Well, it’s here: the Corona Virus.
(If you’re still not convinced it’s a big deal, then read this and then, for a potential upside, read this.)
And I’m here. Here being Salt Spring Island in BC. I’m visiting some friends at a community home as they wrangle with the hard reality that they are, in no way, prepared for a pandemic. Shopping and prep lists are being made. Costco will be visited tomorrow.
No doubt you may find yourself wondering the same things.
I was going to host an evening talk at their home but, due to the concerns about spreading infection, we’ve made it into an online event. A strange thing to be having local people from the Island watching on a screen when they’re only a mile or so away.
But that’s how it must be.
And perhaps this pandemic has all had you wonder the same thing about your business.
After all, if your work relies on you being in person with people or in groups, right now that’s going to be hard.
But I’m not writing to you about this alone. There will be other pandemics. Whether this lasts another week or months there will be others. And there will be worse ones. And it’s terrible. And you will need to pay rent and have money for food still. It’s all true.
One of the things that these moments reveal are the weaknesses in the structure of society (e.g. not having enough nurses or surgical masks or equipment needed to treat those in critical conditions).
It also reveals the weaknesses, cracks and vulnerabilities in the structures of our business.
If your business relies 100% on the internet and the power grid goes down, you have no business.
If your business relies 100% on working with people live and in close proximity (e.g. body work and groups) then your business will take an immense hit.
If you grow your own food and are largely living in a self-sufficient community well then… you’re miles ahead of us all.
This email is to those of you who rely on ‘in person’ business.
This email is for those of you whose business is already impacted by the spread of the virus.
Ok… your business is struggling because you rely on in person work.
One answer to this is to make your business more resilient and sustainable by building in other online ways to make money. This could be one-on-one work, group classes and programs or homestudies.
I don’t offer anything for sale around this but I do have some thoughts and some colleagues worth checking out.
Due to the urgency of the situation, I’m including here a 22 minute clip from the video of my live workshop about business model. I sell this for $80 on my site but today this section of it is my gift to you.
Once you’ve watched the above video, the following links might be very useful indeed.
Free Resources…
Free homestudy course on how to make Homestudy Courses
How to Create Online Courses with George Kao – (60 Min Video)
Blog post on thirty-two things you can add to premium packages.
Over twenty videos on business model.
Things that cost money…
A genius on how to create and market your homestudy courses.
Mark Silver’s Business Model Intensive which I hope he will do again soon.
That’s all for today.
Warmest,
Tad
p.s. And, of course, the longterm fix is not a more robust business model. It’s a more robust community. So here are some memes and articles on Village Making.
