As a business owner it’s important to understand your purpose, your why. By doing this you can have a direct impact on your future and goals. Our managing director gives us his insight into the value of finding your why, shares his own story and explains how you can find yours.
Why is it so important?
We all have those days where we just don’t want to get out of bed and go to work. Instead we want to curl up in a ball, go back to sleep and hope that it all goes away. There’s many different reasons for that, and that’s ok. Maybe we have a problem with our staff that we just don’t want to face, there’s a client that we wish we had a better relationship with, or maybe there’s a supply chain issue as a result of Brexit and we just don’t want to have to deal with it right now.
We all have that why, that purpose behind our business and we need to remember that should be the reason we get out of bed in the morning and WANT to go to work, regardless of everything else. The main issue is that for most of us we aren’t often aligned with our why, we don’t remember what our true purpose truly is.
How to find your purpose
How many of us follow celebrities, friends, neighbours, budding entrepreneurs, on social media?
We see them travel first class, go to exotic destinations and stay in top class hotels, how many of us want that?
How many of us want to become multi-millionaires, employing hundreds of staff?
How many of us truly want that? Or how many of us think that we should want that?
Society drills it into us that as business owners to be successful we should want all of that and more. We should want to read all the books about how to make millions and how to employ hundreds of staff. And don’t get me wrong, that’s a great financial opportunity and I respect that. But the real truth is that for some of us that’s not what we want at all.
Sometimes business owners just want to be able to go on holiday and not have to worry. They just want to be able to drop their kids off at school everyday and be there to pick them up. Sometimes they just want to have money in the bank to cover wages for the next month or two, to be able to buy a new car. Or maybe even just not have to worry if the car breaks, or the boiler is on the blink.
Sometimes people just want to be comfortable.
How many of us really feel like that?
Stephen was speaking to a client recently who works for herself but needs help. She’s working too many hours and needs to bring on an extra set of hands. This will be her first member of staff so it feels like a big leap. If you’ve got your why, your purpose and you’re aligned with it, then these decisions become much easier.
So let's start with Valued. Eleven years ago I received a phone call that no-one ever wants to receive. “Your mum’s got cancer” eight months later my mum unfortunately passed away. Setting up Valued and moving away from my full time partner position with a different firm. This allowed me the ability to spend time with her in her final months. My why during that time was to do shopping on a Friday morning with her, embracing every second I could with her, time is precious.
The question is how do we find our why?
I recall not so long after we were due to be getting married and I wanted to spend more time with Kate in the run up. Our daughter was also due to be born. My friend Paul Bulpitt asked me to read a book from a guy called Simon Sinek and I’ve since bought many copies for friends and clients.
When I read it I realised, that the why for Valued was different to our reality. We had customers and suppliers that I really didn’t want to work with, a premises that didn’t really fit with our team, and we were working in a way that didn’t fit with what I wanted the brand Valued to be about.
Fast forward a few months and we had a new office. As team members moved on I replaced them with staff that were more aligned with our company’s vision. We brought in new suppliers and started working with different clients. All of this was because we needed to align with our why.
But I’d missed something.
I was quite happy for a while after that in the knowledge that I finally had my why, my purpose for the business. We had these five principles on the wall in the office to guide us, why? Because I read a book that told me that’s what we needed. Issue was, that was someone else’s why, not ours, so one day I walked in the office, ripped them off the wall and put them in the bin. I still needed to fully identify what my why was, my true purpose. The problem here was I didn’t really understand what my why was, now I know it was to make a real difference to the people I work with.
When COVID came along I knew I wanted to support all of our clients, I wanted to wrap my arms around our team members. I made the decision not to charge for furlough, despite other accounting firms doing so. We never did. That was part of our why, to make a real difference.
COVID was an eye opener for me. It allowed me to press the reset button, do things differently both internally and externally, and make a difference in more ways than one. I asked the team if they wanted to continue working remotely and their answer was yes. So now Valued work remotely because that fits with our why.
I knew this decision would have an impact on our clients so I asked them if they minded our team working remotely, most of them didn’t have an issue. Fabulous! It gave us the ability to offer our team a better work life balance, giving them the ability to do the school runs, be in for that delivery, be around for that boiler service. Never in a million years pre-covid did I ever even consider having a fully remote team. I never thought I’d not be able to physically see all of my team in the office or walk in and see all of the IT equipment standing there, idle.
This has moved us to a new era for Valued. We are able to truly help make a difference to our clients, all from positively impacting our team’s lives and working environments. It was no longer about seeing empty chairs or computers sitting unused, it was about the real difference we were making.
This is our new normal.
How to find your why
I have had the honour and privilege to spend some time with my friend Paul Dunn recently and he blew me away. Paul shared with me his why, his journey and how he helps others get there. I’d like to share that with you today.
Let me ask you a question.
Complete the sentence, “Mary had a little lamb…”
Are you singing the next words?
Now I'd like you to pick up your phone and I'd like you to press record. Then I want you to complete this next sentence, just like you did with Mary had a little lamb.
“I get up every morning because...”
Just say what's on your mind.
You might say, I get up every morning to go to the toilet or to have a shave and a shower, in order to get ready to go to work. That's brilliant. Do it again. “I get up every morning to…”
Don't spend a lot of time thinking about it, it will come naturally. It took me three attempts to find my true answer.
Pause for a moment and take that in.
When you've done that, I would like you to add two words to what you've recorded.
Say, “I get up every morning so that...” Tell me what impact you wish to make.
I spoke to one of my colleagues the other day, who told me that he gets up every morning to give his wife and his child a better life. That's beautiful. That's wonderful. I get up every morning to make a positive impact on others, so that I can make a difference.
So what’s your why?
Now you've found your why, what do you do next?
I’ve been hosting events for the Mint Business group and hold this same exercise with local business owners. It was interesting to hear about how each person’s why varies.
The game changer is when you align with your business financials, especially your cash flow.
For example you want more holidays, you have to find the money for them. Maybe you want to finish early to do the school run, you have to find a way to earn more money per hour. Whatever your reason might be. Nine times out of ten it comes back to your financials, whether you can achieve that or not.
Look at your budget and your cash flow, underline your why and your new normal. From here you can then start making decisions based on what you want, what you need and how to get you there.
As I’ve mentioned my why is about making a positive change in our clients' lives. After speaking with my friend and refocusing my why, aligning with my new normal I was able to donate ten toiletry packs to children in vulnerable positions, usually those in a home that has been affected by domestic violence.
I truly believe that you can make a positive difference in your new normal too.
What I would like to ask you and this comes from the bottom of my heart, is to spend your time doing what you want, what you love, instead of what you feel like you have to do.
Align yourself with your why, your purpose, your new normal and work towards the life that you want and truly deserve.
Stephen Paul, Managing Director and Founder.
