The shortest business mission statement ever!

Hi there!

I hope you are well and that this Tuesday has been a fantastic day for everyone!

As promised to my Twitter followers and Facebook friends, here is my second article on business mission statements. (In my previous post I discussed mission statements in general and why you need to incorporate your mission statement in your business plan.)

Now, soon after the placement of abovementioned post the past week-end, I had a fabulous client experience (AGAIN!). Let me explain…

My current web hosting company is Hands-On Webhosting, proudly USA, employing only US based employees (i.e. they do NOT make use of any outsourced support or contractors). I have been with them since early 2006.

Now, from the start, I want to make one thing clear. I am NOT an affiliate member of my web hosting company and I do NOT receive any compensation for this article at all (though, I think, I should seriously consider their affiliate program as I am more than prepared to connect my name to their company and service).

{Note: I secured reseller rights from another webhosting company a while ago which you can find on my web site (I use their web hosting packages from time to time as free give away packages when I have special promotions on some of my own products). So, don’t be confused when you visit my web site! }

The reason I am writing right now this post is because I cannot think of any other company (and I do NOT limit the scope to the webhosting industry only!) in the entire world that provides a more superior service than Hands-On Webhosting. PERIOD.

I cannot put it better than using my own testimonial I have sent them a while ago:

“I cannot express my gratitude enough. I have been with Hands-On Webhosting since beginning of 2006 and it was an awesome experience from a client point of view. Hands-On Webhosting feels like my family… since 2006 I am dealing with the SAME PEOPLE… wow; you must have had a zero personnel turnover… Every time I log a call, I am assured that I will receive a QUICK response… even a day before Christmas… you are friendly, you make time to respond in a proper way (where necessary, you will provide DETAIL information – unlike other e-commerce companies, writing you a one sentence response and then you have to figure out yourself what they have intended to say…). Hands-On Webhosting, your name is truly relevant and valid. In my opinion, you are the BEST.”

In my opinion a webhosting company should be measured by… yes, you guessed it: service, service and more SERVICE. Under service, you can count, among other criteria, the following:

• Availability of support personnel
• The quality of support, responses and assistance to solve a problem
• Speed of servers
• Uptime of servers
• Etc. etc.

It goes without saying – technical knowledge, experience, integrity etc. etc. etc. should also be part and parcel of the setup of any webhosting company.

My satisfaction as client during the past week-end was actually the result of the outcome of a discussion between Hands-On Webhosting and myself about the speed of their servers, how I can improve my site’s speed and what they are doing to improve their servers’ speed to accommodate Google’s new algorithm (providing “points” to faster servers and web sites). And, as usual, I was astonished by Hands-On Webhosting’s technical expertise. I was also, again, overwhelmed by their openness and willingness to share the “story” behind their servers’ setup and services – providing me with more than enough information to make up my own mind.

Above testimonial brings me to my second reason why I am writing this post. Hands-On Webhosting is, in my opinion, an excellent case study of a company which has, what I call, a LIVING mission statement! Over and above that, I think it is the shortest mission statement in the entire world!

They are truly an example of a company that has decided fancy and long mission statements are not going to strike the right note and that it is better to keep it short and simple. And what is a better way to keep it simple and short than to put your mission statement in your name?

But more than that, what is a better way to announce your mission statement than by living it out every day? After all, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” – you know, the type of attitude: “let us get out there and deliver an awesome service to our clients and let them decide whether we are fulfilling our mission statement or not.”

In my opinion this is the type of mission statements we need to write today. It is simple, straightforward, and even a seven year old child should be able to tell the meaning of “Hands-On Webhosting”. More than that – long, fancy and complicated mission statements, normally, do not strike the right note (see my previous blog post on what really matters when you write your mission statement).

Mission statements should, especially, be clear to owners AND employees. Employees tend to ignore fancy statements as, honestly, only few people in the world are really of the “academic type” (not even I am really part of this (elite?) group – regardless the fact that I do have qualifications behind my name).

Not only should new startups embrace this type of mission statements, but ALL of us need to re-write our mission statements (and business plans, of course) and try to come up with the shortest, most powerful statements possible. Yes, I know, it is not practical to change your company name now and I am NOT suggesting it, but we can always re-visit our mission statements and try to make it shorter, more powerful and perhaps use them as slogans!

However, just to have a short mission statement, is not enough. A short mission statement should be filled with POWER words. As simple as that! It should compel owners and employees to live it out – EVERY DAY! (Hey, you cannot call yourself Hands-On Webhosting and you respond to customers’ questions after 10 days!).

If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact us at blog@business-around-the-globe.com

Warm regards

Michiel Jonker, CISA

Tags: business mission statement, Business Plan