When your business no longer fits who you’re becoming
There’s a question I keep coming back to when I think about changing direction: if I built my business around the work I want to do now, what would I keep?
For years, I could answer “What do you do?” with a list of services. I knew how to make a website, plan a campaign or create content. I still do that work. But I’ve become more interested in the decisions people have to make before any of it can help. Who do you want to work with? What do you want them to come to you for? What can you realistically deliver alongside the life you want to lead?
Those questions are the starting point for the 90-day Reinvention Programme. I’m developing it for founders and independent experts who have experience to build on and a direction they want to work through.
Look at the business you already have
Start with what people pay you for, what they refer you for and the work you would happily do more of. There may be a gap between those three things. An offer can be profitable and still crowd out the work you want to develop. The first job is to understand what depends on it before making a change.
Choose a direction you can test
Imagine you want to move from delivering projects to advising the people who commission them. Before you rebuild the website, try describing one advisory offer to someone you’d like to work with. Ask them when they would need it, what they would expect to take away and what would make it worth paying for. Their answers can help you shape both the offer and the words you use to explain it.
Put a manageable change into practice
Over 90 days, there’s room to make a decision, try something small and review what happened. That might mean testing an offer with a few people, changing the way you introduce your work or freeing up time to develop a service. The action we choose depends on what you need to learn and what you have the capacity to do.
If you’re weighing up a change, start with this: what would you like a new client to ask you for six months from now? Compare that answer with the work your website is inviting people to ask for today.
If the two answers are different, explore the programme and get in touch to talk through what a useful first step could look like.