How to Define Your Core Values and Why Your Business Needs Them

One critical part every entrepreneur should have in their business is a list of core values. Core values can be used as a blueprint when making important business decisions, and can also help you run your business with a clearer path toward growth and success.

As an entrepreneur or a small business owner, you have a vision of your business and how you want your life to be. Your business is your calling — and even as it may be the most difficult thing you’ve ever done in your life, you have your ‘WHY’ that drives you to do business.

My ‘WHY’ For My First and Current Businesses

Watching the sunset from a patio in Redondo Beach, California one Sunday evening when I was in my 20s, my (then) husband and I were talking to our neighbors across the courtyard. We were barbecuing and wishing that the weekend wasn’t coming to an end.

That’s when the daydreaming began — thinking about what if we start our own business, work together and support ourselves by being our own boss. The more we thought about it, the more we got hopeful that one day we’d live in a world where we didn’t dread Mondays. We started talking endlessly about the idea of quitting our jobs and becoming entrepreneurs.