February 17, 2025
From General To Specific
When people first join my list, I ask them for a 1-sentence summary of what success would look like for their business.
New subscriber Lisa T. replied with a general business idea that she’d wanted to pivot to, but she didn’t include any specific success metrics.
After some back and forth, we had defined:
A clear and specific financial goal...
...a business model that could potentially reach her financial goal...
...and a target market that might be a good fit for the business model.
Once we had gone from general to specific, Lisa had what she needed to test the idea.
I think you might find it useful (shared with permission):
Lisa:
Success in my business would be me retiring my bookkeeping business and focusing on my photo management business, which is where my heart truly is.
Jonathan:
Photo management! Very interesting... can you tell me more about what that entails?
Lisa:
I would love to.
I help individuals and businesses organize, preserve, and curate their photo collections, both digital and physical, by sorting, scanning, keywording, and uploading to a cloud storage solution, allowing for easy access and preservation of memories for future generations.
I also do photo restoration, media conversion, slide shows, and create photo books.
Jonathan:
Sounds cool!
What’s the #1 thing preventing you from going “all in” on the photo business?
Lisa:
Thank you.
The #1 thing stopping me is not having a guaranteed income stream yet.
That is why I signed up for your newsletter and email course.
I know I will learn a lot from you.
I just watched your interview with Chris from the Futur. :)
Jonathan:
When you say “guaranteed income stream” what exactly does that mean to you?
Lisa:
That means I need enough income to come every month to be able to pay my living expenses.
Jonathan:
Gotcha. And what’s that number?
Lisa:
I need a minimum of $5k a month.
Jonathan:
That’s a pretty reasonable starting point.
What kind of businesses take lots of pictures regularly?
Lisa:
Thank you.
All businesses 😬
I have worked with a Tool and Die company, a Door Company, and a church.
Jonathan:
When you say “all businesses,” what do you mean?
Obviously, not all businesses take photos every day.
Mine, for example 😉
Lisa:
When I say “all businesses,” I’m referring to the general trend of many companies utilizing photography as a marketing tool to engage with their audience.
However, I completely understand that not every business operates the same way, and daily photography may not be practical for everyone, including yours!
I appreciate your perspective 😊.
Jonathan:
What about brick-and-mortar retail shops that have an online store?
Like a yarn store for example.
Anybody with a lot of new inventory and an online store is probably going to be taking pictures regularly, right?
Lisa:
Yes! I have not considered that. :)
Jonathan:
So... do you think you could get 25 brick-and-mortar retail shops to pay you $200/mo each to organize their photos?
That’d be $5000/mo
Lisa:
I love this! There is only one way to find out. <3
Jonathan:
My thoughts exactly :-)
Best of luck to Lisa!
Now it’s your turn...
Where would you like to see your business two years from now?
(and please be specific!)
Yours,
—J