{"id":20125,"date":"2022-07-15T09:23:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T13:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sanctuarymg.com\/academy\/?p=20125"},"modified":"2023-07-26T15:25:13","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T19:25:13","slug":"establishing-company-purpose-and-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sanctuarymg.com\/academy\/strategy\/establishing-company-purpose-and-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"Establishing Your Company\u2019s Purpose and Business Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s easy to overlook the importance of clearly defining the purpose of your company and the goals it is trying to achieve. When you first get started, you are probably more worried about simply making a sale and establishing yourself in the market than anything else. And once the wheels start turning, you quickly get busy and have little time to step back and think about the bigger picture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We encourage you to take a moment out to see the bigger picture and understand how defining your purpose and goals can help drive your business forward. Specifically, it\u2019s the clarity of having these pieces in place that will help you make decisions that are in your company\u2019s best interests. This article should provide you with the motivation and direction needed to create or improve on these two essential components to growing your business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Purpose and Goals Matter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The primary, big picture objective for any for-profit business is to, well, turn a profit. If your organization is in business to make money, it makes sense that you would place your focus on that money above all else. Plenty of non-profit organizations exist to work toward some greater good, and those are very important to society, but things are different in the world of for-profit business. Here, it\u2019s all about the bottom line. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or is it? Sure, you have to be focused on making money, but a singular focus on that ultimate target alone could cause you to get off track. This is where we need to start to think about both the purpose of your company and the goals that you want to achieve. Let\u2019s take a closer look at what we mean by purpose and goals, and how those two things are different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Company Purpose<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The easiest way to think about your company\u2019s purpose<\/a> is to define it as the reason that your company exists. And no, it\u2019s not good enough to say that your company exists to make money. That\u2019s true for any for-profit endeavor, so saying that you want to make money doesn\u2019t really provide anything in terms of guidance for future decisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than centering your purpose on financial objectives, you should center it on what it is that you aim to achieve for your customers. It\u2019s a little trickier than you might imagine to clearly determine and define your purpose, so we\u2019ll dedicate a section of this article below to gaining further clarity on this topic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Goals<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

While it might sound like the same thing at first, goals are not the same as a purpose for your business. When talking about the goals you are going to set and strive for, we are talking about the guiding metrics that direct your actions and help you continue to fulfill the purpose of your operation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll also get deeper into how goal setting for your business works later on, but the key takeaway here is that business goals are specific objectives that you establish and monitor to compare your results to what you hoped to achieve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blend of a clear purpose and well-established goals can mean powerful things for a business. In the absence of these elements, you\u2019ll somewhat be driving in the dark with the decisions you make on a day-to-day basis. After all, if you don\u2019t know where you are trying to go or what you are trying to achieve, what will be the foundation for your choices? Turning back to your purpose or goals each time an important decision arises can keep you on the track and running in the right lane. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Your Company\u2019s Purpose?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The title of this section is a deceptively simple question that will be much harder to answer than you might think at first. For instance, a taco truck business might first think that the purpose of the business is to \u201csell tacos\u201d, but that doesn\u2019t really quite cover it. A more accurate assessment of the business could be found in one of these points:<\/p>\n\n\n\n