It really doesn’t matter what you’re doing if you don’t know why you’re doing it. Instead of selling your product or service, sell your mission. A product or service may solve an immediate need, but your mission invites your audience to stay onboard for the bigger calling.

When you think about your mission, think ‘This is what I’m here for.’

Ask yourself: Who am I?  What do I do?  What product or service do I offer?  What immediate problem do I help solve?  Who do I solve this problem for?  Why am I doing this?

Let’s look at two of favorite {fictional} business owners, Luke and Lorelei. You can choose to be very straight forward with your mission (Luke: My mission is to cook food for the people of Stars Hollow), or you may opt for a less tangible operative (Lorelei: My mission is to invite guests to experience the joy of quaint).

There’s really no wrong way to write your mission. Here are a few of our favorites:

  1. ““Spread ideas.” TED
  2. “To move the web forward and give web designers and developers the best tools and services in the world.” Adobe
  3. “To inspire humanity — both in the air and on the ground.” Jet Blue
  4. “To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.” Amazon
  5. ““Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.* *If you have a body, you are an athlete.” Nike
  6. “To create a world where anyone can belong anywhere, providing healthy travel that is local, authentic, diverse, inclusive and sustainable.” AirBNB
  7. “Bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing countries.” Charity Water
  8. “To make people happy.” Disney
  9. “To feed America’s hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and engage our country in the fight to end hunger.” Feeding America
  10. “To spread the power of optimism.” Life is Good
  11. “Making work simpler, more pleasant, and more productive.” Slack
  12. “Powering prosperity around the world.” Intuit
  13. “To help people around the world plan and have the perfect trip.” Trip Advisor

And of course, we are pretty stoked on our own mission statement, “To sweeten the world by ending identity crisis, by mapping mission to marketing.”

What does this inspire for you? What is it that you want to accomplish through your business? What is your mission statement?