Calculate Your Freedom Date

Thank you, Joseph! Hi to everyone too! :)

I'm still trying to clear my schedule to be able to meet you all in person! But in the meantime, here are some questions I'd love to ask you!

Let's assume we all would like to create a new plan for ourselves that speeds up our ability to earn/create/attract new revenue streams.

In my case, I like to pose the question to myself, "What exact steps would I take, in order, to create (made up number!) $2.5million before Christmas 2009?" (Not borrowed money from investors, but money you don't have to pay back)

Of course I admit I am far from having the answer to this, but I like putting the question very specifically to myself so that I can focus on the "how do I..." rather than "wow that's a big number!" haha. Alternately, I could ask, "What exact steps could i take to put a monthly passive $5,000 cashflow into my pocket by Christmas 2009?" and then I can look at things from a slightly different way, if I'm looking to set up a constant stream rather than somehow landing a one-time chunk of money. Hmmmm.

I know there's more to life than money, but the fun is figuring out what to do after we've got it safely in-hand, right? :)

Okay, so I did a quick search of different business models out there, I think it's Wikipedia that gives an overview including possible business models/structures as ways to approach revenue: Auctions, royalties/passive income, rental, lease to own, seller financing/interest income, sales commissions/affilliate marketing/referral & finders' fees, ongoing management and the lesser known, uh, litigation when things go wrong :) This is by no means an all-inclusive list of possible business structures - in fact, I would love love love it if anyone wanted to offer up their own list of possible business structures, just to view things from additional new angles.

So then we take our product or service and run an imaginary scenario on it, maybe using one or more of those various business modes, mix and match, just to see things from a new point of view even if it would be horridly wrong for what we're looking to market, sell, etc.

In a recent Mastermind, lovely "R" responded to my concern that $15k character logo designs are a tough-sell these days, because many start-up companies don't have the budget nor see the value in something like a branded logo when first starting out. "R" made the brilliant suggestion of, how about you offer a credit application so that the new business can pay you your fair price but break it down into installments? I'd done installment payments with a small business owner in the past, but she'd flaked on subsequent payments then sold my image to Camel cigarettes (another story for another time! haha!) so I'd since shied away from that...but "R's" suggestion is terrific - make it a more formal agreement, check if the potential client is good for the money and has a reasonable credit history of paying their bills, and....welllll. :)

So this is just an example of someone offering a great new view on how my work could attract revenue, make it easier for clients to want to bring their projects to me and so on.

Just wondering if something like this can be better refined with your expertise of course! I'm just approaching this organically and somewhat blindly, and would love the benefit of some more targeted feedback and steps I could focus on.

(My business plan includes more than the art/design I'm known for on the surface; how do I bring that depth to a new species of projects I'd like to attract? What industry-specific keywords do I call it to attract the types of projects I'd love to work on?)

Hope this isn't too all over the place - hehe! Just love your approach and am very curious as to how we can focus this even more laser-sharp on goals while also creating some sort of semi-automated system or pipeline to help inspire, execute, publicize, distribute and follow-up in the building of the brand(s) that result?

Just free-associating here, apologies if it's a bit all over the place but would love to see if it sparks any ideas for you as well - thank you! Please feel free to contact me directly also if you like (I'm limited in my ability to reply through this site, though I promise I'm not ignoring you! :)

Excited to see how this works and hoping I can make it in person. If not, please let me know if I can attend virtually in some way (phone, email, in effigy...kidding! :)

And most of all, thank you for offering this to us! Really appreciate your getting our brains going on this stuf!

Very best,
Michiko

BimBionic Design Lab
michiko (at) michiko.com

Hi, I'd love to attend this workshop, but it falls during my workday. Would you consider offering an evening/weekend version?

Best wishes, Jennifer Newton

Oof, sorry about not being able to make this one after all - darnit :(

Hope to get to meet you and everyone coming up in the future, and thank you again for offering this to us! (Any chance you'd want to host it at Mosaic? :)

Hi to everyone, and if anyone'd like to share their notes afterwards, I would love to peek at them, thank you either way!

Best, Michiko

Thank you, Joseph! Looking forward to checking it out!

Have a great event today, and big hello to everyone too!

Best, Michiko