It’s like an opening line that draws the listener in.”

Consider the statement: “I help my clients achieve financial peace of mind regardless of what happens in their world.” That is a more compelling response, Hartman says, “because it underscores not only what you do but also why you do it.”

Hartman is a strong advocate of mission statements. He acknowledges that they are often maligned, thanks in large part to the hackneyed and overwrought statements developed by consultants — at great expense — for some Fortune 500 companies in the 1980s. At the time, it was common for mission statements to become the catch-all for everything a company did or believed, from its environmental policy to its hiring practices. Says Hartman: “It shouldn’t be that complicated.”

Some companies, large and small, still try to pack too much information into their mission statements, Hartman says. In fact, the No. 1 mistake writers of mission statements make is overdoing it. Trying to squeeze every goal, philosophy and practice into a mission statement, he says, is missing the point.

For example: “We help our clients achieve their retirement-planning, estate-planning and insurance-planning objectives while developing financial plans that allow them and their families to reach their life goals in a sustainable, environment-friendly, non-sexist, non-ageist manner through fair-trade employment practices and ethical community activities, including generous charitable donations and promotion of work/life balance, and we go bowling every other Tuesday.”

That’s an exaggeration, but it demonstrates the hazards of trying to say too much.

Instead, a mission statement should be succinct and jargon-free. And it should be a “sentence or two at the most,” Hartman says.

It’s important to distinguish between a mission statement and a vision statement, says George Torok, a business coach and marketing specialist based in Burlington, Ont. Your vision statement outlines — for your own clarification — what you want for your business overall. Your mission statement, on the other hand, expresses why your services are right for a particular type of client.

To develop a vision statement, Torok suggests, start with your “inside voice.” Ask yourself what you really want. What’s in it for you? The answer can be as simple as the goal of spending more time working from home, he says. That’s your vision statement — and it’s not something you share with clients.

Once you have articulated that goal or vision, you can then develop a mission statement that will ultimately help you achieve that vision, Torok says. The key is to approach it from the perspective of your clients, outlining the benefits for them in working with you.

“Consider the mission statement your ‘outside voice’,” Torok says.

Your mission statement should resonate with clients, agrees Hartman: “It should be written from the perspective of the client. It should describe why they would want to do business with you.”

The best mission statements, Hartman adds, are downright inspiring.

One of Hartman’s favourites is: “We specialize in helping business owners secure the legacy they’re working so hard to create.” That statement is both functional and inspirational. It underscores the advisor’s target market and shows empathy for those clients’ concerns. Further, it can influence the team’s decisions on how it will serve and communicate with clients.

@page_break@Another of Hartman’s favourite mission statements: “We help professional athletes attain and maintain their financial fitness.” It is a concise declaration of the firm’s target market and the service it provides, with the emphasis on the benefits to the client.

The challenge is to be brief and clear. Avoid presenting too much information, and avoid being too vague.

And don’t take it all too seriously, Hartman advises. But resist the temptation to be too cute. A few years ago, Hartman encountered a financial advisory practice with this mission statement: “Our clients give us money; we give them back more.”

That statement may be clever and punchy, but by placing the emphasis on returns, it undermines the importance of sound financial planning.

Also bear in mind that a mission statement is a work in progress that can evolve with your business. So, Torok says, there’s nothing seriously wrong if you miss the target the first time around. “Don’t beat yourself up if you’re not happy with the results,” Torok says. “You can tweak it over time.”

Hartman recognizes that there are some skeptics who consider mission statements a waste of time and energy — more marketing fluff than substantive business building. If your business is exactly what you want it to be, you may not need to display a mission statement. But, Hartman says, all advi-sors can benefit from the process of developing a mission statement — a process that involves spending time on articulating their business philosophy — even if they have no intention of using it publicly.

“It forces you to be thoughtful about what you do,” Hartman says. “That includes everything from your marketing approach and your clients’ regime to what motivates your team. All of those things can be captured in or reflected by a mission statement.”

Torok agrees: “There’s never any harm in asking yourself questions.”

Torok recommends getting some sort of feedback, from either a coach or another advisor. But he advises against hiring a consultant to write your statement. And don’t get too many people involved, he warns: a statement written by committee can become a nightmare of compromise and muddled language. “That’s a big mistake,” Torok says. “It ends up too vague and bland.”

That’s the problem Rankin ran into before he came up with this mission statement: “To work with our clients to help them make smart decisions with their money.”

Says Rankin: “I wanted it to be something that people understood, and that wasn’t all fluffy.”

Rankin regards his mission statement as the “opening act” of an overall client relationship process. The statement provides a simple explanation of what Rankin can do for his clients. “At the end of the day,” he says, “proving it is what it’s all about.”

IE