After I founded my company earlier this year, I worked hard to overcome difficulties, administrative hurdles and whims of fate. I met clients, wrote proposals and strove to find inspiring ways to teach about transformation and problem solving – the core of my activity.
And then I had my first happy customer.
In that moment it all made sense – the effort and insistence I had put into developing my business truly became worth it.
Prior to founding my business, for the past 15 years I had worked in business operations. I delivered projects, I was promoted and received bonuses. I even, sporadically, met with clients.
But I felt somehow incomplete in my work. Was I losing my sense of purpose? Burning out? Under too much stress?
Not quite, I now realised. My happy customer made me understand what had been cruelly missing from my corporate experience: my work did not give me sufficient opportunity to hear, see and receive customer gratitude, perhaps the most important reason to do business.
Why did I not see happy customers in my corporate life?
It was certainly not because customers never said thank you. They did. But I did not interact with them enough to hear them say it, let alone have deep conversations with them about what they needed and the problems I could help them solve.
Instead, I was busy with milestones and deadlines, and I listened to customers mainly when projects required it. This lack of meaningful customer interaction drained all joy from my work.
So, ever since starting my own business, I have granted myself the luxury of concentrating on one thing only: producing happy customers. The great thing about being an entrepreneur is that I have the power to do what I want, and what I can, for my customers.
And happy customers are incredibly motivating.