Most business owners only do what they know.
And avoid challenges.
But here's the thing…
Those challenges can be your biggest opportunity.
And that opportunity won't wait until you are ready.
It shows up when you are uncertain…
Then forces you to figure it out.
That's exactly what happened to Emmeika Ellis, founder of The Mirror City.
During a conversation, she told me how an unexpected call from Television Jamaica (TVJ) pushed her into offering a service she had never planned to provide.
And today, that same service has become her most profitable.
Here's what Emmeika Ellis, the founder of The Mirror City, had to say:
THE CONVERSATION WITH EMMEIKA ELLIS
I remember when a producer, from TVJ named Jason McNish, asked us to sponsor a mirror for a show called Courts Home Coach.
It was me and my best friend at the time... because she was very active, and she still is very active in Mirror City.
So when she's in Jamaica, she's here, right?
So I remember we went to the location, did the measurements, made the mirror and installed it.
This mirror was HUGE.
We were there until midnight installing this mirror.
After we did the installation, the person who was supposed to do the glass shower enclosure, didn't show up.
And the producers were only shooting for a few more days...
Because they had a call time when they needed to get everything done.
So Jason called me and was like: “Emmeika, is there anything you can do, the shower enclosure is glass and you do mirrors, and I think they are the same thing.”
And I'm like: “Listen, I don't know. My focus has always been Mirrors”.
And Jason was like: “Come on, you have to try it. See what you can do for me”.
And I was like: “Oh my gosh I don’t know what to do.”
And he said: “Listen, any shower enclosure you can do right now, we’ll take it”.
Eventually me and my best friend said we would try it...
During our first attempt the glass broke.
It was so big it couldn't go upstairs.
So we had to take it over the balcony.
While taking it over, it hit the edge and broke.
But they knew that we were trying and that we were new to this. So, what they did was they let us use the broken glass in other stuff.
So we didn't lose and we ended up getting more jobs from that project...
And, now we’ve started doing shower enclosures.
If you look at The Mirror City’s Instagram, you're going to see that we’ve done so many shower enclosures...
I can't even count.
So TVJ actually pushed us to start doing something we never thought of.
The Opportunity Behind the Challenge
The truth is: Opportunities that change your business usually look like a problem you don’t know how to solve.
Mirror City didn’t plan to build shower enclosures...
They didn’t “research the market” or “validate the offer.”
They just said yes to a challenge, and figured it out on the job...
And even though their first attempt failed, they learned from it.
Now that “problem” is a whole new revenue stream.
Say Yes to the Right Challenges
So the next time you get a challenging opportunity...
Say yes.
Because sometimes, that’s how the best things in business begin.
Until next time,
Daniel Mighty
The Visionary Gazette
