I have gotten a number of replies to my email about Riding the Roller Coaster of Entrepreneurship. Clearly it hit a nerve with some of you! I wanted to share some of the things that helped to make the roller coaster less taxing. Here’s a few (edited for length): “I’m learning more and more to ask…
Running my own business produced some of the best days of my life, and some of the worst. I’ve won big deals and then lost them again. I’ve hired the perfect person who would transform my business only to have them accept a counter-offer. I’ve sent an offer out to my list that got a great response,…
On Tuesday, we talked about how you are most likely the best salesperson your business will have. But that doesn’t mean you have to do it alone! Here are some ways I’ve seen agency owners get help to keep business flowing. Use a VA for outreach If you are doing some form of consistent outreach…
“Here’s the thing about creatives services, Brad. If you work really, really hard, learn everything you can and advance in your career, you get to be a sales person!” ~ Jim Farris (my dad) I’ve talked to many agency owners, and with one exception, none of them wanted to be salespeople. But when you own…
In our last email, we talked about the benefit of having someone outside the sales team, who can provide objective feedback to improve your new business team’s efficiency and effectiveness. But how does that work when I am the management team and the salesperson? In most of the firms I work with, the principal is still…
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a creative firm with someone in the role of Sales Manager. Sometimes the owner/founder is playing that role, but at best, he’s a player/coach. When I look outside the creative world, I could make an argument that sales managers are the most undervalued member of a growing company’s…
Chefs at a high-end restaurant need excellent ingredients (just like you need excellent clients). So they go to the market to buy what they need. But the market doesn’t always have the quality or quantity of ingredients that they need! The chef is committed to his craft. He’s not going to compromise and use inferior…
I got quite a response from my last email about being more choosy in your business development approach. Folks felt like choosing clients, and especially projects from existing clients came across as “snobby.” “There’s nothing wrong with being efficient in your sales process,” replied one agency principal, “some of us don’t want to become full-time…
French cooking techniques and recipes have influenced cuisines all around the world. Chefs from every modern cuisine, from cultures worldwide, come to France to learn from the masters there. One of the defining features of French cooking is the ingredients. You cannot make an excellent, top-shelf French meal without choosing the freshest, most flavorful ingredients….
In a “normal” year, we would be in the middle of the busiest hiring season of the year. About half of searches and new hires occur between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. This is far from a typical year, but I still see a fair amount of hiring going on among my clients. We’ve gotten beyond…