Up Market

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Quickfire: What is the most fundamental purpose of creating a business? Posted: 29 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT Business owners begin their journeys — that is, their businesses — for many different reasons. Those reasons can be complicated, and there can be several different angles from which to look at the same question. But how does each describe the most fundamental purpose of that pursuit? If we have to choose a most basic function of the business we’re about to build, where do we start? We set out to discover that this week, and asked several businesspeople we respect to answer this same question — What do you believe is the most fundamental purpose of creating a business? Here are the first few responses on our list… Seth Godin Blogger, Author, & Entrepreneur “Businesses exist to do transactions that both sides benefit from. Including transactions with employees, other businesses, vendors and the environment.” Charlie Gilkey Business Advisor & Founder of Productive Flourishing “The most fundamental purpose of creating a business is to convert challenges and opportunities into economic value. Sometimes this is merely creating a business to serve customers who aren’t currently being served well by another business or organization. Other times, it’s creating a business to serve the needs of a future that hasn’t come to be yet. But, in the end, it’s about creating economic value.” Chris Taylor Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Goose Educational Media “For me, entrepreneurship is an opportunity to right a wrong in the world. Creating a company is about creating connecting puzzle pieces in a way that people might intuitively understand is ‘right,’ but not know how to articulate. I think that when you’ve done it right, people rally behind it – not because it’s new or shiny, but because it’s something they’ve always believed in, they just didn’t know it did (or could) exist. When you create a company that matters, you create an island for people to swim for – a cause, purpose or belief personified through your product or service. You give like minded people a place to land.” Image credits: betsyweber, Joi, Productive Flourishing, Actionable Books

Staying Connected on Summer Vacation Posted: 29 Jun 2012 02:00 AM PDT Even on vacation, it's all work and little play for small business owners. A recent poll of indicates that many American small business owners won't completely tune out from their responsibilities during their vacations. The survey from Cisco WebEx showed that business owners plan to work an average of 18 days remotely this summer. Of the 500 people surveyed, 15 percent intend to work remotely 36 days or more. Almost half said they would be remote for at least two weeks. "Many respondents prefer working remotely to avoid hassles and inconveniences often associated with traditional office meetings," according to the MarketWire press release. "The results demonstrate the extent to which telephone and video conferencing have become ingrained in the work habits of small business owners, since nearly half of the survey respondents say traditional, in-person meetings are becoming less relevant," said Glenn Bray, senior director, Cloud Collaboration Applications Technology Group, Cisco. The survey was conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of Cisco WebEx, one of the leading providers for telephone and video conferencing platforms. Small businesses were those with 100 or fewer employees. Image credit: Paull Young

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