Build it before you need it.
Drill the well before you’re thirsty.
Plant well before you harvest.
We know these things. The problem is, it takes pain to make the change happen.
I remember the day I knew things needed to change. But I was in too much literal pain to do anything about it.
Ten years ago, Elizabeth and I owned and ran a wedding photography business just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By all accounts, we had it made. We had a paid-off house and a solid path to financial freedom in front of us. We had freed up a load of time by creating a service that was high-paying and only required 20 days a year of physical work.
It was a business that was great, as long as my body worked. But for the first time in my professional life, I had a big problem.
It was a chilly St. Patrick’s Day when it all came to a head. For a few months, I had been dealing with a debilitating back problem. I had sciatica, which not only affected my back and leg, but it kept me up nearly all night, every night, in excruciating pain. I could barely walk – even just a few steps would cause such pain in my thigh that it felt like it would explode.
This upcoming wedding was the first one of the season as the business we had built gave me the time and freedom to try and heal. But that time had run out.
As had become common, I barely slept the night before. Instead of sleeping, I rolled around groaning like a wounded animal. I became a pro at watching the clock.
All I wanted to do was stay in bed. But there was a wedding to shoot. Fortunately, Elizabeth and I were to shoot the wedding together.
But before the groom began to get ready, I knew I was toast. I was in the suite, eliciting a groan loud enough for a few groosmen to hear as I dragged my leg across the floor. There was no way I was going to be able to do this. I called Elizabeth, who was with the bride, and I told her that she would basically have to do all of this alone, which she wasn’t used to. I became a hobbling, honorary member of our team that day as Elizabeth ran the show.
They paid for our top package, so I couldn’t just bail out. I tried to be as visible and do anything I could, but Elizabeth lovingly told me how pathetic I looked and to just lie low. The moment I remember more than anything was being in so much pain that I had to lie down and hide behind the DJ booth during the reception because I couldn’t stand up any longer.
Like a hobbled 93-year-old, I waited by the elevator at the end of the night for Elizabeth to pull the car around. It was an eye-opening, humbling experience.
When the pain finally subsided and the groans went away, I decided that something was going to have to change. That was too much of a wake-up call to not do something. I got lucky, I thought. Thank goodness for Elizabeth. I don’t know what I would have done without her. What would it have been like if it was all on me? What if the physical issues lasted longer? This literally has the ability to turn a successful business into a disaster in quick time.
Up until that time, I always believed that I had to physically work to get paid. I show up, I make money. I don’t show up, I don’t make money. Isn’t that just how the world works?
It was that spring that I started studying the online world as it related to income and business. I was intrigued, inspired and confused. This all sounded amazing. I started diving into podcasts. I bought a few courses. I joined a few memberships. I looked all around to understand what the heck was going on here. And even though it would be five more years until we ended our photography business, the seeds were planted for an entirely new life that painful day in Pittsburgh.
Now, more than 90% of our income is in various forms of online recurring revenue. That work can be done from anywhere, and aside from a few hours a week, I have the freedom to decide what work to do and when to do it. It’s a scenario that was unimaginable as I hobbled around that wedding venue.
Because of this, I am bullish on opening others’ eyes to the value of this online world. Sadly, I am often met with indifference from other service-based business owners.
“I love what I do,” many of them say. And they think no further.
I have a friend that uses his voice for a living. It’s all that he wants to do.
“But what happens if your voice goes out?” I asked.
“Okay,” he said. “Now you have my attention.”
In the nearly ten years of doing voice acting, voice-overs and other ways to use his voice for income, it hadn’t hit home that if something went wrong with such a sensitive organ, essentially all of his income would vanish.
It’s the same with handymen. One fall off of a roof changes one’s perspective. And it’s the same with any service-based business, especially when it requires a specific skill.
There comes a point where we must realize that our business can’t- and shouldn’t- be based on our ability to physically do the work. And when that realization takes place, there are three choices.
1- Keep doing exactly what you are currently doing.
2- Hire out help, so you don’t have to physically do all the work.
3- Teach what you know.
Door #1 is usually fine for the short term. That is until something bad happens. Then you are up the creek without a paddle. In the meantime, you trade your time for money doing something that you might enjoy doing.
Door #2 is the idea behind actually building a business instead of building a job. By training and then hiring people that can do the work instead of you doing the work, you are actually creating a real business. This can give you time freedom, possibly, and scalability. Some of the downsides are that you are often reliant on unreliable employees or contractors. You are dependent on them being prompt, on time, hardworking and not showing up drunk or stoned, as we’ve heard way too many horror stories about. If you can create a great system, this could be a great model to follow.
Door #3 is the area that we get the most excited about. It allows you to take knowledge, understanding or a skill and share it with others. It allows you to build a community around what you have learned. And so many industries are sorely in need of leaders who have integrity and care. The downside to this method is that it takes time. It requires you to become trusted and known. Often, it starts with coaching. But the upside to this, in our opinion, is the greatest one of the three (if you don’t want to build a complex team and staff.) This option, over time, allows you to create unlimited recurring revenue, freeing up your time and – if done well- it can be built with little to no staff.
Both door #2 and door #3 are built to withstand the pain that we endured when I was in pain. They would require the most work up front but with the greatest rewards later.
Use this to tell me about you. Which of the options is most appealing to you? And why? What are the concerns or fears that you have about the other options?
Please hit reply to this email and tell us about what you think – we would love to hear it!
Have an AMAZING week!
Vincent
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