"What would you do if a patron client gave you a million dollars, and said you could do anything you wanted with your business?”
I play this theoretical game with all my clients at 16 Hoops.
There are a couple of caveats: You have to invest your million in your business. You can’t just pay yourself more. And you have to spend it all in one year.
What would you do?
I've had clients tell me they would write a book, travel, or open up a gallery. Nothing wrong with those answers--they usually come from a gut reaction.
But I think I need to ask, instead: "What game-changing things would you do with that money?"
Your answer might be different.
I know exactly what I would do. And it has almost nothing to do with buying a swanky new studio downtown, or traveling--because as fun as those things are, they aren't really game-changers.
Instead, I would research and build a completely new way of doing business in the photography industry. I would hire think tanks and designers and emerge like a butterfly in a year with a revolutionary business model.
David Baker, one of my favorite thinkers, posed this very question on his blog the other day, and our answers were pretty much the same.
You might not have a million dollars burning a hole in your business account, but what you can do right now (and it costs a lot less) is:
- Take the time to do a very deep dive into your own airtight positioning. Find that lucrative position that no one else can hold, and claim it.
- Build a signature system around that position.
The rest will fall into place.
You can start rolling the ball in the right direction. It’s hard work, but that is 100% why you should be doing it. If it was easy, everyone would have already done it, and we wouldn't be having this million-dollar conversation.