Long before becoming a business coach for women business owners, I was a teenager in small town Minnesota looking for new ways to be entertained.
One of our winter pastimes was perfecting what we nicknamed the “Rockford Files.”
Also known as a J-turn, Wikipedia describes it as, “When you are going straight in reverse about 35 miles an hour, you come off the gas pedal, go hard left, and pull on the emergency brake. That locks the wheels and throws the front end around. Then you release everything, hit the gas, and off you go in the opposite direction.”
Check it out 👇
(Don’t worry, we only did it in empty parking lots that had a good coat of ice or snow. And probably not at 35 miles per hour. Although I wouldn’t doubt it if Jill Norman hit those speeds!)
What does this have to do with business reinvention?
Sometimes you need to do a “J-Turn” with your business strategy.
A recent example of this is a client who was approaching a wall in her business that, if left unchecked, would leave her with no room for further growth.
As we sat on my patio on a beautiful spring day in April, we sifted through various ideas and iterations of services she could offer her market. We considered the problems that stunt their growth—and how she could use her position and capabilities as a thought leader and recognized resource in the industry to solve them.
And of course, we looked at what SHE wants her business to do for her and the people she employs.
A few hours later, she shot from a 6 to a 10 in her level of clarity for her business pivot—and left with a very concise roadmap for what she needed to do to put it into action.
But after floating it for a few weeks, she realized her market has a related problem that comes before the problem we set out to solve.
And frankly, it was a problem she wasn’t sure she was positioned or willing to tackle.
But by solving their first problem, more customers would be in a position to hire her to solve the second one.
So we pulled a J-Turn by going back to the drawing board. (Which is why I would never do a strategy intensive without follow up sessions.)
It took us less than 30 minutes to reverse engineer where we needed to start, based on her clients “first problem.”
We figured out what needed to be offered, using a resource she’s already created.
(IMPORTANT NOTE: So often, I see business owners create fabulous content or programs, but when it doesn’t sell as they’d envisioned, they get discouraged and abandon it. Myself included. I encourage you to keep looking for ways to leverage it!)
We repurposed how that existing resource will be positioned, priced and marketed. Plus added a value-add service on top of it to create a brand new revenue stream and further cement her leadership position in the industry by solving two huge problems.
Plus, this combination reversed her previous lack of interest in solving her market’s first problem.
Then we slid that J-turn back even a bit further by peeling out a piece of that existing program, and using it to whet the appetite of exactly the right candidates.
Oh, and both are scalable services that will keep her from hitting the revenue wall anytime soon.
Let’s face it, we don’t think of all the things—all of the time.
That’s what action and implementation are for.
We do our best based on all the of the factors we can think of. Put that strategy to work. And then find out how it stands up in the real world.
Nine times out of 10 we’re simply refining and retooling from there. We’re not throwing everything out and starting from scratch.
And that’s what I call pulling a “Rockford Files” to point your business in a direction that’ll take you further.
xo,
Carolyn
ps – You know what helps you steer your car in the right direction and costs under 50 bucks through June? The Simplifier, my short course for packaging and pricing your services. It’ll help you craft offers you love, for clients who get as excited about your goodies as a kid who got a pony for her birthday! Use promo code ROCKFORD when you check out over here.
