Before we jump into the conversation about expansion, let us first define some terms. Expansion as we are going to talk about here is going into another line of business, hopefully based on your current line of business — a wedding planner doing day of coordination, an interior designer doing styling. An entirely other conversation is growth which is doing what you are doing now somewhere else too. Quite literally opening a new office in another location but doing the exact same thing. We will leave the growth conversation for another time.
Just as many shiny apples fall from a mature, healthy apple tree (many more than can be consumed), so too with new opportunities. The point is not to try to pick all of the apples, only the shiniest ones. Of course, the assumption must be true, the tree has to be healthy and mature. Your creative business needs to own its space and be solid in its niche by way of reputation, value and process. If you are all over the place in any of these categories with the core business, piling on a new business is at best a distraction, and, at worst, the straw that will bring everything down. Why? Because the core creative business needs to support every other endeavor, not the other way around.
Yes, before starting any new business line, you must do your own Perfect Egg analysisto decide what it looks like to leap and whether leaping will be worth it. If all is great with the core business, leaping just to leap is silly.
Presuming that analysis works out though, the real question is whether you are going downscale, upscale or staying even.
While I understand the temptation to go downscale (i.e., provide a cheaper, lite version of what you do), it really does not make a lot of sense to me. Examples would be planners who offer partial or “day-of”, caterers a set cheaper menu, entertainers a smaller band or shorter set, interior designers offering only rooms instead of an entire house. The reason it does not make a lot of sense is that you are selling your weakness instead of your strength, the place where your art does not make as much of a difference as it does in your core. When you go there you are literally begging for competition and you are hoping your name in your core is a differentiator, except it cannot be since it is not really your core that you are selling.
What I would much much rather see is you develop businesses that serve your core and vice-versa. The essence of The Perfect Egg. Get permission to be specific as to what you are going to do. Consumers by ready-to-wear because the designs are already proven and the combination of these designs is what matters. How can the new part of your creative business look like that?
For those that would seek to stay parallel or even go more upscale, I love the challenge, but understand the value point is differently. If you are accustomed to a certain scale and volume, entering a business with a larger scale and smaller volume, regardless of the type of business will require a new language and a different set of promises. Selling even or up is awesome provided you can use your core as the basis to go higher without losing it or the clients who support it. The phrase “too big for your britches” comes to mind immediately. However, discovering how you can mean more to clients who already care the most is music to my ears.
No matter what, chasing volume and cash flow is a fools errand if neither is enough to justify the journey. Perspective matters and if the new business is about saving the existing one, there is truly no point. If the core is broken, then it must die if you cannot fix it. If it is fixable, fix it first, then see how the new business can make it better. Build on your strength, not your weakness. And, of course, value is value and it needs to be distinct wherever you place it.
