Is your solo business menu balanced?
Discover how crafting your business offerings is like designing the perfect menu—finding that sweet spot between what you love and what your clients crave.
Have you ever dreamed about opening your own restaurant? Not just any eatery, but one that truly reflects your culinary passions and expertise. Imagine that building a solo business is like choosing the dishes for your menu.
In one of our Explore IMMA sessions, Cecilia Scolaro used this delightful analogy to describe her current crossroads. She's been self-employed for a while, mastering a diverse menu of skills and services around responsible design. Now, she's pondering which dishes she’s truly passionate about serving and evaluating which are her customers’ favourites.
This got me thinking about other solopreneurs in our community. Many of us embarked on this solo journey with a simple question:
Do I have what it takes to work for myself?
In the beginning, it's about building your portfolio, achieving financial security, and discovering if you enjoy working for yourself. But there comes a moment, much like Cecilia's, when we crave more intention. It’s no longer just about being able to cook any dish; it’s about crafting a menu that resonates with our identity and aspirations.
Are you an on-demand chef or an eccentric one?
You could continue cooking all sorts of dishes based on what your clients ask for. But that often isn’t efficient. On the other hand, if you only cook dishes that satisfy your own tastes but not your clients', you risk going out of business.
How to build a balanced menu
Just like in a restaurant, it’s essential to reassess and adjust your menu regularly. What’s a bestseller in winter might be ignored in the heat of summer. While pizza with pineapple might be accepted in Germany, it’s a hard no for Italians!
Finding the right balance in your business offerings is crucial, much like crafting the perfect menu.
Too many services: Offering a wide range of services might seem like a good idea, but it can overwhelm your customers and make it harder for them to choose. Plus, when you’re trying to satisfy everyone’s requests, you might end up creating a lot of different things without the chance to reuse or streamline your work. Sure, variety can be fun, but spreading yourself too thin can leave you feeling stretched and unfocused.
Sticking to bestsellers: Focusing on your most popular services can definitely make things easier. You can streamline your process, get really good at what you do, and keep things efficient. But here’s the thing—doing the same thing over and over can get a little boring. You might find yourself losing the spark that made you passionate about your work in the first place.
Focusing solely on what you love: It’s super important to love what you do, but if you only focus on what excites you, there’s a risk. You might struggle to attract or keep clients if you’re not also thinking about what they need. The challenge is finding that sweet spot where what you love to do also aligns with what your clients are looking for.
So, if you applied this analogy to your business, how many “dishes” are you offering? What do you enjoy “cooking,” and what do your clients like to “eat”?
If this resonates with you, I'd love to hear your thoughts and questions in the comments.
And if you want to meet potential collaborators join our next free Explore IMMA session.
Interesting opportunities for you
We save our members hours by handpicking the best freelance opportunities from 150+ job boards. Here’s a selection of 10.
🧑💻Communications Consultant - Consult KM International
📍Remote
🤝Contract
🧑💻Strategic/Risk Comms Agency - Lankelly Chase
🤝RFP/Tender
🗓️August 30, 2024
🧑💻Consultants/Advisors - Forum for the Future
📍UK
🤝Contract
🧑💻Climate Policy Creative Fellowship - UCL Climate Action Unit
📍UK
🤝RFP/Tender
🧑💻IISD Policy Advisors on Climate and Health - IISD
📍Remote
🤝Part-time
🗓️August 31, 2024
🧑💻 Biodiversity on a Changing Planet - National Science Foundation
⏰ Sep 05, 2024
🤝 Grant
🧑💻 Purpose Fellow - Carol Cone On Purpose
📍United States
💰$20/h
🧑💻 Wordpress developer - Center for Civic Design
📍Remote (US only)
🤝Part-time
🧑💻Member - Workers Coop
📍Remote
💰 £185
⏰ September 6, 2024
🧑💻 Communications Consultant - The CIRCLE Alliance
📍Remote
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Behind the Scenes at IMMA:
This month, we had an amazing Impactful Connections event where we explored abundance mindsets and money-making strategies. We're also co-designing our next event, the Regeneration Edition of Impactful Connections on September 18th, and enjoying our in-person meetings and pizza nights.
With Seed, we wrapped up the first module, focusing on developing our offerings. It's exciting to see everyone making progress.
A special shout-out to those tagging us on LinkedIn and spreading the word about IMMA—it really makes a difference. 💙
Thanks for reading,
Take care,
Lilli
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Whenever you want to stop working by yourself and want to build your purpose-driven solo business together, consider joining IMMA Collective.
What a great analogy! As I build out my offering I'm conscious not to add too much, and to focus on one signature program to start with. This is a nice reminder to keep things simple and what factors to consider. Thank you!