Imagine you're ten years old, and there are huge stacks of
cardboard boxes towering over you. It's a maze. It's a
fortress. And you're allowed to climb all over them.
Inside every single one of those boxes is a dozen bottles.
Fine wines, liquor, you name it. It may sound like a
caterer's dream, but I was just hanging out in the
warehouse of my grandfather's wine store. My parents worked
with him, and so I kinda grew up there.
1000's of bottles. One business.
The store ran ads every week, because every week there was
a different special, a different deal. A new wine, a new
vintage, a new label. Customers came in, and often the
parking lot was jammed, with a line from the cash register
snaking towards the back door.
Can you imagine if every time a new bottle came in, my
grandfather had to open a new store to sell it? Create a
new and separate ad? That's crazy thinking, isn't it?
One business can handle a whole lotta bottles.
============================
You can breathe a sigh of relief. While you may be the
world's most amazing neurofeedback practitioner, just
because you also want to provide nutritional education and
support doesn't mean you have to start a second business.
If you're consulting around marketing and brand
development, you don't have to kill yourself trying to
start a new consulting practice to offer organizational
development and leadership training.
You're just adding more bottles to the shelf. Seems kinda
obvious when you think about it. But, what if you need
another website? Or another stream of income? When does it
become separate business?
A business is defined by the people it serves.
===========================
A business exists to help people solve a problem. Not just
any person, or just any problem. The same business that
fixes holes in your teeth isn't going to be the same
business that fixes potholes in the road.
If your message is talking to the same kind of people,
about the same kind of problem, then no matter how
radically different the offers are, you can keep it all
under one roof.
Meditation CD. Spiritual healing session. Hot rock
massages. Pilates classes. Nutrition consultation. Health
strategy session. Spans quite a bit of territory, but
because it addresses people healing from traumatic
injuries, all of these offers connect. One business.
One business. Two businesses. Why does it matter?
===============================
Well, aside from the overwhelm that can rise up when
thinking about running more than one business at a time, it
all boils down to one word: Momentum.
A customer that buys a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau one
week, may buy a case of Burgundy the next. And then the
next week, on your recommendation, they may end up trying
some white wine, and finding out they like that, too.
All people, including your clients, are complex human
beings, with a large variety of needs and wants and
challenges. By the same token, problems are rarely solved
with only one solution or approach. A good dinner may need
both a rich red wine for the steak, and then a sweet
dessert wine for afterwards. An injury may need massage,
exercise, nutrition, and spiritual connection to heal.
But if you're already known as a specialist in
neurofeedback, say, how could you ever expand your business
without losing clients? Good question. Let's take a look.
Keys to Adding Bottles for Momentum =======================
* Single Answers Can Be Suspect
After touring through the world of healing, where there has
to be at least one gazillion different ways of doing it,
I've come to the conclusion: there is no one single 'best'
way. If you are dedicating yourself to just a single
modality, it's hard to do that without having a least a
little bit of unconscious modality chauvinism creep in.
Offering a sensible variety of approaches that work
together and support one another can actually increase the
trust your clients have in you. They'll know that you're
growing and learning, too. And that you are more concerned
about helping them, than in just doing "your thang."
* Variety is the Spice of Life
Even people who have the most "dog with a bone" tendencies
still like change and variety. By providing variety and
change that is sincerely helpful, and yet still has focus,
it means that they will be able to change focus, without
leaving your business.
They'll stick around and drink more deeply at your
fountain, just because you've got different flavors. And
this means that not only are they getting more and better
help from you, but for you, that's one less client you have
to replace.
* Quality leads to Quantity
Because you've got multiple solutions all supporting the
same issue behind Door #1, people are getting even better
results. Which means they come back, as we've already said.
And bring their family. And tell their friends.
Even your best clients may feel like your services are
especially profound, or different, or, let's face it, weird
in some way. If you have a few different bottles available
for different tastes, chances are it will be easier for
them to think of something that a particular person would
like.
Go ahead, take that breath, and start stacking your shelves
with whatever bottles float your boat, and support your
focus. Your clients will thank you, and your business will
have that much more help going into momentum.
----------------------------------------------------
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your
Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your
Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line.
He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the
globe succeed in business without lousing their hearts. Get
three free chapters of the book online:
http://www.heartofbusiness.com
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