What’s The Purpose of Your Business

What do you want to get out of your business? For most people, it's to gain more freedom and time to do what they want with their lives. But running a business can quickly become very time consuming.

I'd like to start this posting off with a question.

What's the intention of a business?

Or, perhaps more generally, what's the purpose of your business?

Do you ever think about that throughout the course of the day?

Or, does it only preoccupy you at night or when you are thinking about something and the question fills your head?

Years ago, I would have thought the purpose of a business was created for our customers. But today, I would have to say that the real purpose of a business is to give the owner of that business more life, more freedom.

Although, through out my years, I have never had any companies owners give me that answer. Many business owners naturally go into business with the goal of achieving something that fulfills their dreams, but the making it, fixing it, shipping it quickly consumes. The phone rings and business owner reacts without thought to the demand on the other end.

At some point this fantastic vision of freedom and reflection that you had for your business became just the opposite--methodically taking the life right out of you.

Has anyone come to realize that your business can rob you of your life if you are willing to let it?

So, what's the answer?

I think the answer to this question comes down to two things -

Focus and Connection

Focus involves a breakthrough, or at least rediscovery, of what you want most out of your life. That knowledge then must become the focus of your thoughts and the basis for your business decision-making. See, unless you know and focus on what more life and more freedom really means to you and only you. Then you will never be able to go about building a business that delivers it.

Connection is the systematized application of your function in life to the day-to-day function of your business. There has been so much written about the need to "leave one's business behind at the end of the day" and I think that's part of the problem. As I'm sure you've observed, you can't leave it so all you do is struggle with it. It’s better to find a way to associate your business to your life. Now, in some cases, that may mean making striking changes in the way you go about your business, what your business does and who your business serves.

Find what you want out of life, find what you are prepared to leave behind in order to achieve it and then link that purpose every single day with what you do and you may catch a look at the fantastic feeling that operating a small business can bring.