Rosh and dean talk about intelligent risk.  What kind of risks are you taking? Are you being smart or are you going off the deep end without thinking about it.  Risk needs to be proactive.

“Risk reversal” is an answer to gaining more clients. I was first introduced to the idea of risk reversal by reading and listening to Jay Abraham materials a number of years ago. It has made a huge impact on my business.

Risk reversal is about placing the risk of a transaction on you verses the prospect.

That sounds dangerous! What if you find yourself on the losing end of a transaction? The reality is,at times, you will. Risk reversal is not for everyone, but it should be. The concept certainly involves lower risk for low overhead businesses. But, this where creativity comes into play.

You want your product or service to feel like a non-threatening option to your prospects. Many professionals and companies have adopted risks reversal ideas that have now become commonplace. “A free consultation” or “A 30 day free trail” have been over used. You don’t have to give away the farm, but a creative approach is necessary to stand out from the crowd.

If you are a financial planner, photographer, lawyer or advertising agency and you boost in your marketing materials that you offer free consultation. So what! So does everyone else. I’m not suggesting you should change your policy. It is a valuable risk reversal idea, but it will not make you unique. I suggest you need to be more creative.

Warning! You will fail if you do not offer excellence. Risk reversal is a tool that helps encourage prospects to hire you. But, excellences is how you get paid.

Prospects can see the difference between low and high-risk reversal. A free half hour consultation is a low risk offer and guaranteeing your service at no charge if the client is not satisfied is certainly high risk.

I call myself a “low-risk photographer” verses low price. I don’t want to chase prospects looking for cheap service. I want to build relationships. I offer my clients per image pricing with no minimum purchase. Some photographers quip that this is just working on “speculation”. No!, it’s my business plan. I qualify my prospects to make sure there is a need. I don’t work for prospects that suggest that if my work is good enough they might purchase my images.

My clients have a photographic need. I have the confidence in my work to know eighty percent of the time I will exceed their expectations and they will buy more then originally requested.

Yes, once or twice a year a client might have a change of plans, budget or not like the photography solutions offered. But, this is rare. Due to the fact that I’m not working hourly or by the day a client will often allow a second opportunity to get the job done to their satisfaction. I’d rather not get paid and have a client leave with a more neutral experience then having paid me thousands of dollars for unwanted images. I assure you the negative word spreads quicker under the second scenario.

It’s about the bottom line. Much of my compitition is to afraid of the one or two clients a year that might not select images. My offer of low risk photography is not right for every shoot. I recognize that and I make adjustments when needed. But, most of the time it works and my bottom line is greater because the risk is on me not my client.

Rosh Sillars

Today, I dare you to be ten percent more creative in a specific area of your life.

You may wonder why I chose ten percent, and not twenty-five percent or one hundred percent more creative. If you are already a risk taker, this should seem very easy for you to achieve. If you aren’t a risk taker, this should also seem like a goal that you can stretch to readily achieve.

From the firing of your single nerve synapse that created the initial idea to the movement of the mind, mouth and muscle that will produces your ultimate outcome, creativity is energy in motion. It is that motion which is key. You can’t start anything without starting it by using your energy, especially any new idea, outcome or venture.

Let’s acknowledge risk so we can then move past it. You may be wrong. You may be mistaken. You may even fail. Of course, you may be right. You may learn and grow from your experience. You may even succeed. Risk is the key to rewards. No one ever achieved anything meaningful without embracing risk and change. Even though you have had well meaning people in your life tell you that you need to play it safe and not take chances, the majority of them have taken a chance several times in their lives.

Here are some ideas to try. You could test out an idea how to be more productive. You could put an area in your life in more orderly and fulfilling way then it is presently. You could examine an idea or process and creatively take it to the next level. You could find a creative way to express your appreciation for something you enjoy in your life. You could tell the people who you hold dear how you feel about them in a creative way. Of course, the best idea for you to start with is the one you have where you feel you could demonstrate the most creativity.

The greatest thing about your creativity is it knows no limits or boundaries, except those which you put in place. Your idea can be as large as the solar system or as small as an atom. Your idea can be what every color, flavor, shape, texture or dimension you see fit. But to be meaningful, it does have to be yours. You need to buy in to the process as well as your outcome. It has to please you, move you forward, satisfy a need or achieve a goal which is yours to do. By the way, how you measure what ten, twenty-five or one-hundred percent more creative is solely up to you.

So whether it’s how you prepare a meal, get the papers off your desk, put your kids to bed, travel to your next destination or confront the next item you have to do, I dare you to be ten percent more creative in that area of your life.

– Dean La Douceur

Nov 26, 2007