Why Are You in Business?
by Stan Dubin

Let's examine the reasons for doing business and how these different reasons can affect your level of success.

This may seem a bit simplistic, but if you read all the way through, you may find something valuable here that you can apply to your business.

The first and obvious reason many of us create a business is to produce an income. A good income, especially a very good income, provides us with many of the things in life we desire: a good home, nice cars, upscale clothing, quality education for our children, etc. etc.

Therefore, making lots of money is a primary objective for many of us.

Another reason for going into business is to provide a product or service that makes someone else's life easier, safer, more enjoyable ... more fulfilling in some way.

Some of us go into business to learn a new craft or skill.

Some of us wish, by having our own business, to gain personal recognition or respect from others.

Good reasons all of them.

So what do all of these possible reasons have to do with each other?

It has been my observation that the more you align your purpose (reason for being in business) TO WHAT YOU PRODUCE, the better you will do and the more you will produce.

What do I mean by "aligning purpose to what you produce?" If your purpose is mainly to make money, you may indeed make a ton. If your purpose is to gain new levels of respect, you certainly can achieve that.

But the closer you are to what you PRODUCE for your customers, the more productive you will be and this of course means increased income.

The more attentive you are to how satisfied your customers are, the more care you put into delivering a quality product or service, the more will come back to YOU.

This does not mean that you spend all of your waking time and effort doing customer satisfaction surveys and ignoring all the other aspects of running a business. It is more about a viewpoint that you have.

If your viewpoint, if your purpose is to really make someone else's life easier, more satisfying in some way, then this viewpoint COMMUNICATES to your customers.

People are much, much more willing to exchange (pay money) for a product that is delivered to them with care and attentiveness, and of course they will be much more willing to tell their family and friends about your product.

I realize this may sound very simple and something "everybody knows." But far too often, this kind of viewpoint takes a back seat to other business considerations. Put this information to full use and you will not be disappointed.

This article was written by Stan Dubin, Executive Director of The Employee Testing Center.

The Employee Testing Center helps business owners hire honest, trustworthy and dependable staff. Take the free business owner test so you can see for yourself 1) how accurate it is and 2) how it can help you hire better staff.