DISQUS

Inspiring exercise. Thank you!

Leverage. Assess. Cliff.

leverage opportunities, and my own skill set better, smarter, more efficiently. Stop pushing and working so hard, and move onto leveraging more.

Assess said opportunities, as well as requests, and learn to say no, as well as when to leap.

find the cliffs. jump off them. trust I will fly.

Jake, you should create a jobs app or special section of your site for these (ala authenticjobs.com)

I can't wait to read the Israel entry. Would love to go there someday.

I admire your ability to stay in a hostel. I don't know if I could take it ;)

Hi John,
So good of you to promote rewarding current/past customers for their business and loyalty. This can pay for itself a million times over.

I recently offered free business card design and printing to one of my best referrals. It won't take me a lot of time, but it's a great way to say "thanks" for all the awesome word of mouth she's done for me. It's so much easier to retain an existing customer, and encourage them to become evangelists for you, than it is to attract a new customer.

The slowdown of the summer is actually a welcome relief for me this year. :)

In two year's time, my small business saw an increase in profit of more than 1000%. Now, I want to use my skills and knowledge to help fledgling business owners in developing countries increase their profits and improve their local economies. The amazing part? I'd drink in the various cultures of the world while helping others. An extra 36 hours a week would both provide me the life of my dreams, and directly help combat poverty in developing nations.

A small business pulls folks in developing countries out of poverty and promotes economic growth, which benefits many members of the local community. But many of these small business owners need marketing and business consulting help. They need someone like me, who can brainstorm with them on how to increase their exposure, improve their efficiency and attract loyal, repeat customers.

Imagine a world filled with entrepreneurs at all levels—to do so is to imagine a world one-step freer from poverty. The kiva.org organization inspired me—now I want to take it a step further and help not just with my money, but with my knowledge and experience. My consulting work and marketing advice would be pro bono—my reward would be the world itself—the beaches of Thailand, the villages of Cambodia, the Fale huts of American Samoa.

I'm already living part of my dream. In two months, I will move to Malaysia part-time to create a more fulfilling life. Weekends on tropical islands in luxurious huts that stand over water, and frequent trips to other SE Asian countries is also part of the plan. Along with my husband, I'll travel the region, live a calmer, more peaceful life, and learn what I can about various cultures to help my long-term dream of helping small businesses across the world. But like most people, I need more time. I also need to leverage Tim's knowledge and advice. I believe it's possible to live both an amazingly rich life AND dramatically help others. It's what I am called to do. Winning this contest will help that happen sooner.

This is a fascinating way to exemplify the issue of narrowing a target market. Creative example!

One of the things that I think is relevant about the example you chose is sometimes there can be growing pains associated with narrowing one's market. Obviously, the Dixie Chicks had huge growing pains, but for your average business, the tide of change can be stressful to ride.

Several months ago we greatly narrowed our target market(s). Our business had previously been booming--in fact, TOO booming--it was stressful and we had no lives. So we chose to focus on attracting the sort of clients we work with best and enjoy the most. In doing so, the amount of inquiries we receive has significantly decreased (there's the stressful part) yet the quality of the ones we do receive is better, and the projects we take on are more profitable than our time of taking on all kinds of hodge podge.

It still hurts sometimes. When the inquiries are not coming in in a steady flow, I worry, but I remind myself the markets we've targeted bring us fulfilling, profitable and highly exposed work.

Thank you for posting this. It was a fresh way to start my Monday :)

Peter Flaschner also wrote an article about this (he's a developer).

It's good for businesses to stay on top of this. Sometimes a designer isn't malicious, but may forget to transfer a domain, etc. Yours and Peter's advice is sound and important for any person getting a site developed.

I try to frame my referral requests with something along these lines:

"Do you know any colleagues or friends in your network who could use a website or need an existing one revamped? If so, please feel free to tell them about my services and how they might be of help."

I'm trying to put my clients into the position of being "helpful" to others (that they tell about my services). However, your article has helped me explore whether I might make it into an even more valued statement/request.