An entrepreneur is a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so. If you have a dream of becoming an entrepreneur and running your own business, you need to have a purpose. Defining your purpose allows you to better serve your clients and to provide a clearer focus as to where your business is headed. It is one of the crucial components of any business, and should be made a top consideration during the initial stages of compiling a business plan.
When you feel that you have a good grasp of your purpose, ask yourself these four questions:
- Who are you serving?
- What is the problem that you are solving?
- How do you solve that problem?
- Why are you doing this?
These are the types of questions that you need to ask yourself, truthfully, to ensure you are placing your focus where it needs to be – on the future and longevity of your business.
Who Are You Serving?
The very first question that you should ask yourself is – who are you serving? What is your main niche market that you are targeting? Having a target audience in mind helps you reach a specific demographic. Start thinking about who is going to benefit most from what you have to offer.
Focusing in on a niche area of your given industry is a great way to improve your marketing strategies and connect with customers. Narrowing your market base to a smaller demographic allows you to easily understand the nuances of targeted marketing.
What is the Problem That You Are Solving?
You need to have a clear vision of the problem that you are solving. What problem does your product or service solve? Think about your niche market. What are the problems that your core demographic often deals with? Decide early on what problem your clients will be able to overcome by purchasing your items.
How Do You Solve That Problem?
Next, you should think about how you are able to solve problems for your clients. Make sure that you can easily explain how using your product or service is the right solution for a specific need or problem. Refer back to the problem you decided on and how your solution will help.
Why Are You Doing This?
Your first reaction to the question, “why are you doing this,” should not be, “take make lots of money.” Sure, money is great, but when all of your energy is wrapped up in the financial side of running a business, your entire business is driven by fear. This leads to poor decisions, inferior products or services, and less interest in the needs of your clients.
For a business to succeed, your reasons should be reward based. If you are focusing on providing a superior product or service and truly aim to help people, you will benefit.
Purpose Driven Content
When you have a clear picture of the purpose and function of a product or service, you can begin delivering purpose driven content. During direct forms of marketing, your efforts should be centered on promoting the purpose your products or service provides.
As you create advertising campaigns, social media posts, blog articles, targeted emails, and other marketing methods – go back to the questions, “what problem does it solve?” and “how does it solve that problem?”
Instead of saying to consumers, “buy this now,” you explain how they can overcome a specific problem or otherwise benefit from the item that you are promoting.
Stay Focused on Your Purpose
Find a business that you love and that you would do, whether or not there is money involved. This will make it easier to stay focused on your purpose. Always be moving forwards towards your goals. Reaching these goals is simpler when your business, your products, or your services have a clearly defined purpose.
The center of your purpose is serving your clients. You are looking at which of their problems you can solve and what solutions you have to offer. Create a quality product or service and consumers will recognize the advantages it provides.
Whenever you feel that your business is steering off course, go back to these four questions – remind yourself of the initial ideas and motivations that were driving your business.