There’s something about the health and fitness industry that breeds entrepreneurs.
It’s an industry that demands hard work, creativity, and a problem solving mindset.
We love to create and build. We’re overcome by ideas.
But we’re also conflicted. We’re faced with daily contradictions.
Is it possible to be both ambitious and content?
Can we combine something we’re passionate about with something earns money?
And should we say yes to every idea that enters our mind, or should we focus on one all encompassing priority?
It’s this last contradiction that has often been a challenge for me. Should I be capitalising on a facet of my business that I’ve already built, that is already earning good money, or should I be building multiple income streams?
Ask an accountant, and they’d likely tell you to capitalise on what you’ve already got. If you have a cash cow – it makes sense to milk it.
But ask a psychologist, and you might get a different answer.
Because there’s more to work than income. And there’s more to income than money.
Our jobs can give us many things beyond dollars. So while your accountant might advise you to optimise for income and go ‘all in’ on the thing that will earn you the most, that might be killing your entrepreneurial drive to solve problems, experiment, innovate, build and create. It might be killing a fundamental part of who you are.
Over the years, I’ve experimented with various structures and systems to create new businesses and projects.
I really enjoy the building phase of business. Building the systems and branding. Solidifying the ideas. Once the building phase has finished however, I get less excited about the day to day running of the business.
I get bored easily, and my mind craves variety and novelty. But if I let it run free, it can be directionless and illogical.
So I created the four Es, a model to allow me to get the best of both worlds – healthy financial income, combined with my love of creating.
I’ve used this model to build businesses, launch projects and earn lots of money, all while scratching my itch to create, experiment and play.
Let me describe the model, in the hope that maybe you can benefit from it too.
Picture four columns.
At the top of column one is the word ‘Entertain’. At the top of column two is ‘Explore’. Column three is ‘Expand’. And the final column is ‘Exploit’. These are the four Es: entertain, explore, expand, exploit.
Here’s how it works.
Spread between the columns are all the ideas I have for projects or businesses. Ranging from anything I think I might want to do in the future, right through to long-term established businesses.
Let’s define each column, and I’ll give you some examples of the items in each of the columns for me at the moment.
Column one is entertain. These are the ideas that are worth entertaining – worth considering. If you’ve ever said to yourself ‘one day I should write a book’, this is where that would go. These ideas might not be good ideas (in fact the majority are probably terrible ideas), but at least they’re out of your head and not distracting you in the shower, while you’re going for a run, or at 2am on a Tuesday morning.
At the moment, my ‘entertain’ column has ideas like starting a corporate health business, launching online courses, writing an algorithm-based piece of software to generate workouts, and many many more.
In column two, are the ideas you want to explore. You’ve decided these ideas are good enough to see the light of day, so you want to give them a go to see if they can realise the potential you think they have. The ideas in this column are things you’re currently working on behind the scenes. For these, you want to build a minimal viable product. An MVP is the most absolute basic and underdeveloped project you can create. On face value, it looks great, but there’s no substance behind it. No systems, no refinement. No real ‘product’. It’s just an idea, all dressed up to look like a business. You put the MVP out into the world to see whether the world wants it.
Currently, I’m exploring PD events for large gym chains, a 12 week educational course for Personal Trainers, social media management for health businesses and more.
Our next column is expand. These are ideas you’ve built and launched, and they’re now earning money. They’re more than an MVP – you’ve actually built out the idea. They’ve proven that they’re solving a need and that there’s a product-market fit. They’re not a run away success, but they’ve shown they have potential. If you water these ideas, they have the potential for growth.
The items currently in my own expand column are my freelance website design, Jibberjab.digital (my marketing agency), and the business make-overs I run for fitness businesses.
Our final column is exploit. These are ideas that have proven themselves to be financially successful. They’re ideas or project that have been built, with well established systems, and are now generating significant income without the need for further growth. They generate income relatively easily without significant effort or time – with a very high hourly rate.
For me, my mentoring, Exercise Physiology and facility leasing work fits into this column.
You’ll notice that as we move from left to right through entertain, explore, expand and exploit, the number of items in each column get smaller. This is because not every idea you have will be a good one. In fact, very few will be good ones. Not many of the harebrained schemes you think up in your ‘entertain’ column should ever be taken seriously enough to graduate to the ‘explore’ column. And very few of the ideas you explore will be embraced by your customers, graduating them to the ‘expand column’. And very few things you decide to try expanding will become long term financially successful businesses that don’t consume all your precious resources.
This model has been really useful for me. It’s an evolving and constantly changing chart that sits on a large glass board in my office. It’s always there as a reminder of where I should be prioritising my time, and where I shouldn’t be prioritising my time. It allows me to systemise innovation and ensures that I get the best of both worlds – the joy that comes from building, as well as the financial success that comes from capitalising.
