When you start a business, you might think everything’s on track. You’ve got a space, plenty of customers, money coming, in, money going out. All good. But, the problem is that if you don’t have clarity about what you want out of your business, you have a business with no purpose at all.
The number one thing you need when you’re starting a business is clarity of purpose. Why are you in business and what do you want your business to do for you? You need to know how this business will help support your goals and lifestyle.
Having clarity about the purpose of your business gives it a solid foundation. Purpose focuses everything you do. Without a purpose, you will run your business aimlessly. When you have a purpose, you know what to aim for.
The purpose, or goal, of a business is to support your life goals.
This is where clarity about your business goals and life goals intertwine. Your business goals are fashioned from your personal life goals.
But, how do you create your life goals?
You do an audit to identify all that you love and want to do, be, create, and have in your life.
Clarity and Discovery
It can feel overwhelming to establish your goals, but take a stab at it. Once you get going, you’ll like it.
Start by taking a piece of paper – or your laptop — and write down everything you want to do, be, create, or have in your life. Whatever comes to mind – be playful with it. Don’t forget all the parts of your life: your dreams, your intellect, emotions, and spirituality, your body, relationships, finances, community involvement, and service. If you get stuck, prompt yourself by thinking about the following questions.
What do I love most in life?
What am I passionate about?
What am I good at?
What do I spend my free time doing?
When I do web searches, what am I researching?
What do I shop for the most?
What do I read?
If I had all the money in the world, what would I do daily?
Once you’ve got a list, review it. Have you forgotten anything?
It should feel good to see all that written down in one place. Spend a day or two rereading it, adding anything else that comes to mind or crossing off items that don’t mean that much to you.
This list should tell you how close you are to doing what you want in life. If you’re like most of us, there are probably some blaring items that you really want to be part of your life that you’ve been neglecting. Maybe you want to have a personal trainer or learn how to ride a horse. Maybe you want to continue your business education by taking courses. Maybe you want to get serious about spending two hours a night with your kid.
As you mull over what you’ve discovered about yourself, it will become clear that some items are long-term goals and some are ready to be implemented now. Prioritize your list and choose the top few items you want to work on for the coming year.
Once you know what you’d like to achieve, you need to figure out how much money you’ll need to fund your lifestyle and how much you are making now. You’ll also need to get a clear picture of what your current fixed expenses are.
After you’ve budgeted all your necessary expenses, add in what it would cost for you to achieve a couple of your lifestyle goals. In my case, when I first did this exercise, travel was important to me and so was self-improvement and continuing education. So, I asked myself what kind of travel and how often. I decided that my dream was to take two trips a year to Europe. I figured I’d go a middle route, in terms of luxury, and estimated that those trips would cost $4,000 each. That meant I had to add $8,000 to my budget. I also added $3,000 for continuing education and a certain amount for a gym membership.
I recognized that to travel, I was going to have to take off three weeks a year. And I also had to decide how many hours per week I was willing to work when I was working.
So, once you do this self-audit – of where you are in terms of salary and where you want to be – you know what you need to earn each year. You also know how much you are willing to work for it.
This gives you a starting blueprint for what you want your life to be like and what your business needs to be to support that life. Having identified your goals, you can now continue on and create milestones that will take you closer and closer to the life you envision for yourself.
