Re-imagine is a word I’ve been using a lot lately. It’s a word I want people to embrace when they start to see that what they’re doing isn’t getting them the results they want.
Have they reached a ceiling for how much they can make given the amount of time they have available or the resources they have in place?
Or… given our recent events of a global pandemic, are they no longer able to serve their clients in the same way, either because clients are afraid to spend money or because they can no longer offer their services in-person?
These are two different ways that mean it’s time to re-imagine how business is being done in order to thrive and grow beyond the current situation.
The thing with re-imagining is that it can apply to so many different areas of a business.
Re-imagine what it means to be a business owner.
Are you the kind of business owner who can make a million dollars? What if you imagined you were?
Are you the kind of business owner who can always provide value to your clients? What if you reminded yourself daily just how much value you bring to anyone who buys anything from you?
Re-imagine how you can serve your clients.
Has it always felt like you had to be in-person to provide value? What if that wasn’t true?
Has anything that isn’t one-on-one felt like it couldn’t work? What if you COULD provide value in a group situation? What would that look like?
Is it time to figure out what CAN work?
Re-imagine what the end goal is.
If you are stuck on the idea that what you’re selling always has to have the same outcome and that’s the only way you’ve done a good job, you might be cutting yourself off from new ways of making money. If you imagine that working with you is a 10 step process and your clients are starting at 0... is there NO value in them getting help to get to step three? If there IS value in them getting to step three, can you get them there without having to work with them the way you’re working with them now?
We’re trying to find entirely new ways of doing things in your business here so it’s important to remember when you’re re-imagining how you’re doing business that you’re not trying to take something and make it different while being exactly the same.
That might sound obvious when I state it that way, but that’s what I see people doing all the time. They think of their current service and they can’t fathom how to do it in a different way because they want it to be exactly the same (and exactly the same means nothing changes!).
Instead, you have to believe that you can provide value in a different way and what you’re providing is something people want, even if it’s not the deluxe VIP package. Here’s an example:
Jane is a health provider who works with clients not only one-on-one but HANDS on. How can she re-imagine her business?
If she believes that the only way to help a person is to have her hands on them, then she will never be able to move to a service that means she can help more than one person at a time or help people virtually.
But if she is willing to stop thinking about how she’s been doing things until now and tries to start over with ways that she can be helpful to people and provide value WITHOUT touching them, then she is re-imagining things.
She can help people at a distance via video conferencing by watching how they move and talking them through stretches and exercises to get their body moving better. This is not as good as seeing someone in person, but it is better than nothing when someone can’t get to see someone in person, and it’s faster and takes less time than going to a clinic and having to drive there.
She can teach people how to listen to their bodies and move their bodies
She can teach other professionals what she does that is effective so that they can do that as well. She can do this in-person or virtually, again remembering that in person might be more effective but distance means that people don’t have to travel from other cities or countries to also be able to benefit and that means more people could learn from her, which is better than them never getting to learn from her.
Here is another example:
Sara was teaching in-person fitness classes. People bought passes that got them access to a set number of classes. When she wanted to bring her classes online she struggled with pricing and how people would perceive the value.
But there were different considerations for online and so she had to look at it differently. She didn’t have to rent space for online, which meant her expenses were lower and she also didn’t have the same cap on number of attendees that could take part.
So instead of charging based on number of classes, she was able to pick a price and offer them unlimited access to many classes as well as the recordings. She could give them a lot more without it being more work for her.
This was true for me as well! When I was first coaching I strongly believed that the only way that I could truly be of service was to personally know everyone and to have one on one sessions with them.
While this is the fastest way for me to go deep and really support clients, it’s not the only way I can support small business owners. I can teach them via video and online courses. I can coach them in group coaching programs. I can train other people to coach the way that I coach and they can do the one on one work.
If I stayed stuck believing that the only way I could help was for ME to do all the work in a one-on-one way that would mean I have a really low ceiling of how many business owners I could help. It also means that anyone who can’t invest $10,000+ with me is out of luck.
By flipping how I thought about all of this, by realizing that *I* am not so important that my business needs to have me doing everything all of the time, I was able to start seeing how I could grow and expand and be of service without limiting the growth potential of my business.
How can you re-imagine your business?