Reneé Claire- My Values Are My Business' Values
During the week between Christmas and New Years, I spend a few hours each day reviewing the year. Our shop slows down during this week and I get a chance to really think about what we have accomplished. I use Google Docs to create an outline and then during the week I fill out the outline more and more. I start with three basic questions: What Went Well, What Didn’t Go Well, What Can I Improve. I also add our gross sales from the year prior and the current year I am dissecting.
This is always a great jumping off point to create a deeper analysis and has led me to tweak my mission, vision, and core values statements over the years. It is also helpful to periodically read back through my yearly review documents as I make new plans. Sometimes I had a plan already lined up that I had originally deemed too far fetched. Or one idea keeps coming back again and again and finally it appears the time has arrived to take a risk and launch it.
Between 2017 and 2018 my business grew tremendously, just like ensuring my accountating process was accurate, I also made sure we were growing with our values. This process also allowed me to tweak our mission statement. Here are some of those iterations:
2016: Church Alley Coffee Bar believes in the value of a home away from home, the excellence of finely crafted coffee, the promotion of issues that contributes positively to our city’s youth, and creating a more peaceful and positive New Orleans.
2018: Church Alley Coffee Bar is an engaged and compassionate community partner that nourishes through the joy of coffee and healthy meals in comfortable spaces where people feel able to communicate, dream, and spend time with others in a stress-free environment.
2019: Church Alley is a compassion hospitality business based in New Orleans dedicated to creating and empowering high quality food and beverages in comfortable spaces along the Gulf Coast. Our flagship coffeeshop, Church Alley Coffee Bar, sets an example of consistency, sustainability, and quality, while our consulting boutique assists other business owners to make their own dreams come true.
You can see that some of our goals have changed with growth and experience. In 2018 I took on two consulting contracts to help other businesses open coffeeshops. While I had been doing consulting work since 2009 in the form of writing and project management contracts for non-profits, I had never specifically thought of doing this type of work for other hospitality businesses. This annual process opened a whole new revenue stream to me.
As I worked on my mission statement in 2017, I also created a list of key values that best describe my company. The words that I finally chose are: optimism, empathy, empower, integrity, and nourish. I then worked to create definitions and eventually I posted them in the back of the shop where employees and myself regularly work.
I used a variety of brainstorming activities to create this list and then kept these words hung on my living room wall for a few weeks alongside my mission and vision statements to make sure that this all really fit my business. I also have shown all of these things to various people including staff, customers, and people who don’t really know much about the business. All of these tactics work for me when tweaking something so important. It is often the feedback you get from those that don’t know your business that is the most helpful.
I think one of the most important ways to make sure your mission, vision, and values are truly aligned with your business is to spend time with them. Write them on big poster board and tape them to your wall. Look at them in different frames of mind. When you are relaxed, when you are tired, or stressed and make sure they inspire you or reassure you. They must guide you through difficult decisions and those times when you aren’t sure you are on the right path.
Our business and our relationship with our business is always evolving. Our businesses should help us evolve as people too. These yearly deep dives allow me to see that evolution and ensure it is mindful and aligned with my non-moving values. My business is truly an extension of me. My business has also forced me to level up, to be more disciplined, and to continually strive to be a better version of myself. The staff I hire share my goals and values and so we are always able to learn and grow as a team. Writing all of this down and keeping it in a public space creates an environment where we hold each accountable and are better able to make decisions that bring out our best.
Reneé Claire is available for consulting sessions related to developing your mission, vision, and value statements. Email churchalleycoffeebar(@)gmail.com to schedule your session.
