How do you describe your business?

On this week's From Passion to Profit, I'm going to be diving into a topic

that's often overlooked, often neglected, but it has a

massive impact and importance of how we describe

ourselves in the world of business.

You may ask yourself, well, what's in the name? Well, quite a lot.

How we label ourselves, and most people traditionally label themselves

as either freelancers, self employed individuals, charities,

private businesses, voluntary organizations. That has a massive impact

on how we perceive ourselves, how we frame, how we deal with

others and more importantly, how the outside world perceives us,

the value we bring and how they interact with us as well. So

identity is really key. Let me start with

addressing a common misconception and possibly rebut

a bit of snobbery that goes on in the world of business. For some people,

being a business is merely determined by how big

you are, your structure, your size, how many members of staff that

you have, whether you're domestic or national or whatever. And if you can

fit certain criteria, then you have the right to call yourself a business.

To my way of thinking, that's complete tosh.

Well, factors of size, structure, how many employees you've got

certainly play a role, they are not the defining

characteristics of a business. Being a business is more than just

structure and in fact, structure is not really the first

consideration to call yourself a business. Being a business is about the

impact you make, the services you provide, the risks you undertake,

the interactions you have with suppliers and customers. The size is

not important, it's what you're actually doing that determines whether you're a business

or not. Let me give

you, for instance, an organization that calls itself a charity

first, but actually offers a whole wide range of services. And the

charity sector in the uk, by the way, is a massive business sector

in its own right. It offers services that enrich our lives

from cultural entertainment, provision of health care,

provision of education, provision of outreach services.

Now, that is the nature of what charities do. So if we go for as

big as the National Theatre to small, small scale theaters, the

they're providing entertainment services, they do educational work. Are you saying

they're not businesses just because they happen to be registered as charities?

And charities are at fault this time for introducing themselves as charities

first and not actually the work they do forms a frame of

reference in somebody's minds as to it's the charity that they're fixated

with, and less so for the work that's done. The focus should be on the

work that you do, the impact that you make, the transformations that you

provide, less so on the Charitable status.

Similarly, there's a stigma attached sometimes to freelancers

or self employed, as if they're perceived as less impactful, less important,

simply because they don't fit a traditional business model. The idea of a

traditional business model in itself should be relegated to history.

Now, being a business is not reserved just for large corporate bodies

with extensive staff and resources. It's not about saying, oh, I'm registered

for sales taxes, for vat. I'm a business because I employ staff,

I'm a business because I have a multitude of suppliers. I'm

a business because of filling the gaps yourself.

If you provide goods or services, you take some degree of

risk and that risk could be not getting paid by somebody you've done work for.

That risk could be costs going up and you have to absorb that. If

you make some contribution to the economy, then you are a business,

you're producing goods, you're providing services and that crosses

the boundary. And it's not about whether you're private, it's not about

this luxury of saying, look, look at me, I've got a massive pool of funds,

that I've got investors around me. That is a type of business, but

it's not the defining factor. So freelancers,

self employed, charities, not for profits, Small,

large companies, whatever shape and size and form you are, you

are a business. Now, the exception would be if you

are somebody who's an employee, so you provide your skills, your

talent for an employer for which you get a regular salary and or any

other benefits. Perfectly a noble tradition itself.

Perfectly wonderful. Then you are an employee, you're not a business.

Now you might be thinking, does it really matter, Mahmood? Well, for one, it does.

It's about recognition. And many sectors, as I've said earlier, like the

creative and artistic industries, play a significant, nay,

a massive role in our society. They may not charge

the end user for the entertainment, for the education,

the information, the transformation they're providing. They may be grant

funded, they may generate their income from donations, but they will still

operate like a business. They will plan, they will budget,

they control costs, they take on staff, they engage

freelancers, they have internal structures, big or small,

those are not what I would call charities. Firstly, they're businesses, they

just happen to have a charitable outlook. What that means, predominantly

folks, is that any surpluses that are generated, and it's tough in

the charity sector, but any surpluses that are generated are for the benefit

of the community, the benefit for the audiences, the benefit of the

people they're helping. Now, these organizations enrich our culture, they

inspire, they educate and they contribute economically and

socially. However, their business operations are often overlooked

because they're charities, those in private business. And I am in private private

business, I have no shame on that. The nature of the risks will differ and

how it's funded, but that's a conversation for another day. But business

disciplines that are carrying out in the charity sector, private sector

people could learn a lot from the key difference. By the way, folks, if you're

thinking what is the essential difference is charities have different

objectives, voluntary organizations have different objectives. Financial

motivation is not the primary driver. It's good

to be financially sustainable, it's good to think more numbers,

it's good to have good financial practices, but the primary motivation is

not to generate profits. And there's nothing wrong with that objective, by the way.

So what's the essence? What's the takeaway? I think for me, there's

a few takeaways. Number one, we need to rethink how we

perceive businesses. We don't just have that term aligned and

matched against certain types of entities. So if they've got

shares, we call them a business. If they take dividends, we call them a

business. If they're a certain size, we call it a business. That's hogwash.

Business is not a term that goes to a particular structure or a

particular industry. And people need to reclaim that and take it back. We

need a much broader camp to say businesses fit in there. So

whether you're a freelancer, a charity, or part of a voluntary organization, you

are, in my humble opinion, based on nearly three decades of experience

of working with international, domestic, voluntary and other types

of organizations, you are a business and you need to think business

first. Your size, complexity or funding source doesn't change that

fact. By recognizing the diverse array of businesses we

have in society, in our economy, we can better appreciate the

contributions they make. What it also does, it introduces the idea

of business discipline. If we think as a business and having those certain

disciplines, both in terms of internal control, role compliance,

planning, budgeting, and thinking about that element of risk taking that

goes forward here, then you've got a solid business model. It's easy to

engage with an audience. If you describe the impact that you make, as

opposed to saying, firstly, we're a charity. Personally speaking,

that line of thinking is an inhibitor as opposed to an

enabler. So, folks, how do you describe yourselves? Do you talk

about you're a freelancer first? Do you talk about the era charity? Is that

the emphasis? Is that the key message you want people to take away for me,

reframe that. Turn it upside down. How you're structured

is not the first thing that you should be introducing into the

conversation. Talk about the impact you make. Reclaim the ground

as a business and let me know what your thoughts are. Does this resonate

with you? Do you have an alternative take? I'd love to hear what that is.

And folks, if you feel this can be enjoyed by others, then please, I'd love

it if you could share that. I'd even love it if you can actually add

some feedback. Do a review. It always helps to get a bigger reach out

there. Until next week, folks. Happy businessing.