A vision is a common purpose, a reason for being.

One of the things that I find that entrepreneurs often struggle with is creating their vision for the future – what will the business look like in three, five or ten years from now?

I’ve just finished reading an article in the February edition of Inc Magazine by Ari Weinzweig, co-founder and CEO of Zingerman’s Community and author of the book Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading. Ari suggested 14 questions to ask yourself when crafting your vision statement. I’m sharing it here as I think these questions are a really good starting point of things to think about when creating your own vision.

So, imagine that it’s 3, 5 or 10 years from now, and answer these questions about your company. (You can read an extract from the article on Inc here )

1. How big is your business?
2. Assess the factors by which you will measure your success (be as specific as possible)a) relative rank in your industry b) financial success for the organisation c) personal financial success d) product or service quality e) contribution to the community
3. What are your most important product lines or services?
4. What products or services do you refuse to offer?
5. Describe how the shopping experience at your business takes place. What makes that experience unique?
6. What are your customers and how do you find them?
7. If your customer were asked to list 3 noteworthy things aobut your business, what would they be?
8. How would you describe your management style (participative, top down, family style?)
9. What kind of people do you hire as managers?
10. What is your relationship to with your employees? What do they say about their jobs?
11. What do you do every day? How much do you work?
12. How does your community view your business?
13. What do your suppliers say about you?
14. What do industry experts say about you?

You can see here Zingerman’s 2020 Vision to help inspire you.

What do you think? What would you add to this list?