help

Your business isn’t meant to be about you. It’s not meant to be about making you rich or successful or famous.

Unfortunately, when the vast majority of people start a business, that’s what they’re thinking about–the money and the fancy business parties with canapes. It’s worth noting that most businesses also fail within their first year of operation.

From a purely economical stance, being in business is about having something of value to give people–valuable enough they’ll exchange currency with you, that precious resource that, in society as we have built it, gives us access to food, clothing and shelter.

You need to help people in order to be economically viable. That’s a given, and a basic business principle.

But what about your motives?

Maybe you’ve found a way to market your skills in a way that shows people why they need you. But do you feel a personal commitment to make sure that your customer is really helped by your services? Or are you just trying to get people in the door so you can get paid and go home?

I believe it’s important to truly, genuinely care about helping your clients–and your supporters, friends and family, for that matter. The success of your business depends on it.

You don’t do a good job unless you’re invested in getting results.

Your level of enthusiasm and emotional attachment to the outcome of your work is so important. The accountant who doesn’t care doesn’t dig deep enough to find every extra dollar they can get their client through tax deductions. The writer who doesn’t care doesn’t have any emotion into their work, which comes out limp and lifeless on the page.

You can’t build relationships that last unless you’re invested in getting results.

When you can show your clients that you are passionate about your work and doing a good job of it for their sake, it’s easy to make lifelong relationships that benefit you financially and in more meaningful ways. But when you’re insincere or you do the job half-assed, it really shows–and those clients won’t come back. It doesn’t take a lot from you to care about doing a good job, but you’ll see the difference even decades down the track.

My freelance writing business was about providing copy that really worked for clients so they could succeed, whether it was sales copy, realistic ghostwriting or interesting and informative articles. Towards the end of 2008 I joined Envato because the company is all about helping people learn and earn–and the focus internally really is on helping people more than it’s about helping our bank accounts.

When I show people how they can get rid of their dull jobs or the businesses they built but came to hate and replace that with the work of their dreams, I do it because I love showing people they really do have the ability to make that happen.

I believe that a focus on helping people is far more important to your business success than a focus on the money. That approach hasn’t failed me so far–what’s yours?