Take a moment to stop and think about your business purpose. What is your why?
Your purpose is a reason beyond your products and services. All businesses, especially new businesses, should have a clear message about their purpose. Your business can benefit from having a purpose because it guides your every action and decision.
Having a purpose let’s you vocalize what it is you are actually doing. This provides clarity in those moments we all have where we stop in our tracks and think, “Wait, what am I doing with my life?”
In Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t (affiliate link), Jim Collins asks the three questions:
1. What am I most passionate about?
2. What can I be the best in the world at?
3. Now, how can I make money?
When you are starting your business, focus on these three questions. Take your time before you jump in to ensure your business aligns with something larger than yourself.
Before I started Boundless Marketing, I was pretty clear with myself about defining my personal values, but still in the first year, I often found myself working with other business owners who just didn’t align with those. I remember one phone conversation I had the day of my brother’s wedding where I was being reamed out for saying I would be unavailable, even though I had submitted all agreed upon deliverables a day early. I should have had then foresight to fire this new client on the spot, but alas, it took 7 more months of walking on eggshells before I finally broke free and trusted that I could in fact turn down business if it was going to cause me anxiety.
So what are my values, you may ask?
Health, Relationships, Creativity, Knowledge, and Challenges.
How can you figure out your own values?
The Value Driven Business: The Simple Strategy To Create A Business You Love
We also are working on a tool to help you sort through your own values. Please enter your name and email below to be kept up to date on the progress of this tool, which you can then use for free for your own business and clients!
