How do I define my purpose for my business? And I mean that both ways. How do I do it? Like, what's a good process to go through to define my purpose? And then how specifically do I define my purpose for our business? Most entrepreneurs don't have a clear and compelling roadmap for the future.
Welcome to Forecast On Purpose, where we talk about how to define your purpose, build a growth plan and track progress along the way to make sure you stay on target.
The result is confidence and peace of mind that you were on the right track. My name is Ben Cooper and I'm the founder of Amplify. We help entrepreneurs better understand how today's decisions either positively or negatively affect your future.
In each episode, we'll hear a short story of an entrepreneur facing an important growth decision, a business concept that applies to the situation, and then a key question or action step for you to apply to your own business. Also it's possible we may be talking about you and your business in the future.
Today, we're going to be talking about defining our purpose. Let's get started.
Mike started a local coffee shop right across from campus about 10 years ago. And he started it because he loves the day-to-day interaction of standing across the counter from a customer. You know, a neighbor, somebody who goes to church with you or somebody whose kids go to the same school as you. He loved the opportunity to build relationships with people in the community.
Fast forward years later, he looks up and he finds himself not standing behind the counter, creating a latte for a customer, not face-to-face with the customers. He's in a back room hunched over a stack of receipts, looking at the numbers, trying to figure out: How did I end up here? How did I end up,
you know, in a different part of the coffee shop than I intended to be? That's not why I started this. That light bulb moment can be a really important opportunity to step back and question: why do I really care about my business? And why did I get into it in the first place? And how do I make sure that I can
get back to a place where it's more aligned with who I am as a person and how I want to grow my business in the longterm? So today we're going to be digging into that very question: how do I define purpose for my business?
I like to think of defining success as if you are pointing out a flag in the distance, or you're identifying that mountain top that you really want to be focusing on and it may be far away in the distance, but it's at least a thing that you can set your sites toward. And it's a very clear destination
or point in the distance that you're able to say: that's what we care about. And so whatever we do today, even though we don't clearly see and understand every step between here and there, we at least know that we want to be moving that direction. So there are a handful of ways where you can just initially think about
success and how we define it. There's that flag in the distance picture.
There's the why behind what you're doing that Simon Sinek, so clearly outlines in his Ted talk video, where, if you start with the, how you're going to be approaching things in a way that doesn't keep the most important thing at the center. You know, it doesn't keep the heartbeat of the business, really driving everything.
And then another Viktor Frankl quote that I really like. He talks about imagining that you have already lived your life and you've made some wrong decisions along the way. And now you're actually getting a second chance. You're able to live today again, as if you made the wrong decision the first time, but now you have an opportunity to make the right decision today.
And so that allows you to just get a perspective on, you know, when I get to the end of my life and look back, what is it that I hope to see? And how is it that I hope I will have behaved and made decisions today, so that I'm know that I'm leading things toward a direction and a destination that I will be really proud of when all is said and done.
There's a simple framework that I've put together to help you get some clarity and structure. In this process, as you're trying to define success for your business and get a clear picture of your purpose, and you'll find this in the free guide that you can download at forecastonpurpose.com if you want to read along.
But essentially it's three : (Company) will (goal) by (date), which will allow me to (result). Now that statement doesn't really make sense unless you're looking at the fact that four of those words have parentheses around them and they're meant to be fill in the blanks. So your company will accomplish a goal by a certain date,
which will allow you to get a certain result. And this is important because it means I will be able to (driving "why").
I know that I will be on track along the way, because I will (checkpoint) by (date). Now, it might be a little confusing if you're just listening, but if you're looking at these words and you'll see that for Mike's situation, for instance, we could say, you know, Mike's coffee shop will hire a new accounting firm by
june, which will allow me, Mike, to get out of the back office and be back out making lattes in front of the customers. This is important because it means I will be able to build community build relationships with people who live across the street, people who are going to school on campus. I know I will be on track along the way, because
I will generate
$150 a week more in net profit to afford the accountants by April. I'm just making this up along the, along the way here, but You can break down even the checkpoints to know you're on target by quantifying exactly what it will take to accomplish that initial goal. So you almost think of it as dominos here,
where there's an initial domino that really needs to start falling over in order to knock down some of the later dominos. And for Mike, he can't necessarily get out of the back room. And maybe there's already cashflow available, profit available to bring on this additional expense for the business. But if this business is needing to create additional cashflow to
cover this new expense that might come from hiring an accounting firm. Then a good way to think about it will be: we have to hit a checkpoint at a certain date before we can go ahead and, and bring on this outside service that's a new expense for my business. But I can at least see that there are checkpoints between,
you know, me getting out of this backroom and getting back in front of the customers and pulling espresso shots for my neighbor, essentially. And so if I'm Mike, I am filling in some of these blanks in a way that will help me feel like, okay, even though I found myself in a position where I'm kind of operating outside of my purpose or the why behind
the reason I started my coffee shop in the first place, there's at least an opportunity for me to get clear on that first and then identify that there are small steps that I can take to begin moving things back in the right direction. it's important to view a statement like this as a working draft, we haven't necessarily gotten deep into any kind of margins or,
you know, any kind of forecast or projection to identify when or how this might fit into Mike's growth plan, but it is important to at least identify that this is the desire. This is the thing that at the end of the day, at the end of the month year life of the business, that this is what makes
the business of success for Mike and it's not necessarily going to match the definition of success for the next coffee shop, for instance, down the street. But it's important to think of this as a living draft and something that Mike will continue to come back to and refine. Hopefully, the accountant firm comes in, alleviates them from some of these duties, he's able to get back out front
and there's a next thing that he might be able to identify as a an opportunity to move things even further in the direction of his definition of success. So an action step for you: if you're listening to this, your business owner, I would encourage you to do two things: listen to Simon Sinek's "Start With Why" TED talk
and listen to how he talks about the importance of starting with "why" and not necessarily "how." And then secondarily, fill out the success statement that's in the Forecast On Purpose guide. In doing so, you will begin to at least pull on the thread of identifying what you care most about, and then beginning to
chart a path of some sorts where there are some checkpoints along the way that will help you see that you don't just have to say, well, I wish I was somewhere else; I wish I was out, not in the back room, but out in the counter. Mike could just sit back and go, well, I guess this is just what it's like,
this is what it's like to be an entrepreneur. And this is how things have to stay forever. And that's not true. There are always opportunities to creatively make decisions and intentionally build a plan that will move you in a direction that you'll be excited about.
Only you can set that flag in the distance, so take some time to think about it, fill in these blanks on the success statement and feel free to send it to me if you'd like. You can reach me hello@forecastonpurpose.com. We'd love to see what your success statement is.
If you or someone you know is an entrepreneur and you'd like some help planning for the future, don't hesitate to reach out. Go to forecastonpurpose.com to learn more, and remember: you are not alone and you do not have to just blindly guess about the future. Keep fighting the good fight and forecast on purpose.