What Dance? Project
Charlie worked and worked and worked and made a business that was growing and successful. She had enough customers. Her prices were low enough to keep getting more work, but not high enough to make a good profit. Her team was growing and they were doing so well she sometimes envied them. They got to come in, do the work, get paid and go home. She stayed on doing the business of running the business.
And she hated it. She hated her life, she hated the type of work she was doing, she hated the time it took. She felt like she was always behind, not giving her best, in over her head. It felt like she was doing all the work and getting none of the benefits.
So she quit, she wiped her brow and gave a sigh of relief. She told herself she would never do that again. Clearly, small business wasn’t for her. She told herself that people who build successful businesses must be miserable, or they love dealing with the crap of running a business.
I’ve seen this play out over and over again. The difference between a business owner who thrives and one who struggles is that one makes careful and mindful decisions about what their business needs to be in order to make them happy and the other ones jump in feet first and build what they think a business should look like.
What do you need to know?
This is where you start to build the business of your dreams. You clarified what your business will look like in the Owners Journey section, now is when you start to make it happen.
What is the objective?
This project is where you start to craft your customer’s offer within the context of the business you want to build.
Why is this important?
You want your Discovery Dance to lead you to the business you want. What you discuss in those conversations will shape the future of your business as well as helping you craft your offer. You want to get to an offer within the context of the business you want to build. If you are a finish carpenter, you don’t want to talk about framing a house. If you are a night owl and love music, you don’t want to talk about an early morning cafe. If you love being with people, you don’t want to talk about how you can deliver your service without interacting with your customers.
What do you need to know to do this?
Deep clarity about what you need your business to be.
The Project
You clarify what information you need to get in order to find out how your customers frame their problem, what they need in your solution and how they want to engage with you. You design the questions and conversations. This will change as you get feedback, but you need a starting point.
How will you you know you have succeeded with this project?
You will be ready to talk to potential customers and you will feel confident that you know what to get from your conversations
What is important to carry on to the next projects?
You know who you want to talk to and what you will talk about.
Every week I post the next Project. You are welcome to work on it here, ask questions in the comments, answer questions in the comments and let us know how you are doing.
For more resources, deeper discussion, personal, robust support and to get the Project Guides join the online Small Business Academy . Registration is open now.
