In life and in business, there are many paths to success.

It doesn’t look the same for everyone, that’s for sure.

One of my strengths in business is in the area of seeing opportunities where others don’t and then executing (usually QUICKLY) on those ideas. Inspiration doesn’t wait around for you to act; it requires fast movement. As one of my favorite writers, Jason Fried, says:

Inspiration is a magical thing, a productivity multiplier, a motivator. But it won’t wait for you. Inspiration is a now thing. If it grabs you, grab it right back and put it to work.

Sometimes inspiration comes in the form of creative expression.

You may know that feeling well.

But not everyone is like that.

For me, inspiration comes in the form of big ideas. Sometimes I see the inspiration as a flash in the pan and I don’t pick it up. Sometimes I see something larger. An opportunity to further in a situation that the original request.

A real life example:

We began working with a new client recently who found us through my YouTube channel. (Gotta get on YouTube, y’all.) She does live training in a professional services niche and has a site of her own where she sells classes.

So the other day, I got an email from her.

She forwarded me an email from a “competitor” who packages up his training and sells prerecorded training classes inside a white-labeled membership environment.

My eyes open widely. My nose twitches. My ears perk up.

Inspiration? Is that you?

Immediately in that moment, most people think: “Oh cool, yeah, she can pay me for these websites and sell them to people. That will be a lot of business!”

And that’s an okay thought.

An arguably better thought?

“Ah, we can work on this together. She can be the face of this and market and sell it, and we can build and manage the sites on the back end. A joint venture.”

There are obvious cons to a partnership agreement. I respect those. But there are lots of pros in this scenario too.

I don’t have to “sell” her on this. I don’t have to try and trim costs so she can be more profitable. I can rely on her expertise in the industry to charge what will probably be a higher amount than I normally would and make more money from the deal.

This is an opportunity to create a relationship that automatically funnels clients to me without having to do the work of marketing, in a specific niche (related to the broader niche of membership and learning sites) that I would have never gone into!

Another example:

Just this morning I had a call with a logo and branding designer who goes to church with me.

He’s having more and more people interested in websites and wanted advice.

So I gave it to him.

Then I said, “But also — and you can say no if you want — but we’d be interested in partnering up on a project-by-project basis if you are. For example, you could do the design mockup in Figma and we could build and maintain the site since you don’t want to. Or, you could pass them off to us entirely and we’ll happily compensate you for the referral?”

Always be looking for deals.

Sure, you could “grind” it out and do lots of marketing for yourself.

Or, you could leverage strategic relationships and find other people to send you customers.

Really, you can and should do both!

Now, who knows when and if this situation will come up for you. It may not for a while.

The point is to be looking in the daily ebb and flow of business.

There are deals, partnerships, relationships, mentorships, and more all around you.

If you look hard enough.

And speaking of mentorships: I know of one that will help you design a recurring revenue business to help get 2024 started off on the right foot.

Here’s where to join:

http://subscriptionwebdesign.com/get-swd