Being self-employed, one is constantly striving to generate income that will see the realities of life being taken care of. So the energy and passion is at times biased towards the present, and at best, once in a while, you may dream of the future state that you want to be in. And that right there is one example of a 'gap'. For some there is one major gap while for others, it could be a several. Regardless, it is important that one takes the time to audit their personal business purpose with actual performance to identify potential gaps.
What is your business purpose - the reason for being in business? I know from my own experience of starting my venture that I was driven by a purpose of survival. My life had undergone a significant shock to what was otherwise a fairly normal life to one where I had to fend for myself. While that level of adrenalin kept me going for the first few months, it soon became evident that it was not sufficient to sustain the business. So in more recent times I have focusing on trying to craft my business purpose - something that will keep me focused yet allow me to be flexible and more importantly allow me to measure my level of performance without the drama of ticking off a long checklist. The process is on-going but so far, I have certain elements or rather questions that I am attempting to find answers to.
The first question, if I was ever offered another job would I take it? To this, to date I am on the fence - so I am not actively looking for formal employment but if the right opportunity presented itself, I would evaluate in line with what my ultimate goal for my business is.
The next question is what should the business be remembered for? This is not about what I should be remembered for (although it is obviously interwined) but rather, what difference the enteprise made. I have recently read a book that really opened my eyes about the possibility of serving mankind through your enterprise. So for me, the significant shift as I answer this question is that I am now focusing on unpacking what is my business offering, what is the business offering in terms of value, purpose, impact etc for those who are in contact with the business and for those who are yet to be in contact with the business.
The third question I am asking of the business is what is the value set of the business? This is not just about my own value set, but includes values of all those connected to my business but somehow collapsed into a collective value set. The reality is that if I want people to be excited about my business; then it has to talk to them in one or more ways.
Now I want to believe that once I have formulated working responses to these questions, then I will be able to develop an appropriate answer to the question of how will the business achieve its purpose? The answer to this question I believe, can truly emerge once the first three questions have been addressed. A further question will then be, how do I know that the business is achieving its purpose?
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