Kris D'Amico Photography

January 12th, 2010 by Kris

For those of us who do not have an MBA, these can be nagging questions. What does all this stuff mean? Why does it matter? Well, recently I’ve been working with a few startup companies that have been struggling with these questions, so I decided to turn it in on my studio. So, here’s a few exercises that you can use to flesh out, refresh, or like many of us small biz owners, establish a written mission statement and define values and goals.

So, here we go step one: Core Values.

You can google core values and get a list 3 miles long of what that means and the corporate definition, blah, blah, blah. Here it is boiled down to a sentience:

Core values are 3 to 5 words that define your approach to business on a daily basis.

For example the values that I came up with for Kris D’Amico Photography:

• Inspire
• Serve/ Contribute
• Invent/ Set Standards
• Experiment
• Embody Excellence

So, what do these mean, well you can break them down as much or as little as you like, but for me these can be put into one line. I want this studio, my studio, to inspire, while serving the community and helping to invent new methods thru experimentation, all while giving our clients a level of excellence that makes them raise up over their competition. Get all that? Alright, I know there’s a lot here, but the best advice that I read was from some Ph.D. at Harvard. He said, if your industry changed, your core values would not, if your management changed, your core values would not, you get the idea.

So, step two: The Mission Statement

Now this is a little tricker, but again you can make it as simple or complex as you want. I’m still working on mine, but I followed some advice from a marketing guru who just said, write down one word or short phrase that defines your business, now another, now take those two words or phrases and make them into a sentience.

So, in my case the phrase I chose was “best images,” because I’m striving to create the best images for the situation. Then the next phrase I chose was “brand strengthening,” this one is a little more generic but I am constantly placed in a position that requires me to not only provide great images, but often our images help define the public opinion of the product or service, so that makes us an important step in the branding process. So, here’s where the mission statement turned out. Like I mentioned I think there a bit of tweaking still involved here but it’s close.

Kris D’Amico Photography’s Mission Statement:

We strive to provide the best images that are designed to increase your bottom line and strengthen the position of your brand.

So, there you have it. Pretty simple after all that talk, hun? I thought so too, but it tells you specifically what I do, right?

Lastly: Defining Success

This is the easy part for most of us, what means success to you? A six figure salary? 20 folks working diligently under your watchful eye? Maybe it’s a set of national accounts? Whatever it is, write it down. I like to look at these like a tiered set of goals, for example here are a few of my goals that “define” success for us, right now.

Goals for this year (2010)

• 25% Business from Video Production
• 1 National Advertising Campaign
• Grow to afford a FT Assistant

Goals to strive for before 2012

• 50% Business from Video/ Film Production
• 1 FT AE/Producer Hired
• 1 PT Sales Hired
• Short term contracts with at 3-4 other national broadcast companies

So, there you go, once these things are in place you can make steps forward to making them happen. Good luck and let me know about your successes!