“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” With that Carl Bard quote I concluded the Renewal Seminar. Renewal is always the first seminar in any business improvement program I deliver. It was January, 2006 and I surveyed the twenty seminar participants who would join me in a year long program to strengthen their small ventures, and perhaps, inspire the small group of non-business owners to future launches. After the seminar, a tall woman shyly approached the lectern and introduced herself. I had noticed her attentiveness during the lecture and noted the unmistakable sparkle in her eyes. I had seen that look many times before and silently predicted to myself, “18 months, 24 at the longest , she will be in business.”
She shared her story: 15 years experience in her field, employed by a state-wide firm, self-directed, passionate, yearning to innovate. Further dialogue revealed she was largely self-educated and that she exhibited the two traits of the self taught 1) a great depth of knowledge, and 2) a lack of confidence in her teacher. “What do you do for fun?” , was my last question. Puzzled, she replied that gardening was her passion and walking her method of reflection and recreation. “Alright, I said, your assignment this month is to walk every day and start planning the vision of your garden this spring.” She smiled in agreement and left. Over the course of the next year we met every month at the seminars with the group and in individual counseling sessions between the monthly seminars. In May, 2007, 17 months from our first meeting, she launched her venture, We met periodically during the year and reviewed first year performance in May, 2008. The results were impressive! Total revenues for the year exceeded six figures. By month three in business her revenues exceeded the salary and benefits from her former job. Her consultancy was home-based so overhead was low. She landed a rent-payer account within the first six months in business. In all, she had a client roster of six accounts and .70 cents of every dollar fit her profile of “fun and profitable work”. She had successfully negotiated a key contract with a desirable account by refusing to discount her fees despite significant pressure from the client’s business agent and her strong desire to land the account. “But what if I lose the bid over a few thousand dollars,” she asked of me. “Your rates are reasonable, I countered, you will work this account for a decade. Be strong, you’ll land the deal and want the work because the dollars are right.” She followed the counsel while dying a little inside. After a three month process she signed the account and positioned herself for continuing work at an attractive contract rate. There was one more contract, her former employer, that she really wanted to sign. “Give it a year, I counseled, there seems to be something magical that happens a year after an employee leaves. The employer forgets the resignation and remembers all the reasons they were disappointed you left.”
Every element of her first year report card was excellent. Work content, client number and type, revenues, profits, and enjoyment of work. We closed our meeting with a three month sales plan going forward and the beginning research frame for her to create an intellectual property to supplement the service components of a consultancy. “You did it”, I exclaimed at the end of our session. “That’s as good a first year as we could have imagined. I am so proud of you!”
About a week later I came out of a counseling session with a client and turned my cell phone back on. The missed call and message waiting signal was lit. I accessed the voicemail and heard her excited voice, “My former employer and I just concluded a one year consulting contract, she gushed, one year and a day from my leaving. I just wanted you to know”, her message concluded. I smiled as I drove and thought, Happy First Birthday!
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