Twitter Summary: Provide unique access and you will always be valuable.
Principle
The last principle I want to share from Michael Gerber’s book The E-Myth is that a small business must offer unique access to be successful. To be of value you have to demonstrate that a relationship with you provides access to experiences, people, knowledge, or a commodity that is unattainable from any other source. Offering unique access sets you apart from other services or products and reduces the likelihood of your business being redundant. Identifying your uniqueness can be one of that hardest things to figure out.
Offering Unique Access and Making Connections
I think trying to identify uniqueness can be difficult because we often feel that what we do is routine, common place, or normal. We often take for granted that which is most unique about ourselves. In reality we all have something special that others can benefit from and we just need a little help discovering it. I have two personal examples.
Aaron Eskaran offers his audience unique access to the view inside a wave that very few people will ever experience in their lifetime.
First, when I lived in Hawaii I really took for granted my surroundings. Now that I don’t live there anymore, I see really how special it was to live in such an amazing place where every photo you took was practically a post card. I didn’t realize how special it was at the time because that was my reality since I was 6 years old. But to other people, it was a far away paradise that I could have done more to provide them access to through multiple mediums. I took for granted that it never snowed, that I could wear slippers (flip-flops) to school every day, and that I had access to amazing beaches year round. Not everyone lives like that, but I did, so I didn’t realize that I had something unique that I could have shared with more people in a variety of ways. Aaron Eskaran is a friend is a friend who is doing this through photography.
Second, I often take for granted that I know how to play the guitar. To me, it doesn’t seem like anything special anymore after all these years of performing. There are lots of guitar players who are better than me. But, there are even more people who don’t know how to play the guitar at all. I often forget how much of a treat it is for a person to learn how to play their favorite song for the first time. For me, I take for granted that I can play anything I want and I should recognize how much others could benefit from that.
So What?
In your career, how are you offering unique access? We often need to narrow our focus to clearly identify what it is that we do. Don’t forget, we can be unique simply be not having any competition. What we do may be common, like a gas station, but if no one else is doing it where you live or work you’re providing unique access.
Lastly, how are you personally offering unique access to those around you? Find what is unique to you and start sharing it with others. Otherwise, what’s it good for?
Next Weeks Post: I’m going to try my hand at a YouTube video for the next blog post! Someone suggested doing YouTube videos in conjunction with the posts, so I think that might work really well as a kind of wrap up of all the principles I’ve covered in a particular book. What you think? Anyone have any YouTube-ing tips?
Awesome Marc!