A Purpose Driven Business Is Only Successful If You Discover Your Purpose In Life
An article from Trish Davies which looks at the purpose driven business model and how it can only work if you know your life’s purpose.
As promised in my last post we are going to start delving into the three pillars of a successful business. The first pillar is authenticity and I am going to focus on purpose and there are two aspects of purpose. They are your own personal purpose and the purpose of your business. The two must be aligned for a purpose driven business to become successful.
What Is Your Purpose In Life?
The first thing you need to define is what your purpose in life is, what makes you get up in the morning? The reason I ask this is because it really affects many aspects of your life. The first thing is the decisions that you make which have a huge impact on what happens in your life. We all live and die from those decisions and we all make good and bad ones. The thing we all need to do is make far more good decisions than bad ones. That comes from having a great mindset when you open your eyes in the morning and kick off your duvet.
Your purpose also effects your behaviour in general. Whether it is how you treat yourself or the people around you. If you have no purpose in life, then usually what happens is that you drift through life and become lonely. The reason this happens is that other people tend to steer clear of you and don’t want to be associated with you. At the end of the day they have no reason.
On the other hand, though if you are positive and have a reason to live you tend to become aligned with people of the same mind. You behave better with family, friends and your peers.
What Are Your Goals?
When you have a clear vision on how you want your life to develop it shapes the goals that you set. Goal setting is a vital part of your life and when they are in place it gives you motivation to reach those targets. Also, when you achieve the first goal a snowball effect happens which can be defined as momentum. Suddenly you will find yourself as a thundering train that stops at no platform.
When you mix all the previous points together you will have direction in your life which you can then take forward into your business. So, before we look at what a purpose driven business looks like I am going to set you an exercise. Three questions that I feel will help you find your purpose in life.
- Who Am I?
- Where Do I Belong?
- When Do I Feel fulfilled?
What Does A Purpose Driven Business Look Like?
I came across a statement which I feel sums up what a purpose driven business is. It is a business that takes action on something that’s bigger than its products and services.
Too many businesses see business as a transactional process and their bottom line. Agreed that every business must generate revenue to survive but a business should mean more than just profits alone.
I look at business as more than just making money alone. Any business can make money and make their owners rich but that is not what it is all about. There are many rich people in life who are very unhappy, and this is because they are unfulfilled.
When I look at business, I focus more on how I can serve my leads and clients. If you focus on serving people than money two things will happen. The first is you will feel more satisfied and fulfilled in your business. The second is that you will make more money which you will enjoy more because of the former.
As a business owner you must feel that what you are doing is going to improve the world and make an impact. If you do this for just one person then you will have created a purpose driven business. The goal obviously though is to replicate this achievement as many times as you can.
What Does Your Business Stand For?
So, you must look at what your business stands for and you will get many of those answers from your own purpose in life. Then you can develop a strategy on how you can pull everything together. That strategy will influence your decisions on how to implement you master plan.
Those decisions will in time affect other aspects of your business. You will look for suppliers who are aligned with your businesses purpose. As an example, say your business is revolved around the environment and how to save it. You would be looking for suppliers that can help you achieve that, even if they are more expensive. You wouldn’t go for a cheaper option that has no impact.
At first you may be working alone but in time you will feel the need to employ people. To truly reflect the purpose of your business you will only employ people who are on the same page. The reason you do this is because they will have more motivation and do the job better. If you have someone who just wants a job and then goes home, then your business will suffer.
Going Into The Future
When you have your own purpose and your businesses purpose set in stone you will find that the future never stands still. Aligned with your staff and suppliers you will naturally see your business evolve and grow. Future innovation will see you change methods if they need to be changed to become more efficient.
Ideas and visions will be created through the collaboration of the people you have placed around you. There is a saying that “two heads are better than one” so imagine what you can achieve if you multiple that many times.
My last piece of advice would be to create a mission statement for your business. When you do this and publish it you then become accountable to your audience and the network around you.
It should be based on your values, morals and ethics. Really this should be an easy exercise because by this stage it is based on what you have put into place.
I hope that you can see why I have started with the authenticity pillar and looked at purpose. If you don’t have purpose, then other elements can’t be put into place. A purpose driven business can be easily created if you take the time to plan things out. This is something that we concentrate on within my Build Your AU program and then we take this purpose to create something very special. See you next time where I will focus and what your talents and gifts are.
A life of freedom and choice
Trish Davies International
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