Stop beating yourself up Part 2 – A big enough carcass on which to feed.
In sales (and we’re all in the world of selling products, events, experiences, and food to people), they say, “You eat what you kill.”
Isn’t that why we love this business? Our efforts directly affect our income. You are more profitable if you hold a great event, host a great wedding, launch an excellent tulip festival, and care for your guests.
You went out and made the sale. You got it done, and you get to ‘eat’ the profits!
My buddy Chris Hiemstra got me started listening to a podcast by Dan Sullivan from Strategic Coach. Dan’s philosophy is a bit different as he’s a grown older. One measures success in “Free Days” in which you can choose to learn something new, work on the business, but not in the business, or do whatever you choose not related to the business.
Dan’s is a different approach to success. Perhaps not chasing every single opportunity, but focusing on the most profitable, most enjoyable, and most specific to your skill-set, specific to your strengths.
WHAT?! Not chasing every opportunity?!
This idea was completely foreign to me. Why would you not chase every opportunity when you don’t know what will work out?
Scott Galloway talks about Amazon and Apple, two giant companies, carefully considering which businesses to be in next.
It doesn’t even move the needle if you are a trillion-bazillion company using time and resources to create even a multimillion dollar product line. It is a waste of (Apple’s) time and effort.
Animal world example: Should a cheetah expend its caloric energy running 60mph after a squirrel or an antelope?
OK, I know we aren’t gazillionaires, but I submit that the same concepts apply with fewer commas.
Think about it:
- You have (5) GREAT new event ideas
- Each event takes 150 staff hours to set up, tear down, and operate.
- Each event takes marketing, new ads, new logos, new flyers, new videos, new posts, and new signs.
- All this happens while you are still open for regular business and have all your regular work.
Even in the best-case scenario:
- Event 1: Potential 2.5k
- Event 2: Potential 10k
- Event 3: Potential 1.75k
- Event 4: Potential 46k
- Event 5: Potential 6.5k
Should you really chase EVERY great idea?
- YES – If you are early in your business cycle and don’t have historical data on events, don’t know which events your team is better at, or just flat out need all the money you can get.
- NO – If you are further along, it pays to pick and choose. You must calculate how much loss from your core business functions the effort and distraction of the new event costs. Sometimes, even though it is not unique and sexy, your core business can leverage your time most profitably.
Examples of being choosy.
After much thought and input from our Mastermind Group, we decided NOT to hold special events during our Sunflower Festival.
That’s right, NO Yoga, NO photo sessions, NO long table dinners. We’re crazy, right?! Those are all great ideas!
For us, the lever is pushing more ‘regular guests’ through the door and not running around like crazy people to hold events we’re not great at, would struggle to cater, and don’t have time to photog-babysit for a few hundred or even thousand dollars.
Just 200 extra guests when we are open yields approximately 7k in gross revenue.
Look at the list of event ideas above – Only (2) of the “next great ideas” yields more than 200 extra guests through the gate when we are already open, staffed, and ready!
None of the Sunflower Festival event ideas was a big enough opportunity to overcome the opportunity costs for our team.
We have the Fun Park to get ready, peaches to pick, apples to tend, mazes to supply, Mega Slides to ship, and groups for Fall to book.
So, rather than find every idea, what should you really be working on? Is the opportunity, is the ‘carcass,’ big enough to feed your organization?
If not, stay focused on your unsexy, profitable, core business:-)
Have a great week,
Hugh
