We talk, in our curriculum, about taking risks. Specifically we talk about moving past fear – and looking at situations from the question of “How can I have fun?”
Embrace risk.
We’ve decided on a couple of large risks at Swift Kick. I’m concerned at the moment that we might have taken on too many. Each one of these risks represents a substantial cost, with an unknown return. We are not in this for the money, but we need some money to survive.
The first risk is with the technology. We are spending a lot of money to build a technology platform capable of surveying, segmenting and delivering content. We do not have a clear plan for how this system will bring in any revenue – to say nothing of breaking even. The challenges here are substantial: first, can we make the system “work”, then, can we get the content (will students and advisors help us create content? we simply can’t generate enough, fast enough, on our own) third, if we have the platform, and the content, do students actually care?
The second major risk is going to NACA conferences. APCA is small and we have practice. NACA is large and bureaucratic – their policies don’t make sense to us, yet, and our learning curve might be expensive. (We may just end up spending thousands to go to multiple conferences and see no return on that either.)
If we only wanted to “speak” and were content with showing up, doing our thing, and leaving. (Like most of our “competition”.) We would be profitable right now and off to a great start. Safety – simplicity – sounds nice.
