One of the most fundamental questions people ask themselves is “What is my purpose?” Now, I don’t want to get into a lot of existential angst about this, but it’s also the question that you need to be asking about your business. Think about it for just a minute: What is the purpose of your business?
If your answer is just “to make money,” then chances are that you aren’t going to be very successful when it comes to running a company (or as least, not as successful as you could be). True success is uncovering how you make strong connections with your potential customer base by living your brand and your purpose every day.
What’s Your Why?
You need to define your purpose for yourself. One of the worst things in the world is putting in your 40+ hours a week with no idea of why you are doing it. Talk about a life unfulfilled! (Not to mention all the opportunities you are missing.)
You also have to define a purpose for your employees. How can you expect your team to follow you and drive your business to success if they don’t understand your passion and purpose? We all want to work with team members that are invested in company, not just the paycheck. This is why corporate culture is so important; the culture should be your brand in action.
A well-thought out branding strategy is a benefit to your clients as well. The millennial generation are known for embracing businesses that share the same values and beliefs they hold dear. They aren’t the only ones either! Many are even willing to pay more for that experience. If you can communicate your purpose to your audience, you will humanize your brand and connect with people on a much deeper level.
Defining Your Purpose
How do you go about defining your purpose? You should start with the problems you solve. Your company exists because there is a need for your product or service. What’s that need? Is your programming or offering geared towards solving the pain points of your connections?
Then break down the steps you utilize to make sure that you achieve results. Does this process translate into the returns you expect? Do they allow you to check off your business goals? If the answer is yes, you are on to something! If the answer is no, your brand needs to re-evaluate its positioning and its purpose until everything is aligned in a way the benefits both you and your clients. This is the path to not only defining your purpose but being able to back it up with data and documented results.
It’s Not a Mission Statement
Ultimately, discovering your purpose involves deciding that you want to make an impact on the lives of others and determining a course, backed by your own skillset, that allows this to happen. Go back to the beginning of your journey and think about why you chose this field of work in the first place. What did you want to accomplish? If you can put that into a simple statement, then you have gone a long way towards defining your purpose. And don’t worry if it seems too simple. Customers aren’t going to react to super wordy, deeply philosophical mission statements. They simply need to establish a connection, that evokes an emotional response, and provides a solution to their problems.
Value your talents and gifts. To run a successful business, you must be confident in your skills and capabilities – and put a price tag to that. If you don’t value yourself, your clients won’t. This is one of the non-negotiables of success that we follow at Blue Zenith. Find out more about us and what we can do for your brand here.