12: Accelerating Between the Jersey Walls

I regularly get asked by college students and young designers how to build a profitable design firm. (I’ve been told that Biplane Productions is an anomaly for my age and the current market.) Success can’t be encapsulated in an easy proverb or single piece of advice, but I tell them all the same thing: find your niche, learn it inside and out, become the best vendor in that arena.

It’s not just designers. The other day, a (very successful) auctioneer told me that he wished he wasn’t answering the phones but getting the kind of auctions he wants. I’ve given the same advice to brand new auction entrepreneurs and auctioneers whose careers span longer than my life: develop your niche, and get your auction brand synonymous with what you sell.

People shop specialists, from mechanics to doctors to retail stores. Specialists generate larger margins; their narrow but deep experience gives their recommendations more credence and their value more worth. That’s why Best Buy can charge more for the same big screen TV brands that Sam’s Club sells, why people buy more engagement rings from mall jewelry stores than pawn shops or even Wal-Mart.

It’s counterintuitive, though, on the flip side of the transaction. It doesn’t make sense that you could do more business by working only one segment of available business. If I hadn’t seen it in Biplane, I may not have come to believe it. Over 90% of my revenue now comes from auction companies, most of them real estate specialists. I’ve found efficiencies, predictable transaction patterns, and a moderate intuition I didn’t have when I designed for anyone who called.

It doesn’t have to be cold turkey or absolute. Auction what you love to sell, what makes you money. But your marketing materials (web site, brochures, proposals, etc.) should emphasize only one or two—maybe three, if similar—area(s) of specialty. It simplifies your brand message, which makes it easier to remember and easier for clients to recommend to their peers.

Brand simplification will move you from “the auctioneer” to the marketer that knows how to sell [x] better than anyone. When you’re “the only” or “one of few,” you’ll find less competition and less effort spent justifying your commission.
[tip]

I don’t know how many Christians I’ve met trying to set the world on fire for Jesus through mass efforts like passing out tracts in crowded areas, street preaching, and televangelism. They reach somebody, probably more than one somebody. I just don’t know if that’s the most efficient use of a Christian’s personal outreach energy.

I’ve found that the personal connection carries more weight and long term ramifications than a pamphlet on a gas station toilet or the echoes of a street preacher’s megaphone.

Jesus talked to crowds, but the crowds were fickle—even later crucified him. The fishermen who became martyrs and the Pharisees who left their comfort zones met Jesus personally. He took the time to know them, to walk with them—to spend dinner at Zaccheus’ house.

That’s more risky. It’s not easy. But we’re called to fish for followers like Jesus did. He didn’t need paper or microphones, and he didn’t appear to everyone in his generation—despite his ability to do so. He impacted the sphere of influence available to him.

Are we?