Starting Your Online Business – What Is Your Purpose?
Yesterday we talked about the importance of knowing your “Why.” On the surface it may seem that your Why and your Purpose are the same, but they are really two separate and distinct things.
The simplest way to look at it is to understand that your Why is the conscious effort you make to determine the reasons, the real motivation for what you do; for starting your online business. Your purpose is your objective, your goal; what you would like to achieve in your online business – the end result.
Without a clear purpose (objective or goal) you will have no direction and your efforts may at best be hit or miss. You may find that although you are working hard, you're not achieving proportionate results resulting in frustration. One of the reasons why so many who start an online business give up after a few months.
My experience convinced me that this is a very essential step that many entrepreneurs ignore, as I did. When I started my online business in late 2008, I knew I wanted to do ‘something' on line, but it never occurred to me that I needed to identify my purpose. As a consequence I tried to incorporate all my offline businesses into one. The result was that there was no focus, hence no growth for some time and I actually thought of quitting.
If you are new to the internet and just getting started, stop and take this step now! It will save you months of frustration. If you have been online for a while and find that you are not where you hoped to be, take some time to get out a writing pad and pen or pencil and start writing down your purpose. What is your objective for having an online business? What are your short-, medium-, and long-term goals for your online business?
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. We learn from each other!
