Category: Business

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I Mostly Only Like Activities That Feel Like Growth

I had an epiphany today. I was using my flashcard app and learning new Spanish vocabulary. And while it’s not “fun” in the classical sense, I like doing it and it feels good.

Why?

Because it feels like I’m growing myself. I’m doing better. I’m creating a future that is better. And I really like that.

I tend to like anything that feels like an investment in myself, my life, or even in others. I enjoy activities that feel like they’ll lead to exponential growth.

As sort of a side note, I remember as a kid always really loving RTS games where you gather resources and grow exponentially. While I can’t help but think now that maybe those games served to subconsciously inure me to unregulated capitalism and the concomitant exploitation and exhaustion of the natural world (lol), it also maybe instilled in me the love of growth and scale.

So that’s all great, but why is this particularly relevant at the moment?

Because I don’t really feel like I have that in my business at the moment. I sort of feel like I’m just keeping up and managing what I have without any real possibility of growth.

There are lots of reasons for this, some of them more relevant than others. Since the pandemic began, I haven’t really spent any time “on the business”. I haven’t been planning how I can grow and acting on those things.

Despite that, I have continued to grow. It’s important that I acknowledge that because I think it will help me change my mindset here.

But even so, it hasn’t been MY focus. It has not been where my head is at when I’m working. And whether it’s true or not, it sort of feels like I’m at a peak.

I don’t really intend to come up with a solution in this post, but I do just want to acknowledge this problem and put it on my own radar so that I can figure out a way forward that fixes it.

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Update: A Totally New (But Familiar?) Place

Things have changed quite drastically since I last wrote.

A month and a half ago, we were very much in a slow period. I had no active projects and really not much going on.

And then, all at once, everything changed.

Several prospective clients finally pulled the trigger. Some major projects and opportunities started with two new business partners (one old, one new), leading to a huge amount of new work.

And lots of existing clients came at me with new tasks as well.

To handle all of this, I needed to take on some new contractors. I immediately posted some listings on Upwork.com and within about a week, hired three new developers in addition to the three I’ve been working with.

And I’ve been working with them for a few weeks now, and it’s actually going great. I’ve been assigning basically all work to a contractor now and having them handle things.

I feel like I’ve finally taken a step back and embraced the project manager role.

It’s weird because I sort of feel like I’ve been here before, yet it feels totally different. At the end of 2018 and very start of 2019, it felt like nothing could go wrong. We had been consistently and aggressively growing, we were booked for months out, I had a full time employee, and all was well.

And then it wasn’t.

I grossly underestimated the hours to complete a massive new project, which sucked all of my resources for what seemed like an eternity (and was literally like a year). It prevented me from finishing or starting other, paying projects and focusing on growing my business.

And then, likely as a direct result of that project, my employee resigned, followed shortly thereafter by one of my two contractors.

I was living abroad at the time and loving that experience while everything else sort of crashed down, as is well-documented in other posts. But from then on, I vowed to do things very differently.

And I have.

I’ve been growing my business in a more sustainable way that allows for me to live the life I want to live. But I’ve also focused more on the fundamentals of running the business and growing it properly.

Whereas at the end of 2018 it felt like I was venturing in to a mysterious new world without really having a sense of what’s happening, this time it feels like I’m sailing through familiar waters. The foundation of everything is much stronger and I’m armed with more experience and insight into where I want to go and how to get there.

I’m managing the existing projects effectively without feeling like I’m just putting out fires or jumping around all day. Back then I just felt like I was getting burnt out and constantly getting pulled one way or the other.

Now things are more relaxed and controlled, and even though we’re doing way more work than then and making more money, I feel like not nearly as much is required of me.

To be clear, I feel that my own personal output far exceeds what it was then. But it’s much more controlled and I’m doing the right things and as a result, I don’t need to spend as much time doing everything. And I’ve minimized the types of issues that require immediate and constant attention by simply doing things right and being proactive.

We’ll see what the future holds. Perhaps I learned nothing the first time I was in a similar situation. But I’m thinking things will be a lot better and that 2021 will be a banner year.

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Time to Reach out to IT Providers

I was talking with a business associate of mine the other day and that conversation led to some great insights.

I’ve long had the idea that IT companies would be likely to want to work with me and outsource their website hosting business to me. Generally, they hate providing the service and only do it to appease their clients.

I think what’s held me back from wanting to just go out and talk to a bunch of them is that I always felt like it wouldn’t be a two-way relationship. So often (especially in the BNI world), you go into a meeting thinking, “how can we refer business to each other?”

And in my case, I only have so many potential leads for IT companies, and all of those are going to go to the IT company I already have a strong relationship with.

But there are ways to help others besides just providing them referrals.

In this case, we can engage in a mutually-beneficial arrangement. If they don’t like hosting and are providing a bad service doing it, we can solve those problems. We can take all of those headaches away.

Obviously it’s good for us since it’s new business, but it’s also good for them because it solves a problem they’ve been having.

So I want to have at least a short-term plan for reaching out to these IT companies.

The obvious first-step is to ask if anybody knows the owners of IT companies, which I did this morning in BNI. And it worked! I got a referral and now have a meeting lined up for Friday with an IT company.

But what if I got more specific? I could start looking into all of the companies in the Twin Cities, and start asking people if they are connected with specific ones.

I could even target ones that have a mutual connection on Linkedin and then ask those people specifically for a connection!

I could also potentially start cold-calling down the road, but understandably, I’m not thrilled about that idea.

But I should have connections to plenty of these businesses, so for the time being, I should really explore those.

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When We Don’t Have Time, We Waste It. When We do, We Fill it.

This post is really just an observation of human nature, and I’m certain I’m not nearly the first person to point this out.

Basically, I think that when we have lots of extra time, we tend to fill it with things. Without even thinking about what the very BEST use of our time is, we just fill it all up.

Obviously it’s not all conscious. If you’ve got a lot of time, you’re bored, and somebody comes to you with a questionable opportunity, you think, “why not?” And then you commit to that opportunity without really figuring out if it makes sense for you to be doing it.

And things just stack on top of each other. Before long, you’re super busy with everything. But it’s possible none of those activities are very important.

I’m sure this problem is even more significant in corporate America where people will accept any task if they have the time and then never question its value from that point on. They just keep doing it, thinking they’re doing a good job.

And then once you don’t have time anymore, it’s so hard to engage in new, important activities. You don’t have time to take a step back and think about your priorities. You’re just trying to keep up.

I remember all sorts of lengthy descriptions of this in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and other similar books. They basically just say that most people spend their entire careers/lives putting out fires, when they should be spending way more time figuring out which activities yield the greatest results.

So knowing that this is how people are, how can I avoid these problems?

I think one obvious way is to literally set aside time every week or even day to do some planning and analysis. Take a look at what you’re spending your time doing and what’s working. Focus on your planning and see how you can be more effective.

Obviously there are a lot of things you could be doing with that time, but the important thing is to be deliberate with your time and put some thought and planning into it. When you’re young and inexperienced and don’t know what you’re doing, I think there is great value in saying “yes” to every opportunity that comes your way.

But I’m much further along in my career and I can’t afford to do that. I think I do a good job of picking my opportunities and staying focused, but I don’t do as good of a job at literally sitting down and planning my business and monitoring how everything is going.

So that’s something I definitely need to work on.

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Things are Slow but Might Take Off

I thought I would post a quick update of where things are at with the business.

In short, they are a bit slow.

Historically, we’ve been slow from usually the end of summer until mid-fall. After that things have almost always picked up.

We haven’t really picked up yet. We stayed a bit busier through summer but since then, there hasn’t been too much.

That’s not to say there isn’t anything. I have regular small tasks, and of course hosting and maintenance are constant. In fact, most of the renewals for hosting occur in December and January so I’ll have those coming.

But projects have been quite slow. We finished some big ones, and I’ve been in talks with many that might start “soon”, but so far none have. So I don’t really have any current projects underway.

There’s a good chance that will change, though. I have a new one that just confirmed they want to move forward today, and there are a few other larger ones that may begin any day.

I’ve also begun many marketing initiatives in earnest, and I may see those start to pay off soon.

I’m also thinking of doing things like visiting other BNI groups and seeing if that gets me new clients.

And in general, I should be focusing on ways to improve the business while things are slow so that I can continue growing.

But it will be interesting to look back and see how we did for the year, and also reflect in the future on the significance of the lull. I think we’re still on track to do well for the year despite COVID, but I’d still certainly like to do more!

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If I Won the Lottery: How Would I Grow the Business?

I decided to do a little thought experiment here. Let’s assume I won the lottery, and I decided that one of the ways I wanted to spend my time was to keep running the business, and to use that money to help it grow.

How would I go about it?

I figure that I might come out of this exercise thinking, “well… I could do many of those things now!”

So what would I do?

Money would be no object, so I’d probably focus on things that are expensive but might ultimately pay off greatly, even if it meant losing money in the short-term.

Hiring would probably make sense. I’d probably hire a team of people to grow the business quickly. That would likely include a marketing director, sales people, an operations person, and several web developers and designers. I would focus on sales and marketing first, and then once I had enough new clients coming in, I would hire the rest.

I would focus on putting systems in place to make sure everything is consistent across the organization. I would probably hire someone for that, too.

But what if I wanted to remain inconspicuous and instead focus on more organic growth that doesn’t require investing in a huge team?

I would probably just start spending a ton on advertising. I’d sink huge sums into Adwords and Facebook ads, possibly Linkedin. Those would be easy ways to turn large amounts of cash into clients.

Because I wouldn’t really care about the ROI, I wouldn’t need to put much effort into them. I could just create ads of minimal quality and spend so much on them that they work no matter what.

So what’s stopping me now?

Obviously I can’t afford to just throw unlimited money at ads and remain indifferent to the outcome. I would need to put much more thought into them and be more careful.

But still: I can certainly try them!

Again, I know that if my acquisition cost is under something like $250 per client, I should generally be profitable in the first year. And with that in mind, I should put large amounts of money into anything that ends up being more cost-effective than that.

At the very least, I feel like this exercise makes it clear to me that I need to go out and try some things. Maybe most of them don’t work at all, but it’s still worth it to try. If I find something that does work, I can focus heavily on that.

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I Need to Always Be Improving One Thing

So I just read a rather depressing but very honest and introspective post from myself from February this year. In it, I explained how I felt like I hadn’t really been trying all that hard. But I felt like I had rounded a corner, and that 2020 was going to be nothing but good things!

Putting the soul-crushing irony of that belief aside, while the post did bring up some great points and present a good overall picture of where I was (am) at, it didn’t really provide any real strategies for improvement.

As much as I wish it were, “start trying harder” is simply not an effective strategy, no matter what anybody tells you. And neither is anything dealing with “motivation”.

So what do I do?

I’ve talked a lot about the “One thing”, the thing I need to focus on most in my business (or life!) to improve at any one moment. While I’m not strictly saying that I should just, “do that”, but focusing on one area is, in fact, what I’m saying.

I need to always be focusing on improving in one area. I’ve written at length about habits, and how I want to be building one new habit at all times, etc.

As strange as it is to say, the one habit that I need to be building, more than any other is… Building new habits constantly.

So… I guess to start, I’ll need to be building two habits at a time!

But that seriously needs to be it. Even if I’m doing a bad job building whatever habit it is I’m working on, I just need to be doing it. I need to focus every single day on it, and aggressively enforce what I’m doing.

And the reason for this goes beyond “habits are good”.

If I want to get to where I feel like I’m “trying hard”, it’s going to take a lot of work building up the habits and resilience that it takes. It’s going to be improving things, one step at a time.

I’ve written about sleep habits extensively, and so far have just been plagued by failures with those. Maybe that’s a good place to start and just double down on fixing that.

I’m taking a month-long break from alcohol and so this seems like a good time for it. I’ve tried to do just one piece at a time, but maybe I need all of the following to be in sync for this to work:

  • Going to bed early
  • Waking up at the same early time every morning
  • Not using the snooze button
  • Not napping

I have so many years of bad habits with all of these lined up, I may just have to do it all. I might be exhausted initially, but that exhaustion will help me sleep earlier and get better sleep, which will then help with not needing to snooze or take naps, and over time I should even start waking up at the same time.

So… I just need to focus on this, and then the next thing, and then just keep improving.

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I’ve Gotten Comfortable Just Running the Business

Don’t let the title fool you: this is a post about something bad.

I just got done reading some of my posts from January and February, when I was excited to grow my business and really work through a ton of marketing things. And then, as you know, the world changed in March.

So for a long time I told myself that it was okay to just worry about keeping things going and not too much on working ON the business instead of IN it.

But it’s been 7 months now, and I’m still just working IN the business. I haven’t gotten around to doing… anything. I just work on the projects we have, as they come, and that’s it. I’ve done almost nothing to advance my company.

I am working with a marketing company now, and we are about to embark on a new campaign that may lead to many new clients (or at least I’m hoping!). And in that sense, maybe I’ll just fall over backwards into success without having to do all of the work.

Or maybe, if this works, the takeaway is that if I’m just not putting in the effort or having success in an area: outsource. Why make things difficult for myself? Just outsource and things will be fine.

But I don’t know that yet, so in the meantime, I should really focus on getting back into working on the business again. Even if it’s just for 15 minutes per day, I really need to do it. Things are a little slow right now and that scares me a bit! But it’s also an opportunity.

Take advantage of it.

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The Power of Having a System

I’ve started seeing rapid gains in my weight-training. After something like 7 or 8 years of little-to-no progress, that really is something!

And you know what really changed?

I have a system.

Historically, I’ve always chosen a handful of movements, and basically just lifted until I couldn’t anymore. Next week I would try again, and hopefully be able to do more reps.

It worked great in the beginning, when it’s easy to grow your untrained muscles. But within a year or two, it stalled almost completely. And I had no system to get me through roadblocks.

But now I have one! It tells me how much weight to lift each week, how much to add for the next workout, and what to do if I fail. It anticipates those failures and outlines a systematic plan to alter the weight I’m doing, grow stronger, and then break past barriers.

And it has been wildly effective. In a month or two I’ve improved more than in the last several years. It really is incredible.

It turned out that the problem wasn’t lack of effort, diet, sleep, form, or any of the other tiny details that can be totally overwhelming. It was just that I needed a system.

Of course, once things start going well, you tend to do everything else right, too. I’ve been eating better, getting enough of the nutrients needed, and being much more consistent in my training. The success is extremely motivating and it’s easy to do the harder things when you know they are going to be successful.

But now I’m thinking: where else can I apply systems to my life to have these kinds of impacts? How can I apply it to how I’m running my business?

I mean, what is my system for improving my business?

That’s a rhetorical question. I obviously don’t have anything remotely resembling a system to improve my business. And that’s bad!

In fact, I think I’ve been relying on this blog to be my “system”, which is almost exactly like how I used to weight train. I have a lot of good ideas, things that can really help. And I’m trying things here and there, hoping something sticks. But ultimately, they don’t lead to results.

Maybe the one thing I’m missing is just a system to guide my actions and hold me accountable. I’m at the tail-end of many months of essentially doing nothing to improve my business. Maybe I just need some structure.

I know I’ve read plenty of books that outline specific systems for doing exactly what I’m describing. I think it may be time to dust those off and take them more seriously.

Because while things are actually going decently in my business (all things considered), I’m really not improving right now. And if I could replicate the success of my weight training with my business, I think it would be extremely motivating and actually lead to even more success.

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Going to Get Back into Focusing on One Thing

Since early on when I went to Mexico, I haven’t focused on my “One thing” that I’m supposed to be focusing on. I have times scheduled into my calendar to do it, but I haven’t done it!

The world’s been crazy and so has my life, but this isn’t really about excuses. It’s just time to move forward with all of my plans.

Last week was my first one back home, and I really wanted to work on developing good habits. I think I did that.

This week I’m just furthering that along and also getting quite a bit of things done around the yard.

Next week, it’s time to get back into doing my “One Thing”.

It’s what will carry me through, and what will truly lead to success. I need to focus on it every single day if I want to accomplish what I’ve set out to do.

I need to start by going over everything I’ve prepared in terms of the plan. Then when I’m reacquainted with everything, I need to execute.

Keep in mind: virtually all of my future success rests upon me doing these things now. So do it!