Do you have a defined higher purpose in your company? If so, what is it and how do you incorporate it into the organization?
To help you define a higher purpose for your business, we asked founders and CEOs this question for their best insights. From helping customers renew self-esteem to defending the marginalized, there are some great examples of higher purpose in business. We are hopeful these will spark some ideas for defining your higher purpose.
Here are 11 examples:
- Design Eco-friendly Products
- Support Marketers To Achieve Results
- Help Customers Renew Self-esteem
- Create Positive Social Impact With Your Brand
- Use Marketing To Help People Make Better Choices
- Defend The Marginalized
- Assist Small and Family-run Businesses
- Inspire People To Achieve Personal Success
- Equip Digital Workers To Achieve Balance
- Help Others Embrace More With Less
- Empower Freelancers To Succeed
Design Eco-friendly Products
We started Eco Pea Co. to create biodegradable baby products. Families with babies go through hundreds of diapers a year, contributing to tons of waste on the planet. We wanted to create a diaper that is better for the planet, and we did that through creating a diaper made from bamboo fibers. By doing so, we want to ensure a better planet for our kids to live in the future and push other brands to learn the importance of practicing sustainability in everything they do.
Adrian Pereira, Eco Pea Co.
Support Marketers To Achieve Results
Our higher purpose relates to our Mission Statement: We blog for results. Our higher purpose includes helping marketers in all aspects of their online journey. Our Mission Statement lets marketers know that when they work with us, they will see results. This purpose boosts our connections with consumers. The employees at our company use the motto in our marketing materials such as our marketing content and our graphics.
Janice Wald, Mostly Blogging
Help Customers Renew Self-esteem
A major part of my company’s mission is to help people achieve self-confidence. I’m a hair restoration specialist, and I never get tired of seeing people’s self-esteem improve after they see hair-growth results. Truthfully, it’s the thing that gets me out of bed every morning, and the positive outcomes have driven healthy business growth.
Jae Pak, Jae Pak MD Medical
Create Positive Social Impact With Your Brand
I have spent my career building mission-driven brands in the digital space. As a long-time business owner, I’ve seen the change that can be created by aligning top-line growth with positive social impact. It’s a perfect marriage. Lifestyle modifications and strategic intervention can change a person’s health outcome by leaps and bounds. We are set up to deliver that to people at scale. We can make a difference in the lives of so many people. I drill into every team member, new and existing, that we are taking part in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring a brand to market that changes the way people think about their well-being.
Joel Jackson, Lifeforce
Use Marketing To Help People Make Better Choices
As a marketing agency, it’s easy to get cynical about purpose. At the most basic level, it might seem that marketers just help companies get people to buy their stuff. But as a certified B Corp, we wanted to aim higher. We believe that marketers help people make better choices. So our purpose is ‘Inform – Connect – Inspire’. We architected our service offerings about these principles – copywriting and websites to inform, landing pages and high-value content to connect our clients with good-fit customers and – the secret sauce – inspiration to help people envisage a better future and take action now to achieve it.
Matthew Stibbe, Articulate Marketing
Defend The Marginalized
We consider it an honor that our clients entrust us with their cases. Our law firm is determined to pursue justice on their behalf. Oftentimes, our clients feel ignored by society. We set out to make an outsized impact on people who often feel marginalized or neglected. We have a welcoming culture at our firm. Roughly 90% of our employees are bilingual and our executives and attorneys are active in the local Latino, African-American, Jewish and Middle Eastern communities. Diversity is a way of life here and every person who joins our team understands that. We take employee engagement seriously.
Alan Ahdoot, Adamson Ahdoot Law
Assist Small and Family- run Businesses
We believe in uplifting first-time business owners and family-run businesses, which has meant focusing heavily on partnering with individuals over large-scale companies. Small businesses are the backbone of society, and it’s important they have the tools to compete with larger competitors. But we’ve found first-time business owners don’t always just need tools, sometimes they need training and assistance in their decision making process too, so we’ve made it our mission to offer both so they can find early and sustained success.
John Jacob, Hoist
Inspire People To Achieve Personal Success
I started Snackable Solutions, a podcast for small business owners to share small, achievable tactics to improve their companies because I didn’t have time to serve everyone who wanted to hire me as a digital marketer. I believe that successful small businesses and entrepreneurs give people hope, and that’s something we really need today. Hopeful people tend to be happier than people who feel stagnant. They in turn inspire others, and are more accepting of people regardless of their shortcomings. You end up with a society that feels more inclusive, where opportunities are more abundant.
Dennis Consorte, Snackable Solutions
Equip Digital Workers To Achieve Balance
Our higher purpose is to create more freedom and better work-life balance for workers worldwide. To achieve this, we have published over 250 free educational pieces over the past six months to make information available to anyone who wants to start working online. We also support this higher purpose internally by allowing fully remote work, flexible working times, and one paid day per week for professional development. In addition, we continuously invest in top-notch software and automation to take the heavy-lifting off of employees.
Georgi Todorov, ThriveMyWay
Help Others Embrace More With Less
Our higher purpose is helping others embrace more with less. This purpose was born from an island mentality (we’re based in Hawaii). One where you embrace more creativity with less convenience. More quality with less commotion, and more responsibility when sustainability alone isn’t the full picture. We make timeless, active essentials that are built to last and designed for more purpose and less impact. We’ve started with our core sports bra styles. They adapt with our customers on land, in the water, or anywhere their versatile life adventures. What we’re working towards is a world with less clutter – in our closets and in our minds.
We have a defined responsibility practice, a thoughtful curation rubric, and a marketing manifesto to keep our team accountable.
Bridget Thorpe, SOL VAE
Empower Freelancers To Succeed
My higher purpose is to empower anyone who has turned their back on 9-5 office life to be their own boss. Originally I had wanted to be an artist. But somehow I found myself in a 9-5 office job. And realized it was the completely wrong place for me. I became a freelance web designer and struggled hand-to-mouth for a long time, before figuring out how to actually provide real value and get paid accordingly.
Now I work with other service-based solopreneurs, helping to validate their decision to be their own boss by empowering them to build a more profitable business. I do this by helping them build strong personal brands that makes them more attractive to clients and allows them to raise their rates over time. Nobody necessarily knows it’s my two fingers to office life. But it is. That’s my higher purpose.
Frank Prendergast, Frank and Marci
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