As a business owner, you no doubt have goals surrounding your finances and the products you plan to offer to the world. However, one area that business owners often overlook is finding the “why” behind their work. By understanding the purpose of your business, you will be able to ensure you are offering services and products that are aligned with your goals. This “why” will be your daily motivation to keep you going during the good and bad days, which we all experience in any industry.
What Inspired Your Business Plan?
To discover your “why” in business, first, you need to think back to what encouraged you to launch this business in the first place. There must have been a reason to create your product or service. This could be a gap in the market, an issue you noticed within the industry, or something more profound. By understanding the inspiration behind your daily work, you can remind yourself every day of this when things start to get tough. If your business was inspired purely by the desire to make money, you might want to think a little deeper about this question. We all have different passions in life, and by applying these to your business, you’ll find you get more joy each day from your work.
What Problem Are is Your Product or Service Trying to Solve?
Every product or service in the world needs to solve a problem in order to be effective. This will help you to sell and market your product to your audience, as you’ll know what problem you are working to overcome in their life. You might be supporting a particular cause, or you may have noticed that there were major gaps within your market at the time of your launch. By knowing what problem you are trying to solve, you can help to push your business further and ensure you create new and useful products in the future for your customer base. If you find your product isn’t solving an issue, that’s a good sign you need to go back to the drawing board and find a USP that will help you to stand out in even the most saturated industries.
How Has Your Business Changed Since Its Launch?
As with anything in our lives, a business shouldn’t stay in one place year after year. You’ll find that the longer you are in business, the more you need to work to adapt to the current day expectations of consumers. If your business is still operating in the same way as it did on day one, it’s no surprise that you find yourself feeling lost and unsure what the purpose of your work is. I recommend anyone who is feeling lost reassess their five and ten-year business plan so that you have something to guide you through your everyday decisions in the future.
Sharing Your “Why” With Your Team
Your “why” isn’t something you need to keep to yourself once you find it, as this can be used to inspire everyone within your business. Many employees lack a greater sense of purpose when it comes to their work, but by sharing the motivation for your company with them, you’ll find they feel more connected to your business. I recommend sharing the reasons for your business existing and the issues you are trying to resolve with both your employees and customers. You’ll find your customers return over and over again in the future to your business when they know more about the ethics and values you are trying to uphold as a company.
Using Your “Why” To Motivate You To Move Forward
The past year has presented endless challenges for business owners throughout the country and the world as a whole. I recommend returning to your “why” in the future any time you find you are struggling to move forward or feel inspired within your business. By remembering why you started in the first place, you can find new ways to adapt to the current times while keeping your values in mind at all times.
There are so many benefits to finding your “why” as a business owner. I recommend taking the time to answer the questions I shared above, all of which will allow you to find the motivation behind your business moving forward. Sharing your why can help to keep both yourself and your team as a whole accountable and give you the push you need to overcome the toughest days you face as a business owner.