Episode II - New Business, Substack & Sandbagging
"Making gains on two fronts, stifled on another few..."
This is Oversharing Business.
Each week, I use the ups & downs of my own businesses as an example of what small business ownership is really like, and where I can, to help others to see how it could be better - based on my own mistakes & subsequent solutions.
I share the good & the bad, the peaks & the troughs, with an honesty that I probably shouldn’t.
But I’m the boss, and no-one can stop me.
The Peak(s)
So there were two particular Peaks last week, and whilst I am usually pretty strict on only picking one, it just wasn’t possible!
The first was a new business win for my CRO agency WeTeachCRO, and the second was getting this Substack off the ground!
So let’s dive in…
New Business
On the face of things, winning new work seems like an obvious positive that needs little expansion.
But not all new business is equal, and not all of the benefits are immediately apparent.
For me, this one had a lot more behind it:
Commercial: the most obvious positive is that it brings revenue into the business; and under the difficult trading conditions of the last 3+ years, there aren’t many agency owners that would sniff at that right now. And I certainly won’t either.
Team morale: my agency had a tough start to the year on the new business front; loads of leads, but no sales. And there is only so long that you can keep saying Don’t worry, it’s coming… to your team before they start thinking you’re bullsh*tting. But every win restores the faith a little more, plus gives them something new, & therefore different, to work on. So this is a big one.
My morale: closing no new work Jan-Mar this year was hard on me. Sales is my principal role within the agency, the one thing that I do that no-one else can. Plus I had set out to the team at the start of 2023 that this was my singular focus…! So when I wasn’t delivering, it bloody hurt. On top of that, I had to maintain the positivity for the team (see above) even when on the inside, I was doubting myself. The rational, experienced agency leader in me (thought he) knew that it would come, but the My-Own-Worst-Critic voice got increasingly noisy in that period, telling me I wasn’t doing enough. And only closing new work resolves that!
Consistency: we closed our first new deal of 2023 in Apr after 3 barren months, but it could have been a fluke. So getting this second one in early May at least suggests that we’re doing something right. Agencies often fall into boom-and-bust cycles & the only way to avoid those is to sell consistently. And being at the start of what looks like a positive, consistent pattern of selling is a major relief - and critically, something we can look to build on.
Substack
Last week, I wrote about how un-entrepreneurial I was feeling & how through exploration of those feelings, I realised I need to create something new.
Seeing this creation beginning to grow has been a real highlight, but it isn’t the “growth” itself that makes it. At time of writing, I have 14 subscribers, so I’m hardly about to conquer the content world!
But the whole un-entrepreneurial episode has forced me to look at myself more closely & I have had to consciously recognise a few things - and maybe some of these apply to you too:
I’m a greenfield guy; I like to start from nothing & build something where only that nothing existed before.
I need to keep up that feeling of building, of creating, of moving forwards, otherwise I slip back into thinking What’s new?, What’s next?, How am I building my future?
Not building = not present - when I don’t feel like I’m building something, I become increasingly “not present”. I yearn for the new & exciting and I spend far too much time in the future-think, almost certainly to the detriment of the present.
So there is an argument to say that this Substack is a crutch for me; without it (or something like it), I will fall into fantasy land.
Not that I take that crutch statement as a negative either; it is who I am, so better to recognise, accept & learn to work with it than try to deny it!
As Ryan once said to me:
The Trough
Last week’s trough is something of a mirror to the Substack peak - the latter is an example of how forward motion is integral to my personal wellbeing, and the former is an example of how the opposite chafes on me. Hard.
Sandbagging
There are investments I want to make & I can’t afford them. Simple as that.
They are investments in myself, my businesses & (critically) my future, and the thought of having to defer them based on something as basic as money is deeply frustrating.
Because it makes me feel like I am wasting time; I could (and should) be building towards that better future, but I’m not.
And to compound that feeling of wastage, I’m annoyed at Past-Me for not accruing the capital necessary to unlock what Present-Me wants to do!
But the action points here are clear at least:
Accept that prioritisation is a necessity
There are multiple things I want to do but with finite resources, I can’t do them all tomorrow. Even though I want to!Establish financial feasibility
Investments with monthly outlays are easier to get going than those with bigger upfront costs. A reasonably modest bump in income can unlock one of those monthly investments whereas the others require a one-off capital outlay. Those could be afforded via that same income bump, but only after ~6 months of savingEstablish return horizon
When I am going to start seeing payback? The sooner it is, the sooner the other investments become feasible too. Fortunately in this case, the opportunity with the monthly outlay should also have the shortest return horizon - win-winGet specific
A plan isn’t a plan unless it is specific - it’s just a dream. So I need to clarify the exact cost of each investment & set out how I’m going to get the money for them. Simply put, I’m going to need to sell more across my businesses. I’m confident that I have the pipelines in place to do that, but I need to look more specifically at which deals I’ll need to close & when. That will then give me a target date for that first investment that I can work towardsGet out of the “future”; take action
For me, the “taking action” is generally easy, the “getting out of the future” is not! What it means is that I have to stop thinking about what I can’t do right now (the investments, the future) & focus solely on what I can do (the actions, the present). Because if Present-Me can’t deliver, Future-Me hasn’t got a prayer.
That just about wraps up Episode II - if you’re already a subscriber & enjoyed that, by all means share with your friends / family / casual acquaintances:
And if you’re not a subscriber & now think you should be, come on in:
Until next week,
- M