Does a mission statement really matter? (Part 1)

Those of us of a certain age may remember a classic movie from the late 1990’s starring Tom Cruise and Rene Zellweger telling the story of a young professional sports agent that has an epiphany of sorts at a company conference.

Jerry Maguire, played by Cruise, is a sports agent with a moral dilemma. He is one of the best in the business, but after one of his clients is injured multiple times on the field, Jerry sees the toll his profit-minded sports management company asserts on the players. He is deeply disturbed by it and writes a mission statement proposing fewer clients, less money, and more personal investment in the players’ lives.

He stays up all night writing a long dissertation then distributes it to all his coworkers attending the conference. He labeled the document his ‘mission statement’. In this statement, he outlines the concept of the company being too focused on money with numerous clients and suggests the company should concentrate on fewer clients and build deeper relationships with the clients vs all the focus on just more money.

Suffice it to say, Jerry traverses through the movie, with terrific sporting events intertwined along the way while losing his job, his girlfriend, his condo, and attempting to start his own sports agent business recruiting a co-worker (Zellwenger) to help in desperately securing one client from which he learns some pretty valuable life lessons.

So what does this have to do with small businesses in our region? Well, at NCVA Media, the owning company of this magazine (in fact all three magazines…Hyco Lake Magazine, SoBo Halifax Magazine and River City Area Magazines), we have a mission statement too. It is: Enhancing our community by connecting the merchants and small businesses to the community of readers with positive digital, print, and broadcast media.

And it is not uncommon for the primary owner, Peter Berry, to state on occasion. ‘‘remember why we are here…’Does moving forward with this story, project or thought process’ fit into our mission?’

Having been in corporate America for over twenty years myself, working for an international advertising agency, wherein we regularly were weaving mission statement intentions into advertising messages, working with mission statements is no new concept. Yet it was not until becoming a small business owner of my own and working with Peter, that it took on an entirely new meaning…a real meaning…similar to what happened in Jerry Maguire. And as Jerry’s one client, Rod (played by Cuba Gooding), says ‘Show me the Money!”…I realized in real life sometimes it can't always be about ‘ Show me the Money!

Now, I’m as driven and success oriented as they come and believe in the ‘American Way’ that has so provided me with the environment, tools and desire to succeed, and of course making money is important to all small businesses - and all the tools that are available in the toolkit need to be used when the timing is right. And like all small businesses out there, if we do not get paid for our services, we can’t pay our bills either… the money matters!

The parallels to Jerry Maguire continued when Peter Berry approached me with a project, he had been working on for over a year with the Small Business Center (SBC) of Piedmont Community College (PCC). The two entities had been discussing unique ways to engage the community in the PCC small business programs. At the PCC SBC, they help businesses succeed and state, “Whether it’s providing additional training, one-on-one counseling, or contacts and information, we’re here to serve you. We understand the problems small businesses face. And best of all most of our services are at no cost to you!”

With many conversations and working through details, the PCC/NCVA Media Marketing & Mentoring (M&M) program was born. Because this work aligns perfectly with the NCVA Media mission of ‘enhancing our community by connecting the merchants and small businesses to the community’… it made perfect sense.

As the participants in the PCC Small Business Center are counseled with their business needs, Director Keavy Isaacs helps guide them to the M&M Program upon completion of initial steps. A small business seeking more ways to promote their business and looking to take it to the next level, can then be connected with NCVA Media Marketing & Mentoring program. Isaacs said ‘the NCVA Media team employs not only a wealth of industry knowledge to teach clients how to market their specific business to their client base, but they also use their vast network of community resources and partnerships to help new businesses settle in their role in the local community”.

The program includes a series of one-on-one marketing business coaching sessions with specific objectives as well as complimentary advertising in all three magazines and online for an entire year. “The icing on the cake is the free and (year) long advertisement that is placed in NCVA Media's local magazines to help boost our clients' business and show them the effects of their marketing efforts working for them”, said Isaacs. She added, “Clients (in the SBC PCC initiative) in this program have been told by their new customers that they saw their ad in these magazines.”

The businesses that have participated in the program have by example, proven that the extra efforts of investing time to address marketing challenges and opportunities, is worth it. See the next blog post, "Does a mission statement really matter? (Part 2)'.

By Amanda Hodges, as published in Hyco Lake Magazine, River City Area Magazine and SoBo Halifax Magazine, Fall 2024