New businesses are started every day all around the world. The entrepreneurs that launch them have spent countless hours planning, strategizing, marketing and worrying about the how, what, when, where of the company. Most, however, haven't stopped to ask themselves why?
The most important question for any business is WHY? If an entrepreneur can't answer this question first all the others don't matter.
As a business coach, I help entrepreneurs, especially women entrepreneurs, FIRST to define the need in the marketplace. Are there customers who need, want or will be willing to buy what you are selling - product or service? Is the marketplace already saturated with the product and/or service you want to provide to a point where there is no need for your business? Can you and how will you differentiate your product and/or service from others already available? These are the first questions every entrepreneur must answer before setting out to launch their startup.
And then, the biggest question of all - especially for women entrepreneurs - what is success?
Over the years, I have asked this question of hundreds of entrepreneurs - male and female. The answers range from "doing it my way" to "making a lot of money" to "making a difference" - all statements that eventually must be defined even more clearly as the business develops.
The fact is what motivates an entrepreneur is often very different from what motivates and sustains other small business owners. This is not to suggest that buying a small business is any less adventurous than starting a business. Both expeditions come with extreme risk and reward, but the entrepreneur more than likely has ulterior intent. Entrepreneurial motives are often more personal desiring self aggrandizement and name recognition. The I want "everyone to know my name" branding of many entrepreneurial ventures is what sets these businesses apart from other small businesses. Therefore, success for many entrepreneurs is making a name for oneself first and making money second. For women entrepreneurs, especially, this goal is an achievement well beyond the financial objective as is signals value and worth.
Of course, name recognition is a pro and a con for every small business as the more your business is recognized as "YOUR" business the more difficult it is to sell when you are ready for an exit. However, entrepreneurial ventures, no matter how well planned, tend to operate in the here and now and are willing to contend with an eventual exit in the future. This is not to say that name recognition as a form of branding is not important or successful. People do like to do business with people they know, like or trust or believe that others know, like or trust -- thus, the success that comes with a strong personal brand.
But, success always goes beyond self achievement and financial gain as the business grows. The human desire to make a difference in everything we do percolates particularly in every woman entrepreneur's business I have ever worked with. As human beings, most of us, desire forthere to be purpose in our lives. As entrepreneurs working on and in our companies almost every hour we aren't sleeping this need can only be attained if we seek significance in our labor.
Many women entrepreneurs, I know, start their businesses with the goal of giving back as part of their business plan circumventing the name recognition, financial gain phases so many other entrepreneurs unconsciously plan. Their humanity supercedes their thirst for money. Too often this yearning to make a difference forces a fledgling company to never get off the ground due to its lack of feasibility in the first place.
The "What is success?" question for every entrepreneur is a critical step in the path to launching a new business. Understanding what it is that gets you up every morning to run out the door and work harder than you ever have on a vision in your head is key to whether or not you'll make it.
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” Maya Angelou
