If you do get into the phase of dressing your plan for others to read, guard against meaningless words and phrases that just get in the way. It might be simple hype, like user-friendly software, or excellent customer service, or best of breed or whatever.

This kind of meaningless language turns up a lot in mission statements. What does “excellent customer service,” when it’s in a mission statement, tell you? Is there any company you know that aspires to “average customer service,” or “mediocre customer service?” Why bother to put these words into your business writing?

So the test is this: would what you’re saying in your mission statement, or your mantra, apply as well to any company in the industry? Could anybody tell, just from listening to this mission statement or mantra, which company it is? Can somebody identify you by your words?

If not, then your mission statement is useless. If it would apply as well to any other company, then trash it. Forget it.

The Dilbert mission statement generator on the web is a great example. Click and you get another mushy sounding meaningless mission statement. Don’t do that in your plan, or your summary, or your cover letter, or any business writing.

Please, recognize that you either have a pretty good idea of these numbers, or you’d better find out, or you aren’t really running a business and you don’t actually want to. Or there is somebody on your team that can do this. Or you have to find somebody on your team.

Consider the Trunk Club, Joanna Van Vleck’s interesting startup described in “Startup Success Story: The Trunk Club” in Up and Running at upandrunning.entrepreneur.com. How important is it that she understands who isn’t her customer? She told me this herself:

• I realized that although I thought my target was women, women are normally closer to style. In general. So they aren’t as likely to pay money for style consulting.
• Men have less ego invested. Some, in fact, pride themselves on not knowing style. In general.
• The metrosexual man is not my customer. He loves his own style and spends his own time and effort finding it.
• The man whose partner in a relationship likes to shop for his clothes is not my customer. She wants to do it. She doesn’t want me to.
• The younger men on a budget aren’t my customer. They can’t afford me.

Notice how the “isn’t my customer” routine helps define and position your marketing better.

A fast-food restaurant knows that the relatively well-to-do baby boomer empty nesters aren’t their customers. On average. The sushi restaurant knows that the construction worker driving a pickup truck who eats at the Texas barbecue drive-through isn’t its customer.

Consider Jolt cola. Twice the sugar and twice the caffeine. How important is understanding who isn’t the customer.

Your blog, if you’re doing a blog as a business, needs a focus. People don’t care about your inner angst, but there are specialty niche areas all over the place. Old Volkswagen maintenance. Arranging dry flowers. The narrower you cut it the better. Sure there are some general blogs that work, but they started years before you did. Nowadays you need to focus.