Show Notes
Brett asks: "I've been focusing on lower dollar properties, but I'm hearing I should go after higher priced ones. Lower price sells constantly but requires nonstop marketing. Premium sounds great but feels risky. How do you decide which model builds sustainability versus just keeps you busy?"
In this episode, Scott calls out Brett's real problem (the word "hustling" reveals he has no team), explains why strategy is about what you WON'T do, and shares examples of business owners who built for lifestyle instead of peer pressure. You'll learn the difference between having a business and having a job, why Southwest Airlines lost its edge by abandoning its strategy, and why the low-vs-high question answers itself once you define the lifestyle you want.
The bottom line: The answer isn't low dollar vs. high dollar. The answer is: what lifestyle do you want, and do you have people to support it?
Got a business question? Ask Scott here: https://scotttodd.net/ask
📜 Full Transcript (Click to expand)
Scott Todd (00:00)
Welcome to Fix My Business, the show that helps you get unstuck so that you can keep growing. I'm Scott Todd and the way that we do that is we answer your questions. And today's question comes from Brett. He says, I've been focusing on lower dollar properties, but I'm hearing from others that I should ditch them and go after the higher priced ones. I know the higher price, the fewer the customers and the longer the sale cycles.
On the other hand, the lower price properties sell constantly, but they require nonstop marketing. The cheap offers fast moving, but I feel like I'm always hustling. The premium offers sound great, but they feel risky. How do you decide which model actually builds sustainability as opposed to just keeps you busy? So, Brett.
⁓ Man, I got to tell you, stop chasing shiny objects. You really have to stop that. Stop chasing the Joneses and everybody else with whatever they're doing. And I think that generally you have a bigger problem, which is the word that you use. said, ⁓ I feel like I'm always hustling. And that tells me that you do not have
a team in place that's large enough to support what you're trying to build. Because whether you're using lower dollar properties or higher dollar properties, at the end of the day, when you have a team of people that support that business, then it doesn't matter what your strategy is because it shouldn't require you to be at the wheel 24 seven. That's not a business guys. If you're at the wheel 24 seven and you don't have other people, you have a job.
There's a guy that I know, he's just a fantastic guy. He's a business operator. Yeah, he owns a business. It's a solo business. He doesn't want any more people. It's just him. He has a job. He literally has his own job. He's his own boss, but that's what he wants. That's the business that he's created for himself, and he'll tell you, I don't want anybody else. Okay, there's nothing wrong with that. But then...
With that, it's going to come him having to hustle.
If he gives himself a break and he hires people, well then it might be a different hustle in the beginning, but ultimately he can build systems that get himself out of the mundane work and out of the loop, out of the muddy mile, out of the pain, because you're going to get into this loop and you're not going to see the exit and it's just going to be painful. And I think that that's what you're feeling because of the words that you're using. Now, I think that
Another piece that you have to consider too is your strategy. What is the strategy of your business? And a lot of people think about strategy and they think it's about this big fancy document that you prepare or that big companies prepare. At the end of the day, every company has a strategy, whether you know it or not. The lack of something that's written is still a strategy. But a strategy, more than what you're going to do, a strategy is what you're not going to do.
who you're not going to become. Because when you identify who you're not going to become and who you're not going to chase, well then you set up your own little playground in which you can win by not doing what everybody else does. So let me give an example. Southwest Airlines, for example, for a very long time had this strategy that they were going to be different than all the other carriers. They were going to have shorter routes. They were going to have the same plane.
to make turns quicker. were going to have open seating. All of this stuff, right? This is what made Southwest different. And piece by piece, they started moving away from that hub strategy, and they start blending in and looking like every other airline. Today, there is no open seating on Southwest. You're choosing your seat at booking. And they're doing that.
It's more revenue for them, but what's different about them? Yeah, they still offer shorter flights. They offer point to point, know, these shorter flights, if you will. But really, what's different from that airline versus any other? See, they're blending their strategy. So I think what you have to do is you have to go back in there and instead of saying like, I just want to chase what somebody else is chasing, you have to figure out what your strategy is going to be and then execute on it. And if you're
hustling all the time, there's an easy solution to that. It's called people. I think that you have to go back and figure out what kind of lifestyle you want to. Because just because somebody's chasing, you know, bigger deals and they're making bigger profits, but they're doing less work. I'll tell you what, there would be people that would be knocked on your door to take what you got. They really would be.
There's a friend of mine that is He runs a 10-figure education business. It's not a coaching business. He does not want to be involved in coaching He's like nope not going to be involved in coaching, but it's a 10-figure education business He built that business around the lifestyle that he wanted. He didn't want to chase everybody else area Some you should do coaching. He's like I'm not going to coaching He built a different type of business and that's the thing is you can build what you want
which is going to support your lifestyle. But I got to tell you something, even he has employees, he has people that are doing the work. It's not him. It's not a solo piece. you can hustle. You can get people who can hustle on your behalf. I think that you need to go back and think about the strategy that you want because low dollar properties that turn faster versus high dollar ones that turn slower. That's really the strategy that
you have to decide what you want to do. And you have to solve that problem on your own in a different lens. The lens of what lifestyle do I want and what's my strategy going to be. All right, Brett, go do that. And I think you'll have some clarity there. You'll have some obstacles that are removed. And if you have a question, head over to scotttodd.net forward slash ask, submit your question. And I look forward to helping you on our next episode.
Welcome to Fix My Business, the show that helps you get unstuck so that you can keep growing. I'm Scott Todd and the way that we do that is we answer your questions. And today's question comes from Brett. He says, I've been focusing on lower dollar properties, but I'm hearing from others that I should ditch them and go after the higher priced ones. I know the higher price, the fewer the customers and the longer the sale cycles.
On the other hand, the lower price properties sell constantly, but they require nonstop marketing. The cheap offers fast moving, but I feel like I'm always hustling. The premium offers sound great, but they feel risky. How do you decide which model actually builds sustainability as opposed to just keeps you busy? So, Brett.
⁓ Man, I got to tell you, stop chasing shiny objects. You really have to stop that. Stop chasing the Joneses and everybody else with whatever they're doing. And I think that generally you have a bigger problem, which is the word that you use. said, ⁓ I feel like I'm always hustling. And that tells me that you do not have
a team in place that's large enough to support what you're trying to build. Because whether you're using lower dollar properties or higher dollar properties, at the end of the day, when you have a team of people that support that business, then it doesn't matter what your strategy is because it shouldn't require you to be at the wheel 24 seven. That's not a business guys. If you're at the wheel 24 seven and you don't have other people, you have a job.
There's a guy that I know, he's just a fantastic guy. He's a business operator. Yeah, he owns a business. It's a solo business. He doesn't want any more people. It's just him. He has a job. He literally has his own job. He's his own boss, but that's what he wants. That's the business that he's created for himself, and he'll tell you, I don't want anybody else. Okay, there's nothing wrong with that. But then...
With that, it's going to come him having to hustle.
If he gives himself a break and he hires people, well then it might be a different hustle in the beginning, but ultimately he can build systems that get himself out of the mundane work and out of the loop, out of the muddy mile, out of the pain, because you're going to get into this loop and you're not going to see the exit and it's just going to be painful. And I think that that's what you're feeling because of the words that you're using. Now, I think that
Another piece that you have to consider too is your strategy. What is the strategy of your business? And a lot of people think about strategy and they think it's about this big fancy document that you prepare or that big companies prepare. At the end of the day, every company has a strategy, whether you know it or not. The lack of something that's written is still a strategy. But a strategy, more than what you're going to do, a strategy is what you're not going to do.
who you're not going to become. Because when you identify who you're not going to become and who you're not going to chase, well then you set up your own little playground in which you can win by not doing what everybody else does. So let me give an example. Southwest Airlines, for example, for a very long time had this strategy that they were going to be different than all the other carriers. They were going to have shorter routes. They were going to have the same plane.
to make turns quicker. were going to have open seating. All of this stuff, right? This is what made Southwest different. And piece by piece, they started moving away from that hub strategy, and they start blending in and looking like every other airline. Today, there is no open seating on Southwest. You're choosing your seat at booking. And they're doing that.
It's more revenue for them, but what's different about them? Yeah, they still offer shorter flights. They offer point to point, know, these shorter flights, if you will. But really, what's different from that airline versus any other? See, they're blending their strategy. So I think what you have to do is you have to go back in there and instead of saying like, I just want to chase what somebody else is chasing, you have to figure out what your strategy is going to be and then execute on it. And if you're
hustling all the time, there's an easy solution to that. It's called people. I think that you have to go back and figure out what kind of lifestyle you want to. Because just because somebody's chasing, you know, bigger deals and they're making bigger profits, but they're doing less work. I'll tell you what, there would be people that would be knocked on your door to take what you got. They really would be.
There's a friend of mine that is He runs a 10-figure education business. It's not a coaching business. He does not want to be involved in coaching He's like nope not going to be involved in coaching, but it's a 10-figure education business He built that business around the lifestyle that he wanted. He didn't want to chase everybody else area Some you should do coaching. He's like I'm not going to coaching He built a different type of business and that's the thing is you can build what you want
which is going to support your lifestyle. But I got to tell you something, even he has employees, he has people that are doing the work. It's not him. It's not a solo piece. you can hustle. You can get people who can hustle on your behalf. I think that you need to go back and think about the strategy that you want because low dollar properties that turn faster versus high dollar ones that turn slower. That's really the strategy that
you have to decide what you want to do. And you have to solve that problem on your own in a different lens. The lens of what lifestyle do I want and what's my strategy going to be. All right, Brett, go do that. And I think you'll have some clarity there. You'll have some obstacles that are removed. And if you have a question, head over to scotttodd.net forward slash ask, submit your question. And I look forward to helping you on our next episode.