Knowing what you are about in business
A lot of people believe that the most important thing about being in business is knowing who your customers are. I think however, who are you and what are you about, is much more important. Your business is a pursuit of passion that is captured and shared with others. Sometimes this is captured in a vision statement. This is a small paragraph that lays out what you believe your business should be about. Take this common example:
We are a business that aims to the be excellent in cutting hair. We will achieve this through excellent service, great work and pride in what what we do. We aim to be the best hairdresser in our local area within 12 months.
So what’s wrong with that. Not a great deal. Notice though a vision is a statement of what you want others to think about you, not what you think about you. A vision captures the heart of what it means to be in business. It grabs it and says in a very straight manner, we aim to help you because we are passionate about what we do. You really shouldn’t be telling customers straight up, that you want to take their money. Sure you do but… a vision statement should communicate the heart of what you are about, not what you want to achieve. This is a matter of opinion and many people think vision statements are a wank. I don’t. Vision statements are a concept that becomes the foundation for every single decision made after the first day you start. Let me give you an example of what I mean:
We aim to cut hair with extraordinary flair and creativity. We will achieve this by putting the customer first through our service and attention to detail. We are committed to delivering the best hairdresser service we can.
This statement shares passion with people and allows you to release the reasons why you are in business. The more hard edged business person will say: well that’s good but it won’t make me any sales. Let me return that with this question: Who says? I can say that I know a good product might sell. However, if I meet someone who has an idea and is passionate, I might end up buying into their world simply because their passion has convinced me.
So why are you in business? Are you driven by passion? If not, then I can think you may be better off with a job. Passion is ultimately drives us and if we don’t pay attention to it, it has a way of showing up when we least would like it to.
In short: Knowing what you are about means your customers can relate and share your passion with you and other potential customers.
Man tries to sell Costa on Ebay
Can you believe this? It isn't the first time somebody has tried to sell something this stupid on ebay. I mean come on... surely this is something that goes beyond a joke?
Introduction to this website
Hey there,
My name is Luke Houghton and I am the founder of this website. Basically Disintimedia has been a dream of mine for about four years. I wanted to create a business website that dealt with the small side of the internet whilst also offering services. Initially I started talking about entertainment and other things in an earlier version of this blog. Since then however, I have matured a bit more (or less!) and have decided that I could offer some services to the business community. These services are shown here on the website and cover most of the things I do.
During daylight hours I work here and teach in the areas of management and information systems. In this blog I will be discussing the small world of the internet. I will be talking a lot about my own research and things about the internet that interest me. In particular, I am interested in the promotion of small business on the internet. I also have an interest in new business models for the internet and as such this website is the place I plan to discuss that.
On closing this inaugural post I want to say I look forward to posting here over the next year and hopefully learning a great deal about you and the business you are involved in.