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While market authority comes in a variety of styles, it takes a well-crafted business model to monetize it.
Think of your business model as the machine that produces your revenue: your unique blend of products and services and how you market, price and deliver them.
Over time, you’ll tweak—maybe even downright overhaul—it to reflect how you want to work, attract and serve clients and be compensated for your expertise.
Whenever you consider structural changes or tweaks to your business model, start by asking yourself these five questions:
What’s the core business you want to build and run? How big do you want to get or how small do you want to stay? Consider your best role—as team builder or solo leader—and design your services and pricing around that.
And be sure to explore how you can best use leverage to grow your bottom line. While it may seem obvious when you’re running a team, you can also strategically leverage a you-only practice.
What do you most want to create? Are you on a mission with a burning big idea? Your task will be to build a viable community (i.e. big enough to allow you to meet your revenue goals). You might be hyper-focused on offering more products and productized services vs. traditional consulting.
Or maybe you’re more jazzed by creating bespoke solutions each time, like say web design or high-impact consulting. Your bent will be toward high pricing, low volume with tight-knit client relationships.
How do you like to work? Do you take great pride in your extensive analysis and prefer limited client interaction? Or do you need the stimulation that only face-to-face interactions can provide? Are you at your best with a team of people at your side or do you prefer to fly solo?
Being candid about your strengths and limitations allows you to design a business model that works for you rather than against you.
What income do you want to take home? Are you looking to generate low six figures or do you have your eye on a bigger goal? What’s your personal best path to get there? Are there adjustments you’re willing to make in HOW you work to get what you want?
Income flows more easily when you’re solving big, challenging problems from your genius zone for people you genuinely care about.
What impact do you want to have? This is the ultimate question when you’ve been consulting long enough to know it’s the career for you. Are you best on a platform—perhaps as a teacher or motivational speaker? Or does giving a very personal, transformational one-on-one experience mean more to you?
Choosing the right business model isn’t a trivial exercise: it’s what powers the influence and the impact you’ll be able to wield in the world.
Related: When To Move Toward Your Destination One Best Guess At A Time