04  Finding your Purpose with Katie Newman

04 Build the Right Practices

 

Welcome to this fourth video on how to build a purpose led business. 

 

So far, we’ve identified our values, beliefs and strengths, and articulated our purpose, mission and vision. 

 

That’s amazing! What we’re now going to look at is how to bring that all to life through how we operate. Why is this important? Because without doing this, all you’re doing is giving your purpose lip service, it’s just words on a bit of paper. 

 

In order for you to see the power that comes from being a purpose-led business, you have to live and breathe your purpose through how you operate. 

 

EXERCISE

So to do this exercise, you’re going to need to have your list of values, beliefs and strengths handy, and your purpose, mission and vision statements. 

 

What we’re going to do is look at six of your core business functions, (marketing, sales, finance, operations, HR and customer service), and examine how your purpose plays out in each of them. 

 

So I want you to get a big bit of paper and write those six business functions down the side. And then for each of these functions, I want you to ask yourself this one question: In light of my purpose, values, beliefs and strengths, what does great look like? And then I want you to write down next to each function as many ideas as come into your head. So what we’re aiming to do here is paint a picture of what would be happening in each of these business functions if they were all working hard to live out your purpose. 

 

So as an example, we’re going to look at Caz’s cake business, and see what great looked like for her in the first of those business functions- marketing. Now to recap, Caz’s values were connection, kindness and community. 

 

So this straight away led her to think about the type of photography she wanted to use. She decided it needed to be full of people smiling, people who looked kind. She also decided she needed diversity- different ages, races, genders to represent her desire for community. She decided her photography needed to show groups and people having conversations, as connected was a key value of her business. And of course, it was key that the photos showed these moments of connection occurring over delicious looking cake! Caz also realised that community events were going to play a big role in her business because of her vision for us all to love our neighbours as if they were family. 

 

So she had the idea of running cake making workshops in the evening which encouraged local people to get to know each other and connect. So do you see how understanding her purpose has given Caz clarity on what great looks like? It’s helped her generate loads of new ideas which are all working together towards the same goal. 

 

EXERCISE

So now I’d like you to ask yourself that same question “In light of my purpose, values, beliefs and strengths, what does great look like?” for each of the six key business functions: marketing, sales, finance, operations, HR and customer service And write down as many ideas as you can think of. 

 

Don’t worry at this stage about your constraints be they time, money or something else, we’re just brainstorming and generating ideas here. So get creative and see what ideas are sparked for you. 

 

To give you a head start, here are some things you may want to consider under each of the business functions. Under marketing, think about your five ‘p’s: product (what you’re actually selling and whether it supports your purpose), price (what should it be given your values, beliefs, vision), place (where can people get your product, are you in the right place), promotion (consider your messages, media channels, content, advertising), and people (who are you targeting, who do you want/need to target). 

 

Under sales consider your sales process and how you engage with those who may become your customers. What do your values, beliefs and strengths tell you about where you should be engaging with potential customers and how you should be selling? Under finance, in light of your purpose, think about your financial goals, what income you’d like to make, how do you want to reinvest any profit you make, are there any causes you want to support, where you source investment from, who do you bank with? Under operations, consider what legal structure is best suited to your business (sole trader or social enterprise), where you work, how you divide up your day between activities, what you prioritise, who you source from, how many hours/days you work. 

 

Under HR, think about who you employ, what your policies are. holiday, sick pay, parental leave, how much you invest back in your own learning and development, what memberships are important to you? 

 

Under Customer service, think about what’s most important to you and those you serve- is it speed, quality, endurance, impact, security, consistency. Think about how you’re going to serve your customers and the community within which you operate, and then think about what that means you need to do differently. 

 

What you’ll find is that re-examining everything in your business through the lens of your purpose, will dramatically shift your perspective on your current ways of working and activities and help you to come up with bold and creative new ideas. So give yourself some time to do this properly, don’t rush it. 

 

To share some more of the ideas that Caz had after working through this exercise, Caz thought about becoming an ambassador for a local charity that helped tackle loneliness, and giving ten percent of all her profits to this good cause. 

 

Whenever it was one of her employee’s birthdays, she thought she could make them two cakes, one for them, and one for them to give away to someone in their community. In her team meeting every week, she thought she could ensure that the first thirty minutes are always spent doing personal check ins with her team, to ensure that they were genuinely connecting with each other and supporting each other. 

 

So have a go, get creative, take the restrictions off and ask yourself, if I was serious about delivering on my purpose, what would my business look like in these six areas. Imagine you had unlimited time and resources, how would you build your business? And then when you’ve done that, again take a few days to reflect. 

 

See what other ideas come up now that you’ve opened yourself up to new possibilities. And when you’re ready, join me in our fifth and final video.