So, by now you know…

…that Emmit is my Celebrity Business Plan, right? And that some of his pages appears in the The Right-Brain Business Plan book by Jennifer Lee, right?

But did ya know that Emmit and I will be part of the incredibly awesome line up on the Right Brainers In Business Video Summit? And that you can sign up to watch it for free?

No? Well, dammit.

Someone must have neglected to tell you.

Someone like, say, me.

First, a quick video break, courtesy of Emmit, Hisself.

Now, back to the serious business of business modeling!

If you’ve been following along, you already know that my trusty sidekick (Emmit-the-business-plan) started moonlighting as a fashion model.

And if you haven’t been following along, well, here are the links to what happened before:
Part 1:  The Five Questions
Part 2: The Intuitive Visualization

Ready to get on with things? Ok!

When last we left Emmit, he felt that he’d found his true calling on the fashion catwalks.  Since The Circus Serene’s content is largely personality-driven, the celebrity aspect actually makes some sense.  But being a celebrity isn’t a business model, so I decided to test my “Five Business Model Questions” out on Emmit Hisself.

The result is (somewhat surprisingly) darn close to an actual, actionable business model.   Here’s what I came up with:

A Few Days Ago…

I rambled through an explanation of business models, and cobbled together five questions that a proper business model addresses.  You might want to keep them handy, so here they are again:

1. What value does your thing create or enhance?
   
2. How do you capture that value?
   
3. How do you deliver that value?
   
4. Who do you deliver the value to?
5. How do you keep that process sustainable?

Seems pretty logical, so far.

Ready For The Weird Part?

This is where Emmit-His-Self got involved.

(If you’re not familar with Emmit yet, well… he’s a bit hard to explain. Emmit is my business plan, and he’s sort of a cross between Eddie Izzard and Bozo The Clown  – if Bozo were a closeted drag queen with a fetish for sparklies)

Anyway, when he first heard I was writing about business models, Emmit got all excited. On went his best Italian clown nose, and the  Big Shoes from Prada, and he strutted off to the Fashion District in search of a new career.

I didn’t have the heart to tell him that we weren’t talking about that kind of model, so I just sorta went with the flow.

Twice last week,Emmit and I scheduled Twitter chats for discussing business models.  Twice last week, Twitter totally fell down on the job! It was a major Tweet-chat fail. So I’m taking the planned chat content, expanding it a bit, and plonking it down here. There’s more than one way to skin a clown, dang nabbit!

The Topic? Business Models.

Ok, first things first… Emmit is a business plan, not a business model.

What’s the difference?

A business plan is like a road-map and itinerary;  it shows you where you’re going, when you plan to get there, a bit of the surrounding terrain, and gives you milestones by which you can track your progress.

A business model is more akin to the vehicle that carries you on that road-trip – or at least, a blueprint for the vehicle.

A while back…

I had a good long whine about missed opportunity, and my failure at bloggy networking  1.0.

As I said then, I was a fairly early reader of some now hugely successful figures in the blog world – specifically, Darren Rowse and Brian Clark.  But I was shy, and intimidated, so I didn’t get to know them.

I read them, recommended them, but rarely interacted, networked with them or took advantage of their audience building promotions, because “it wasn’t my niche.”

Two quick things, today. First up?

A Steel-Reinforced Habit-Habitat Update.

You remember my crisis with the Monster-Counsel, and the steel reinforced Habit Habitat they wanted me to build? No?

Well, it’s all in those links, but here’s a quick refresher: While trying to assess my entrepreneurial limits, I discovered a big nest of metaphorical mental monsters, who were absolutely terrified I was going to disturb Mr.Spouse with requests for help for my business.

Or by just breathing.

After a bit of monster whispering, I discovered that the core fear was actually about lost productivity. Being exposed to a Disturbed Spouse tends to disrupt my productivity, sometimes drastically.  So the monsters were trying to protect my productivity by keeping me from “bothering” him. Which really isn’t a reasonable or possible way to share a house much less maintain a marriage.  I told them something needed to change.

So the monsters held a secret, overnight consultation, and the next morning, presented me with a plan: a steel-reinforced habitat my productivity could live in.  That sounded awesome, even if I didn’t know what it might look like.

As of 9am this morning, I still had no idea what it would look like, with only the vaguest concept that I might want to resurrect a long neglected habit of morning report/check-ins/to-do lists.

We’re having a business plan play party!

And you (and your business plans) are invited to attend. For free.  Because this whole thing exploded very spontaneously.  And because I really like free-ness.

When? This Saturday, December 11th at 3-4pm  Eastern Time.  I may hang out a little while longer for a text-based Q&A, because I’m chatty like that.

And here’s a handy Time Zone Converter

If you already know about #Emmit, you can skip ahead to the last paragraph. But given the number of times “What is an Emmit??” has come up on Twitter, I decided to save us all some sanity and write a simple explanatory post. So. Let’s get on with it, shall we?

What The Hell Is An #Emmit?

Short  Boring Answer #1: “Emmit” is a Twitter inspired name for my creative business plan, which just happens to have a clown nose, circus lights, popcorn and a (soon to be installed) minibar.

Short Boring Answer #2:  #Emmit is a Twitter hash tag for discussing creative non-scary approaches to business and project planning.

Got it?  Good.
Because I hate being boring.
Next question, please?

Why Emmit?

Erm… Why *not* Emmit?

So, last night things got a little weird
on Twitter.

And somehow, I wound up naming my business plan Emmit.  A lot of other Quirksters liked the idea, so they’re naming their business plans Emmit, too.

And yes, Emmit-the-First is an actual business plan, with all the proper bits like sales projections, target markets, financial forecasts, marketing plans, and profit margins. Emmit also happens to have a clown nose, flashing circus lights, and popcorn.

Yes, really.

Today, the Monster Counsel is taking a break, and we’re putting the elephants back to work.  Why? We have a new tent that needs putting up.

A sideshow tent.

A special tent.

A *Quirky* tent.

It’s well situated on the carnival grounds, just across from the Sideshow Freaks, next to the  House of Mirrors, and it caters to a very special clientele, indeed.

No no, not the “special” clientele that frequents the  hoochie-coochie show. (What kind of place do you think I’m running here, anyway?).

I mean the REALLY special folks – the ones with dreams, and aspirations, talents, and… well.. quirks.

I call them Quirkipreneurs.

And I think you might just be one.