[Free Book Preview #21]

[Free Book Preview #21]

Hey there, Freedom Seeker!

Welcome to the exhilarating big sky of small business entrepreneurship!

I wrote a book for you. This book reveals the Unbiased Small Business Research Formula developed from decades in the trenches of American Main Street and online business as a small business entrepreneur and a coach. Its objective is to help you become the successful creator of the new life you envision by objectively guiding you in researching and choosing the right business.

In the next weeks, I’ll share free sections of the book with you before it’s released for publication and available for purchase.

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Chapter 9: External Research Step 1 of 4

STEP 1: From Your Life Purpose and Your “Why”

This first milestone is central to your intention of starting a business: your life purpose. In an earlier chapter, we discussed the fundamental steps to identifying your purpose. Once you have clarity on your life purpose, the next step is to research the vehicle to actualize it. Although you might actualize your life purpose through a career, philanthropy, or other activities, in the Right Business Right Life framework, that vehicle is a freedom-yielding small business. 

Your life purpose is most certainly connected to some problem(s) that needs to be solved in the world. Solving a problem is how you will make a more significant impact on your life and the lives of others. Problems are opportunities in disguise. Plus, choosing a business idea from a problem, an inconvenience, or an annoyance is central to the success of any business. This way, you are doubling the impact on your life because it is a problem that is also dear to you, hence increasing your chances of success as the leader of your small business, resulting in a business for which you spring out of bed in the morning.

The next step is to identify the business that can be the instrument to actualize your life purpose, which we will discuss in the next chapter as we research business ideas. 

1. Identify a problem, an annoyance, or an inconvenience that screams to be resolved.

2. Research a solution to fix that problem. 

3. Create a business model to deliver the solution.

How I found the right business to deliver the solution that actualizes my life purpose:

1. Identification of a problem, an annoyance, or an inconvenience that screams to be resolved: When I was between businesses, I noted a big problem with small business ownership: too many small businesses fail.

2. Researching a solution to fix that problem: I explored the causes of business failure and realized that it starts well before a business launch. The systemic biases of the small-to-mid-market sector frequently lead new business owners astray. Once the problem was clear, I worked on developing a solution that became the Right Business Right Life Formula (RBRL). 

3. Creation of a business model to deliver the solution. OPEN FOR BUSINESS LAB delivers the solution (RBRL) with an online membership, market resources, digital lessons, and business coaching. 

Here are key steps to identify your purpose-driven business.

• Ask yourself, what does the world need that is related to your purpose? For each problem, research one or several solutions for which you might develop a product, the WHAT.

• Then, develop the HOW to your WHY. The HOW* is the business model through which you’ll deliver the solution (a product), which is the WHAT. 

If you identify several problems related to your life purpose and you are unsure which one to pick, start with the low-hanging fruit—the problem that is most aligned with your strengths and assets that can also deliver your ideal LIFE+ with a business you can realistically implement now.

Let’s look at a few people you might have heard of who did just that: 

• Yvon Chouinard started a business by following both his life purpose AND the top values of his LIFE+. In 1957, 35-year-old Yvon, an avid rock climber and environmentalist, bootstrapped his small business, Chouinard Equipment, out of his passion for the outdoors. Later, he renamed it Patagonia after a trip to Patagonia, where he climbed Mount Fitz Roy with his best friend, Doug Tompkins, the founder of the rival outdoors company The North Face.

Yvon Chouinard’s love for the outdoors and his commitment to environmental stewardship led him to create high-quality, sustainable products while giving back to environmental causes and promoting responsible business practices. Decades before the pandemic, flexible working was already the gold standard at Patagonia, headquartered in Ventura, California, because it is one of the world’s best surfing spots.

Later, after a recent “upset” of being crowned a billionaire and added to the list of the world’s richest people by Forbes Magazine, Chouinard decided to give away all of the shares in Patagonia to a trust that would use future profits to help fight the climate crisis. “Earth is now our only shareholder,” Chouinard, 83, reported in an article by The Guardian. “Instead of ‘going public,’ you could say we’re ‘going purpose.’ Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth for investors, we’ll use the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth.”

• Muhammad Yunus is an economist who founded Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, a for-profit enterprise driven by its founder’s desire to alleviate poverty by offering tiny loans (microcredit) to the poor, particularly women, without requiring collateral. The lending concept relies on mothers’ protective instincts and the communities’ social values to provide these loans, knowing they will be reimbursed successfully. Yunus’s innovative approach to banking earned him a Nobel Peace Prize for empowering millions to lift themselves out of poverty. Yunus has inspired the growth of the microfinance industry worldwide, including Kiva.org. Kiva.org is another purpose-driven organization cofounded by social entrepreneurs Matt Flannery and Jessica Jackley with just a laptop and a dream. 

Millions of entrepreneurs find ways to align what matters the most to them with their business as a vehicle for it. 

Your small business might directly serve your deep purpose, like the Grameen Bank, Kiva, Patagonia, and many others, or indirectly by supporting a cause that is part of your values because it allows you to donate time, money, expertise, and other resources. 

What is important for the long-term sustainability of your business career is that your business aligns with what is deeply meaningful to you. Begin by following your high values and solve a real problem your customers face. As you interact with your customers and grow your business, your purpose will define itself more clearly. 

Joining the VIP Waitlist

Would you like early access to your copy of the book as soon as it is released and receive a bonus book companion coaching session?

During the private coaching session, I’ll guide you through the exercises and templates in the book. Available to the first 20 VIPs who purchase the book. To join the VIP waitlist, click here.