Mission Statements. Those are for those big corporations that need to make themselves sound like they have a purpose right? They aren't for startups right? Wrong! Well okay, partially wrong... maybe you don't need a mission statement; like the kind you frame and put up on the wall, but you sure as heck need a mission! In May I traveled with a group of entrepreneurs to Peru as part of a State Department funded program to assist small business and entrepreneurs abroad. One of my co-travelers, Matthew Arnold who recently founded the company Aldea Artisans (based in Austin), gave a presentation on this very topic. I just happened to be reminded of it today when I saw that Matthew and Aldea had recently had a launch party for their new website (**disclaimer: which by the way I helped out a bit with) and will be heading to New York to secure some new distributors for their products. In his presentation to the Peruvian entrepreneurs he emphasized the importance of having a mission in your business, and letting that mission be a sort of guiding star for everything else. In fact, not only will having the mission [statement] itself be helpful, but the process of thinking about and developing your company's can be an extremely enlightening process. Most "experts" on the subject seem to agree that a mission statement should really have 3 key components:

1. What do you do?
2. Whom do you do it for?
3. Why do you do it

I actually really like Aldea's mission statement because it's short and to the point while addressing these key areas.

"Aldea’s mission is to connect artisans from developing countries to YOU, sharing their authentic stories through the beautiful goods they make."

I suppose you could say that [any] company without a mission is like a ship without a rudder,  or any number of other clichés. In reality, it will help you stay focused and give you a standard against which you, and people outside your company, can judge success.