Building Your Business With A Purpose
As a small business owner, you have a lot of things to juggle. There are so many pieces that go into running a business – hiring employees, managing finances, marketing your product or service – and it can be overwhelming at times.
But there is something you may not have thought about: how having a higher purpose behind what you do can help build your company. It might not seem as important as those other tasks that require much more immediate attention, but as Susan M. Heathfield explains in her article “Building Your Business With A Purpose,” the impact this kind of thinking will have on your company is far-reaching and extremely beneficial for both you and your customers:
…Companies with higher purposes often outperform their competitors, not just in sales but also in employee engagement and innovation. When employees know they are working for a company that has a higher purpose, their loyalty to the company increases. They work harder and are better able to see beyond the daily activities of their jobs to how their jobs fit into the big picture.
This article is intended to provide you with some great insights on why you should be building your business with a purpose, along with some tips on how to get started.
It’s true: companies with a higher purpose outperform those without one. According to research by the Farbrook Technologies Group, organizations that have a clear sense of why they exist and how they work together as a team tend to be more profitable than those that don’t.
A higher purpose can help you attract better job candidates, generate stronger customer loyalty, and motivate employees. It can help your employees understand not only what their jobs entail, but also give them insight into why what they do matters for themselves and your customers. The connection between understanding an organization’s higher purpose and increased productivity has been well documented. Employees working for a company with a higher purpose are more productive, stay longer, and enjoy their work more than those working for companies without one.
At the end of the day, having a higher purpose means that you care about something bigger than yourself and your bottom line. You care about providing value to your customers and making sure they feel like your business is doing good in the world – even if it’s only as simple as offering them great prices on quality products.
There are lots of ways to incorporate this idea into your business model. You might want to focus on supporting local initiatives or charities directly related to what you do for business. For example, an entrepreneur starting a clothing company could build her brand around providing employment opportunities to single mothers looking for a fresh start. Or, a company that sells computers could sponsor an after-school program to introduce low-income students to computer programming and help them learn on new devices.
Regardless of how you want to define the higher purpose behind your company, just remember that it is important to do so. You can create a stronger bond with employees and customers alike when you work on something bigger together than just selling products and services. People like to know who they’re doing business with and why.
Working on something bigger than yourself and your bottom line means there is more to life than all of the materialistic things we buy, swallow up our time, and don’t actually provide any lasting or meaningful memories. It also gives us a sense of what our successes mean in relation to us as human beings – not simply profit margins! Living purposefully will give you a better sense of direction for your future goals.
You might already have a higher purpose baked into your business model without even realizing it. Think about how you can highlight this aspect of your company as something unique and special – the service or product you offer contributes to making the world a better place in some way. If you don’t have anything yet, take some time to brainstorm ideas with your employees and see what comes out of it!
As a small business owner, you have a lot of things to juggle. There are so many pieces that go into running a business – hiring employees, managing finances, marketing your product or service – and it can be overwhelming at times. But there is something you may not have thought about: how having…