In my last email I offered to share a few example exit strategies, or more to my point, “conversion strategies.”
With that, my inbox promptly blew up. 🙂
Warning: whenever Tim Thompson or I speak in public on this topic (escaping the work-for-hire model / converting your business into an asset), owners get upset. Someone in the audience always protests:
“But our clients won’t let us do that!”
Ah yes. The old that’s-just-not-how-it’s-done-in-our-industry argument. To which Tim often responds, “Oh really? Who told you that?”
Here’s the shift: evolving your firm from a creative services business into an asset isn’t about your clients. It’s about you.
Once you decide that you have the power and the freedom to create value (it’s not about figuring out the next service to offer your clients!), all sorts of things become possible.
Speaking from recent experience, here are a handful of real-world examples:
IP: maintenance contracts keeping project files up-to-date…
IP: convert your systems into software for the industry…
IP: develop original content…
IP: license custom code, scripts, shaders, algorithms, etc…
IP: convert your expertise into curricula / courses…
IP: do versioning for your client’s affiliates, franchisees, etc…
Stock: revise past projects into sellable templates…
Stock: mine library for footage not subject to work-for-hire…
Stock: invest with your client / share ownership of footage…
Commissions: bring sponsors / strategic partners to your clients…
M&A: succession / pass the torch to your employees…
M&A: strategic alliance / merger with competitor…
M&A: be the shortcut to your client building an internal agency…
Do you see the pattern? Each of these strategies follows three basic (albeit difficult to execute) steps:
- Unlock: find where your Genius intersects needs + resources
- Leverage: fully exploit your resources
- Build: create assets which you own / provide a hedge against uncertainty
No doubt asset creation takes a lot of intention, discipline, and follow through. But at RevThink there is one thing we know for certain: the best way to deal with the future… is to create it.
And last I checked, you are a creative entrepreneur. So get creating.
And know that we’re here to help.
Cheers,
Joel
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