If you are seeking a super rocking fun time marketing plan, you need a strategic objective for your business. This may be something of a disappointment – how does he go from fun to strategic objective in one sentence? Actually, it’s worse than that. You actually need three strategic objectives! Give me strength! Three? I’m out of here …
Still here? OK let’s take them one at a time and you will see why you need three objectives and their benefits to your business. Three objectives sidestep the tangle of crossed purposes and emotions; trying to do everything through one objective.
Your Business Purpose
Not to put too fine a point on it, it is not true your business purpose is about money. The business gurus and politicians will tell you business is about money. (I’ll write about money next time.) It isn’t. It never has been and never will be.
Here is a quote from a contemporary economist, John Kay:
Profit is no more the purpose of business than breathing is the purpose of life.
Note what Kay is saying here: first, your purpose is not about money and second, money is crucial to your business success.
Transformation
Your purpose is the change your business brings to the world. The change you make to your clients’ quality of life is your business’s most immediate impact. You can get feedback from your clients, as testimonials or case studies, and these prove the positive changes your work has brought about.
But your business purpose goes beyond that. If your clients are businesses, chances are their clients will benefit from your offer. You may seek transformation of some aspect of your clients’ business practice. Perhaps you want to see changes to management in some specific industry, for example.
Personal clients have friends, families and neighbours and so your purpose may produce transformation in this wider community. As a trader, you may work with other traders to transform your neighbourhood. Your purpose relates to what you bring to positive transformation.
The Role of Money
To be successful as a business you need money. Make a loss and sooner or later your business will end. The issue is not whether you need money or even how much. What matters is how you approach money-making. You need a money-making focus to meet your business purpose and your third business objective. More about this next week.
In these posts and emails I am forging a new approach to marketing. Please comment and let me know what you think, whether you agree or disagree.
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