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

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