A Writer’s Business Plan: Mission, Vision, Goals

We all need a business plan…even writers. Maybe, especially writers.

We write because we love it. But how are we supposed to pay our bills? It doesn’t happen by accident. We, like anyone else in business, need a business plan. It’s essential in doing the work we love.

There are many books on business plans. I don’t know if this will replace a book, but I know what has worked for me. I’ve had a career that I’ve enjoyed, not by accident, but because I had a plan, a plan that I constantly review and update. It helps that I am interested in business and have held such positions at various points in my life. So, let’s do this quickly so you can get back to writing.

The first thing I think you need is a mission statement. I hear you groan, but this is incredibly important. This is a life statement. It lets you know what impact you want to make with your writing and helps you stay consistent with your message and brand as a writer.

My mission statement is encapsulated in my brand slogan: "Empowering Writers. Creating Stories That Matter." To keep focused, I have this on a Post-it by my computer, and I ask myself if this is what I am doing with my time: "Empowering Writers. Creating Stories That Matter"? If it is not, I get back on course and focus on the things that satisfy my mission. By doing this, I am building my life, not just writing pieces that don’t fit together in my overall mission as a writer.

My complete mission statement is “By creating compelling stories and through insightful mentorship in the publishing and entertainment industries, I empower writers and engage audiences with narratives that explore moral dilemmas, cultural identity, personal growth, survival, and complex relationships. My mission is to craft meaningful stories—fictional or true—that entertain, challenge, and inspire while fostering a creative community where writers can thrive and succeed.”

I share my mission statement with you, not so you can see what I’m doing but so you can see what your mission statement might look like when you write it.

My mission statement encompasses my life as a writer and speaker and tells you directly what is important to me and what I write about as my brand.

Try using my mission statement as an example and crafting your own right now by changing my words to yours. What’s important to you? What are you hoping to achieve? Who do you wish to help? What kind of legacy would you like to leave behind?

The mission statement is going to guide your career. It’s a lifetime map. A vision statement is where you can see yourself at various points in the future. Where do you see your writing career in one, three, or five years? I wouldn’t go as far as ten years. I think five is enough. I won’t bore you where I hope to be in five years, but you get the idea. I’ve done this for myself.

As you write your vision statement, realize most things take about three times longer than you first think. I’ve learned to adjust my vision statement to match the reality of time. Try it, though. Where realistically do you think you can be in one year? Three years? Five years? Write those down. If you’re like most of us, if you’ve been honest with reality, when you look at it, you’ll go, no, I want to be further down the road than that. It doesn’t work that way. You can only get as far as time, resources, and the process will allow. Set a realistic vision statement and realize that if you carry out what is on the vision statement, you are that much farther down the road. That’s the beauty of a vision statement. It gives you landmarks that you can hit, and if you hit those landmarks, you can achieve those extra goals you wanted, but if you only accomplish the ones on your vision statement, then you realize you are farther down the road by meeting these than you were if you hadn’t set this vision at all. It’s a win-win. As icing, your vision matches your mission statement, so everything you do moves you toward your ultimate life.

Vision statements are only as good as a Maps app. They tell you where you are going and what landmarks you will arrive at on your way to the end of your one- or five-year journey. To break this down, you need goals. Not just any goals. You need SMART goals.

Looking at your five-year plan, break down the Specific goals that will get you where you want, one small goal following another to reach your big goal at the one-year mark (for example). Do the same for three years and five years. Make sure all goals are built on each other toward your vision and within the structure of your mission.

Each goal must be Measurable so you know clearly that you have achieved it. “I am going to write today” is not really a measurable goal. Sure, you can say it is if you sit down and write a little. But what is “a little”?

A measurable goal is more like saying you’ll write five hundred words today. That’s specific. If you write 499, you know you didn’t make it. If you write 501, you know you went beyond it. It’s specific. You can compare it with what you do.

Your goal must be Achievable. Don’t say you’ll be a New York Times bestseller in one year. It is possible, sure. Everything is possible. Elephants flying is possible. But it's not very probable. Make sure when you set each goal that each is achievable, that it is probable. If you don’t, you’re going to frustrate yourself. When you get frustrated, you’ll get discouraged, and then you’ll stop. Set yourself up for success by making sure that this goal in mind is, indeed, possible, probable, and achievable.

It’s not enough to carry out tasks. That is equivalent to busy work. The projects you work on daily need to be Relevant to your vision statement and life mission. If they are not, they are not moving forward in the consistent direction you need to go to achieve what you want to achieve. If you constantly take detours, you might eventually end up with your one-year, three-year, and five-year destinations, but it might be more like two, six, and ten years instead of the shorter period. This is frustrating and leads to abandonment, as well. Ensure everything you do daily is relevant to your vision and mission.

Lastly, ensure each goal you write down is Time Sensitive. It must be finished in a certain amount of time, can only take a certain amount of time, and can be defined as taking this much time to accomplish reasonably. If you can’t set a timeframe for how long each goal will take, you won’t have one tool you can use to make it Measurable: Did you accomplish it in the time allotted? Writers are notorious—me especially—for thinking I can do something in a certain amount of time only to find it takes me (almost always) three times longer than I initially said. As I alluded to earlier, I found a way to eliminate my own frustration and stop myself from beating myself up constantly by looking at the time it will take to carry out a goal, get my first thinking, and then multiply it by three. Three is my magic number. You’ll have your own number. Eventually, you’ll know how long it will take you to do something. For example, I know how long it will take me to author this essay. I set that time aside and add thirty minutes so I don’t drive myself crazy and feel rushed.

At the end of the day, by using the SMART method, I’ve accomplished what I set out to achieve (and maybe more) because I overbudgeted time. Most importantly, I feel content. I feel accomplished, and I feel satisfied. I do this by setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time Sensitive) that align with my one-, three-, and five-year plans that fit into my life’s mission. So far, because of this formula, I have been able to live the life I’ve dreamed about, say, five years ago (or longer).

Before we go any further in creating a business plan, let’s stop here.

Look at your life’s mission. Sum it up in a brand message. Visualize where you want to realistically be in one-, three-, and five-years based on your life’s mission. Then, break it down. What steps must be taken to achieve these one-, three-, and five-year visionary landmarks?

This is not going to be accomplished in one sitting.

You’re going to have to think about it.

For now, let’s pause and let you get to work designing the future of your dreams. Go back, reread this article, and start planning your dream life.

After you have this, let’s move forward and build the rest of your business plan in future essays.