Can you back up your business purpose with real customer stories?

I have written before about the importance of having a “purpose” for your business. You purpose is the reason you are in business, it’s the problem you are solving, it’s the feel good part of business rather than the money making part, it’s your contribution to making the world a better place.

Purpose, as Jim Collins said, is a “guiding star”, it’s not something you achieve but rather it’s something you are always working towards. That said, on an individual client basis, you would expect to be able to fulfill it.

Having an authentic purpose for your business is of increasing importance to employees. More and more employees want to feel they are making a difference to the world rather than just a business owner’s pocket. An inspiring purpose is a huge motivator and most importantly people working towards a purpose are self-motivating. These employees want to make it happen and so (provided they are already remunerated appropriately) they seek a sense of achievement rather than a few bonus dollars.

But while many businesses have embraced the concept of having a purpose, the purpose they have chosen is a little ho-hum: established to tick a box rather than to be the guiding star.

This is never more evident than when I ask businesses, “Have you got client stories that illustrate your purpose?” Many struggle to find a single client story to back up their purpose.

I like to contrast this with one of my favourite examples of “purpose”: the Bravissimo story. Bravissimo was started in England by Sarah Tremellen who, as an amply endowed woman, was frustrated at not being able to buy fun, sexy underwear. She started her business “for big boobed women so that they can celebrate their curves and feel good about themselves!” And if you take a look at the Bravissimo website it’s plain to see from customer reviews that the business is fulfilling it’s purpose – on an individual basis – over and over again.

If you operate in the business-to-business environment then I do acknowledge it can be harder to get hold of the stories, but if you want to use purpose to drive your business forward, and to motivate your employees, then you need to find them.

If you simply can’t get hold of stories that reinforce your purpose, then you probably haven’t got the right purpose yet. That’s not a disaster, it just shows you where you need to focus your strategic time.

Julia Bickerstaff’s expertise is in helping businesses grow profitably. She runs two businesses:Butterfly Coaching, a small advisory firm with a unique approach to assisting SMEs with profitable growth; and The Business Bakery, which helps kitchen table tycoons build their best businesses. Julia is the author of “How to Bake a Business”  and was previously a partner at Deloitte. She is a chartered accountant and has a degree in economics from The London School of Economics (London University).