A framework for your purpose-driven business
Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash
Most of the people I work with would describe themselves as being driven by purpose. Meaning that, to a greater or lesser degree, their business has sprung out of a desire to do good in the world. Quite often people have been through a challenging time themselves, or see a problem facing their community or the natural world around them, and want to do something about it.
A lot of what I do is to help them build the scaffolding, or the framework that enables them to bring their big vision to life.
Traditional business practices often encourage us to succeed by being ‘better’ than the competition and carry a pressure to shout the loudest in the already noisy world of marketing. For many purpose-driven founders, these ways of working just aren’t a good fit.
The people I work with are much more drawn to collaboration over competition and the fostering of real and meaningful relationships with their customers and peers. 🌿
Whereas traditional business practices are focussed on making a sale as the end point, purpose driven business instead puts purpose at the heart of everything we do.
If you think of the traditional approach to business as a funnel approach, designed to entice people to buy, then you can think of a purpose-driven approach as a self-sustaining cycle, where your business is designed to thrive in collaboration with the people, community and environment around you. It's like developing an ecosystem around your business.
Putting purpose at the heart of everything you do.
Everything, from the way you market your work, to the way you sell, who you sell it to and what you sell, stems from the purpose of your business. And so a really good starting point is getting super clear on what that purpose is - for you, your customers and your bigger mission in the world.
Some questions that you can explore to help investigate the 'why' behind your work are:
Why does this business matter to you?
What do you want from it?
What is the story behind what brought you here?
What impact will this have for the people you work with?
What big world problems do you care about solving?
What feels obviously wrong, unfair or in need of being fixed?
Why will others care?
I have found that even though our business may evolve and change, the ‘why’ behind it usually stays the same. It means that you always have that constant foundation there to keep you rooted in, to accompany you through the inevitable ups and downs, and to support you in making decisions and choices that align with what you want to bring into the world.
I’m curious to know your thoughts. Is this already something that you are using in your business, or something that you would like to integrate a little more? Let me know in the comments below.