Silver Islet, ONTARIO
Last weekend we found ourselves in the middle of the country, in the northwest corner of Lake Superior. If you’ve been following these posts – we’re finally on our way back to our mountain home in Alberta, after moving our daughter into “new” digs at her university and then helping out my aging parents in their home near North Bay.
If you’ve never travelled by car on the Trans-Canada Highway, north of Superior – I highly recommend it.
It is wild, remote, brutal country.
Massive cliffs, rushing rivers, mile upon mile of timber and bush and few people.
You drive a whole day following the northern shore of the world’s largest freshwater lake – an inland sea. Large enough to sink freighters and icy cold – year
round.
At the far western end, lies the port city of Thunder Bay and with it, the famous Sleeping Giant – a series of mesas some 20 miles long and 800 feet high, which from the port, looks uncannily like
a giant sleeping on it back, arms folded across the chest.
On the east side of this large feature lies a tiny island which in 1870 was known as the richest silver mine in the world.
One small problem.
The islet was only a reef, 20 feet long and barely above water level. The miners had to build breakwaters and bring in millions of tons of rock to protect the shafts. Pumps needed to be running 24-7 to keep it from
flooding because the mine extended to a quarter of a mile beneath the surface.
On the mainland nearby, a small town of sorts was built – all supplied by ship in the summer and dog team in the winter – when the lake froze over.
Today – the original general store and a new marina exist, along with a smattering of restored miners’ cabins, cottages and residences. It feels and looks like a scene from Newfoundland.
Here’s the thing.
That mine brought in around $3.5 million dollars of silver in its 13 years of existence. But who made the real money with the least risk?
Like so many stories of this kind, (the Klondike comes to mind), all the businesses supplying the mine and the miners, from shipping, equipment and food and housing often did far better than the miners and even the
mine owners. The general store has probably earned hundreds of percent more, even in 1870 dollars, in its life than the mine itself.
And continues to make money to this day, serving tourists and locals.
A similar analogy applies to businesses that rely on transactional sales versus membership or subscription. If one needs to constantly find new buyers to survive, versus growing a client base of recurring revenues
– which model is preferable? Which model is more akin to farming versus hunting?
When I work with clients, one of the first things I look at is the model of the business itself. Can it be scalable? What is the sales process? Does it rely on new customers or can it turn those
customer into repeat buyers, on auto-pilot?
If your business is struggling or you’ve been stuck at the same level of the past few years – then isn’t it time for you seek some answers? Hang out with entrepreneurs who’ve made it to the next level and/or are
actively working on making successful changes?
If this describes you, then here’s your invitation to join me, as my guest, to this Thursday’s live, Street Smarts MBA call where you can ask me and Sonia these types of questions. Hear from other
business owners what they are doing.
There is no fee to attend. Simply click the link below to get your personal invitation link.
To your health and success!
Hugh
The “Profit Accelerator”
StreetSmartsMBA.org
P.S. Join Sonia and me this Thursday at 11:00 AM MT for our live member’s “Inner Circle” call. This is your chance to ask us your most burning marketing or business building question and get it
answered, live and personal.
Register now via this link -> livecall.localbizmastery.com