Why you should match your business model to your personality!

One of the most painful lessons learned from all the dozens of businesses that I’ve started would be to match my personality to the business model.

A business model I really loved

In 1994, I created a publishing company where I represented artists. I was so very passionate about helping the ‘starving artist’ to have their work seen and valued. I wanted to match those that wanted to hire artists for commercial work to awesome talent.

The business model was similar to 1-800-DOCTORS. I placed a small advertisement in the then yellow pages and received over 300 calls a month looking for talented artists such as graphic designers, painters, sculptors etc.

The artists would pay a nominal advertising fee and I would include articles and business card printed advertisements into a bi-monthly newsletter. I would manually spend my nights collating thousands of printed pages together and distribute the mini-magazines all over the Seattle metropolitan area.

This business model, other than my now coaching practice was probably my favorite. It combined my love to talk to artists and promote them to the public. I loved the creative process and that I could work around the crazy schedule of being a young single mother. I however, was in my early 20s and I had so much more to learn about business.

My worst business model experience

One of the worst business models for my personality was Woo Woo Parties, LLC. My girlfriends and I absolutely loved woo woo stuff. We spent months interviewing astrologers, numerologists, massage therapists and more intuitives.

We then shared with our friends that would invite our ‘Woo Woo Practitioners’ to their parties where each party goer could get a mini session for $20. It was so fun. Until, the romance of it got old and as a young mom, I realized all my weekends would be spent away from my children. The profit margins were horrible and the lack of income quickly became an excuse to dissolve the business in less than a year.

What I didn’t consider when I ran a hotel

Deciding to purchase and run a hotel, plus a wedding business was an accident for me. Unfortunately, it ended up being the most emotionally exhausting that led me to a complete physical burnout that took years to recover from.

A hotel is typically open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The holidays and weekends are peak times for generating income. Hotels are very high touch and require employees managing a plethora of activities.No matter how much an owner wants to delegate the responsibilities, the low net income ratios require a delicate balance of strong leadership and financial fiscability. Obviously, for the right personality, this business model is extremely successful, however, I would highly recommend an introvert be able to delegate almost every part to a very well qualified general manager.

Happy with my current business model

Today as an intuitive business coach, I’m able to enjoy a very happy lifestyle with both a ton of time and money freedom. It’s the perfect fit for my personality.

I restrict my appointment schedule to Tuesday through Thursday giving me two days a week to spend for marketing and/or learning purposes. I often spend a lot of my schedule at a retreat for my own self development. Ninety percent of the time, I get to do what I love to do, teach and learn. The other things that I don’t so enjoy doing I delegate.

Conclusion:

This is not to say that any and all businesses, no matter how much the model matches our personality, might have aspects or activities that we don’t like doing. But the point is to take a very serious inventory of the model and matching it your desired lifestyle will increase your longevity of loving your business and your success level exponentially.

Checklist to match your personality to your business model

Are you an introvert or Extrovert?

Being true to yourself is the most important aspect of being a successful entrepreneur. Be honest with yourself and be true to how you’re built, each personality type can create whatever business type they want, so why not have them match each other.

Typical behavior of introverts:

• Staying inside
• Being Quiet
• Having down time requires lots of flexibility
• More 1:1 client structure
• Like Intimacy

Typical behavir of extroverts:

• Going out
• Talking and networking
• Staying busy
• Requires more structure for outdoor activities
• More social orientated
• Like to work with large groups

2.     Are you a visual, auditory or a kinesthetic learner?

The type of learner you are, is best suited for the type of marketer you are. You’ll enjoy doing it and no matter what, even with the BEST marketing company, you are your best marketing person!!!

A visual learner would be best marketing their business via

• Videos
• Graphics
• Infographics
• In person meetings
• Writing blog posts and emails

An auditory learner would be best marketing their business via

• Podcasts
• Recordings
• Making phone calls
• Voice to texting their articles and emails

3.     What type of lifestyle do you want?

Extroverts that are visual and/or auditory learners might be best suited to the following business models:

• Brick and mortar business,
• Coaching / Healing / Consulting Practice in-house,
• High touch business,
• Direct Sales,
• Products based business,
• Services based business with high interaction

Introverts that are visual and/or auditory learners might be best suited to the following business models:

• Coaching / Healing / Consulting Practice online
• Low touch business,
• Franchise Model,
• Freemium Model (like Skype/Facebook),
• Recurring / Subscription Model,
• Research and idea generating business
• Services based business with low interaction