Weekend Edition: Meeting crisis with a plan and working the plan for crazy growth
Weekend Edition: Meeting crisis with a plan and working the plan for crazy growth
and, a quick pulse check…
Good Morning!
I hope everyone is happy and healthy.
I’m sitting in my favorite chair, the house is quite, the fireplace is on (yeah, it’s fake), and I’m enjoying the first cup from the morning coffee brew.
Most of my Saturday’s start with my iPad and writing for a couple of hours — a blog post or two, or maybe crafting a library of social media posts for the week.
For me, Saturday mornings are for writing — it’s one of the favorite things I do and super relaxing and invigorating for me.
How do your Saturdays start?
Typically, I’m getting ahead in this moment.
But, this week was super busy as we rapidly grow and begin to reshape Kaleidico into a larger agency than it has every been.
Good challenges, but it has put me a little off schedule.
So, I’m writing this live, Saturday morning at about 6:30 am.
Let’s start with a little survey.
What types of topics do you like the most?
Just reply with as brief or detailed a response as you want. You can definitely chose multiple topics.
I will most likely continue to cover a mixture of these, but it’s always good to know what you all enjoy the most.
Entrepreneurship and my journey building an agency
Lead Generation Strategy
Audience Development
SEO & Content Marketing
Email Marketing
Copywriting
Sales Training
Insider stuff on how the business of lead generation works
Reply and give me your thoughts.
So, let’s talk about growing a business.
In my experience this works on any scale from side hustle to big corporation.
Let me start with my story.
One of the biggest challenges of 2020 was trying to figure out COVID and at the same time save Kaleidico from several strategy and management missteps in the prior years.
In March 2020, when COVID sort of burst into the US public consciousness, we were saddled with over $200,000 in debt, very few clients, and no leads (pretty crazy for a lead generation agency, huh?).
I was stressed, but I had weathered a similar crisis in 2008 during the financial crisis.
So, unlike 2008, I was pretty confident I could pull us out of the nose dive.
In 2008 the existential threat of the melting down of the mortgage market nearly killed us, when all of our client went bankrupt literally overnight.
Ironically, in 2020 we thought COVID was the crisis, but come to find out our real crisis was internal and of my own making.
Unlike in the past when I had experienced revenue crisis, I didn’t downsize the organization. Instead, I got focused, did a lot of reading and research, wrote a business plan, and then worked the plan.
A practice I have done every year since.
This was my quick 2020 COVID memo. Sort of a business plan. This led to my 2021 business plan, and now has become a regular practice.
I’m firmly convinced that this exercise saved Kaleidico.
We doubled the revenue in both years, paid off all our debt by July of 2021 and built a sizable war chest by the end of 2021.
As we close out January 2022, we have quoted over $500,000 in additional revenue (most of which we will probably land). That will be a 33% growth rate in the first month of 2022. Not a bad rocketing start.
This time it isn’t magic or dependent on the market. After 16+ years of learning, it is built on a framework that is consistent, predictable, and calm.
I give to you my framework for amazing business growth. It’s simple to understand, but it will take a little sweat and a lot of discipline to execute.
These are are the books I read or re-read in 2020 to put us in the position we are today.
The Minimialist Entrepreneur is the only exception. It just came out and I threw it on the stack because it’s that good.
From this stack came the following essential elements and skills to run a highly profitable and life changing business.
Start with mindset. I have always taken on a very Stoic mindset. I don’t dwell in the past. I work with what I’m have. I am hyper-focused on working only on what I can control and cast the things I can’t out of my mind and concern.
Sales and marketing (more sales than marketing) is everything. Become a master of this craft. If you don’t think this is in your nature then become an employee or investor in a company that has an exceptional salesperson or team.
Run a calm organization with an ownership mindset. Don’t create an army of task-driven employees. Hire and inspire a team of talented individuals that think and make decisions. Turn them lose to create their ideal work and workplace. You’ll be impressed.
Run a profit first business. Nothing is more stressful for a business owner and team members than a business that is run on a razor-thin margin. Position yourself as the expert, learn to create amazing and consistent outcomes for clients, and then charge a premium. Everyone will be delighted, from client to employee to business owner.
What is your framework for success?
Add your stack of books to that Twitter thread.
Enjoy your weekend!