Knocking doors
One of the members of my group coaching cohort asked a very legitimate question for any Corporate Escapologist this week: How do I win enough business to live on?
Walking away from the relative certainty of salary - magically appearing in your bank account each month - feels like a huge risk.
I would never recommend it unless you’ve got some buffer or another form of income. Or a rich partner.
Full disclosure: I left with a package that bought me time. I never would have left without it. I also felt I was owed it – why should I let my employer keep it?
And I would never have brought along my biggest stakeholder, my wife Megan, to the party.
If you’re on for a decent package you should probably hold out. Signal to those around you, it’s much less risky than you’d think. In my cases I didn’t have to wait long until BP came looking for volunteers. I find that’s ever more common these days.
For the people holding out for a payoff, it’s all about using the intervening time to get ready.
For everyone else, you need a different plan – savings, lifestyle changes, bootstrap or side-hustle.
But, I’ve drifted - back to the exam question: How do I win enough business to live on?
For me, it’s been about finding an anchor client, someone who funds my fixed costs. That’s usually sufficient to calm my anxiety. In my case it’s a chunk of my time in exchange for a stable income with a reasonable wavelength.
Then I look for other income that funds more discretionary spend.
For almost four years I’ve relied on a lovely client for that extra income – with a retainer that fluctuated between 2-4 days a month. Plus some other bits and bots.
But last November I made the decision to ‘fire my client’ – well not really, but I felt I wasn’t adding as much value for money and I wanted to pre-empt them telling me so. I also felt like I needed to disrupt some of my comfort and hustle a bit more.
The good thing was I immediately got a couple of days running a workshop in Amsterdam, three days of startup masterclasses and 121s and the fired client asked me to run its strategy day.
Plus a couple of coaching clients. And then Escapology Live has taken off – with three cohorts fully booked and a fourth almost full!
So January has been good!
But February less so.
One new client booked in, some irons in the fire. But nothing like January.
So what am I doing – and how do I win enough business to live on?
I told the cohort this week two things I’m doing:
Gently nudging people in my network to let them know I’m available and that I’d love to help them or someone in their network
Being crystal clear about how I can help. The worst thing we can do is ask “Have you got any work?” – it’s too open and broad. We need to pick 2-3 things we do better than most other people and remind our network of that.
For me it’s three things:
Technology marketing, compelling and clear without dumbing down.
What it takes to make corporate-startup collaboration work.
Customer development for startups.
Different people in my network will know me for different things and will be looking for different things.
In most cases, when I nudge people in my network they will say “Will do”.
And I believe them.
I don’t expect them to say “Here’s an opportunity”, because the chances of my available supply matching their current demand are slim. But now they know; now if something comes up they can confidently say they know someone who could do the work.
Because people get busy and distracted. And they forget you.
But they also assume you’re too busy.
Most people I meet think I must be so busy because of LinkedIn. Even though those posts take me 30 minutes on a Sunday evening and 5-10 minutes a day engaging with others.
It’s on me to make sure they know I have time and focus for them – and that I want to help.
Here are some tips to help anyone wrestling with this:
Get clear and articulate about your offer – ideally using your customer’s language.
Build a list of everyone you know from warmest to coolest – ideally with some segmentation based on their needs/your offer.
Expand this list by making a couple of relevant, mutually beneficial connections on LinkedIn every day - aim for 10 a week – gently, don’t pounce or hound.
Find a retainer that covers your fixed costs and calms your anxiety – this may take time proving yourself. There are specialist contractor recruiters that can help here. Key is not to give all your time away to one client - you might as well get a job otherwise.
Just start, don’t over think it, don’t get hurt by nil responses or ‘not nows’. You’re just reminding people you’re there and what you do. And do it systematically – a few per week - so it starts to feel natural.
I’m no salesman and I would much rather be doing paid work than business development, but it’s a fact of most entrepreneur’s life – and as I wrote in Chapter 10 New Networking of Corporate Escapology, you’re probably actually quite good at it. You’ll have to get the book to find out why.
What I will say is nothing quite feels like winning a new client or piece of work. Not only have you backed yourself, but someone else has too.
I hope this helps. You know where I am if you want more.