The Art of Saying No: (thread)

Some people build a massively successful business on their first shot.

That wasn't my experience, nor the experience of most people I've met.

This thread is about the transition from hustling your way to a few clients, to dialing in a product and buying your time back.

I'm convinced the best way to start a service business is to leverage the "Permissionless Apprenticeship" model.

Combine your process of learning a new skill with an output that brings value to someone you'd like to work with.

Upside happens either way. https://twitter.com/jackbutcher/status/1261139777061113858?lang=en

That said, the first few years (for me, and others I've met) is an uphill battle of selling time, gaining experience working on a lot of different things, hoping for a break.

At a certain point you hit a ceiling. For me, around 5-6 freelance clients.

This is the breaking point.

You're at the ceiling of both your income and your time. You can chase bigger checks but bigger checks mean less time, less time means more stress.

Now your job is to start saying no.

Examining all of your projects, skills and relationships to identify the results that people are repeating back to you.

For me, that was:

"Jack, you explained this visually better than I can say it."

In a mess of web design, video, branding, product design, I started to cut.

At this point I'm working on one project, in one design program (keynote), cashing one check (painful in the short term, but necessary).

Then I start building process around this specific focus.

This new focus means we can take on 5x more business as a practitioner, publish content every day, build a brand, a community, and develop products that deliver results while I'm asleep.

When you're learning, anyone that'll pay you is a potential client. (and that's not a bad thing)

The pain of hitting the ceiling may be the only thing that gets you thinking differently.

The eventual goal is to make your business your only client, and let it work.

This idea is summarized from yesterdays @visualizevalue Office Hours with @Jfisherman.

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