I’ve scaled back; my business and my life. And it all started when I cleaned out my office, reducing it from an entire room to just a desk in the corner, in anticipation of the intended use of our parents retreat! The scaling back of my business was not all by choice, clients moved onto their next phase. And although a bit bummed at first I thought to myself what opportunity does this bring? I analysed my ideal client profile, my business model, my staffing, my overheads, pretty much everything. Here’s what I came up with:
I’m a visionary and I love helping clients achieve their goals. And do it in the most efficient manner possible. Systems and productivity are my thing, managing staff are not. I don’t enjoy it at all, maybe I will in the future, maybe I won’t need to….
My ideal client profile that had worked for quite some time was no longer the most relevant, it was no longer sustainable. Thus a new ideal client has been born. My business model is under review. I can see some big changes and that excites me! And my staffing, well I decided I didn’t need them anymore. Will I have some in the future? Maybe. Maybe not. But for now this is the best decision and also gives me the space to recreate my business model. If you have resources in place it becomes comfortable and makes it harder to see if there is in fact another way. Being resourceful can help create the thinking space for a new model.
My overheads have been reviewed and over the last six months I’ve rejigged those as well. It’s a continual process and I can see myself reallocating funds very differently once my new business model emerges.
I will also be travelling less, saving both time and money. I will have a better bottom line, now if that’s not a good enough reason to scale back I don’t know what is! I have only myself to look after. I’m a very productive, driven individual so I see this as an easy task. And only being responsible for myself, wow it feels so good. I feel like a load has been lifted off my shoulders, literally. I see this as an opportunity to strive for a new path forward. A path where the lessons of the past 8 years will help me to navigate a lot easier. It’s an opportunity to flip my business on its head and develop an entirely new business model, lean and resourceful, not “resource full”. And I see new revenue streams on the horizon too, nothing like I’ve done before, but that’s okay, its a new journey. Oh and I want to make bread….. gluten free bread…. just coz.
