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I'm doing a Great American Teach In. YAy! My topic for the kids will be something along the lines of "Using Your Skills to Build Assets." It doesn't really matter what kind of assets, though I'll mostly talk about "businesses."
I keep thinking about this... skills and assets. I really like "skills". Skills are good. We should all have some of them. I have several skills that are not "business guy" or "sales." What do I do with those skills?
Admittedly I just do ridiculous things with some of them. But with a healthy subset of those skills, I build assets.
Here's the thing about assets... they are not the same thing as your skills. They are a bundle of problems to be solved + market demand + business process + service + delivery + communication ++. (Especially if the asset is "a business")
If your skill is "I can program," your asset will not necessarily be "computer programming service." It will not necessarily be "computer program that I wrote and now I sell it." It can be that, but if that's all you're thinking about, you are limiting yourself.
If your skill is marketing, your asset does not have to be "marketing agency." If your skill is writing, your asset does not need to be "freelance writing business."
A good illustration, especially for people who are not business veterans, would be to list 2-3 of your best skills, and figure out how you would apply those skills to an arbitrary business that isn't necessarily "selling my skill." Maybe even write it down in an notebook.
Here's what you could do. Buy or borrow a copy of Business Reference Guide. It can be an old copy, previous edition, whatever. Now, open it to a quasi-random page, which will contain a quasi-random business profile. If you're not familiar with the type of business (Drive-away Contractors for example), it's conveniently described there.
Now, you have to figure out how your skills are going to make that business work better, and eventually pay YOU while you're on vacation.
If you consistently can't figure this out, you aren't really thinking about assets yet. You might be getting close, but you're not there.
What if you open the page to "plumbers" but your best skills are "customer support" and "bookkeeping?" Well then you're in luck, because that's easier than most.
What if you open the page to "property management firms" but your main skills are "battlefield tactics" and "trauma first aid?" Woot! Now that's a challenge... assuming you don't go down the MadMax Property Management rabbit hole, you might have to scrape up some of your lesser skills and make those work.
What if you open up to "Insurance Agencies" but your skills are "web design" and "Linux admin?" Haha... I just wanted to throw another easy one in there. You can totally make this work.
The point is, your skills improve the business by making it better for customers, easier to find and decide upon, easier to maintain, less costly to operate, etc. It doesn't matter if your best skills are directly related to the category of business. The two things are independent.
It doesn't really matter if anyone does this exercise. Though, I think it would be fun and informative. What matters is that you think much, much more broadly about what you can do. Most people have skills that can be applied to a broad range of businesses; but they also get stuck thinking they need to be "in the same business" as their skill set. Or that their skill set needs to be perfectly refined for the type of business. It just isn't the case.
In most industries, you can pick up the industry-specific knowledge, and the additional industry-specific skills if and when you need them. A lot of the more general skills like "best customer service giving" or "all of the things technologying" are hilariously lacking in many industries. Just look up local businesses, knowing what you know about your skillset, and I think you'll see.
Counterpoint... can you make this ridiculous? Sure, if you claim that your only viable skills are clown-face-painting and unicycle riding, maybe you will have problems with any business other than "circus." But realistically, you will fail at "circus" too, because the skills are not the business. The business is the business, and your skills are the unique advantages you bring to the operation and optimization of that business.
[deep breath]
The advantage you bring to a business is rarely the thing people label that business with, like "plumbing." It's some aspect of your execution that makes it better for customers, makes it a more obvious choice for customers, reduces your costs, helps you find better labor, reduces your delivery time, increases customer retention, etc. And, either keeps the enterprise going, or funds the keeping-going, while you're not physically or mentally at the office. Those are the skills (whether soft or technical) you need to keep in mind if you're going to convert a business into a real asset -- one that pays you to go on vacation, and is still there when you get back.
I keep thinking about this... skills and assets. I really like "skills". Skills are good. We should all have some of them. I have several skills that are not "business guy" or "sales." What do I do with those skills?
Admittedly I just do ridiculous things with some of them. But with a healthy subset of those skills, I build assets.
Here's the thing about assets... they are not the same thing as your skills. They are a bundle of problems to be solved + market demand + business process + service + delivery + communication ++. (Especially if the asset is "a business")
If your skill is "I can program," your asset will not necessarily be "computer programming service." It will not necessarily be "computer program that I wrote and now I sell it." It can be that, but if that's all you're thinking about, you are limiting yourself.
If your skill is marketing, your asset does not have to be "marketing agency." If your skill is writing, your asset does not need to be "freelance writing business."
A good illustration, especially for people who are not business veterans, would be to list 2-3 of your best skills, and figure out how you would apply those skills to an arbitrary business that isn't necessarily "selling my skill." Maybe even write it down in an notebook.
Here's what you could do. Buy or borrow a copy of Business Reference Guide. It can be an old copy, previous edition, whatever. Now, open it to a quasi-random page, which will contain a quasi-random business profile. If you're not familiar with the type of business (Drive-away Contractors for example), it's conveniently described there.
Now, you have to figure out how your skills are going to make that business work better, and eventually pay YOU while you're on vacation.
If you consistently can't figure this out, you aren't really thinking about assets yet. You might be getting close, but you're not there.
What if you open the page to "plumbers" but your best skills are "customer support" and "bookkeeping?" Well then you're in luck, because that's easier than most.
What if you open the page to "property management firms" but your main skills are "battlefield tactics" and "trauma first aid?" Woot! Now that's a challenge... assuming you don't go down the MadMax Property Management rabbit hole, you might have to scrape up some of your lesser skills and make those work.
What if you open up to "Insurance Agencies" but your skills are "web design" and "Linux admin?" Haha... I just wanted to throw another easy one in there. You can totally make this work.
The point is, your skills improve the business by making it better for customers, easier to find and decide upon, easier to maintain, less costly to operate, etc. It doesn't matter if your best skills are directly related to the category of business. The two things are independent.
It doesn't really matter if anyone does this exercise. Though, I think it would be fun and informative. What matters is that you think much, much more broadly about what you can do. Most people have skills that can be applied to a broad range of businesses; but they also get stuck thinking they need to be "in the same business" as their skill set. Or that their skill set needs to be perfectly refined for the type of business. It just isn't the case.
In most industries, you can pick up the industry-specific knowledge, and the additional industry-specific skills if and when you need them. A lot of the more general skills like "best customer service giving" or "all of the things technologying" are hilariously lacking in many industries. Just look up local businesses, knowing what you know about your skillset, and I think you'll see.
Counterpoint... can you make this ridiculous? Sure, if you claim that your only viable skills are clown-face-painting and unicycle riding, maybe you will have problems with any business other than "circus." But realistically, you will fail at "circus" too, because the skills are not the business. The business is the business, and your skills are the unique advantages you bring to the operation and optimization of that business.
[deep breath]
The advantage you bring to a business is rarely the thing people label that business with, like "plumbing." It's some aspect of your execution that makes it better for customers, makes it a more obvious choice for customers, reduces your costs, helps you find better labor, reduces your delivery time, increases customer retention, etc. And, either keeps the enterprise going, or funds the keeping-going, while you're not physically or mentally at the office. Those are the skills (whether soft or technical) you need to keep in mind if you're going to convert a business into a real asset -- one that pays you to go on vacation, and is still there when you get back.
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