One of the goals of my blog is not to bore people away, so I’ve split the detail of my aims into a separate post for the hardcore readers…..
To be earning a wage* by next summer.
*I’m planning to publish detailed finances at some point, but will be asking people to sign up to get this – just to keep a modicum of privacy….
So I’m starting with a distinctly unimpressive financial target of earning a small wage. This is hardly a high growth, “buy a Ferrari after a year” target.
There’s absolutely a reason for this.
I want my company to be good at generating leads for my clients. Very good.
And I only want to be paid for success.
Digital Lead Generation is 20% art, 80% science. Most digital marketing/SEO companies are up-front about the fact that they can’t guarantee results – “Google’s algorithms are shrouded in mystery and you can never absolutely tell what marketing hook will work with your prospects”.
That’s pretty true.
I may get the company to the point that I’ve so many positive reviews and success stories that people will happily pay money up front just for the privilege of working with me – or more likely out of fear that if they don’t do SEO and social marketing, they’re not running their business properly and FOMO sets in.
But, actually, what I want to be paid for isn’t getting people’s websites up the rankings or creating lovely web pages. I want to be paid for creating high quality leads that help hard working business owners grow their companies.
And that’s totally measurable.
You invest time correctly, you spend money wisely, you get leads.
This process takes time, though. I want to get good. I’ve done lead generation for 20 years, but I want to get better, which means hard work. I want to develop clear processes. I want to trial these processes with a handful of clients, and I only want them to pay me when the leads come in.
The upside is that the revenue is recurring. The theory is that a lot of the work is done upfront, and once the leads start coming in for clients, they carry on coming and I/we carry on getting paid. We then layer on more campaigns and more clients.
So this is a slow burn company, but with solid growth prospects.
To work 3 days per week, taking regular holidays.
There are two reasons for this.
I’m in a massively privileged position that I’ve got some savings tucked away and don’t need to work as hard as I have over the last 20 years.
That’s totally liberating – I can take my time in creating a good, solid business (hopefully!)
I spend time putting in good processes, and then employ people who can execute the processes to generate money.
I could work the 80 hour weeks, but I’m not actually sure that I’d do it any better.
And in any case, this is my business and I set the rules.
So the challenge is to show that a successful business can be created on 3 days a week. With little investment. And regular holidays:)
To create a process-driven business.
I’ve a feeling that I’ll be talking about this a lot.
My previous businesses required high levels of bespoke work. Over time, we made as much of this as possible process-driven, but a significant proportion of the work still required high levels of consultancy, design, engineering and custom implementation.
This is hard work.
The best, most profitable, easiest to run businesses that I’ve come across over the years do one thing, well, over and over again.
By doing this, new team members can be onboarded easily, work can be shared around, risk is driven out, income can be predicted.
As I say, Digital Lead Generation is 20% art, 80% process, and so it’s ideal for becoming process driven while still having space for some innovation and creativity.
It should go without saying that all of the support functions must be highly process driven. Finance, People, Sales, Marketing(!), IT should have high levels of process and automation.
To create good, easily managed employment.
This is one of my key drivers for creating a business. I get massive satisfaction from giving people jobs, developing them professionally, watching them develop personally.
It doesn’t always work out, but when it does, it’s a joy.
The problem is, as Duncan Bannatyne once said “Business is easy, people are difficult”
A process-driven business makes employing people easier. You can be clear about what you want people to do. You can measure success. You can spot issues and correct them. You can identify and manage low performance.
More importantly, it’s much easier to appoint somebody else to manage the team.
The last thing that I want to be doing is to be managing a team of people and getting involved in the day-to-day stuff. My role is developing the business, not running it, and this is done by automation and process.
I’d also like to aim for a 4 day week for all of the team (when I have one), with Fridays used as occasional flex, professional development, or down-time.
Although I miss office life, there are so many advantages to home-working that this will be the plan for a good while.
To create opportunities for neurodivergent people.
Something else that I haven’t done well previously in my businesses is got them working to support the local community. All businesses rely on the community for their existence, and it’s right that they should reciprocate.
A process driven, technically oriented business (I said I’d be talking about this a lot!) should be able to accommodate talented people who struggle with some of the social aspects of life.
Again, I’ve no idea how feasible this is, but it certainly won’t happen if it’s not stated as an aim.
To build recurring revenue and profitability year on year, with the company ready to sell in 5 years.
Recurring revenue is yet another thing that we didn’t manage to crack at my last company.
Recurring revenue is one of the keys to a successful, easily managed, low stress business, and needs to be at the centre of any new venture that I get involved with.
Recurring revenue will also give the basis for year-on-year exponential growth. 5 years is a good timescale for me. I think I work on a natural 2-year cycle. This gives me 2 years to get the business properly up and running, hopefully with a day-to-day manager in place. I can then focus on growth, and with 3 years solid growth, there’s no reason that it shouldn’t be an attractive prospect for somebody to take on.
Obviously, there’s no obligation to sell it after 5 years, but this goal means that the company should be firmly established, stable, growing and able to operate without the founder if necessary.
To have a payment by results model.
I want to be paid for success. Success in this field is measurable. Simples!
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