Do you have an avatar, or ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) as it is sometimes known in the corporate world?
It has taken me a long time to get used to the idea of an avatar, much less embrace it.
I fully admit to being a variety junkie. I have a lot of interests. I read insanely widely all the time. I take on new projects with the frequency that other people change their socks. So limiting myself to one type of client never made sense to me. How boring is that? Not to mention that it’s not in my nature to turn anyone away. Not that I have a bunch of prospects knocking on my virtual door anyway.
In one sense, my love of variety is my superpower. But it means that I have to work much harder to achieve a predictable income. I like my work, so I don’t mind working long hours. If you do what you love, work is play, right?
To be able to take advantage of economies of scale, though, you need to specialize. You need to do one thing long enough to be able to systematize it and make it routine before you can do that thing efficiently. You can’t make any real money if you aren’t efficient. As boring and rote as routine is, as much as I hate it personally, it is efficient.
The root of efficiency is having an avatar. That just means having one type of client with one set of problems that you solve. If your systematizing process is good enough and the work is routine enough, you can teach someone else to do it. You can pay them, and then charge the client more. Voila! You are now thinking and acting like a CEO.
I began to come to terms with my avatar when I realized it didn’t have to remain an exclusive relationship for long. I just needed to deal with one avatar at a time, just long enough that I got to know him and develop messaging, packages, and products that would appeal to him. Just long enough to build systems and get efficient. Then I could proceed to flesh out other avatars and their unique problems and world views.
If you have ever attempted creative writing, inventing characters, maybe basing them on amalgamations of real people you know, and have had fun doing that, working on your avatars can be almost as fun. And probably more lucrative in the long run.
