When you’re deep in the day-to-day of your own business, you might be surprised to find that most B2B service businesses follow the same “lifecycle.” Including yours! Recognizing this is the first step toward reaching your next level of success. Because it means you can follow a blueprint of what other business owners before you…
I work with several businesses that rely on conferences for their business success. A new conference cancelation is coming out every day, and the forecast is bleak for at least a few months. How should we respond? The primary value of an in-person conference is networking. You get to meet a lot of folks in a…
Earlier this week, I talked about the pros and cons of retainer pricing, and some folks responded, asking, “So if I’m not doing retainers, how should I be pricing?” What is value pricing? When we solve a problem for a client, it creates value in their company. We either help them to sell more, spend…
In my last message, I talked about the problem of retainers, they seem like a great way to smooth out revenue and make delivery more predictable. Still, in reality, they may turn into a bog of over-servicing and under profitability. I asked you to tell me about your experiences, and you were very generous with…
Maximizing monthly recurring revenue (MMR) is a goal for most business owners. Knowing that we are going to have that retainer payment coming in each month makes it so much easier to plan our cash flow, our staffing and makes it easier to sleep at night. When I talk to agency owners they want as…
Which is worth more to your company; a great employee, or a perfect fit client. I think for most of us, the answer is simple; I’ll take a new client (revenue) over a new employee (expense) any day! But before you answer, think about one of your top team members; how much do they improve…
When I talk to folks about the chat app Slack, I’m amazed at how folks either love it or hate it! Those who have embraced it tell me about how it reduces their internal email load to almost zero. They feel like everything is easier to find (Slack’s search is excellent) and better organized. They…
Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great, tells the story of James Stockdale. As a POW in Vietnam Stockdale experienced almost continual torture with no way to know when it would end. When asked how he survived he said, “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can…
I was working with a client going over his sales pipeline (which was not as firm as we both had hoped) when he let out a big sigh. “I’m just not comfortable with this! Shouldn’t I be feeling more comfortable by now?” My client’s question brings up two issues. First, should he be feeling more…
Running your own business can feel a little like being on a treadmill. You get up every day with a long list of things you could work on to improve your business. Then you get interrupted a dozen times and end up knocking very few things off your list. Uncertainty about “am I doing enough”…