A weekly dispatch on the three things every small business has to get right: Operations. Marketing. People. Real stories about the structural breakdowns that keep good businesses stuck — and what it looks like when you finally fix them.
She almost quit. So did half her board.
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Hello Reader, A few months ago I got a call from a woman who runs a nonprofit. She didn't open with pleasantries. She said: "I'm done. Either we figure this out or I'm stepping down." She wasn't dramatic. She was exhausted. Half her board had already said the same thing. The organization was actually growing quite a bit. They'd made huge progress in so many areas. Momentum was on their side. But the big grant funding was falling through. And the structure holding everything together wasn't built to handle any of their growth. So everything ran through the same three-six people. And three of those people were about to walk. When I started asking questions, here's what I found: it wasn't a people problem. It was a foundation problem. Nobody owned anything clearly. Decisions got made in meetings and disappeared by Thursday. Every task, every question, every fire ran through the same handful of people because nobody had ever spelled out what "doing your part" actually meant. We are still in it. But here is what has shifted: she can finally see the path forward. For the first time in a long time, there is a beginning, a middle, and an end. It's just like this in our business. I talk to founders and firm owners running very different kinds of businesses and organizations who describe almost the exact same Tuesday. The inbox. The contractor waiting on direction. The deal or launch that didn't land the way it should have. The feeling that more people and more tools keep making things more complicated, not less. They think it's a marketing problem. Or a hiring problem. Or an energy problem. It usually isn't. It's a foundation problem. Nobody owns anything. Nothing is documented. Decisions vanish. New people come in with no roadmap. Good people leave because nothing ever changes. Better tactics don't fix a broken foundation. They just give you more to manage. What I do is come in, listen, figure out what is actually going on, and find the one thing that, if it worked, would make the most other things easier. Then we build it together. If your Tuesday sounds a little too familiar, I would love to hear about it. Hit reply and tell me what is circling. I read every one. Shell, Yes! Here's to your success, _______________________________________________________________________ “It’s Just Like This in Our Business”Expert marketing, design, and automation solutions to elevate, streamline and simplify your business. Grow your business the easy-breezy way…like a day at the beach. We're talking about how in my weekly emails. |
“It’s Just Like This in Our Business”
A weekly dispatch on the three things every small business has to get right: Operations. Marketing. People. Real stories about the structural breakdowns that keep good businesses stuck — and what it looks like when you finally fix them.
Hello Reader, "We're so busy and I'm all by myself and I can't help you now." That's what the woman at the grocery store told me on Saturday. I'd come in to rent a carpet cleaner, with a storm on the way and the whole town of Pacific Beach stocking up. I said I'd wait. (Cue me settling in by the registers like I lived there.) She came back three more times to tell me she still couldn't help. Meanwhile I could see stock people and a couple of cashiers with nobody in their lines. Then the shift...
Hello Reader, An hour after I told myself "just a few laps around the block," I was still walking. Yesterday I hit the 4pm wall. Hubby usually walks with me, but he was away at a conference, so I made myself a little deal. Some steps are better than none. Then I opened the front door. It was sunny and in the low 70s with a soft breeze, one of those early fall days that feels brand new. One lap turned into a longer loop down a street I haven't walked in a while. I didn't put on a podcast or...
Hello Reader, By Saturday night, there were twelve apple pies cooling on my stove. Every fall, we go apple picking. We've done it for as long as hubby and I have been together, and even before that. When he was a little boy, his family built a cute cabin in the Shenandoah Mountains with apple trees right on the property. My mother-in-law even wrote an apple recipe book. These days I bake at least a dozen pies every year, and a few of them are gluten-free. Pie day starts with bowls. I line up...