How do you describe your business in the business world? In this week's episode of the "I Hate Numbers" podcast, we tackle a topic often overlooked but with significant implications. You might wonder, "What's in the name?" Well, it turns out, quite a lot. Traditionally, we classify ourselves as freelancers, self-employed individuals, charities, private businesses, or voluntary organizations. This categorization profoundly influences self-perception, framing of interactions, and external perceptions of our value.

Identity in Business

Rethinking Definitions: Contrary to popular belief, being a business isn't solely about size or structure. It's about the impact we make, the services we provide, and the risks we undertake. Size isn't the defining characteristic; it's the actions and engagements that matter. However, challenging misconceptions is necessary. Some believe that only large entities with extensive staff and resources deserve the title of "business." We disagree. Any entity that provides goods or services, takes risks, and contributes to the economy is a business, regardless of size or structure.

Embracing Diversity

It's time to broaden our definition of business to include freelancers, charities, voluntary organizations, and businesses of all shapes and sizes. Recognizing and appreciating the diverse contributions of various entities is crucial for a thriving society and economy. Incorporating Business Discipline: Embracing business disciplines like planning, budgeting, and risk management across all organizations is essential. Framing ourselves as businesses facilitates audience engagement by focusing on impact rather than structure.

Conclusion

In conclusion, how we describe ourselves in business contexts matters. Emphasizing the impact we make rather than our organizational structure can lead to better recognition and engagement. So, how do you describe your business? Let's rethink our approach and reclaim the term "business" for all entities, irrespective of size or structure. We encourage your feedback and discussion on this topic. Share your thoughts with us!

In this week's I Hate Numbers podcast, I'm going to be diving into a topic that's often overlooked, often neglected, but it has a massive impact and importance on how we describe ourselves in the world of business. You may ask yourself, well, what's in a 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 organisations, 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.

You are listening to the I Hate Numbers podcast with Mahmood Reza. The I Hate Numbers podcast mission is to help your business survive and thrive by you better understanding and connecting with your numbers. Number love and care is what it's about. Tune in every week. Now, here's your host, Mahmood Reza.

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. While 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 organisation 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 theatres, 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 mind as to is 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 fill in 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 cost 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 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 is 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 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 organisations 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 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 carried 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 organisations have different objectives. Financial motivation is not the primary driver.

It's good to be financially sustainable. It's good to think 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 organisation, you are, in my humble opinion, based on nearly three decades of experience of working with international, domestic, voluntary, and other types of organisations, you are a business.

And you need to think business first. Your size, complexity, or funding source doesn't change that fact. By recognising 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, 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 that you're a 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 could actually add some feedback, do a review. It always helps to get a bigger reach out there. Until next week, folks, happy businessing. We hope you enjoyed this episode and appreciate you taking the time to listen to the show.

We hope you got some value. If you did, then we'd love it if you shared the episode. We look forward to you joining us next week for another I Hate Numbers episode.