Rules of engagement

By Fiona Boyd |

I’m not sure if you’re experiencing the same sensation as me that opportunities are coming into your frame again, but in the last couple of months I’ve noticed that more ideas and opportunities seem to be floating about in the world around me. People seem a bit more open-minded, a bit more engaged with life.

For quite some time it appeared, to me at least, that everyone was preoccupied with small thinking and making themselves a small target. As someone who loves to talk about ideas and to explore the possibilities, it seems that one couldn’t have an intelligent ideas-based discussion anymore. Some fearful person was going to shoot one’s germinating discussion and ideas down in flames. But just lately, things have been changing.

My guess is that as we come out of the GFC that life and business will speed up for those in any industry, but I’m particularly mindful of those entrepreneurs working online, and those in niche content spaces.

I’d like to draw some parallels with my experiences during the start-up and early growth phases of the business I founded with David Eedle, Arts Hub. We started in the last quarter of 2000 and got out of the gates pretty strongly, but experienced a real dent in our growth following the events of 11/09/2001. Just like every other business around us, as world financial markets trembled in the aftermath of what happened on that fateful day, business conditions deteriorated. Many little businesses, like ours, struggled to survive. But we clung on tenaciously.

I guess what was noteworthy was that since about April 2000, local internet businesses had been falling over at a great rate as worldwide the collapse of the dotcom era took hold. As mentioned, we just clung on for dear life, kept our business in our living room and kept our expenses low.

Then came 9/11 – a change of external climate that we could not have predicted and which had an immediate negative effect on our business revenue.

Rules of engagement help you avoid finding out how far the rabbit hole goes

Fast forward to 2004 and the financial difficulties of 2001 had more than passed, we were moving strongly forward and building good membership numbers and excellent revenue growth. We had set up a separate office in Bleakhouse Lane, Albert Park, had some great people on our team, particularly in the content area and things started to get really hectic.

It’s now that I’m reminded of something I learned through 2004 and 2005, which is when everything speeds up and opportunities are coming at you thick and fast, the really smart thing to do is not to rush around trying to grab each and every opportunity, gorging yourself on every bite of the cherry. This is something David and I have done both in the consulting era of The Dramatic Group Pty Ltd from 1996 through 2002 to the Arts Hub era circa 2003 to 2005. Mainly this has been driven by a scarcity mentality that was conditioned by having arts companies as clients, who are always worried about the next funding dollar.

From 2003 to 2005 we took on several additional projects and a partnership that we would come to regret. Projects and partnerships often look good at the outset, but I don’t think we’ve ever been involved in anything that hasn’t taken at least three times the time, energy and resources than was proposed to us. We might have avoided some huge distractions on our time and energy if we had a really clear set of rules and guidelines for getting involved. That time and energy could have been used better by staying focused around building our core business.

And this is what I think the smart thing to do is. Get clear on what your business is, and what new strands you do/do not want to be involved in, develop a set of rules about what you are willing to invest time and energy in, and make sure these are consistent with your business values. Then exercise your rules. Say no, only say yes when you really want to and you can see the direct connection to your business values, and of course, quality outcomes for your business.

I suspect that as we recover from the GFC things will hot up substantially. Before they do invest some time in working out your life and business values and rules, so that you can make really good decisions when the pace of everything picks up.

For some yarns on which rabbit holes David and I went down with Arts Hub and things we invested time and energy into that we wished we hadn’t, read our book, Niche Content Millionaire – the story of the startup, growth and sale of Arts Hub.

Picture – Flickr kat.dodd

Niche Content Millionaire is a downloadable eBook that tells you the true story how we made millions from subscription content and membership websites.

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