There are several social issues within our communities and the world needs social innovators to tackle these issues. Therefore, it is important for upcoming and already existing entrepreneurs to start looking for purpose driven business ideas.

What does it mean to build a business that is purpose and impact driven? This means developing ideas that improve people’s lives in our communities but also help you build something more fulfilling for yourself and for your potential customers.

In order to build a purpose and impact driven business you need to look around you and find out what social issues plague your community and explore the change you want to make in that area. This can range from high population density in urban areas of Cameroon, rising drug problem amongst youth, waste management or access to education etc. It is important to apply a solution focused approach to solving these problems.

A solution focused approach is a practical process for co-creating solutions that assist in identifying and mobilizing the skills and resources required to achieve observable changes.
In simpler words, a purpose and impact driven business focuses on identifying a problem faced by its society (usually immediate) and proceeds to develop a solution by mobilizing resources to accomplish the said solution.

Why should you build a purpose-driven business?
Let us begin with what must be the most obvious reason. No customer wants to feel like they’re just being sold to on a daily basis and what’s more, these days, it is typical customer behavior to scrutinize businesses. Customers are cynical, skeptical, and well-informed. it is not safe to assume they are not.

To tackle this problem, you want to base your business on a genuine connection with your clientele base and the only way you can do this is to offer them value first! And the best way to consistently build value is by having a purpose

Purpose vs value
Simply put, Purpose has to do with what you as a business/entrepreneur hold as the reason for starting a business. Value is what you’re offering your customers. The reasons you are giving them to stay loyal to you.

How can you build a purpose-driven business in Cameroon?

Identifying a problem
Every society in the world is ridden with problems and people no doubt struggle with these problems every day. To build a purpose-driven business, start by identifying a problem your society faces. What is that urgent need? What is that one challenge that if you could find a solution to would put a smile on a million faces?

Being genuinely interested in providing a solution
It takes time, effort and consistency to build a business whether you’re a veteran or a novice. You have to love what you’re doing to last long. Having a genuine interest in your business ensures that even when there are challenges you keep going until you achieve your goals.

Do your research
This involves carrying out surveys about the market you plan on entering. What is the current state of the market? Who is the ideal customer? Who are the leading bulls in this sector? These are the types of questions you should be able to answer from the research you carry out.

We would like to draw emphasis on studying your competition as doing so gives you an insight into what they’re doing right and wrong, you can hone all this information to make better decisions.

Developing a solution
So, you have identified the problem and carried out all necessary research, and after months of coming up with ideas and erasing, that piece of future intelligence that is your brain has clicked with a solution.

Now, what do you do? You build a team and mobilize all the resources necessary for the accomplishment of your goals.

Being solution oriented
Rather than simply exploring and analyzing current problems, a solution-oriented approach assists you in developing goals and solutions. It differs from more traditional forms of assistance in that it focuses on the present and future, on goals and how to achieve them. This can apply to your business in your general approach of developing your goods or service and also in your customer service and total customer experience.