In the first place, there is the vision - the dream. It's where you want to go, what you want to be. It's perfectly appropriate for your dream to be unattainable, to be just out of reach. It's what you reach for. The vision statement is where you describe this dream for your family business.

The mission statement is where you start to show how this dream is going to become a reality. You identify major goals that must be accomplished. You identify how you are going to operate as you go about meeting the major goals. You identify significant factors that will be necessary for you to reach those goals: the products or services you will provide, the kind of people you will need.

Unlike the dream, they should reflect achievable goals - they can be challenging, a real stretch, but if they aren't achievable, they're not goals for a mission, they're still a vision or dream