The business purpose is the reason you’re building or operating the business.
To state the business purpose, imagine a sentence starting with “The primary reason I’m building this business is…” or “The primary reason I’m operating this business is…” and then complete the sentence.
The business purpose belongs to the business, not to you. Your own personal purpose for starting a business will be different than the business purpose. For example, if you’re starting an online marketing business so you can quit your job and work from the beach, your personal purpose might be “To live my dream lifestyle at the beach” while the business purpose might be “To help people figure out their marketing plan”.
The business purpose is whatever you want it to be. To be useful, it needs to be true. If you select a business purpose based on what “sounds good” to you or what you think other people will like, then it won’t be true to you and that has consequences: first, it won’t work to inspire you to do whatever it takes to make the business work; second, you won’t light up when you talk about it, which will make it harder for you to inspire other people to contribute their time and effort to make your business a success; third, it won’t inspire your customers.
The business purpose might affect what kind of business it is and how you manage it.
Some examples:
“To make the world a better place”
“To teach kids about …”
“To help professionals with …”
“To help other people”
“To save the planet”
“To care for animals”
Compass
Once you know your business purpose, you can identify the market and share your business vision with others to inspire them to help you fulfill the business purpose.
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