Survey: "What is your purpose for being in business?"

control_electron · Feb 26, 2008

or "Why are you in business?"

This was the first question that a well-known business expert would ask each company president at the beginning of his high-priced consulting interviews. The answer was considered a key indicator in the success or failure of the enterprise--large business or small did not matter.

You will likely be surprised at the "correct" response, which nearly none of the high-paid corporate executives gave.

After reading several threads dealing with starting machine shops, etc. this may be a good exercise to evaluate the potential for success.

i will share the tabulated results and the expert's answer and advice later in a Survey Results thread after allowing time for folks to post a quick reply here with their answer. Or you can send me a PM with your answer if you prefer not to openly post. i'd like to get at least a few dozen replies to make it a statistically significant sample. Thanks, c_e

toastydeath · Feb 26, 2008

To make money.

GregSY · Feb 26, 2008

Anyone who is in business for one reason is sure to be in business for the wrong reason.

Jim Shaper · Feb 26, 2008

Anyone contemplating this thread should also be subscribed to Inc. Magazine.

I've been reading it for about 8 months now, and find the articles from other business leaders to be very informative.

I'm in business to provide better solutions to my customers needs.

Patch · Feb 26, 2008

Two reasons:

Firstly, the challenge.
Secondly, to achieve the goals I've set for myself.

Patch

Bobw · Feb 26, 2008

I'm in business to make money, while doing what I enjoy, and not have to deal with some monkey f**k in a suit trying to screw me every two seconds. Having fun is just a benefit.

I don't want to be rich, I just want to be happy and mostly comfortable.

Jim Shaper · Feb 26, 2008

OP, If the answer you're suggesting is "freedom", I have a couple words to say about that one...

At no other time in my life have I ever been MORE tied down to anything than right now.

Working for someone else is far more liberty than being an owner. As an employee, you have the choice to walk away and have virtually nothing at stake in doing so. As an owner, you are the business. You wake up the business, you take a leak as the business, you sleep (or don't sleep) the business. That's not freedom. The difference is that you should enjoy the attachment rather than loathing it as an employee with little to gain from your involvement.

Achieving freedom in life is a result of running a successful business. It cannot be the goal of the business as there is nothing substantive about that as a mission statement (like Obama's campaign right now - Change we can believe in? Change the US to a territory of SE Asia is change I can believe he will produce!).

Anyway, sorry for the semi-rant. I've seen that freedom bit a few different places over the past couple years and have to call Balderdash on it.

Davis In SC · Feb 26, 2008

Good while it lasted

We started a shop back in the early 90's.. To make some $$$, have fun, and not to be under the thumb of some corporate morons.. Lots of long hours and hard work, But it paid off.. things went well till about 3 years ago. Customers caught "Yellow Fever" and sent work to China. The mold business is ruined, customers expect us to lose $$, to match Chinko prices..
Business was good, we did well, time to move one and find greener pastures.

rj newbould · Feb 26, 2008

Ahhh yes... good question with many answers.

For me? I want to reap the rewards/pay the price, for my own talents or lack thereof. I have never worked for less, or earned more, than since 1965 when I started my shop.

I've made as little as 50 cents an hour, and at times made much more, but always as captain of my own ship. That's the kind of freedom I enjoy. I wouldn't trade a minute of it.

M. Moore · Feb 26, 2008

The only "right" answer is "To Make Money" also known as "Be Profitable". Everything else is B.S.
The side benefits of being the owner of a small business are very much appreciated.
Actually my business (according to Revenue Canada) is a "micro" business, to be a small business you need 1 to 5 employees and a much larger yearly gross income than I achieve.
Michael Moore

Airborne · Feb 26, 2008

To put my competitors out of business.

Frank Ford · Feb 26, 2008

Years ago, I duked this one out with my accountant.

He said, "Don't forget, you're in this for the money."

I replied, "I love my work, and I want to serve and be part of the community. If I were in it for the money, I'd be a Realtor, or something that pays better."

"OK, let me put it in terms you can understand. If you don't make the money, you're out of business, and you serve NOBODY. You're in it for the money."

He won.

I'm in it for the money. . .

Cheers,

Frank Ford
FRETS.COM
Gryphon Stringed Instruments
My Home Shop Pages

machtool · Feb 26, 2008

Because it keeps me off the streets, and I’d basically be un-employable by any one else but me.

Peter from Holland · Feb 26, 2008

What do you mean by in business????
That you own a shop or that you are running a shop
Big difference

Peter

Bobw · Feb 26, 2008

Jim Shaper said:
you sleep (or don't sleep) the business.

I'm not the only idiot that has a bedroom at the shop????

Airborne, I don't necessarily agree with putting competitors out of business. I don't want to be large, I don't need to put them out of business. If I can use them and they can use me, and we can both make a buck, then have a beer afterwards, I'm very happy.

PeterV, I'm guessing your asking me, since I said "in business". I used to run a shop, and my goal was to make money, nothing else. Then it got worse(screwed on bonuses, pay cuts) and my goal was to get a paycheck, which meant sitting at my desk and doing nothing for as many hours a week as I could stand. Now, "in business" means if the parts don't go out, I starve, my dogs starve, and there is no beer in the frig.

So my "GOAL" "in business" as in running and working a business, with a partner (who I trust, and we've already been through the crap together that would ruin a partnership earlier in our lives) is to make money, not to be rich, but to have fun and make a living. I guess it boils down to just flat out being happy, and my partner shares the same views. We could go nuts right now, we want to keep it small, be happy and have fun.

Check it out, this is mostly moving in and getting started, does it look like we are having fun?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobw93/1424153882/

click back and forth, there are a bunch of pics.

I sure hope I'm having fun, it seems like it anyways. The work gets done and then you play with all of those good toys that just made you a bunch of money.

rockfish · Feb 26, 2008

I have to agree with machtool. I feel unemployable anywhere else.

Don UK · Feb 26, 2008

My philosophy has always been to do things that interest me & not make a loss.

As a cnc specialist I could have made much more money if I charged top dollar, chased my creditors & did not continue doing work for them if they were not paying because they were going bust. I also enjoyed a challenge & far too often took on work with poor documentation that involved long uncharged hours as the value to the customer did not justify charging for them.

One of my ex colleagues always charged big company rates, charged for unrequired circuit boards etc on most service visits & drove expensive cars. He had a number of heart attacks when he was much younger than I am now. I don't know if he is still around enjoying life. he didn't seem capable of enjoying anything when I knew him.

Sometimes i wish that I had payed more attention to the bottom line in this & the small hotel that I started with my ex-wife. the extra cash would have been useful following the divorce.

I did try going back to work for an employer. I did not return from lunch break after a couple of weeks as I could not take silly orders from their existing designer. I was head hunted by the company owner due to my wider experience & ability. I did not even collect my first month's pay or expenses.

I recon that working for oneself does make you unemployable.

Don

smallshop · Feb 26, 2008

the 5 that matter to me....

1) Ease the inequitable relationship between wages and required knowledge/experience in a trade I love.

2) Remove frightened rodents from the hierarchy of people telling me how to do my job.

3) Make cool stuff.

4) Go out to lunch with my wife or to an activity my kids are involved at school without causing above mentioned rodent to have a seizure.

5) learn more

SND · Feb 26, 2008

Because after a year at any day job I became very bored. I needed new challenges and a way to be able to keep going forward instead of being stuck in someone else's plan. I do it because it makes me happier then I was at any normal day job and if I can make a bit more money at it than thats just great. I like having some control over my future instead of being pointed where to go next. If it was just about the money, I could make more doing other things elsewhere, thought about it before too.

As to the right answer, isn't it "for world domination" ?

HuFlungDung · Feb 26, 2008

Why am I in business? Because I haven't made the fatal mistake that put me out of business......yet!

I got into the machining business as the outgrowth of a hobby. My purpose has never been to amass money, because making money is only a tool, a means to an end. My 'end' was to pay for more 'toys' to help me do more things.....anything that I felt I wanted to try to do. At the same time, I needed to make enough money to live on and raise a family.

Money is a medium of exchange: my talents for yours. While making money is absolutely necessary to doing anything that has to do with trade, a myopic focus on making money for its own sake is the sign of an empty man. If you make enough money to do what you enjoy doing, then congrats to you. But just accumulating a large number in an account, with no place to use it, is futility. That is why the super rich create foundations for their billions.

Survey: "What is your purpose for being in business?"

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