I help business owners scale past $1m/year by installing a predictable client acquisition system. Join my newsletter as I share my journey and lessons learned from entrepreneurship.
thinking about my dream job as a banker
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Since some people enjoy reading my emails... Today I'll talk about my dream job. Don't worry... While I tell you a story... There will also be marketing lessons for you to take away. So if you don't know... I've always wanted to be a BIG TIME banker. (Not sure why I had to add the word big time there lol) Maybe because bankers also sound like a cool job to me. Rich... Can wear nice suits in CBD... Can drive BMW convertible cruising down Shenton Way... So I went to study Banking & Finance in SIM. (Aiya, couldn't get into local uni, but that's a story for another day) So I studied pretty hard... Thinking that I can make a lot of money as a banker. But little did I know that in year 2 of uni... I started my first business: (https://www.guitarlessonsinsingapore.com/) And that evolved into a music team bonding company: (https://www.travelclef.com/team-building) Gotta put URLs in... So that if any of you are looking for fun team building activities, you can find me hehe As my business took off... I didn't have the chance to fulfil my banker dreams. When I was struggling to build TravelClef up, and I saw my uni mates doing well in their jobs... It got me feeling really envious. Because they were making big bucks. In fact, at the time of typing this email now... My SIM peer has reached the peak of his career... He's currently the CEO of a private wealth company. Funnily enough... If you ask me 3 years ago would I be jealous? The answer is yes. BUT if you ask me now, like now now, am I still envious? Hell no. Why? Because he's working damn hard like a dog... (No offence to dogs, I love dogs) But he's really slogging damn hard. His 5 days are full packed. He has to fly in to Malaysia on early Mon mornings, and fly back to SG the next day. He can't send his 1 year old daughter to school. He can't spend much time with her, can't have his meals with her. In fact, when we met for lunch a few months back... He was 1 hour late! He arrived after we all finished our food and were ready to head off. Am I jealous? No. Because today, I can send my kids to school every day. I can pick them up whenever I want. With nobody breathing down my neck... But I digress. I'm supposed to share about the lunch convo I had today because I met another banker friend in CBD today. Honestly, just travelling to CBD gives me a dreadful feeling. Btw, took a shot at the traffic light today. This would have been me if I became a banker, walking under the hot sun in corporate attire: So over lunch, banker friend shared something interesting with me. He's a corporate RM (relationship manager). And for banks, one of the ways to make money is by lending people money. To my surprise, he shared for the bank he's working at, they actually don't want to lend money to SMEs. Upon further digging... The simple lesson is that it's just not their target audience. They rather lend money to the big boys, where they can become a one stop shop for them. Doing not just loans, but everything else. You see, in marketing, I (we) talk a lot about our target audience. It's a concept so foundational... Yet most businesses miss that out. They try to sell to everyone... Their messaging caters to everybody... And the result? It's hard to really make money by targeting everybody. If the big banks are so clear on their target audience. Why aren't we thinking hard enough about it? So the lesson I took away from the lunch convo was... Who do I really wanna serve? Who's my target audience? Hopefully, this also serves as a good reminder for you. Because if you are selling to everybody... You are selling to nobody. Cheers... I am off to watch the last 2 episodes of Physical Asia.
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Edmund Chew
I help business owners scale past $1m/year by installing a predictable client acquisition system. Join my newsletter as I share my journey and lessons learned from entrepreneurship.