Stephen Merritt, CPA, PC  |  Certified Public Accountants  |  (757) 420-5778
233 Business Park Drive, Suite 104, Virginia Beach, VA 23462

Your monthly news & updates

What’s Inside

• Why are You in Business? Crafting Your Mission, Vision, and Values Statements
• Urgent Notice Regarding QuickBooks Desktop 2019
• Guess Who!
• Office Hours
• COVID-19

Why are You in Business? Crafting Your Mission, Vision, and Values Statements

Most large businesses have developed mission, vision, and values statements to help guide them and inform stakeholders about the company’s strategic direction. Going through this strategic exercise is a wonderful idea for even the smallest business as well.

A company’s mission statement lists its core purpose and desired impact for employees, customers, owners, and other stakeholders. A vision statement defines what the company wants to be. A values statement describes what the company stands for.

It’s a perfect activity for business owners to answer and remember why they built the business in the first place. It also serves to correct and re-align the trajectory of the business.

Mission Statement

Start by asking what impact you want your business to have on the outside world. Here are some mission statement examples that are frequently quoted:

Harley-Davidson: More than building machines, we stand for the timeless pursuit of adventure. Freedom for the soul.

Disney: The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, reflecting the iconic brands, creative minds and innovative technologies that make ours the world’s premier entertainment company.

Nike: Nike exists to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. Our purpose is to move the world forward through the power of sport – breaking barriers and building community to change the game for all. *If you have a body, you are an athlete.

Notice how each one is short and simple to understand. They focus more on the big-picture benefits they bring to customers and less on how they will get there.

To write your own mission statement, ask yourself what your business’s purpose is and how you will impact your customers’ lives with your products and services.

Vision Statement

A vision statement is big, bold, and futuristic. What do you want your company to be?
Here are a few examples:

Harley-Davidson: Building our legend and leading our industry through innovation, evolution, and emotion

Deloitte: We aspire to be the Standard of Excellence, the first choice of the most sought-after clients and talent.

Amazon: Amazon strives to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, Earth’s best employer, and Earth’s safest place to work.

What do you want your company to become? That’s your vision statement.

Values Statements

Values statements are typically a set of adjectives or statements that answer what the company stands for. They can be in the form of leadership principles, core values, or a similar format. These days, they often include values on environmental, social, climate, global, human rights, diversity and inclusion, sustainability, and many other current issues. They can take the form of additional strategic statements on each one of these issues.

Sample values statements can be found in the company’s annual report as well as the About or Company section of their website.

Here are some examples:

Harley-Davidson Principles:

Communication – Communicate with purpose, structure, facts and inspiration
Agility – Accelerate, innovate and thrive in a rapidly changing environment
Impact – Focus on impact, not process, and be outcome driven
Simplicity – Pursue the simplest path to achieve each outcome
Speed – Don’t let perfection get in the way of process and pace
Culture – Be fair, honest, positive and creative. Strive to win and have fun.
Courage -Take risks and go against the norm
Judgment -Think strategically and make informed decisions
Focus – Focus on a short list of meaningful opportunities that build desirability
Lean – Maximize impact with limited resources

Coca-Cola Behaviors We Focus on:

Curious
Empowered
Inclusive
Agile

Merck Values:

Patients first
Respect for people
Ethics and integrity
Innovation and scientific excellence

Your mission, vision, and values statements will help you communicate the qualities of your business. It can help in hiring to see if a candidate’s individual values align with the core corporate values, and with customer acquisition when prospects see what your company is about. It can also help you remember your roots and why you work so hard every day.
Most large businesses have developed mission, vision, and values statements to help guide them and inform stakeholders about the company’s strategic direction. Going through this strategic exercise is a wonderful idea for even the smallest business as well.

Urgent Service Notice:

QuickBooks Desktop 2019

Urgent Service Notice:

QuickBooks Desktop 2019 software will be discontinued after May 31, 2022.

We’re letting you know that your QuickBooks Desktop 2019 software will be discontinued after May 31, 2022, which means you will no longer be able to use your QuickBooks Payroll. We thank you for being a valued QuickBooks customer, and we appreciate your commitment to your business and our products.

As a company, we’ve committed to creating financial tools that help you succeed today and grow with you tomorrow. But it’s a balancing act—making QuickBooks better means that we can’t support older versions forever.
After May 31, 2022, you won’t be able to access Payroll and Online Banking or sign up for other QuickBooks services such as Payments and Support unless you upgrade your product. Also, you will no longer receive updates for security patches that help protect you from cyber attacks and data theft.

Thanks,
The QuickBooks Team

Guess Who Answer!

There were some pretty good guesses with this photo from last months newsletter!

This is a childhood photo of Vic!

Office Hours

Office Hours: May 2, 2022 – December 2, 2022

Monday – Thursday
8 AM to 5 PM

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

Stephen Merritt, CPA, P.C. understands the challenge the impact COVID-19 has on our community.

Fully-Vaccinated individuals are not required to wear a mask while in our office.

Unvaccinated or not Fully-Vaccinated individuals must wear masks and follow COVID-19 protocol, such as social distancing, while in our office to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Tax documents may be mailed, FAXed, emailed, uploaded to client portal, or dropped off.

Final Returns can be picked up or mailed out.

As always, please call, we are happy to assist.

Stay safe and healthy!