Kevin W. McCarthy

The Professor of On-Purpose

government

Are You Thinking of Starting a Business?

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Economic tough times, job loss, greater expression, or the chance to be your own boss are just some of the reasons people start a business. The barriers to entry are relatively low and the opportunities for success often appear high.

The hurdles to success, however, are hidden at the start but invariably emerge. Be aware of what lies ahead and you increase your odds of winning.

Looking for some help with either starting or running your business?

On-Purpose Partners provides business advisory services. Our clients and customers have spanned from Founders and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies to wannabe entrepreneurs.

If your business is less than $2 million in sales, you can hire me to help you with our On-Purpose Executive Coaching.

Can’t afford much?

  • The On-Purpose Business Person is available in softcover or Kindle e-book.
  • The Service Model is an inexpensive tool to help you plan your business, anticipate what’s coming, and understand the relationships of one level of the business to the next. Order one, just one, because you can print more from the PDF.

Here’s the bottom line for your business start-up (or ongoing venture): invest the time to articulate your purpose, vision, missions, and values.

Until you know

  • who you are
  • why you are here
  • where you are going
  • and what’s important

you’re really at a major and costly strategic disadvantage.

When it comes to your small business start-up or ongoing enterprise, give yourself every advantage by being on-purpose.

 

Business Purpose – Noble or Not?

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Ask the average person why a business exists (purpose) and the typical response is, "To make money or a profit."  That is a truthful, but incomplete and narrow view based solely on the economist’s perspective.  Economics is but one science or discipline of study touching business and touched by business.  Unfortunately, this popular viewpoint often casts business in a negative manner – seeing the glass half empty.  In fact, business is so much more.

Business is also an institution of society and plays a specific role of service, continuity, scale, and sustainability.  It is through the profit motive that prices actually fall, not rise, and standards of products and services rise.  Business people seek competitive advantage most often on these two fronts.  Who wins?  It is the buyer in the marketplace who wins.

Business is also a free enterprise phenomenon so one must also see it in context of government.  Absent a free market economy supported by a government, the role of business is owned by the ruling power, be it communism or monarchy.   I’m proud to be a capitalist because I understand that capitalism and a free society are interdependent. 

Very simply, a business is an integration of economic, social, and political realities to name but three of the core disciplines at work.

As a huge advocate of the nobility and
creativity of business, let’s embrace a robust understanding of
business rather than a one dimensional economic view only.  The On-Purpose Business perspective says a business exists to serve in both a social and economic role within the context of a government freeing individual pursuits with a system of checks and balances.

Here is a rather heady discussion from a You Tube video on the "nobility of business"
from the World Economic Forum. It is nearly an hour long and has a rich panel discussion.  Enjoy! 

Please feel free to comment.