How did you find your latest hairdresser? Or the carpenter, or the restaurant you went to last?
It probably wasn't an ad. It was probably someone you trust who said: go there, they're good.
A recommendation carries more weight than an ad
The reason is simple. When a friend recommends something, we borrow her trust. The trust comes along with the recommendation, and that's why relationships are the strongest marketing there is. They're also the cheapest.
And it grows. A happy customer tells three people. Those three tell a few more. That's how a business grows without an advertising budget. It isn't magic, it's just how people work. We talk to each other.
You can also build this deliberately. It's called community marketing: you build a circle around what you do, where people recognise themselves, help each other and want to be part of it. Then you're no longer the only one talking about your business.
The ceiling nobody talks about
Think about the hairdresser with a waiting list again. She's done everything right. She's visible, she has happy customers who spread the word and her calendar is full.
Even so, she's hit a ceiling. Her income is exactly as big as her hours. If she gets sick or wants a week off, the income stops.
It's a ceiling most of us live with without thinking about it. The pay follows the hours. There are no more hours.
The hairdresser who rents out chairs
Now picture a third hairdresser. She cuts hair herself, but she also rents out chairs to other hairdressers in her salon. She earns from her own work and from having built a place where more people can work.
That's called leverage. It comes in three forms:
- Other people's time, when more people contribute to what you've built.
- Systems, that do the work even when you don't.
- Relationships, that spread by themselves.
Most people who build something bigger than their own time use all three.
Your exercise
Where does your income stop today? Is the ceiling your time, your energy or something else?
Write it down. Just putting the ceiling into words makes it easier to see what could lift it.
If you're not sure what's slowing you down, I've made a short test with six questions, What's holding you back? You get the answer right there on the screen.
