I hear from a lot of small business owners who say that they want to build an audience. They want to increase their followers on Instagram or get more views on YouTube. They want more subscribers on their email lists or have more people tune in for their live streams....
Make Your Fantasy Business Your Inspiration for Simple Strategy
I’m convinced that every entrepreneur has a fantasy business that they daydream about.
It’s free from all of the baggage and assumptions that we’ve built up around our existing businesses.
And I’m also convinced that that fantasy business—as pie-in-the-sky as it may be—has something to teach us about our existing businesses.
They can show us how we’d market differently, set policies differently, and protect our time differently. They show us the kinds of relationships we’d prefer to have with clients or the type of work we’d rather be doing.
And, maybe more than anything, they show us just how simple a business can be.
With a few exceptions, I don’t think most of us daydream about convoluted, complicated businesses. We dream up simple businesses—ones that thrive with minimal BS.
Today, I’m sharing 3 ways that I built my fantasy business—the one I’d been dreaming about for years—and how it’s different from What Works.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
– Why making changes to an existing business is less like steering a big ship and more like dragging the anchor behind you
– How focusing on process & systems helped us create a simple business model
– What we did to create an offer that was an obvious “yes” for the right people and an obvious “no” for the wrong people
– And how we’ve gotten away with almost zero marketing since we got started almost 2 years ago
7 Simple Business Models For Small Business Owners
What's the right business model for your small business? Which model will afford you the financial sustainability you crave with the type of work, flexibility, and satisfaction you value? And do you really need to create an online course or membership site...
What I Wish Every Small Business Owner Knew About Making More Money
More work doesn’t equal more money. More offers don’t equal more money. More marketing doesn’t equal more money. More lead magnets, more email subscribers, or more followers don’t equal more money. And, the flip side is also true. Making more money probably doesn’t...
What I Wish Every Small Business Owner Knew About Marketing
“Marketing” is a giant catch-all term. When we’re doing “marketing,” what are we really doing? You’ve probably come to associate “marketing” with activities like posting on social media, writing emails or articles, and maybe offering free downloads or workshops. You...
Feeling The Squeeze? Why Your Business Feels So Tight
Try as you might, you can’t squeeze your way to a bigger business. We certainly try, though. We squeeze more hours into every day. We squeeze more customers through our sales process. We squeeze more offers into our business model. We squeeze more and more...
Control Less, Nurture More: Rethinking How We Approach Marketing
It seems that every year we’re showered with new ways to exert control over our businesses, our customers, and ourselves. There are always new must-have sales funnels, frameworks for persuasion, and apps. There are new planners to use and new ways to declutter our...
This Article Contains Remarkable Content
Do you have your social media strategy all squared away for 2021? Are you on all the hot new platforms? Have you experimented with all the latest features and stickers and filters? Do you have all your content scheduled and recycled at random intervals to appear...
Hope Doing More Will Make Your Business More Successful? Let’s Talk About That
What are you doing to grow your business this year? Wait. Let me guess: You're doing more. Doing more is rarely the answer to the question, "How do I grow my business?" But... it seems like it should be the answer. So it's the first tactic we consider....
EP 299: How To Design Your Own Sales System
This week, I’ve got 4 more stories to share with you from small business owners who have intentionally done things their own way when it comes to sales and selling. They’ve found what truly works for them–even if it bucks the prevailing wisdom or would make a bro marketing expert role his or her eyes.
These stories come from business coach Ashley Gartland, marketing expert Amy Lippmann, designer Mel Richards, and work reinvention coach Lydia Lee.
Listen for how they incorporated these same considerations into finding their own unique sales systems. They designed their systems with personal values, strong relationships, reduced anxiety, and agency in mind.
What Works offers in-depth, well-researched content that strips away the hype of the 21st-century economy.
Whether you love the podcast, the articles, or the Instagram content, we’d love your support.