How to Find The Why in Your Business and Why It's So Important
There’s a reason we ask every single female founder in our Moments to Motivate series, “What’s your Why?” It’s because finding your business purpose can revolutionise your business. It helps motivate you to keep going on those hard days, it spills into your services and products, and ultimately it’s one of the main reasons most clients will choose to buy from you or work with you. Finding your business purpose is at the heart of any business growth. In this blog, we are so pleased to welcome The Happy Start Up Coach, Sarah Clarke, to explain how you can find the why in your business and why it’s so important. Enjoy!
Purpose is one of those topics that seems to be on the tip of everyone's tongue in a post-pandemic world. This might be because crisis often acts as a catalyst for individuals to seek out more of it in life. When our very mortality comes into question, we start to ask ourselves “What's the point of it all?" and “What's the dent I want to make in the world?”
That's why significant life events can prompt the need to reset and re-calibrate. They make us dig deep and question everything. Covid has been one such trigger in recent years, as documented by the numerous articles about The Great Resignation.
Motherhood (and being made redundant soon after returning from mat leave!) provided me with two such nudges in my own professional life. Perhaps you experienced your own perspective shift/ wake up call that led you to want to start your own biz?
The link between purpose, profitability and fulfilment
After nearly 2 decades of working in the fields of employee and organisational development in tech and FS startups, it was always a no-brainer for me to place purpose at the very heart of my coaching philosophy when I started my career coaching business back in 2018. The Work Happiness Blueprint© is my signature framework for growing happy, profitable careers and businesses.
The Power of Purpose on People
Research shows that people who claim to live purposeful lives are more likely to:
Live longer and healthier lives
Be more resilient; recovering better from negative events
Report higher levels of wellbeing 5 x higher than those who don't
Feel 4 x more engaged at work
Experience 50% higher levels of intrinsic motivation
Working (and living) in alignment with your values and purpose also feels great and adds real meaning and fulfilment to your day-to-day, whilst also benefiting the world in some way. What's not to love?
The Power of Purpose in Business
The power of purpose doesn't only benefit people, it's also phenomenally good for business too.
💷 According to research by McKinsey, ‘purposefulness’ in employees (and therefore business owners!) is positively correlated with their profitability.
📈 According to research by Deloitte, purpose-led brands tend to grow 3 x faster than their competitors.
💓 And the ever-inspiring Simon Sinek reminds us that "People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it". Purpose-based messaging speaks to the subconscious where decisions are made in the brain, which is pretty cool.
In his book, DO/Purpose, David Hieatt describes purpose as "the multiplier of energy"; helping individuals feel more resilient and be more creative. (Everyone who joins my signature programme for coaches and consultants, Fruitful Founder, receives a copy of this brilliant book. It's short - but very sweet! - so I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy!)
Put simply, purpose-ful work boosts creativity, resilience and motivation because what you do aligns with your values and the dent you want to make in the world.
And because your purpose will be intrinsically linked to your values, it'll also provide a constant source of motivation, passion and fulfilment in your life. There's considerable evidence that purpose contributes to feelings of connection, wellbeing, happiness and may even have an impact on longevity - see the section on ‘Ikigai’ below for more on this.
So where do you start if you want to uncover your purpose?
I always think the following quote is a good starting point!
"The things that excite you are not random,
they are connected to your purpose."
- ANON
According to evidence grounded in positive psychology, you'll be happier and more fulfilled if you live and work in alignment with your authentic self; your values, strengths, personality and purpose.
If your values help you declare who you are and what your business will stand for, your purpose will articulate your business why. The reason your business exists in the first place and the problems it'll solve in the world. Your purpose will become the very heart, soul and life-blood of your you-shaped business
What is Purpose?
Your business purpose won't be an actual destination but more of a direction, an aspirational 'True North' if you will, that you'll be constantly drawn towards. In order to create a truly you-shaped business, your business purpose should ideally be an extension of your own purpose. The change you want to make the world and the legacy you want to leave. Your lived and professional experiences may mean that you're especially passionate about a particular movement or cause that you'd like to get involved in or even champion.
I also happen to believe that your purpose or ‘business why’ will evolve, as you grow and evolve as a human being. My first business ‘why’ back in 2018 revolved around helping talented women reconnect with their unique talents and realise their professional potential in motherhood. In 2021, my purpose shifted to help brilliant women find work happiness on their own terms by growing their own happy, purpose-led coaching and consulting businesses.
What’s your Ikigai?
The Japanese island of Okinawa, where Ikigai has its origins, is said to be home to the largest population of centenarians in the world! So it’s often suggested that the concept of Ikigai also contributes to longevity!
Ikigai really resonates with me, not only because of its simplicity but also because many of its components are areas that I've been interested in my whole career, such as values and strengths. (I qualified as a Strengths Coaching back in 2007!)
Check out this book for more on the fascinating topic of Ikigai: Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, by Garcia and Miralles.
Reconnect with your own biz purpose
If you’ve been feeling a bit ‘meh’ about your business recently, it might be that you’ve simply drifted out of alignment with your purpose. The dent you want to make in the world through your work. In my signature programme for coaches and consultants, Fruitful Founder, the very first thing we do is dig deep into your Purpose and Profit Niche to ensure the problems you want to solve through your products and services aren’t only financially viable but that they also align with your purpose. Your business why.
To get started, try journalling around the following questions to home in on your purpose or biz why:
What problem(s) do you feel called to help solve through your business?
Is there a particular cause or movement that you want your business to play an active role in?
Have you successfully overcome a particular challenge in your personal or professional life that makes you uniquely qualified to help someone else overcome too?
What things can you not help but do or that people come to you for already? What would you do for free if you could afford to?
If you’d like to dig deeper into your own Purpose and Profit Niche, you can download my FREE Fruitful Founder Method workbook by clicking here or feel free to come and say hi over on insta or LI.
