And for those of you who haven’t heard this question before and who are now looking at me blankly wondering what I’m talking about, your WHY is the reason that you are in business.

As in, why are you doing this?  Why did you decided to quit your 9-5 job and set up this business of your own.  What difference do you feel like you’re making in the world.

Everyone will have their very own “why?” and while I wouldn’t presume to tell you what yours should be or what it should NOT be there are some do’s and don’t’s that I’d like to share with you when it comes to your why.

One of the biggest mistakes I see entrepreneurs saying (and without wanting to be sexist these are usually women) is that their children are their why.  And while I’m sure that is both true and very noble, it’s neither 100% accurate or what your customers want to hear.

If I’m hiring someone to work with me, yes I like to get to know them a bit better before I invest in them.  And I will be really interested if they tell me they got into business to make a difference in the world, to prove that they can do it despite a difficult start or to be able to make a difference in the lives of their customers, to show that a single parent can run a business and all the other great reasons I’ve heard for running your own business.

But I guarantee you if they tell me that they are doing this “for their children” then I will lose all interest.

Because we all do things for our family and our children and that’s not the real reason and you’re just not looking deep enough to work out WHY you are doing this.

Your why is huge.  It’s deep.  It’s personal and it is NOT your children.

Understanding your why is key to your personal development.  Once you clearly know your WHY you will be able to focus on attracting the right clients, working with the right suppliers, understanding what products and service you should be offering in your business. It all comes back to your WHY.

Look closely at what is important to you.  If you are a vegan and feel strongly about animal cruelty you are unlikely to want to work with businesses who work with animal products.  It probably wouldn’t matter to you how much money they wanted to spend with you, if you don’t agree with their business ethics then you are not going to want to work with them.

And once you know who you want to work with and who you don’t want to work with, you can really improve your marketing message and get clear on who you want to attract into your world.  Which will make all the difference to your leads and your sales.

I’d love to know what your why is, share your story with me in the comments?  How did you make the decision to run your own business, what is really important to you – why are you here and why are you doing what you do?