Why Your Business Needs More Than Money
A lot of businesses can explain what they do. They can tell you what they sell, how they deliver it, what makes it efficient, or why their service is high-quality.
When you ask why they exist in the first place, the answer often gets a bit vague. Usually, it comes back to something like making money, having freedom, or doing what they’re good at.
While all of those things might be true, they’re not really enough to make a business memorable. If your whole reason for existing is the same as everyone else in your industry, there’s not much for people to connect with. Before you read ahead, take a listen to the podcast episode.
Take something simple like selling chairs. If your entire position is “we sell chairs,” then there’s not much for someone to connect with. They either like the chair or they don’t. If they can get something similar somewhere else, they probably will.
You haven’t given them a reason to care where they buy it from. That’s where a lot of businesses get stuck without realising it. What sits underneath that is the “why.” Not the product and certainly not the process, but instead, the reason the business exists in the first place.
This is where people tend to default to “to make money”, which is true because that’s an owner’s drive, but it doesn’t help anyone decide to work with you.
The businesses that do this well have something a bit clearer behind them. It might be something big, like environmental impact. It might be something local, like building a better experience in their community. It might even just be doing a simple service properly in an industry where that’s rare. What’s even more important is that you can see it in how they operate, not just what they say.
You Want People to Choose You
People aren’t just asking, “Do I need this?”, they start wondering, “Do I want to get this from them?”. I think that’s a very different decision, and it also makes things easier internally for them.
Internally, it takes away a lot of the guesswork, too. It helps you decide who you should hire, what direction to take and what to say yes (or no) to. You’ve got something to measure it against, which is this question: Does this fit what we’re trying to do, or not?
If your business feels easy to compare, it’s usually because there’s nothing underneath it yet. A clear why won’t replace a good product, but it gives people a reason to choose you before price becomes the only conversation.
