We are in the middle of the most important three months of the year for B2B services companies. It’s budget season, and your clients and prospects are making their plans for 2021 over the next few weeks. Do you have a plan to get money allocated to projects you can complete for them? 1. Budget Season is an immense pain in everyone’s butts. Your client has a job, but then in budget season, they have a whole other job – working on the budget! They guess at what folks want; they get feedback about what’s available, they submit revision after revision-- one likes it (except the CFO). Your clients are going to be a little more crabby unless you are there to help them with their budget! 2. … [Read more...]

If you run a B2B business, this is “go time.” We’re in the playoffs. It’s showtime. Use whatever metaphor gets your juices flowing, but it’s a crucial time to set your business trajectory for 2021. Over the next 100 days, your clients are making plans for 2021. They are setting priorities, creating budgets, and laying out their key initiatives. You want to be a part of that conversation! At the same time, they are trying to spend down their 2020 budgets and finish up their 2020 initiatives. You want to be a part of THAT conversation too! The uncertainty that 2020 has brought complicates both of those conversations. Most of the plans made boldly in the Fall of 2019 have been … [Read more...]

In his famous book Good to Great, Jim Collins writes about interviewing Admiral James Stockdale, who was a POW in Vietnam. There’s one line from that interview that has remained seared in my brain ever since. Collins asked Stockdale about how he dealt with the cruelty, the deprivation, and the uncertainty of not knowing if he’d ever get out. His reply was: “I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.” He went on to say: This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford … [Read more...]

Last week I wrote to you about the challenges I was having. I got several nice notes back from you, encouraging me. I appreciate that! My attitude lifted seeing your notes and reading your replies. This week I’ve been talking with more business owners who are facing similar challenges. With all the change and stress 2020 has brought, our resilience is dwindling, it’s hard to make a plan, to start something new. But Labor Day is passed, school is back in session, and it’s time to get serious about closing out 2020 on a positive note. Sure, this has been a chaotic year, full of challenges and uncertainties. AND: Your clients are still putting their 2021 budgets together They … [Read more...]

Yeah, I had a rough week with my emails. First, on Saturday, I send out an email about my new video helping owners of expert firms to make key strategic choices about how they build their business. BUT, I didn't include a link to the video! Thanks for those of you who reached out for the link, I appreciate you! Then on Tuesday I messed up the scheduling and sent out both Tuesday's email about what I learned from my sales cohort and Thursday's email about living a bigger story on the same day! I've got a new marketing team starting next week! Hopefully we'll get these issues worked out. In the meantime have a great Labor Day weekend, I'm not going to send an email over the weekend … [Read more...]

In the wake of the death of Chad Boseman, my wife and I cued up Get on Up, the James Brown biopic that he stared in. James Brown has an unbelievable story. Born in abject poverty, abandoned by his parents, incarcerated at 17, he followed the only thing he loved. Music. But the thing that moved me about the story, the thing I can’t get out of my head, was the way Brown overcame every barrier put in front of him. While repeatedly being told no, no, no, Brown just kept on making them into YES. You can’t take a gospel show into honky-tonks. But he did. You can’t leave the Chitlin' Circuit and headline in white venues. But he did. You can’t break Payolla and get played on … [Read more...]

Why do grown-ups ask teens this question? How do they know what they want to be when they grow up? They don’t even know who they are! It felt so awkward and uncomfortable to make up an answer every time they asked. What happens if someone asks you that same question about your business? When I first started out I had the same problem that I had as a teen, I just didn’t know yet! As my business go more mature I started to get a clearer idea of where we were going, I could tell a good story about what the future held and why I thought we could get there. But when I look at that vision, it was pretty fuzzy around the edges. Making strategic choices about the future of your firm … [Read more...]

Delegate or outsource everything except the stuff you’re awesome at. It allows you to focus on the tasks you’re amazing at. ~Cameron Herold We’ve all heard advice like this. Focus on your strengths. Stay in your “Zone of Genius.” If you’re not good at it, find someone else to do it. There’s one problem with that advice. Who will tell you that you are terrible at something? Maybe you taught yourself how to use Quickbooks. Compared to where you were when you started, you are a rock star! But you’re still a beginner compared to an experienced bookkeeper! No one sees your bookkeeping other than your accountant, and she doesn’t complain. I mean, she finds what she needs to do the … [Read more...]