Personal Business Models have opened the door for individuals to reinvent themselves in a systematic way. The individual is Resource Constrained, so the process starts with YOU, as opposed to the Market. 

This idea of reinventing while still being limited is not just applicable to individuals. It applies equally to the organization that doesn't need to start-up something new, yet still needs reinvention to turn-around its situation. This will overview 5 short YouTube videos, collectively named the Lean Turn-Around series, that describe this approach to working with Business models. They conclude with a new importance to the role of Key Partners in Personal Business Models.

For those not already familiar with the Business Models canvas, there is a 2 minute introduction to the canvas here and another fast introduction to Personal Business models here. These videos were produced assuming the viewers are already familiar with the book Business Model YOU. The video windows here are small. If you click on the YouTube logo in the lower right corner, they will expand on that site.

As a business broker, I frequently discuss valuation with interested small business sellers. The discussion often starts like this:

"Tell me about your products(services)?
We have an established reputation for being the best source for what we do in the area.
How is your pricing?
We are competitively priced,not too high and not too low."


Do you see the problem? If a premium Value is really being given the customer, why doesn't that result in a premium Revenue Stream?

This isn't just a problem with a business organization. As individual employees, professionals, or contractors are we providing a real premium value or only enough for a competitive revenue stream? 

The Personal Business Model canvas developed in Business Model YOU not only helps individuals reinvent themselves, it serves as a map for developing the premium aspects of their value. Competitive pricing is the natural result of a focus on primarily the Value Proposition and the Customer Segments. To be worth a premium, further separate YOU from the competition (Professional Branding) by considering your other 7 canvas areas.

1 - Key Partners
No one works in total isolation. When people look to you as the "point man" for those you work with, they see greater value in everything you do. You get to there by clearly defining that team on the canvas, and then finding ways to promote your partners (even is that doesn't immediately help you). Being able to promote a Key Partner's value increases your own.

2 - Key Activities
We tend to focus on developing those activities which meet our goals; however, people will pay a premium if what you give them helps meets THEIR goals. Would the nature of your Key Activities change if you knew your customer's goals and how to achieve them?

3 - Key Resources
This is the cornerstone of the Personal Business model. Have you identified personal resources you own that are not being used in your model? Finding ways to offer these to your customers increases your value to them, even if it isn't directly related to a main Value Proposition. Do you know about a cheap and easy way to keep up with necessary records? I bet there are potential customers who would love to know how you do it (and love YOU for sharing that).

4 - Cost Structure
Competitive pricing is a result of supply and demand. Non-competitive pricing can happen when either value is high or costs are low. Technology and/or organization often drives down costs and there seems to be no end to the possibilities of using them to reduce costs. When reducing costs leads to additional sales, the premium is in the volume rather than the price.

5 - Customer Relationships
Your relationships are more than just between you and the people who pay you. There is a community that encompasses what is done. Participating in that community is what increases the value of your personal stock in the minds of others in it. Community activity may not result in a direct sale; however, it is very hard for it to not result in increasing your premium value to others.

6 - Channels
We are in an information age and that is changing everything in business. There is a need in every community for participants to band together and share how that effects them and what to do about it. There is always a place to increase value through helping to teach new skills to those seeking them. The fact you teach in any capacity increases your credibility an exposure.

7 - Revenue Streams
Most of us believe a Sale ends when the Revenues are finally collected. Once we realize the single most important source of new business is referrals, it becomes clear that a sale isn't really over until the customer stops making referrals. With this in mind, consider what happens after funds are collected and value is delivered? What could compliment the value transaction 7, 30, 60, 90, or even 180 days later? Anyone who delivers value from this perspective deserves a premium.

The Personal Business Model is a source for continual improvement as well as reinvention. I look forward to more future conversations like:


"How is your pricing?
People understand how valuable we really are to them."

Tired of fighting the same battles to keep your business afloat? One solution is to just let us sell your business.  A better possibility is to generate more cash flow with less effort with Professional Branding.

The new Personal Business Model YOU Workshops at UTA are now being offered as Professional Branding, changed from last term when they were called Career Reinvention. Just another example of the pivoting process that's involved with the implementation of any Business Model. In interviews with those interested in the first workshops, we found a much greater interest from individuals wanting to be more successful in their current careers than those who are looking for another career where they can be more successful. So while the Workshops are equally applicable to both, we have shifted the focus a bit.

There are two mistakes most of us make when first introduced to Business Models and Canvas Thinking. The Workshops covers these (and more) with specific application to your career. 

The first issue is confusing Key Activities with Value Propositions. It's easy to think that our customers value those things that we do so well. The truth is our customers value what helps them do the things they need to get done. An example might be a plumber who feels their master's license is their Value Proposition. The customer's problem may be leaking water, so perhaps 24 hours service will mean much more to them. We need to see our value from our customer's Point of View.

This is easier said than done for career professionals. The Business Model YOU strategy is to start here and to develop what it is we are, so we know what it is we can offer. The same mistake made in the opposite direction is to try and build a career around something you know customers want but is not at all suited for You. Professional Branding requires understanding what makes You valuable, and then communicating it well.

That bring us to the second major mistake most of us make as we develop our Personal Business Models. We confuse Key Activities with Customer Relationships. After a Business Model is completed we need to Act on it. I am open to anyone to disagree with this; but that has to mean Marketing the Model. No matter what other Key Activities are need for Value Proposition fulfillment, Marketing has to also be added to Key Activities and you need to be successful at it for the model to make money. If your model is for yourself as an employee, you still need to market your abilities to either a new employer for a new job, or your boss to enhance your current job. For Professionals, marketing needs to be done to reach new prospects. Every Business Model effort must conclude with Marketing in some form if it is to be meaningful.

So why isn't that Customer Relationships? CRM software vendors and consultants have confused us into thinking that Customer Relationship is about how we want to relate to our customers. That is not the issue. It's how do our customer want to relate to us? While I have Zero Interest in being a part of my plumber's internet community (no matter how many water saving tips may be found there), I do want to be able to quickly find a competent, reasonably priced plumber when water is found where it's not supposed to be. If that's the case, our plumber may find that money spent advertising on Angie's List might be more valuable than mailing out newsletters. On the other hand, I belong to a local health club and I do read their newsletters. I want to relate to them much differently and they get that.

Your Brand is not your name, logo, or company colors. It's how your customers perceive you. To do Professional Branding effectively, it makes good sense to first know what makes you valuable to others and then know how they want to find-out about that. That becomes your "message". Then all that's left is how to send it. There are many books and consultants who can offer you great advice on the mechanics of marketing; but nothing will define your message more clearly than a well constructed Personal Business Model. 

Here is the bonus. At the UTA Professional Branding Workshop we develop your Personal Business Model and in doing so re-engage you with a career that may have been burning-out. Communicating your value to others in ways they want to hear becomes almost intoxicating. You will reinvent "Your Career, for Fun and Profit".

The 70's Best Seller, Future Shock, predicted that by now the social changes brought about by advancing technology would leave us all in a state of "shattering stress and disorientation". This is not a bad way to describe how the career displacement and burnout so many experience feels. The good news is that the future has also produced a way to deal with it - Personal Reinvention and to achieve that, Personal Business Models.

Personal Business Models are an outgrowth of the organizational Business Modeling techniques complied in the best selling workbook, Business Model Generation. Self-described as "a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers ...", the manual introduces a new tool, the Business Model Canvas, as a way to visualize the dynamics of how an organization supports itself. The canvas then becomes a place to create possible futures and judge their effectiveness. The process is both engaging and enlightening, which has lead to its international popularity.

It would seem that applying this technique to an individual could be equally as engaging and enlightening, and another international community has been developing that idea which was made available in early 2012 when Business Model YOU was be published. The deliverable here is a version of the canvas called a Personal Business Model.

While developing an organizational model has many similarities to the Personal Business Model, they start in very different places. The heart of any organization is the market it serves and the value it gives to its customers. Without giving value to customers, there is no reason for the organization to exist.

You and I are different. We exist anyway. Why is that? The heart of a Personal Business Model is an answer to that question. An organization develops or utilizes whatever resources it needs to deliver a value. We have our natural and earned resources without regard to any value proposition. What are we supposed to do with them? Starting here is the challenge of developing a Personal Business Model.

Once your purpose has been articulated and applied to your career using the methodologies in the book, its time to investigate possible change. Your current situation can (and most likely will) change. Business Model YOU  teaches you ways to move your perspective and see what happens. Reinvented career possibilities can then be tested and validated. A new way to finance life will emerge.

Yes, the times are disrupting everything as Future Shock predicted. What used to work in our lives may have already stopped working. If not, it's in danger of that. Change is being forced on us, like it or not. A Personal Business Model provides a purpose-based basis for discovering how to reinvent yourself in meaningful ways to address a new future.

A warning, its not easy. The book will take the reader on a careful step-by-step journey of self-discovery and then reinvention. For many, the book alone will be sufficient. Others will struggle on their own. For those, Personal Business Model workshops are becoming available. Either way, all of us will face Reinventing our futures more and more. It's now a part of life.