Are you sick of the one-dimensionality of the profit motive too?

If you are like most people on this planet you’ve probably heard it said that the purpose of business is to make money, the more the better, it’s the beginning the middle and the end of business; Maximising Shareholder Value, it’s often referred to.

Most business commentators and teachers and gurus and journalists and analysts will say so.

Well I’m here to tell you that in small business at least, you are barking up the wrong tree if you believe that making Profit is the one overriding measurement of success in your business. It isn’t and what’s more you are not doing yourself or anyone a favour if your highest focus is on making money.

Before I go on, let me quote myself. In my first book, The Ten Truths for Raising a Healthy Bouncy Business I say this: “If your business doesn’t make profit and generate cash and plenty of it, It’s not a business but a hobby.” And that statement is as true now as it was 500 years ago or will be 500 years from now. A business must make money or it won’t survive.

To obey the Law

Just because we have to make money in business though, doesn’t mean we have to make it our highest calling, the reason our business exists. We also have to obey the laws of the country we operate in, if we don’t we’ll come a cropper as well. But our highest calling in business is not “To obey the law”; It would be hard to get out of bed for that, right?

And it’s the same with profit and money.

If we gauge the success of our business purely in terms of profit we get stuck all the time, because it means that everything else we might want to do in the business must by definition be of second order importance.

So we might like to provide a healthy work environment for our staff, as long as it doesn’t cost us any money. Or we might like to ensure that we don’t have a negative impact on our environment, as long as it doesn’t cost us any money. Or we might be passionate about the quality of our product, as long as it doesn’t cost us any money.

Building businesses is one of the most creative thing that humans can ever do, second only to the creativity of bringing a baby into the world and helping it become a well-adjusted happy adult. But just like the joy of having and bringing up children is not in how much money you earn from it, nor is the joy of building a business in the profit it generates.

Money is the enabler

Business, like humans have a Purpose far beyond making money. Money is one of the enablers to making good on that Purpose, but so are many other factors.

Let me introduce you to the concept of Fun in Business. I will be writing about Fun in Business on these pages in the coming months.

You see your Business is Fun when:

• It’s making money
• It’s staff are engaged and motivated and efficient
• It’s customers are Raving Fans
• It has a positive impact on the community and environment it operates in
• You are proud of the products or services it provides
• It affords you the kind of balance and life style that is important to you.

These are the pillars that the platform of Fun in Business rests on. When the pillars are strong the Business will be Fun, and when the pillars are wobbly, the platform might fall, and Business may not be Fun.

As you can see, money is just one of the pillars in this equation and so by making Fun in Business your ultimate measure of success, you will build a much different business, a business that sustains you and everyone it touches for years to come.

In the coming months I will explore the various pillars that make up Fun in Business and I will show you how you can measure the concept of Fun in Business and engage your staff with the process as well.

One thing’s for sure though: If you start to focus on Making Business Fun, instead of making more money, your business and your life will never be the same again… I promise you.