Entrepreneurs Building Business On Purpose

This is the future. This is what the world needs. This is the answer.

Wow, some pretty big and bold statements here! I recently read a great interview with Roy Spence in the online Entrepreneur magazine. Roy is the author of “It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For”. He says he had 2 choices when he started his business – he could build something that would make a lot of money or he could build something that would enrich his life. He chose the second option.

Roy’s belief is that when you are on purpose and you deliver value consistently through your product or service, the money will also follow.

Now, when I talk about purpose, it’s not about having an airy-fairy idea about what your business does but having a strong tangible understanding of how your business helps people. You can have a strong purpose whether you’re selling cupcakes or massages or professional services. If you’re just trying to make a sale and your customer doesn’t believe in the value of what you’re selling, then chances are you won’t make the sale. You might be thinking “a cupcake has value?” For me a cupcake will always be about that moment in the day when I get to sit down with a good book and a yummy cake…it’s my little haven in a busy life! So, yes it does have huge value…to me and I’m sure lots of others!

Jim Collins in his book “Good To Great” recommends you ask 3 questions:

What am I most passionate about?
What can I be the best in the world at?
Now, how can I make money?
A word of caution: It’s not just about finding your purpose – question 3 is equally as important as questions 1 and 2 but when you ask the 3 together, that’s where the magic can really happen! Peter Drucker, a management philosopher and thinker said “that making profit – very often mentioned as the purpose of a firm – is not only false, it is irrelevant and may even be harmful”. He went on further to state “Profit-making is not the purpose, but the test if the purpose of the business works.”

These are powerful words indeed.