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What’s the riskiest thing you’ve done for your business?
At our monthly speaker series this past Wednesday, the speaker—Karen Zuckerman of design agency HZDG—shared a story of an incredible risk the company took, and the payoff.
Without going into too much detail, they made the decision to spend $60,000 to go on a cruise, where they’d have the opportunity to pitch some high-profile prospects. That was just to go on the trip; it didn’t include the investment in preparing the pitch and other costs.
While $60,000 may be a reasonable investment for reaching this audience (and their marketing budgets), Karen shared that they had no idea if they would get any business out of it. It was possible they’d come away with nothing. But they decided to take the risk, for a variety of reasons that are too detailed to recap here, and it paid off.
This story got me thinking of risk, and what I’ve been willing to do for my business. Would I spend that kind of money if I had no idea of the probable outcome? I don’t know; the opportunity hasn’t been there. But as business owners we take risks every day—big and small. Perhaps because I work in the same industry as Karen Zuckerman, her story inspired me to take bigger risks.
What are your stories? What big risks have you taken, and have they paid off? What did you learn from the experience? What kind of support would you need to make the decision to jump off that cliff?
Susan Rose is president of Two Sisters Creative