I recently read a blog on LinkedIn by Michele Pariza Wacek (a co-author of mine in Navigating Entrepreneurship) and knew I wanted to share her information with you. How do you know what business model you should use? Read below for some great tips!
What if you don’t know if your business model is right for you? Never fear! This week, I’m helping you choose the right business model for you.
To start, we need to look at what an ideal biz model looks like. Ideally it would be a magical blend of these 4 pillars:
* Your passion (or gift or mission)
* Your preferred working habits
* Your lifestyle choices
* Your financial goals
Okay so let me talk a little about each of these.
The first — your passion/gift/mission — is probably pretty obvious to you. Is your business designed to get your passion/gifts/mission into the world? If it’s not, you probably feel pretty empty and stuck in your business. So the first thing you need to do is make sure you’re actually building a business that you feel passionate about. (UNLESS that’s not that important to you — and it’s not to every business owner or entrepreneur. Some entrepreneurs are serial entrepreneurs or are more passionate about business itself. If this is you, I would encourage you to live more in the business aspect of your business — because that’s your genius and again, it’s probably the most satisfying for you.)
The second — your preferred working habits — covers a slew of things including:
* Are the tasks you spend the most time doing what you actually enjoy? In other words, if you love to speak, are you out there speaking? If you love to coach, are you out there coaching? If you love to write, are you out there writing? Etc.
* Is your business set up to give you MORE of what you enjoy? So, if you love going deep with a smaller number of clients, is your business designed to allow you to do that? If you want to reach the masses with low cost books and products, is your business set up so you can?
* Is your team supporting you and handling the tasks you don’t enjoy?
Basically what I want you to ask yourself is this: Are you actually doing what you want to be doing or do you find yourself doing tasks you can’t stand?
If you hate being on the phone, using one-on-one strategy sessions to fill your phone-based programs may not be the right business model for you. If you hate to write, writing books or information products may not be right for you.
Now it isn’t realistic to only do only things you love and nothing you hate in your business, but if you’re finding your business is mostly based on tasks that drain you, it’s probably time to take another look at how your business is set up.
The third — your lifestyle choices — is a twin sister to your preferred working habits. When do you want to work? Where do you want to work? How much time do you want off? Your business model should support these preferences as well.
The fourth — of course you want your business model to support your financial goals. Now, I’m not necessarily talking about your current income, but what’s possible and realistic for the business model you’ve chosen. For instance, say you’re a massage therapist who wants a million-dollar business. For the most part, a solopreneur (like a massage therapist) will have a tough time charging a high enough fee per massage to actually build a million-dollar business, so if this is the case, you’ll need to decide if you want to change your business model to support a million dollar business, or if you want to scale back your financial goals.
Okay, so now that you understand the different pillars and how they work together, take a moment and see how your current biz shapes up. Does it fit each of your ideals? And if it doesn’t, are you okay that it doesn’t or is this something that needs to change? And if does need to change, how does it need to change?
Now, what do you do if, after reading this, you realize your current business model is not right for you? Well, start by patting yourself on the back. Now you know! This is fabulous news! And now that you know, you can put a plan together to transition from the business model you currently have to one that will better serve you. You don’t have to drop what you have now to put something new in place (and drop the income that goes with it) — it is possible to transition easily and effortlessly.
Michele PW (Pariza Wacek), Your Ka-Ching Marketing Strategist, is the best-selling author of “Love-Based Copywriting" and owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting LLC, a premiere direct response copywriting and marketing company that helps entrepreneurs attract more clients, sell more products and services and boost their business. To grab your FREE Love-Based Biz Kit visit http://www.MichelePW.com
