3 questions to find the why behind your business (and why you might want to)
Photo by Benjamin Combs on Unsplash
It feels fitting (if not a bit meta 😂) to start this with ‘why define the why’ behind your business.
Most business owners I know and work with started their business for a very particular reason.
Many have very intentionally left the conventional path of employment in order to pursue something different - whether that be a whole new career direction or taking their skills freelance.
They were motivated to do so in search of more freedom, greater flexibility, feeling in charge of their own career, and often because they wanted to contribute to a bigger cause - a challenging situation they had overcome themselves, or one that they felt strongly about supporting.
While many of us might have a sense of the why behind our work, we don’t always take the time to sit down and articulate it, which keeps it hidden from the people who share it.
Here are five reasons why it can be good to define the why behind your work:
It’s the foundation on which everything else is built. One you know the why behind what you do, all other decisions become easier because you can assess them against whether they fit your why or not.
It helps your customers know if they are a good fit. Do they share your values and resonate with your approach?
It helps you feel part of something bigger. As a solopreneur, or small business, you can put your contribution into the context of the bigger mission you and others are working towards.
It keeps you accountable. Going back to your why, allows you to assess whether you are actually making the change you set out to make.
It helps you measure progress. Knowing your why allows you to look beyond finances alone and measure the impact of your work in other ways.
I like to divide the why into two: a personal why and a bigger why.
The personal why is focused on you and the lifestyle you want. This can be very easily skipped over when we’re first starting out in business, with the result that our business becomes uncomfortably similar to the job that we were trying to leave behind.
The bigger why is more about the change that you want to see in the world.
Here are three questions to support you in crafting your own why:
What does your ideal week look like? What income do you need to make that possible?
What is the bigger change that you want to see in the world?
How does your business contribute to that?
I’d love to know how you get on. Please do reach out and let me know. 😊