April 12, 2018
Three Ways To Lift A Car
If you needed to lift a car without using machinery, you’ve only got a few options. Here are three:
- Be buff enough to just lift it (unlikely but not impossible)
- Get a bunch of buff friends to help you lift it (feasible but hard)
- Grab a lever and jack that baby up (pretty easy)
Okay, I cheated a little on #3... a lever is technically a machine.
Here’s a quick definition excerpted from from Wikipedia (bold mine):
A lever is a simple machine consisting of a beam or rigid rod pivoted at a fixed hinge, or fulcrum. It is one of the six simple machines identified by Renaissance scientists. A lever amplifies an input force to provide a greater output force, which is said to provide leverage. The ratio of the output force to the input force is the mechanical advantage of the lever.
The concept of a lever can be used as a metaphor for business.
You can use your expertise to create a “lever” that allows you to create greater “output force” with less “input force”.
For example:
- Reusable code libraries
- Solution starter files
- Scaffolding applications
- Workflow automation
- Application plugins
- Browser extensions
- Prototyping frameworks
- Process runbooks
- Swipe files
- Boilerplate proposals
- Design templates
- etc etc etc
When you invest in things like these, you are creating “leverage”. The greater the ratio of “output force” to “input force”, the greater your “advantage” (to use the physics terms).
But here’s the rub:
To gain an advantage (i.e., increased profitability) for your business, you MUST charge for output force (i.e., business outcomes), NOT input force (i.e., your time).
If you are charging based on your input, creating leverage decreases your revenue because as your leverage improves, it takes less and less input (i.e., time) from you to create the same output (i.e., business outcomes) for your clients.
However, if you are charging based on your output, creating leverage increases your profits because as your leverage improves, it takes less and less input (i.e., time) from you to create the same output (i.e., business outcomes) for your clients.
So...
Before you try to create leverage, make sure you’re charging for outputs, not inputs - otherwise you’ll optimize yourself out of business.
Yours,
—J