The Desert of Arizona
Clear 42 Degrees
I took my son’s bike into a bike shop here in town and saw something on the wall I never expected to see…
It was an unopened Seth Godin superhero figurine.
Now I bet you’ve never seen THAT in a bike shop. Me neither. So I got talking to the guy working there and we ended up talking about marketing for a while. In particular, about solving a “scaling” problem he was helping a service provider with.
It got me thinking…
People will tell you that if you’re a freelancer or a solo service provider, you don’t have a real business because you can’t “scale.”
While that may be true, it’s a little bit like highlighting that an elephant is never going to fly because it doesn’t have wings.
In other words, it’s obvious.
But it can be a real source for concern. Especially if you’re that elephant and everyone around you is telling you you have to learn how to fly.
Learning how to fly just isn’t something that is baked into an elephant. So why invest effort in trying to be something you’re not? Why not be a better elephant?
In every business configuration, there’s a set of constraints that can be seen as limitations or as advantages.
So being a single service provider is only a “problem” if you’re trying to make that type of a business function like another type of a business.
It’s not worth it.
Instead, use the secrets you’ve got.
In the case of the single service provider, you’ve got the ultimate card up your sleeve in terms of supply and demand. What most view as a “problem” is the very same secret you use to succeed.
There’s only one YOU.
So if you can engineer a way to generate an overwhelming amount of demand for YOU, then you can write your own ticket.
If my platform is building relationships with 250,000 potential clients, and it’s only ME at the other end… supply and demand is stacked in my favor. See?
But that’s the opposite direction you’d go if you were trying to “scale” your business. If you were trying to scale, you’d ask, “How do I duplicate myself?” That’s what they tell you to ask. Well if you duplicate YOU, that’s going to be a not-as-perfect copy. So right there you’ve actually DILUTED your value by making MORE of you. Totally backwards.
For me, I’m not interested in hiring employees or building a big business. I don’t want something that runs without me. What the hell would I do with myself?
I want to wake up each day and impact people in a major way by spreading the message I’m here to spread.
I start with THAT and build what I want around it.
That’s my elephant. And I’m really not concerned that it will never “fly.”
That’s not what it is here to do…