What’s your consulting firm’s mission statement?

Mission statements for consulting businesses are notoriously difficult to write.

In a few sentences, you must summarize why your business exists and the changes you want to make in the world.

Many consultants procrastinate when it comes to writing their mission statement. They claim they’ll “do it eventually,” but “eventually” never comes.

But consultants who are serious about their brand understand why it’s important to create and promote their mission statement, their purpose, and their values.

By the end of this post, you’ll learn how to write a consulting firm mission statement that energizes you and your team, helps you make better decisions, and attracts like-minded clients.

But first, let’s discuss why writing your mission statement is critical to your business’ success.

Whenever you’re feeling tired, unmotivated, or even scared to take action, you should be able to look at your mission statement and use it as fuel to push past whatever is holding you back.

Why Your Consulting Firm Mission Statement Is So Important

Creating your mission statement is difficult, but it’s well worth the effort.

Here are 3 reasons to carve out a day to brainstorm and write your consulting firm mission statement.

1. Helps Motivate You For The Long Term

Building a consulting business isn’t easy.

You’ll need greater motivation than just money to succeed in the long term.

A powerful mission statement will help sustain you and keep you going.

Whenever you’re feeling tired, unmotivated, or even scared to take action, you should be able to look at your mission statement and use it as fuel to push past whatever is holding you back.

Your mission statement should be a part of your “why” — the reason you’ve started your consulting business and why you won’t quit.

Consistency is key to success. And your mission statement will help you remain consistent.

2. You’ll Attract Like-Minded Clients & Team Members

Like attracts like.

When you understand your values and communicate them to the world, you’ll attract clients who share those same values.

And when you don’t share your values, you’ll notice that you’ll get clients who don’t share your same values.

Think about that… makes sense, right?

That means you won’t enjoy the process of working with them as much, and your projects will be much more difficult to complete successfully.

Several years ago, Sam and I developed a mini-documentary that tells our story and shares our values. As a result of being open and vulnerable about our values, we started to attract more clients that share the same values as we do.

The same goes for contractors and employees. You’ll want to find team members who are not only talented — but who also share your same values.

When you have a team that is full of A-players who are all aligned toward achieving the same mission, there are no limits on what you can achieve.

3. You’ll Make Quicker & Better Decisions

As an entrepreneurial consultant, you’ll constantly be making tough decisions.

Whether that’s what type of marketing strategy you’ll focus on, what type of industry you’ll specialize in, and what type of people you’ll hire, the pressure is on you to make the right decisions.

Your mission statement will help you make quicker and better decisions.

How?

Because with each decision you make, ask yourself if making the decision supports your mission statement, purpose and values.

For example, Sam and I built Consulting Success® to be an online business — one where we can serve our clients remotely and work around the world.

There might be a big client out there who wants to work with us and will pay us well.

But if they require us to work with them on-site for long periods of time (and in my case would take me away from my family), then that would go against one of our core values.

Instead of stressing about the decision, we make quick decisions based on one simple criterion: whether or not it supports our mission and values.

With each decision you make, ask yourself if making the decision supports your mission statement, purpose and values.

How To Write Your Consulting Firm Mission Statement

Your consulting firm mission statement is essentially an extension of your values.

So, to write your consulting firm mission statement, you must get clear on your values.

Inside our Clarity Coaching program, we help consultants get clear and articulate their values in order to write their mission statement.

Here’s a version of that exercise.

NOTE: You should block off a day (or half a day) and get outside of your office to brainstorm your values. When writing our core values, we found it very helpful to be in a different environment.

Step 1. Your Values

Write down your personal values: words that define you. Write down as many that come to mind. Here is a great example list from James Clear.

Step 2. Client Values

Write down the values of your clients: words that define the type of people you’d like to work with and serve. These can be the same as your own values. Write down as many that come to mind.

Step 3. Narrow Down

Narrowing down and getting specific is a recurring theme of building a successful consulting business. Select 3-5 of the most important words that you listed above.

Step 4: Bring Them To Life

Now that you’ve written your list of core values, flesh them out. Talk about what they mean to you. Talk about why they’re important. Talk about what they’ll do for you, your business, and your clients. Don’t worry about it sounding perfect. Write something down and finish it. You can come back and edit later.

Step 5: Write Why You Exist

To sum up your consulting firm mission statement, wrote down why your business exists. Use this prompt: “My business exists to …”. This is what you set out to accomplish. And your values describe how you’ll accomplish this.

Next, we’ll get into some examples from real consulting businesses.

Consulting Firm Mission Statement Examples

Now that we’ve established how to write your consulting firm mission statement, let’s look at some examples.

At Consulting Success®, we have the following…

Our purpose is…

“We exist to help entrepreneurial consultants achieve success on their own terms (freedom, impact, income, wealth)”

Our mission is…

“Become the #1 coaching and training company for entrepreneurial consultants globally by 2025.”

Our values are…

We Are La Familia:

We’re a family-owned business and we treat our team, clients, and community like one big family with respect, honesty, genuine care, and trust. We go the extra mile for our clients and team members. We truly want to help the people we come in contact with. We love to serve people beyond what is typically expected in a business relationship.

We Are Entrepreneurial:

We believe growth and improvement makes life and business exciting and challenging. We’re always learning, growing, taking action, surrounding ourselves with smart, ambitious and inspiring people. Reaching new levels of personal and business success is what we’re all about!

We Believe Health is Wealth:

We prioritize health. Mental health, daily physical exercise, and having a flexible schedule that allows us to recharge and create amazing life experiences inside and outside of work are key to how we operate and run our business.

We Are Worldwide!

The people, the languages, the cultures, the food, and the geography, make this place we call earth, a truly spectacular and unique gift to us all. We celebrate this through travel, deep exploration, and by happily working with and supporting people of all backgrounds, religions, and ethnicities.

Now, let’s take a look at some consulting firm mission statements from the consultants in our Clarity Coaching community.

Here’s what Bobby G, branding consultant, says about his firm’s mantra:

“It’s all about results” is our mantra, and this allows us to satiate our ravenously curious nature. We want to learn everything about you, your business, industry, and audience. Our approach focuses on fixing the cause of your problem, not the symptoms. And our process helps our clients be better leaders and more confidently prepared for the growth and results we deliver.

Here’s what Douglas Nelson, Managing Director of a non-profit consulting firm, states as his firm’s mission:

“The Discovery Group (TDG) is a boutique consulting firm dedicated to the social profit sector. We believe that social profit organizations can change the world. Our mission is to help our clients envision change, determine how to make it happen, and put the necessary tools and skills into place for success.”

Elliot Begoun, founder of a food brand consulting business, uses a mascot to explain his firm’s mission statement:

“At TIG Brands, we believe in building tardigrades, not unicorns. Tardigrades are nimble, capital-efficient, and resilient. Tardigrades say “no” to growth for growth’s sake. They avoid the fundraising hamster wheel and keep fixed costs and burn low. They are focused on unit and channel economics. To be a true Tardigrade, a brand must embody these ten traits:”

• Capital-efficient
• Guided by a growth hypothesis
• Growth hack mindset
• Investment ready
• Optimize the shopper continuum
• Disciplined
• Nimble
• Accountable
• Community building
• Resilient

Your consulting firm mission statement can take many forms.

Have fun with it. Be original. Be bold. Be yourself.

And use the examples above as the inspiration for your own.

Now, you’re ready to write your first draft.

Write Your Consulting Firm Mission Statement First Draft

Follow the exercise we recommend to write your first consulting firm mission statement.

Don’t try and make it perfect.

Instead, just write an IMPERFECT first draft. You can make it better over time.

Once you’ve written it, put it on your LinkedIn profile and your consulting website.

Remember, it will help PULL in your ideal clients, and PUSH away bad-fit clients.

You’ll also start to get feedback on your mission statement. You can use that feedback to update and revise your mission statement.

But, no matter what feedback you get, make sure it remains true to you and your mission.

Finally, bring up your mission statement in your conversations with clients and the content you create. Doing this will help you attract the right clients because they’ll agree with your mission and value.

Your consulting firm mission statement is a vital part of your consulting brand.

Be public and proud about it, and you’ll reap the rewards of running a well-positioned, mission-focused consulting business.