MAIN STREET OR SIDE STREET?

MAIN STREET OR SIDE STREET?

I recently visited two small Florida towns and was intrigued by the traffic on the main streets and the lack of such on the side streets.

Foot traffic and car traffic were both heavy on the main streets and the stores looked crowded. Too crowded? Reminding me of a Yogi Berra quip, “Nobody goes there anymore because it’s too crowded.”

Hmm, is that me? Is it you?

What businesses do you prefer to frequent?

What kind of business do you want to be?

Main street or side street?

Big Business or small?

Which provoked the question . . . IS IT TO BE BIG, OR BIG ENOUGH?

How big do we want our business to be?

What will our business look like when it is all grown up? What is the long-term future vision?

But . . . before we can get there, first comes now, and the more pertinent question is, “What is my capacity given the resources I currently have?”

Before BIG, we must first navigate small. And as a 1-person business, you and your time are the most valuable of all resources.

Have you considered your capacity?

The key ingredients are:

·???????Content – that which you provide; the reasons clients hire you.

·???????Content delivery – the process by which you provide your content and the actual time it takes to serve each client.

·???????Capacity calculation – given the time it takes to deliver content, how many clients can be served in a day, a week, or a year.

The keystone variable is how many hours per day, and how many days per week do you want to work and then, pricing.

Given the number of clients you can serve, what price need you charge to achieve your financial objective?

This calculation is more effective than a desired “hourly rate” because this is based on the most important of all business performance indicators, the number of clients being served.

How many clients do you need to acquire, at the necessary price, every week, month, or year to achieve your goals?

Would you consider this number to be that of a BIG business or one that is big enough?

AN A-HA MOMENT

The vast majority of all registered businesses have less than 10 employees (the statistic is more than 90%) and almost all of these are trying to be big enough.

Yes, growing their business is important, but more important is optimizing their capacity.

Most of these “big-enough-business-owners” could not handle a rush of new clients because they lack the capacity. (and they likely do not want to be working that much.)

If your value proposition includes “grow your business”, you might want to rethink that. Most small business owners are happy on side streets and being big enough to achieve their own definition of success.

AS A SOLOPRENEUR . . .

What is the least we need to do to achieve our goals? When pondering our capacity calculation, keep this thought in mind. Very often, less is truly more.

EXAMINE THE IDEA --- is a one-hour chat to discuss your idea, your capacity, pricing, and a few other key pieces. Email me if you might want to schedule such a visit.