Why Did You Start Your Business?

If you follow Simon Sinek you know he has made his name by asking the question WHY. And it is an important question to ask yourself about your business.

When you know why you started your business and it has meaning to you and your ideal clients, you have an advantage over other businesses.

Go deeper than the surface answers

Many people answer this question with almost standard answers:
– financial freedom
– time freedom
– wanting to be your own boss
– tired of working for someone else
– laid off / fired and decided to start a business
– been thinking about it for (insert time frame) and decided to make the leap

These are all valid reasons. There need to be personal reasons why as well as professional, and the above whys are mostly personal. On the professional level, why are you in business?

Your why helps define your business

When you think about your ideal client, how are you helping them? Why are they working with you? What do you offer them that they can only get by working with you?

If your why is to help people with their marketing and ensure they work with their ideal clients, but your offers don’t reflect that, you are a step behind other businesses that have a connected why and offers.

A strong why helps you on those tough days

Having a strong why will help you during those days when you wonder why you ever wanted to start your own business in the first place. It also helps you when looking at what you do and how you help your clients. It’s certainly the first step in understanding your business.

It will also help you keep going when you are just not feeling it. It helps bring back the optimism and hopefulness you had when you started your business.

Don’t get stuck on your why

Asking why is the first question I ask my clients and we work through it, but it’s only the first step.

Your why is important, but if you get stuck on defining your why, it can mean you are not moving forward in your business. It’s truly only the first step in understanding your business.

I have worked with clients that have had coaches that push for the why to be deep and meaningful (and yes, the more meaningful it is the more helpful it is) and the client gets stuck. They can’t move forward because they can’t go deep enough. Or think they can’t go deep enough.

And you know what? That’s ok. There are both personal and professional whys for your business. And if you struggle with going really deep at the start, that’s ok too. It’s ok to have some “standard” whys and add to it as you go along in your business journey.

If trying to make your why deep and meaningful at the start is causing you to stall your progress, write down what you have and move on. As long as you have an understanding of how you are helping your ideal clients and, let’s be honest, yourself in the process, that’s what you need. But, come back and review your why. You do need a meaningful why but don’t let it hold you back from moving forward.

Your why may change

Don’t be surprised if your why changes over time. You learn more about yourself and what you want to accomplish in your business the more time you are an entrepreneur. My original why when I started my business in 2013 has similarities to my current why, but it’s not exactly the same. Not only have I changed the focus of my business, but who I help and how I help them has changed over the years.

Coming back and revisiting your why regularly is a part of business. As it connects to how you run your business, your core values, your offers, it’s important to make sure that you have the right why written down.

Not quite sure how to define your why or how to combine it with the rest of your business? Book a strategy call and let’s get some clarity.