I started my business in April of 2001, 5 months into my new business’ life the US economy froze completely, and my fledgling business shut down with it. I was lucky that one of my clients needed an interim VP, and I spent nine months working for them before restarting my business. I spent the…
For the last three weeks, I’ve been working with business owners grappling with the impact of the coronavirus shutdown on their business. We’ve been thinking not just about the immediate impacts Sending people to work-at-home Securing existing business as clients start to wavier Adjusting your sales and marketing strategy But also thinking about what it’s…
I was onboarding a new client, she was telling me about some challenges she faced running her branding firm when she said, “I don’t do numbers.” “Excuse me? What was that?” I asked. “I don’t do numbers. I’m more of an art person; math, and numbers aren’t my thing.” “I see. You don’t do any…
Here in Chicago, we’ve just completed our third week under a “Shelter in Place” order. Three weeks of working from home, kids underfoot, hunting for toilet paper, and a thousand more adjustments. We’ve gotten our team settled, reached out to clients and prospects, applied for our PPP Loan, reworked our budget for 2020, and made…
I’ve talked to a lot of business owners this week and heard a lot of different stories. Some are fielding record numbers of new business requests; others had seen their business drop by 50% or more. Some who don’t know anyone who had suffered from the virus, others who had seen friends and family members…
One of the consequences of living in a crisis is that our time horizon gets real short. It makes sense–the future is uncertain–it’s not clear what part of the things that we’ve adapted to are permanent, and which are temporary. Our clients and prospects are going through the same thing, so it’s not clear how…
I’ve been locked inside my home with only my family for two weeks. With one day blending into the next in a quarantine induced haze, it can be hard to find the right tone to reach for in these emails. It can be hard to find a way to say what you want to say,…
We’ve talked about my “boss” before, right? He’s a total nut job, always making commitments with unrealistic deadlines. He’s terrible at looking at a to-do list and having any idea of how long it’s going to take to complete that work. It’s his fault that I’m writing this email at a quarter of eight at…
I spent time Friday and Saturday talking with my sister about her daycare business. On March 1st, she was taking care of kids for 121 families; she’s got 5 families dropping kids off as of April 1st. We worked through the process of laying off all of her staff. “I feel like I’m starting over…
When I started selling professional services the process was simple. Find where your ideal customers gathered. Go to that place and meet them. Follow up after the meeting to meet 1-2-1 for “coffee” Determine if they had a need and if there was a “fit” Schedule a diagnostic meeting (e.g. actual sales call) Close. That…