Category Archives: Business Strategy

Long range, big picture, macro

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2025 Year-End Business Report Card

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Reflecting on the waning year is the best way to give yourself an honest and very helpful big picture understanding of what occurred in your business. You will come face2face with planned initiatives, unexpected opportunities and risks that paid off, or at least broke even, and those that, unfortunately, failed to fulfill your hopes. , and what you might adjust to reach your 2026 goals. A year-end review suggests which strategies will likely build on successes, gives insight into what you should eliminate, as least for now, and what might come through for you in the new year, perhaps with some adjustment. A year-end review encourages productivity that brings good results by helping you move forward and build momentum—and ensuring that you avoid reinventing the wheel or repeatedly start from ground zero, which is sure to slow your progress. 

Review the year in business

When reviewing the past 12 months of your business, there are a few questions and metrics that will give you a good baseline of what you would be wise to pursue, adjust, or eliminate during the upcoming year.  After answering these questions, you can more effectively map out your goals for next year. Set attainable, data-driven targets that challenge, but are also within reach. This is also a great time to identify if you might want to outsource certain functions in the next year to help you reach your 2026 goals.

  • How many projects did I work on?
  • What was my total sales revenue?
  • What were the sources for these deals? (e.g., referrals, networking, social media, website marketing funnel)
  • On a scale of 1-10, how would I rate my new client prospecting efforts?
  • How consistent was I with marketing—blogs, newsletters, webinar appearances, social media? Did I create and follow outreach strategies or was it intermittent?
  • What could I have done better in terms of marketing?
  • What did I do exceptionally well that contributed to my success?
  • What area did I struggle with the most? (Hint: this may be an area to either get help with or improve in 2025).

Evaluate performance of lead generation strategies

  • Inbound marketing continues to be an absolute requirement for B2B growth. Creating a consistent stream of leads is very important if you want to build a business that is sustainable and that you can scale and grow. The goal is to invite a steady flow of leads from different sources. Inbound marketing is considered the most practical and method for keeping your pipeline filled with prospects who are curious about your services or products. Inbound marketing is also efficient, with numerous marketing studies confirming that inbound marketing campaigns and activities generate about 54% more leads than outbound marketing. Furthermore, inbound marketing costs up to 62% less per lead than traditional outbound marketing. In 2026, inbound marketing appeals are predicted to remain the primary source of how B2B buyers themselves expect to discover, evaluate and shortlist vendors, as 80 % of all B2B sales interactions will take place across a spectrum of digital channels, from company websites to social media platforms. Think of inbound marketing content and activities as a magnet that pulls in already-curious prospective buyers. The purpose of inbound marketing is to educate, build trust and generate qualified leads by providing valuable, problem-solving, content. Be advised that most of the buyer’s journey unfolds long before a prospect reaches out to a select group of potential vendors to obtain deal-sealing (or deal breaking) information. Those on a serious buyer’s journey already have a list of key questions to ask, to discuss and learn about the particulars of a service, or would like to see a product demonstration. Note that inbound marketing leadgen results in the prospect initiating contact with companies that look promising as they define it. The content you create (or fail to create)—stories, education, testimonials, case studies, conversations—determine whether you’ll be chosen to make the prospective buyer’s vendor shortlist. Review and assess your inbound marketing activity and confirm which campaigns were the most successful and which may benefit from a reworking. Your inbound marketing activity most likely includes some of the following activities.
    • Thought leadership (producing relevant and valuable information—e-book, case study, webinar or podcast appearance, blog, newsletter)
    • Sales/marketing funnel (company website)
    • Social media posts (text or audio/visual formats)
    • Referrals
    • SEO search (company website)

  • Outbound marketing content and activities enable you to broadcast your pitch to everyone in your chosen target demographics. The style is push: you/your brand initiates the contact with prospects whether or not they’re hyper-local in-market as you disseminate your message (“This is who we are and why you want to know us”). Outbound marketing methods are typically promotional—attention-grabbers, such as cold emails and direct mailings (recipients are often taken from membership or other lists), conference or event sponsorships, paid display advertisements/ paid social media ads.
    • Public speaking (guest speaking, teaching, panel/moderator) 
    • Face2face networking events (business groups or social gatherings)
    • Email updates
    • Participating in community charity events 
    • Paid online leadgen (pay-per-click)

Create a content calendar and map out marketing campaigns

Planning and scheduling your content is one of the best things you can do for your business—and your time and creativity. There are a few ways you can look at the year and decide the message of your content. Readers who have been with me for a couple of years or more will, for example, recognize that in late June – early July, I publish an annual Summer Reading List, which consists of 10 business and leadership-themed books that should appeal to those who are independently employed, whether as Freelance consultants or small business owners. Certain books might also appeal to traditionally employed executives in either the for-profit or not-for-profit sectors. In late November, I publish a December holiday client gift suggestions list.

Which events that occur in your industry might serve as focal points for your content? Could it be “back to school,” which could prompt you to present related content in August, or the arrival of a season—wintertime skiing and ice skating, an early spring marathon, an annual national conference that is regularly attended by members of your core target market, or Small Business Saturday in November?

When you develop a plan now, you can expect to emerge with a draft that you can finalize as you get closer to scheduled target dates for your content. Your content calendar draft will support and encourage you to publish relevant marketing content that’s timed to maximize its impact. Planning is so much better than flying by the seat of your pants!

Budgeting

In sum, the year-end review of your business entity can be a catalyst for growth and success. It encourages continuous learning and improvement and inspires you to think and act proactively. Your year-end review is among the most effective processes you have to evaluate the overall performance of your venture and by so doing, give yourself an opportunity to learn from successes and failures, make informed decisions and set challenging, yet realistic, strategic goals for the new year. In your review, you can analyze your 2025 actual spend against your budgeted expenses. You’ll be able to identify spending variances and learn why budget targets were exceeded. Insights from your 2025 budget review will assist in building realistic budget forecasts for 2026.

Keep in mind that forecasting is about anticipating the funding you’ll need to implement marketing campaigns, as well as paying for business operating expenses, from bookkeeping expenses to business association member dues to purchasing customer relations software to enhance your marketing functions. One hand washes the other when your leadgen marketing funnel brings in the revenue that enables you to operate at peak performance (as you define it)!

So—how did your budget and business expenses line up in 2025? Consult your financial statements— Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss (Income) Statement and Cash Flow Statement and conduct a financial health assessment of your entity. These documents provide a snapshot of your company’s assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, expenses and profits throughout the year. It would be a great idea to discuss company financials with your business accountant, to get his/her perspective on how to enhance your company’s sustainability and financial possibilities. Why not send an email now and get a meeting on your January calendar?

Happy New Year and thanks for reading! I look forward to greeting you in 2026.

Kim

Image: © Freepik

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Back to Basics: Best Bets for a Robust Year End

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When B2B marketing decision-makers were asked to name their most effective B2B marketing best practices, it was discovered that those who followed best practices recommended by their industry peers produced revenue and profit results for their organizations that showcased them and the companies for whom they work as leaders. By contrast, B2B marketers who did not consistently adhere to those highly recommended best practices finished the study period as laggards, who did not achieve desirable revenue and profit targets. B2B marketers who apparently had little faith in the power of those highly recommended marketing best practices produced lackluster revenue and profit results for their companies. B2B marketers whose organizations emerged as revenue and profit leaders not only produced higher revenue and profit growth but also achieved better client retention and growth of the company’s client roster.

Forrester, the global research and advisory company headquartered next door to Boston in Cambridge, MA, revealed in a 2025 marketing survey a sharp divide between B2B leaders and laggards based on responses from 1,060 marketing decision-makers. Forrester researchers compared a cohort of leading marketers, who consistently applied recommended marketing best practices, which ranged from cross-functional in-house collaborations to client-based personalized marketing strategies. Forrester researchers also identified a cohort of lagging marketers, who fell short where leading marketers and their companies excelled. The business outcomes were clear—leading marketers, who closely followed recognized marketing best practices, rewarded their organizations with significantly stronger revenue and profit metrics, plus a robust client list that was augmented by improved client retention.

As marketers and all business leaders and owners struggle to adapt to seismic changes that have rocked the global economy for 20+ years, and especially since the 2020-2022 pandemic era, the necessity of future-proofing their business entities has become obvious. The Forrester survey indicates that applying well-known marketing best practices requires is an essential component of a resilient business entity. Additional marketing best practices that nurture high-growth companies include the use of AI-powered tech solutions that among other key functions can be used to design personalized marketing campaigns and tactics and also facilitate alignment between marketing, sales and operations.

Maximize marketing

Marketing teams will do well to reacquaint themselves with marketing fundamentals to navigate this era of lengthened B2B sales cycles, economic instability marked by cautious spending habits, lay-offs at leading multinationals (e.g. Amazon and Starbucks) and rising B2B buyer expectations. Develop marketing campaigns that emphasize the unique sales proposition of your service or product. Provide opportunities for buyer engagement that answer questions, educate, build community and inspire brand loyalty. Furthermore, synchronize strategic and operational alignment with your sales and marketing activities—not an easy task since prospects are quite comfortable conducting digital research of your services or products (and also your competitors’) before seeking info from your team. The change in power dynamics has caused a disruption in the usual alignment between marketing and sales functions—and for 61% of B2B prospects, that’s how they like it, according to a 2024 survey conducted by Gartner Research.

  • Develop a buyer’s journey that provides appealing responses to the typical prospect’s initial curiosity and questions about your products and services by building a marketing/ sales funnel that anticipates needs. The number of touchpoints in a B2B buyer’s journey that results in a sale varies according to industry; as you build your company’s sales/marketing funnel, information generated by AI-powered client research is your best way to learn the information that prospects desire most, end-to-end.
  • Use AI-powered customer relations management to identify client groups that have a preference for certain of your services and/or products and use the intel to devise marketing campaigns and strategies to purposed to increase your market share.
  • Keep it simple by creating marketing messages that focus on user outcomes; include AI-identified personalization data at every client touchpoint to enhance the customer experience and encourage purchases.

Productivity over market expansion

Discovering a niche market that’s worth a gamble—that is, worth the resources you’d invest to develop it—is no doubt high on the wish-list of nearly all Freelance consultants and business owners. However, Forrester survey marketing leaders did not necessarily think the “grass is greener” and chose not to chase what might be a mirage.

Marketing leaders kept their feet firmly planted on the ground and instead maximized resources and advantages already in hand to deliver their revenue and profit targets. A big plus was that leaders worked for companies that invested in AI-powered tools and applied that resource to strategies they could expect to maximize productivity and drive business growth. Marketing leaders incorporated client insights, never lost sight of brand promises and used those benchmarks to strengthen their marketing messages. Those messages described and emphasized product and service solution outcomes, and went beyond merely listing product or service features, to help prospects envision precisely how the products or services would achieve important objectives (and make purchasing committee members look good).

This strategy can be depended on to encourage buyer engagement and trust, which boosts the likelihood of a purchase and, post-purchase, promotes client retention that grows revenue, profit and client lists. In fact, Forrester data showed that revenue generated by leading companies consisted mostly of existing, rather than new, clients. Market penetration means how well your product or service sells; increasing sales within the existing marketplace is much easier for Freelancers and small business owners than either creating new services or products or entering new markets.

  • Agile business strategies are a competitive advantage that help you adapt to changing business circumstances and maintain, or even grow, your client base, revenue and profit
  • Accurately identify your strongest competitors to learn how to more advantageously position your service or product in the marketplace—confirm your best customers and also refine your messages to obtain more selling opportunities and close gaps that inhibit sales
  • Muti-channel marketing optimizes communication with prospects. Create a presence on platforms that clients and prospects visit and trust to maximize engagement activities, broadcast marketing messages, build brand loyalty and create more purchasing opportunities
  • Collect and utilize first-party data to enhance personalization, engagement, loyalty and sales

AI-powered tech tools to enhance efficiency and outcomes

Employing AI-powered marketing automation can provide numerous operational efficiencies that enable deep-dive research that supports insightful data-driven decision-making that delivers the results you need. AI-powered software is the ticket to obtaining client insights that are timely and trustworthy.

  • AI-powered predictive analysis gives reliable feedback re: client behavior, helping you to devise personalized and effective marketing strategies and campaigns
  • Marketing campaign personalization is maximized and might include, e.g., dynamic email marketing that auto-adjusts in response to real-time client engagement metrics
  • Client segmentation supported by AI marketing allows you to consider an array of client characteristics—demographics, purchase history, industry, or content preferences, for example—to better understand purchase patterns and motivations
  • Chatbots, virtual assistants and/or autonomous AI agents that manage end-to-end client interactions, including problem resolution, order processing and appointment scheduling, can be made available to ensure that your company reliably provides 24/7 customer service that enhances the customer experience and boosts your brand reputation
  • Integrate AI marketing automation with customer relations management to synchronize marketing, sales and customer service functions

Maintain a client-centric focus

You’ve heard this before and apologies for repeating myself! It’s just that basic marketing best practices have demonstrated conclusively that they reliably produce the results B2B marketers need. The vast majority of best practices marketing strategies and tactics, while reconfigured to resonate with current technology and client priorities, concerns and habits, have not been made obsolete. Inbound marketing, outbound marketing, content marketing, guerilla marketing and social media marketing remain effective today, although integrating them with current advanced technology and maintaining a focus that keeps client goals, priorities and pain points at top of mind will yield the best outcomes.

  • Invite client feedback by inviting or initiating personal conversations, consistent and relevant social media posts created to encourage replies and/or creating a short survey that’s sent to clients you’ve worked with over the past four or five years, to learn what they perceive as your company’s strengths and weaknesses. It is instructive to obtain insight into how client needs and expectations evolve over time, so that you can use the info to improve your product-market fit, or also hear their thoughts on what competitors offer, or get the heads-up on shifting concerns or priorities
  • Identify your typical prospect’s most important goals, business drivers and pain points that trigger a need for your category of business solutions
  • Develop a client buyer persona, a profile that represents your ideal buyer. If you have more than one significant target client group, you are encouraged to develop a buyer persona for each. A detailed buyer persona helps you to objectively envision how to personalize your strategies and campaigns by developing timely, relevant and engaging content for each client segment.
  • Provide excellent end-to-end customer service, from onboading to after-sale support

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Omar/Salaam Times. Afghan women weave a carpet in Injil District, Herat Province, Afghanistan on September 28, 2022.

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Two To Tango: Freelance Strategic Partnerships

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Tango dancers in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Freelance professionals are survivors by nature—savvy, proactive and ambitious. You are forward-thinking and grasp the big-picture, characteristics that led you to be realistic about current business conditions and respond to the risk-averse spending habits of many B2B prospects. You recognize that a defensive strategy is needed to stabilize the ground beneath your feet and make it possible to at least maintain, and preferably increase, your client roster and bottom-line sales revenue. A perusal of articles in the business press and resourceful brainstorming have led you to consider pursuing a partnership with a Freelance colleague. Owners of business entities large and small have long recognized that a good partnership creates competitive advantages, whether the goal is to help the partners stimulate revenue during periods of marketplace fluctuation, or maximize revenue and profit during a booming economy. Bringing in partner is meant to bring additional value—clients, investment capital, business skills, brand recognition, for example— and strengthen the position of the partners.

Recent research suggests that successful business entities often rely on their relationships—de facto partnerships— with peers whose services or products are complementary to one’s own and whose target customers have data-supported potential to become a promising source of new leads for your entity. In fact, within the Software as a Service community, partnerships and event participation are described as among the highest impact growth channels for warm leads.

The Freelance economy holds numerous sources of potential partnership opportunities— vendors, co-working site colleagues, Freelancing colleagues you meet at conferences, business accountants and attorneys. Even your SCORE mentor could suggest that you meet with a fellow Freelancer who s/he also mentors and discuss the possibility of partnering on certain types of projects. If you find the possibility of introducing a partnership to your Freelance business entity intriguing, here are some things to consider.

1. View the partnership as a strategic asset, not as the cure for a problem.

First, why do you want to form a partnership? What do you hope to gain and what assets can you bring to the table that might persuade a Freelance colleague to engage in a partnership with you? In order for the partnership to be useful and produce the outcomes that you (and the partner) want, you must be honest about your motivations. So, what are you looking for in a partnership? Start the decision-making process by clarifying your partnership wish list. Next, make an inventory of the resources you can offer to a partner and use that list to articulate your Unique Selling Proposition to a Freelance colleague you hope will become your business partner. Keep in mind that a successful partnership is about sharing resources and is not a rescue mission to save a failing enterprise.

  • Do you want occasional collaborators—say, extra help on certain projects—or an ongoing partnership?
  • A partner whose clients are potential prospects for your services and your clients are potential prospects for the partner’s services? Ideally, you and the partner would see a growing client list.
  • A partner whose services are suitable for co-promotion opportunities, such as the McDonald’s and Coca-Cola #Better Together campaign and the Apple Watch Nike+? Co-promotion is meant to introduce your brand to a wider audience and result in enhanced brand awareness and recognition, with the expectation of increased lead generation, sales revenue growth and market share.
  • A partner whose services, when offered in tandem to your own, will result in the capacity to provide solutions that prospects will perceive as delivering more valuable than your current offering.
  • A partner who will share certain business expenses, such as co-promotion advertising costs and/or office space rental.

2. Goals that align and a cultural fit.

In a functioning and mutually beneficial partnership agreement, there are only winners and there are no losers. A partnership is never a zero sum game where only one person wins. Honest, respectfully expressed communication and transparency are demonstrations of respect and the foundation of authenticity. In a recent McKinsey report, alignment on objectives, effective communication and trust were most often present when partnerships and other joint ventures succeeded and most often absent when partnerships failed.

As well, a mutually accepted definition of good work ethic should be agreed-upon and include a shared understanding of how to handle relevant business practices, such as what constitutes timely and appropriate follow-up regarding client referrals, for example. In this way one develops a reputation as a good partner and the partnership can deliver on its intended purpose.

3. Clearly define roles, responsibilities and money.

Establish and clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each partner and that includes money. Discussing payment protocols upfront will prevent ugly misunderstandings. Will the partner who handles the design work on a website project be paid at the same rate as the tech person who perfects SEO and the speed of page loading—or will you each bill at your usual rate? Put everything in writing to avoid conflicts later. Depending on the state in which you operate, your partnership may require a written agreement.

Regarding roles and responsibilities, will there be a quarterly or semi-annual performance quota for client referrals generated, networking events attended, or other work-related activities? A discussion of what constitutes good work ethic and productivity metrics will be helpful.

4. Start small and work out the kinks. 

Where possible, start small and avoid diving into a big project until the partners become familiar with one another’s working style. Instead, rehearse your partnership by taking on a small project. Creating a story board to describe how the partners together will collaborate successfully on a project can be very useful. Remember what Avatar creator James Cameron and others remind us: “A vision without a plan for execution is just an hallucination.”

5. Frequent, honest, feedback.

Misunderstandings and disagreements are best acknowledged and managed in an environment of regular, honest, feedback and discussion. partnership problems are potentially costly. Scheduling regular check-ins for the partners, even if there is little to discuss and the meeting ends quickly, is cheap and easy insurance for dealing with problems the right way and at the right time.

6. Move quickly and collaboratively when partnership problems arise. 

The land of lost partnerships is littered with avoidance, denial, broken promises, unresolved conflict and denial. Especially if the expectations of an important client have not been delivered, immediate action to correct the lapse and protect the relationship must be taken. Remember what Warren Buffett continually tells himself: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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2026 Tech Trends Whisper in Your Ear

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Freelance professional are not only happily engrossed in performing paid client work; you must simultaneously perform labor that is unpaid—not yet— searching for more work. Ambitious Freelancers are networking to maintain visibility and participating in activities that showcase your professional chops, such as appearing on webinars and podcasts and publishing a blog or newsletter. Your core business development strategy is to convince prospects of your ability to consistently produce the deliverables they need when planning to hire a Freelance worker in your professional category. But in addition to carrying out your revenue producing strategies, the often unspoken role of a Freelance professional is that of small business owner.

As you work both hard and smart to develop and maintain a thriving client roster that generates your preferred number of billable hours and bottom-line revenue, you can never lose sight of the responsibility for managing and optimizing all aspects of business operations. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that staying abreast of major developments in the constantly evolving B2B technology sector is a significant portion of your business management obligations. Dozens of technology tools have been brought to market over the past three or four years and it is certain that one or more potential is capable of creating operational efficiencies in the back-office operations that support your accounting, contract management, lead generation, email marketing, or client onboarding, for example. Time and/or money could be saved, clients will become more satisfied with the after-sales support and other customer service functions you will seamlessly deliver. Even if you are by nature a late adopter, let 2026 be the year that you introduce at least one innovate and undeniably practical technology tools to make a positive impact on your business operations.

Responsible decision-making can only take place when trustworthy information is available; you can keep up with emerging technologies by simply paying attention. Speed read articles and watch videos to learn about new tech products so that you can assess their potential relevance for your organization. You may already be familiar with the sites TechCrunch and Wired and may also find them informative.

While researching, keep this question in mind—does it appear that incorporating this technology will enable you to expand your business success by capitalizing on the outcomes and results it is expected to produce? You already know that most newly released tech products are outside the scope of your needs and budget but as a new year approaches, consider that late adopters often find that they’re leaving money on the table by ignoring technology advancements. Your perspective must always be big-picture and long-term.

Finally, to fully access the intended usefulness of your new technology tool, it must be integrated into your workflow. If you have an employee, develop a strategy to encourage buy-in of the tech tool’s purpose and benefits, so that this new resource will become part of your company culture—how things are done now. Be strategic as you evaluate tech-enabled upgrades you might like to introduce. Below are areas where recently released technology tools could enhance your business operations.

Use emerging tech for leadgen and marketing

The days of cold calling have all but faded away. The gold standard of B2B lead generation in 2026 and beyond is powered by AI-driven tools that enable targeted personalization and feature text, audio and video marketing content, product demos, case studies or testimonials and even live streaming that allows prospects to interact with your company in real time. AI has transformed B2B leadgen to enable marketing campaign activities to deeply engage prospects, a capability that results in higher sales conversion rates.

AI-powered leadgen tools enhance your marketing funnel by analyzing prospect behavior and interaction data to identify to identify and nurture top-quality leads—while complying with current privacy regulations and best practices. By addressing prospects’ specific needs and challenges, you will be able to design marketing campaigns that truly resonate and deliver. As marketplace competition intensifies and customer demands become more exacting, Freelancers in the B2B sector may discover promising benefits in tech innovations.

Account-based marketing has revolutionized the way B2B leadgen by identifying a more narrow swath of high-value prospective client leads rather than reaching out to a less dicrete audience. ABM delivers customized information to key decision-makers, which often leads to better sales conversion rates and smarter use of your resources. ABM uses a precise, data-driven strategy and takes a deep dive into target lead profiles, cross-department priorities and key insights. ABM tactics include:

  • Personalized Outreach: Creating tailored marketing campaigns for individual accounts based on the industry, whose messages will acknowledge client pain points, business goals and other priorities.
  • Custom Content: Developing case studies and presentations that address the challenges of target accounts. Providing relevant educational content, which is one of the most effective ways to attract and nurture B2B leads. Instead of pushing a sales message, content marketing educates by providing useful insights, industry best practices and potential solutions that facilitate informed decisions that yield good results. By addressing typical pain points and offering effective solutions, Freelancers can build trust and position themselves as a partner and go-to resource.
  • AI-powered opportunity identification: Growth leaders in B2B sales are using AI to find new niche, potentially lucrative markets.
  • Value-based AI-enabled pricing: B2B companies are using tech innovations to more comprehensively define value, as they gravitate toward dynamic models that can automate pricing models that are personalized to attract discrete customer segments.
  • Customer Relations Management: Automation software tools will help you analyze customer data, industry trends and competitor behavior to identify accounts that have the most sales potential for you.
  • Search Engine Optimization: SEO is a foundational lead generation strategy that helps B2B companies attract high-quality leads by improving their visibility in search results. When potential customers search for industry solutions, thought leadership content, or service providers, for example, a robust SEO strategy can ensure that your business appears at the right time. By consistently optimizing for search engines and user experience, your Freelance entity can attract a steady flow of organic leads who are actively seeking solutions, thus making SEO one of the most cost-effective B2B leadgen strategies. By optimizing website content, technical website structure and backlink profiles, your business can drive organic traffic and generate leads that convert to paying customers. SEO tactics for B2B lead generation include Keyword Optimization, that is, targeting high-intent search terms that align with buyer needs and search behavior and On-Page and Technical SEO, that is, improving page speed, site structure and mobile usability to enhance search performance.

Use emerging tech to improve the customer experience

Customer experience can be defined as the impression that customers and prospects have of your brand—the company, its products and services and, by extension, you—as they move through your company’s buyer’s journey. Each touchpoint on the journey is an opportunity to create a confidence-building impression that contributes to a satisfying and memorable customer experience. The presentation of an excellent customer experience has for some customers become non-negotiable and in fact, a customer experience that’s perceived as exceptional for some customers outweighs the importance of pricing. B2B customers are responding more like B2C shoppers and adopting many more consumer-like behaviors, e.g., seeking more robust buying experiences.

Include operating with a thoughtful strategy, delivering effective value propositions, optimizing for a wide variety of channels, and sustaining growth. But to stay on the front foot, B2B sales organizations can leverage technology to find the right markets while discovering, retaining, and delighting customers across all channels. Today’s leaders understand the value of embracing innovation and using cutting-edge technology to execute strategies. McKinsey’s latest B2B Pulse Survey reveals a widespread willingness to adopt advanced digital solutions,  yet only 20 % of respondents say they have consistently implemented technologies that fuel outsize growth. 

An exceptionally positive customer experience is a powerful differentiator that can drive revenue and brand loyalty. According to a 2025 Zendesk CX Trends Report, 60% of customers have purchased a service or product from one brand rather than another based on the customer experience they expect to encounter. A 2017 World Economic Forum report predicts that your customers will obtain “more choices and control than ever before” over the next decade thanks to technological advances.

To distinguish your company from competitors in the crowd, Freelancers would be wise to explore and evaluate tech innovations as a way to optimize your operations and appeal to the evolving demands of your clients and prospects. An exceptional customer experience will prioritize:

  • Personalization–Tailor services and communications to respond to individual customer preferences and purchase history
  • Efficiency–streamlined, fast and accurate delivery of service
  • Consistency–Provide a predictable and comforting level of product performance and service
  • Empathy–Show customers that you feel genuine concern for their needs and perspective by actively listening and recommending solutions that your services or products can provide
  • Communication–Provide customers with accurate and timely information
  • Feedback–Provide methods for customers to comment or request assistance and demonstrate that you value their input

Use the new technology to make available a customer experience platform for your company so that you can account for all client and prospect interactions with your company, from the first viewings of your website to advancing through your buyer’s journey to become a qualified lead, to making a purchase and becoming a full-fledged customer and culminating with post-sale support activities. Click here to view options.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Gamutstockimagespvtltd

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Get It Right: How to Make It While Freelancing

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About one in two American workers will participate to some degree in the Freelance labor market by 2027, according to researchers at Statista, the German global business intelligence platform, who project that about 86.5 million workers, more than half of the U.S. workforce, will earn their living as Freelance professionals or other independently employed workers.

That more smart and ambitious professionals are expected to join the Freelance labor market is a powerful vote of confidence, but a growing numbers of professionals will inevitably result in a marketplace crowded with competitors and making it increasingly difficult to stand out and build a thriving, sustainable Freelance business entity.

As a new year approaches and the “fresh start” impulse kicks in, you may be inclined to take up some future-proof thinking; your brainstorming may lead you to remember that the best defense is a good offense. What proactive and assertive strategies can you explore and enact now to strengthen your position in a marketplace that is destined to become more competitive?

A defensive strategy known to augment the power of your brand is to include in all marketing initiatives and collaterals campaign messaging that describes and promotes your brand’s Unique Selling Proposition—those singular benefits that appeal to your ideal clients and distinguish your services or products from competitors. It is imperative that USP attributes are consistently and unambiguously communicated in marketing messages, to ensure that your marketplace offerings are recognizable to those who value them.

Robust marketing is just one vital component needed to build and sustain a successful Freelance venture. Below are a few basic actions that, if enabled by big-picture thinking and working smart, along with a dose of good luck, can help you to climb to the top of the Freelance earnings pyramid. Here you go!

1. Freelancing is sales

Freelancing means that you must work so that you can work—and the work you must do is selling. It’s an unavoidable fact that in order to be hired for client work, Freelancers must persuade prospective clients to become your paying clients. That can occur if your capabilities are superior to any competitors who are also vying for the assignment. Furthermore, you must demonstrate that you are well-organized and efficient, pleasant to work with and that you are good cultural fit for the client’s company and team. Finally, you must have two or three credible references to provide third-party verification of your abilities and good qualities. If the client, which could be represented by a hiring committee, is satisfied with your competencies and credentials, you will be awarded the contract.

Note that the primary ingredient in this process is sales. To make money, Freelance professionals (and all business owners) must become adept at sales and that includes understanding the “pain points” that motivate clients to seek out the type of services or products that you offer. Before client work is obtained, the Freelancer must sell—and that begins with identifying and connecting with viable prospects who may have a project scheduled for which you are qualified. Selling is probably the most important competency a Freelancer must develop, whether you are a software developer or a make-up artist, because you can’t entirely outsource it. The owner of the company must be able to sell the product or service to prospective clients.

Face2face networking is the most effective way to meet those who might hire you, although quite a few Freelancers regularly connect with prospects who become paying clients when working through a Freelance marketplace such as Xolo, Upwork, Freelancer, or Fiverr, which vets the legitimacy of Freelancers and prospective clients. In addition to possessing the necessary skills to satisfactorily complete the project, the Freelancer must also communicate that s/he is trustworthy, dependable and, oftentimes, has done work similar to the project in question, in order to instill sufficient confidence in either online or in-person prospect introductions to extend an invitation to interview for the project and green-light the hire.

2. Identify your market niche

What services will your Freelance consulting business provide and who can you expect to become your clients? Freelancers must acquire expertise in a marketable skill and understand the typical “pain points” of prospective clients. You must learn to articulate the problems can you solve, which goals you can help the prospect achieve. Aspiring Freelance professionals cannot simply decide that you’d like to earn a living as a social media marketer or special events photographer and voila, you will receive offers of work. High-level skills and significant experience are needed before you can go out on your own and expect to make a living.

When pondering the possibility of launching a Freelance business, research the marketplace need in your geography of the current and trending demand for skills that you can demonstrate at expert level. That you are “passionate” about certain activities is not enough. Which trends are emerging and which once-dominant trends are waning?

Finally, research and learn how those who would be your prospective clients getting their needs met now. The answer to this question will reveal your competitors. Research who is making money in your niche. Visit websites and social media accounts to find out the identity of big clients and learn how your prospective competitors sell to clients.

3. Freelancers are business owners

Freelancing calls for more energy, determination, savvy and creativity than social media cheerleaders let on. As detailed above, Freelance professionals do more than provide the contracted services by providing an effective solution that solves a problem or achieves a goal. Freelancing also means you must become adept at managing the business aspects of your entity.

In all likelihood the best way to obtain comprehensive business development skills capable of building a robust and sustainable Freelance venture is to contact SCORE, The Service Corp of Retired Executives, the nation’s largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors who, at no charge in most cases, will help you, a small businesses owner-operator, plan, launch, manage and grow your entity.  SCORE is a not-for-profit organization launched by the Small Business Association in 1964 and is dedicated to developing thriving small business communities through mentoring and educational workshops.

4. Your story Is your power

Storytelling can be an opportunity to share your unique experiences that differentiate you from competitors and help you and your company, services, or products to stand out in the ever more crowded marketplace. Your stories communicate your brand identity and brand persona as they connect you with potential clients in a memorable way. Your stories are one of your most important relationship-building marketing assets.

You can share professional experiences, personal reflections, obstacles you’ve faced and tackled and observations that have taught you powerful lessons. Regardless of the type of story, you should follow a clear structure by ensuring you highlight what exactly happened (the context), the lesson to be taught through the challenge or crisis in the story and conclude with the positive outcome or result—even if it was unexpected. Your stories bolster your relatability, build transparency and trust, demonstrate your resilience and resourcefulness and might also opens doors to opportunities like speaking engagements and co-hosting workshops. A resonating story is all about how you tell it and for that bit of magic, I refer you to champion storyteller Kelly D, Parker.

5. Price like you understand the job

Don’t allow fear to cause you to under-price your services, including all the “extras” that collectively represent the quality of the customer experience your clients have come to associate with your organization. Like the classic L’Oreal tagline for Preference Hair Color said, “Because you’re worth it“. Freelancers who underbid projects, thinking that low project fees result in more work only misinterpret the psychology of sales. Freelancers who don’t ask enough questions to apprise the scope of the work and client expectations, don’t account for revisions and don’t build in a buffer zone of time to mitigate timeline delays caused by unexpected complications that could undermine achieving the preferred project completion date don’t really understand the meaning of cost-effective.

Your project price quote tells a prospect that you understand the scope, you’ve thought things through and that the client can trust you to stay calm and in control, whether in the best-case scenario, when all goes according to plan, or when something goes sideways. If your price is too low, the client may silently worry that you’re missing something important. On the other hand, if your quote is too high as compared to others that were received, the client may suspect that you’re padding the estimate as a way to enrich him/herself.

The pricing sweet spot is a balancing act that must satisfy both the client and you. Your project quote must be not be so low as to raise red flags, nor so expensive as to create anxiety, but realistic and competitive enough to suggest you know exactly what you’re getting into. Price like you understand what it takes to do the job right and clients will trust you to do it.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©Edmund Dantes/Pexels for iStock

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Contract Management Promotes Business Growth

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Congratulations Freelancer colleague, as summer ends and the fourth quarter approaches, you’ve landed a client and have been asked to sign a contract. You are well aware that receiving a contract is the road to revenue but that’s only part of its power. When a contract and the arc of its lifecycle are recognized and utilized, you can initiate a mutually agreeable working relationship with your client and make the possibility of repeat business amenable to the client.

To the best of your ability you, Freelancer friend, should ensure that all contracts you sign advance and protect your interests, as well as the client’s. Keep at top-of-mind that expectations are foundational to contracts. A well-written contract defines and describes what the client expects of you—primarily, to produce the desired outcome or deliverable that also meets the client’s quality control standard and is completed and available by a specified date.

At its core, a contract is a commitment whose purpose is to guarantee that client expectations and your responsibilities are defined and achieved. When you think about it, a contract is potentially more than a method to certify a working agreement. In particular, contracts that pertain to B2B services or products can be considered strategic tools that provide risk management for both you and the client, in addition to revenue generation for you.

Contract management is the process of creating an official document that identifies client expectations and defines the responsibilities of the party that produces the outcome or deliverable and meets the deadlines. Contract management also includes the discussion and negotiation of factors such as payment for work performed and contingencies that, when agreement is reached, are written into the document. Contract management is considered completed after the outcome or deliverable are produced and the document is reviewed and analyzed to assess the execution of the work performed against the terms of the contract. This final step of contract management is of particular interest to B2B service providers, whether the deliverable is a one-off project or an ongoing subscription, as it may reveal where and how you could have utilized your company’s operational processes more efficiently to reduce monetary expenses or time associated with producing the deliverable.

A written agreement

Contracts typically begin with discussion and a verbal agreement, but that process should be viewed as only the first step of new client engagement. It is in the interest of both parties to commit all major business agreements to writing by creating a contract after first discussing client goals and expectations, timeline and budget to attain understanding and mutual agreement and then following-up with the development of a written document that will be signed by the parties involved.

The author of the contract will depend on the client. Corporate and not-for-profit organizations typically have a standard contract that is used for Freelance talent. Small businesses and organizations that engage with few Freelancers may be happy to allow you to author the document. Over time, many Freelancers develop a standard B2B professional services contract template; however, it will be worth your while to investigate contract templates that can streamline and speed up the contract management process, from creating the document, to negotiating terms and facilitating online docu-signing. You will find contract management software available on several platforms.

Regardless of its author, know that you owe it to yourself to carefully review all contracts that you intend to sign, to ensure that both signers will be able to meet the terms. Put questions and answers in writing (email), to provide documentation. When you are not the contract author, diplomatically suggest that you and the prospective client collaborate and negotiate when you find it necessary, to ensure that you can fulfill your responsibilities and please the client. All changes to the agreement should be in the form of written amendments, or at a minimum, an email that documents the changes.

Finally, caveat emptor—a contract is only as good as your ability to enforce it. A written agreement is nearly always useful, but if one of the parties fails to fulfill the agreed-upon terms, the other will be stuck. Even a contract written to anticipate nearly every contingency is only as good as the behavior of the signers. Integrity and trust matter and maintaining complete records is a must.

  • Document changes: If changes are made to the original contract, write them down. Make sure everyone signs off on all changes and attach amendments and signatory approval to the original agreement.
  • Keep original copies: Keep signed copies of all contracts safe and organized, whether they are in hard copy or digital format.
  • Track communications: Keep a record that includes notes and the dates of all contract discussions. This includes emails, letters, meeting notes and phone logs.

Payments

Let your contract specify when, how much and by what payment method you’ll be paid. While W-2 employees receive regular weekly or bi-weekly paychecks, that is not the scenario for Freelance consulting talent. At some organizations, we are the last to get paid and late, sometimes scandalously late, payments can be distressingly common.

Defend yourself by making it clear to the client that you expect to be paid according to the timeline that was discussed and agreed upon. In fact, once you and the client have committed to the amount of your project fee and scheduled the initial payment that you require before commencing work, as well as the milestone or other interim payments, if applicable, plus the timing of the final project payment, be certain to specify the amount and schedule of those payments in the contract. Furthermore, you might also note that all payment amounts and associated dates are non-negotiable. Trust is central to every contract and committing the agreement to writing encourages trustworthy behavior.

Along with a dispute resolution clause in your agreement, also specify how you will handle non-payment. You shouldn’t be expected to continue work if you aren’t getting paid but collecting unpaid debt can be a real challenge. Include a clause about debt collection, either through an agency or a lawyer— and that cost should be on the client, not on you.

Client expectations

Before you enter into a working agreement, you and your client must have similar expectations of one another’s roles. Assume nothing and in particular, ask questions to confirm the project deliverables and timeline—milestones and deadline. Ask also for your client’s description of a successfully achieved milestone and a successfully completed project.

In a Freelance B2B contract for professional services rendered, outline what you agree to do and how it will be done. There must be no ambiguity about the desired outcome or deliverable, or the quality of the work that the client expects. It’s also helpful to make clear what happens if you do not meet the agreed-upon deliverable deadline; usually, it means some portion of your payment is withheld until both parties are satisfied with the progress of the project.

Ensure that the client knows the full spectrum of services you’ll provide to satisfactorily produce the outcome or deliverable and the amount of time you expect will be needed. If there are complicated elements to the project, make sure the client comprehends what is needed to achieve the that vision.

Milestones

Milestones are essential for independent projects, as well as for organizations that hire Freelance talent. By detailing a project’s milestones, you can ensure that you and the client know when to expect key deliverables. If no milestones have been discussed and agreed upon before your hire, you might raise the issue yourself, in order to keep your client apprised of the project’s progress and document your intention and ability to satisfactorily complete all work by the deadline.

Intellectual property

If the assignment you’re hired to complete involves intellectual property of some sort, the contract should describe and define who owns what. Do you exclusively own the intellectual property, or does your client have some rights to it? Be sure that you understand precisely what you’re handing over and what rights you retain to make sure that you identify which party owns what rights and royalties for each product or service made available. It’s a good idea for both parties involved to have their IP attorney review a Freelance contract before signing on. The last thing either of you wants is a misunderstanding over ownership to break out after a project has been completed, especially if a significant amount of money is at stake.

Confidentiality

It is assumed that you will not share any information about your client’s business without written consent. You may be asked to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement and if so, maintain a copy in your records, along with the contract.

Confidentiality includes financial data, proprietary information and other protected details. There should be a clause that prohibits you from releasing any of your client’s personal information without permission. If you feel it necessary to disclose confidential or protected information for legal reasons, make sure that you obtain your client’s explicit permission before doing so.

Support and resources supplied by the client

Identify your client contact either in the contract or in an email and confirm that person’s availability to you and the type of support that will be provided. If on-site access to company resources, equipment, or materials is needed to execute the work you are hired to do, specify in writing what you’ll need to use and document your intention to return it and to whom it will be returned when your work is completed.

An out clause

It can be frustrating if you’ve been led to believe that signing a new client is imminent, only to have the agreement unexpectedly fall apart. In the Freelancing universe, it’s anticipated that some projects might end prematurely, whether the result of an unexpected hire of a W-2 employee or a sudden funding loss. Alternatively, you may face a health crisis or family emergency that will make it extremely difficult to fulfill the contract and forces you to terminate the agreement.

Regardless of the determining factors, a termination for convenience clause allows either party to unilaterally end a B2B contract without cause and without engaging in litigation. The client can simply provide notice that s/he must end the agreement and pay you for any work that’s been done, or you can inform the client in writing, in accordance to a predetermined specific termination notice period (14 to 30 days is common), and agree to certain post-termination obligations.

 Effective communication will be critical to soften negative perceptions and sustain future collaboration. A transparent explanation of the reason for termination is essential to preserving credibility and trust.

Next steps

Once the contract is signed, be certain to send your new client a welcome letter and schedule a face2face or videoconference meeting to begin onboarding and officially inaugurate your new client engagement!

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Treaty of Paris, More Than Meets the Eye, 1783 (Benjamin West, 1738-1820) courtesy of The Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Winterthur, DE. The treaty officially ended the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) and marked England’s acknowledgement of the U.S. as an independent sovereign entity with defined borders.

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Mix Master: Balance Branding, Marketing and PR

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When operating a business, whether that means a boutique, one person Freelance entity or an enterprise company that employs thousands of workers in dozens of locations, encouraging sales of products and services is most often the purpose of information that company leaders share with the public. Sharing specific types of information about the company and its services and products with those that research indicates have significant potential to become customers plays a vital role in building and maintaining a thriving business. The ability of said company’s services and products to capture the attention and inspire the loyalty and trust of prospective customers is reflected in name recognition, feelings of credibility and loyalty among target customers and customer evangelism for the company and its services and products.

The information created to be seen by prospective customers is without question a company’s most important communication initiative and it’s known as the marketing strategy—a comprehensive road map that defines how the company will reach out and appeal to prospective customers and convince them to become paying customers. The public facing components of the marketing strategy are advertising, branding and publicity/public relations, along with campaign-specific marketing activities. Ideally, all the aspects of marketing information will function in tandem and create competitive advantages against the company’s marketplace competitors. To most efficiently and effectively implement a big-picture marketing strategy, it is advantageous to follow a certain “order of operations,” a road map that enables each component to support the others. You may be surprised to learn that the road to a high-functioning marketing campaign begins with public relations and publicity.

The goal of marketing—whether the big-picture marketing strategy that includes branding, advertising and PR/publicity, as well as the campaign-specific activities of marketing initiatives that typically include email marketing, networking, social media and content marketing—is to introduce and create an appetite for your service or product. Many marketers (and that would include me) have been tempted to begin implementation of the big-picture marketing strategy with branding. We tend to assume that presenting an identity, a brand persona, for the company and its services and products will most immediately resonate with prospective customers. We’ve been taught that prospects will more readily understand and value the service or product by getting familiar with the brand, which would make that function the first step in cultivating loyal customers who, we hope, will give good word-of-mouth by making referrals and becoming advocates.

However, in the 2020s era to begin a major marketing campaign with branding is very cart-before-the-horse. Today, PR/publicity exacts considerable influence on the perception of product or service credibility. Maybe it’s the inevitable result of Instagram and TikTok? In the here and now, start-up founders and marketers for existing businesses must acknowledge the power of PR in their arsenal of promotional communication resources. Strategic and consistent PR/publicity is now recognized as the way to encourage visibility and instill credibility that distinguishes your company and its services and products in the marketplace. Marketing, and its advertising component, will drive awareness but the PR spotlight can make your services and products seem trendy and trustworthy and create an aura that drives sales.

PR is visibility and credibility

Publicity is born of look-at-me attention and buzz. PR means press releases, blogs, podcasts, special events and influencer shout-outs that echo through the digital metaverse and put your company’s name on the lips of target customers. PR expands marketplace awareness that sparks name recognition but it is not a direct method of generating leads or driving sales. Instead, PR works in the background, cultivating and elevating your brand’s reputation.

So make yourself visible on behalf of your business; you might start by exploring how to become a podcast or webinar guest or participate in a panel as a speaker or moderator. You could also research local events that resonate with your values, and the values of your target customers, and engineer another opportunity to receive visibility as you simultaneously verify your belief in corporate social responsibility.

Incidentally, be aware that CSR is sometimes a decisive factor in B2B and B2C purchasing decisions —today’s consumers increasingly prioritize ethics. B2B services company BusinessDasher explains that 84% of customers evaluate a companies’ ethics and values when considering a purchase, and 63% say they would prefer companies with whom they do business to adopt ethical business and social practices.

As noted, promotional communications are under the marketing umbrella and there is a degree of overlap between all marketing functions, but Public Relations/publicity and marketing have their differences. PR/publicity is focused on establishing and expanding the company name and reputation of its services and products by being seen in the right places. PR can encourage positive word of mouth so that prospective customers will realize that your entity is open for business.

After you’ve developed and implemented successful PR/publicity initiatives over several months or even a year, consult your marketing data to check on metrics that indicate when it could be advantageous to launch a boots-on-the-ground marketing activities that include implementing a sales/marketing funnel, publishing a newsletter or blog, setting up email campaigns, or stepping up social media presence, all to continue and further solidify customer engagement. Step Two in your marketing strategy is about shifting gears and bringing in high-quality leads you can convert into sales.

Marketing attracts customers

Marketing refers to everything that brings information and images that represent your company and its products and services directly to potential customers, to capture attention, educate them about your services and products, inspire trust and loyalty and promote sales—it’s Step Two in your promotional campaign. Great marketing doesn’t so much sell your product or service—rather, it creates a desire for your product or service. Effective marketing generates actions that are measurable, whether that’s clicks, email sign-ups, subscribing to your blog or newsletter and eventually, sales. If publicity is about awareness, marketing is about attraction. Now is the time to leverage the visibility that was generated by PR/publicity and use it to reach out to prospects and cultivate relationships, now that you’ve achieved name recognition and familiarity that are the seeds of trust.

As you know, a key component of marketing is content marketing, which is information that educates prospects about your product or service; particularly in B2B, content marketing has become the new advertising. In fact, the Content Marketing Institute found that 80% of corporate decision-makers prefer to review information about products or services that’s presented as objective research, rather than advertisements, which are considered to be biased. One study has put the number of prospects and customers who believe advertisers have integrity at 4%.

Customer trust in traditional advertising has tanked, especially for Millenials and GenZ.  Wharton Magazine reports that 84% of Millennials not only dislike traditional ads, but also distrust them. For companies that would like to expand their market reach, these statistics send a clear signal. Investing only in advertising and marketing campaigns is unlikely to move the needle. To develop a good reputation for your brand, it’s recommended to start with PR/publicity and then move into marketing activities that include content marketing, networking, podcast or webinar appearances and publishing a blog or newsletter.

Brand is identity

The impact of brand identity is revealed in the sum total of how customers experience and perceive your business and its services and products, from product packaging to tag line, price structure to social media presence. A brand encompasses all the touch points that shape how customers feel about interacting with the brand. The interpretation of those touch points belongs only to the customer because engaging with a brand involves emotion—what people feel when they see your company name, logo, service, or product. It’s your company’s identity and reputation and it expresses and represents what it means to customers.

Your brand will be nurtured by ongoing PR/publicity, from CSR inspired events to your active involvement in professional associations or business organizations. along with content marketing activities, from case studies to email marketing. Associating your company with respected business organizations and community events can only elevate its visibility and brand reputation—characteristics known to encourage brand loyalty and sales.

Identify what motivates customers to buy

To understand the motives behind your customers’ purchases, tap into information that’s provided by the inward-facing aspect of marketing—market research. After all, the best decisions are data-driven. Yelp’s Trend Tracker can give a big boost to the ROI of your marketing activities with analytic insights that are available to you free of charge—join the mailing list and you’ll receive data that is relevant and updated monthly and enables those who pay attention to access boots-on-the-ground marketing info that can steer the effective promotion your products and services. Supported by Trend Tracker data, you’ll be positioned to detect and quickly respond to customer preferences, adjust marketing strategies and/or tactics to better align with shifting customer priorities and maybe even tweak your service or product line to reflect a significant shift in customer tastes.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: David created by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564, Republic of Florence) and unveiled in 1504, the statue has been housed at Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, Italy since 1873.

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Six Strategies to Side-Step A Summer Slump!

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The long days and warm breezes of summer are here at last! Your projects are completed and clients could be heading out of town, en route to vacation. Maybe a client or two will green light new work just after Labor Day? You also may have a vacation scheduled—but what else will you do this summer? While it may be tempting to succumb to a summer siesta, July and August don’t have to result in lost business momentum. You may decide to work fewer hours, but you can still be productive.

This summer, you can choose to be creatively resourceful and move your business forward in key areas, even while many clients and prospects are otherwise engaged. In fact, because many clients and promising prospects who remain on your radar screen may be more available during July and August (when they’re not vacationing), it may be feasible to schedule some client face time. Positive business relationships are a competitive advantage, able to magnify feelings of trust and credibility that can make a difference when you’re on a short list for being hired.

The summer slowdown is also an excellent time to conduct strategic planning. Unless this time of year is a busy one for your organization, you may find the summer months to be conducive to examining your business operations, financial picture, marketing ROI, workflow efficiency and other areas that will get your company organized and operating efficiently. Once Labor Day rolls around, you’ll be happy that you gave yourself a jump start as the busier fall and winter seasons approach. The six strategies suggested below are meant to inspire you to take decisive action during this season and prepare your business to flourish and grow like a garden in summer.

1. Launch a Gratitude Campaign

While technology has enabled us to communicate and connect from any location that supports internet access, virtual and other online conversations cannot replace the power of face2face relationship building. To that end, consider scheduling meet-ups during July and August. The summer months are usually an ideal time to catch up and sit down with your professional contacts in your locale who’ve been especially impactful—clients, colleagues, prospects who were almost clients, your business support team—bookkeeper, accountant, business attorney, internet security expert and website host—plus the referral sources who have been your cheerleaders. Whether you meet over a “power” breakfast buffet, an al fresco lunch, or after-work drinks at a roof top bar, showing those who’ve advanced your success how much you appreciate their support by inviting them to be your guest will display your gratitude.

2. Host an event

Why not celebrate summer by hosting a networking event? Everyone loves a good party and an invitation to a summertime get-together has the potential to make those on your guest list anticipate a good time and happy to RSVP. A weeknight networking meet-and-greet event could be a wonderful way to nurture important relationships and get to know a few people better as well. A prime source for your guest list could be locally based LinkedIn or other social media business connections. You might also invite other colleagues with whom you’ve become friendly, including those you’ve gotten to know at business association events you attend, whether or not you are a dues-paying member. Schedule your reception to begin at 5:30 PM or 6:00 PM and run for two hours. Order three or four light hors d’oeuvres and consider offering guests a gratis glass of sangria (maybe with a limit of one drink per person) until it’s gone—after that, it’s a cash bar for all and the conversation is sure to flow.

3. Offer summer promotions

Summer sales and special offers are common in certain industries and may work well in yours. The goal of your promotion will be to pique the curiosity of clients and prospects and tempt them to do business now, in order to save money. For example, you might offer a promotion where clients can refer someone to you and receive 15%-20% off their next service or product purchase. Depending on your business and behavior of your clients, a summer promotion may or not may not be lucrative in the short-term but may instead persuade a lapsed client to reconsider your services and products or convince a previously reluctant prospect to finally do business with you. If the outcome of your summer promotion succeeds in generating revenue from either current, lapsed, or new clients, you would be wise to tweak the promotion and repeat the campaign during the December holidays or New Year.

4. Assess and refresh the customer experience

So much of client retention is connected to their perception of the experience of doing business with your organization. Life (and business) is about managing expectations—and you can obtain first person insights on how clients feel about the experience you deliver by sending out a four or five question survey. It’s good business to invite clients to express what they appreciate and would like to see more of and as well, let you know what is no longer useful.

Give your survey good visibility—send it with monthly invoices, post it on your website and social media home pages and distribute it by SMS (and simultaneously test client reactions to that format, if you haven’t previously communicated with clients in that fashion!). Be sure to include a response deadline on the survey to encourage quick replies and give yourself enough data to analyze answers and decide what, if any, changes to incorporate.

Your survey can also be a pathway to collecting and amplifying user-generated content, a resource that can be an excellent strategy for gaining brand exposure and showcasing original content. Using the business’s location geotag or a unique but simple hashtag can incentivize customers to share their experiences, delivering authentic social proof and organically expanding the reach of marketing activities.

5. Optimize business operations

How much more revenue might your entity generate or how much more time would you have—for self-care, family time, social activities, or working on the business—if you outsourced one or more operational functions? You may already have a retainer arrangement with a network manager to keep digital operations up and running and providing cybersecurity, but who else might you hire? What would describe the job specs and how many hours per week seem necessary? Also, how much can you afford to pay? Or maybe it would be better to explore tech or artificial intelligence solutions to automate certain functions, whether client invoicing, email marketing, or chat bot responses to prospect inquiries? A worthy goal for any hiring that you do is to promote optimal customer service while minimizing administrative overhead.

6. Get an SBA/SCORE business coach

Rather than attempting to figure out important business decisions by yourself, why not contact the Small Business Association and ask to be put in touch with one of their experts who can help you to address the issues referenced in item #5? Founded in July 1953, the SBA has provided high-quality and comprehensive business development guidance at either no charge or for a modest fee. SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives, was founded in 1964 as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, is the nation’s largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors and a resource partner of the SBA. The mission of SCORE is to support SMBs, including Freelance professionals, with mentoring and educational workshops.

More than 13,000 active and retired business professionals, all of whom have entrepreneurship or senior-level corporate experience, volunteer their time and contribute their expertise to regularly meet with their SCORE clients to mentor and coach aspiring and established SMB owners. Mentors work with their clients to address issues and communicate best practices related to starting and growing a business, including writing a business plan, developing products, devising marketing strategies, financial management and business financing options, operations and hiring staff. Clients may connect with a SCORE mentor either virtually or face2face. Furthermore, SCORE presents a wide range of services including training, webinars, online workshops, courses on demand, and a library of online resources.

The SBA also supports female entrepreneurs at its Women’s Business Centers and focuses on veterans of both genders at its Veteran’s Business Development Offices, which operate in all 50 states. Members of Native American tribal communities, along with Native Hawaiians and Native Alaskans, may choose to work with the Office of Native American Affairs, which is also an SBA-sponsored program. Outside of the SBA, Native American current or aspiring business owners and Freelance professionals might also investigate The National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development in Mesa, AZ and/or the Native American Development Corporation of Billings, MT.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©skynesher/Getty Images

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A Strong Financial Foundation Is the Launchpad for Growth

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Here’s the scenario: business is good, and growing—sales revenue is up as compared to last year, clients are happy and their number is growing. So what’s the problem? For some reason, business is not making a profit. What’s wrong?

This puzzling and frustrating problem is more common than you think. It could be that expenses or debt payments are eating you alive, but there might be a less obvious problem—your financial management leaves something to be desired, so you’re unable to find and fix the money leaks. Let’s take a look at the usual suspects.

Do you invoice clients in a timely fashion, say, within 14 business days after completing a project? Are invoices paid within 30 days of receipt—or is 60 days the more likely payment timetable? Do you keep up with accounting/bookkeeping functions and complete the business financial statements—Income Statement, Cash-flow Statement and Balance Sheet—within 14 business days of the next month? Most of all, do you review the financial statements and analyze the info so that you are aware of the story your business financial data is telling you? Do you act on that information by making adjustments in how you operate—trimming expenses, adjusting prices, invoicing on time, for example? Beyond that, do you have a business budget and do you operate within it?

The moral of this story is that businesses do not always fail because of a product-market mismatch or an aggressive competitor who gobbles up market share. Sometimes a business can be a victim of its own success and grow faster than its financial foundation can support. The weak points are often either cash-flow deficiencies caused by late client payments, which may be a result of slow invoicing, unwieldy debt and expense payments, poor pricing strategy, or inadequate working capital. Fear not, my friend—with a bit of disciple, you can control most of these issues.

Money is the lifeblood of the business and along with sales revenue, you want to focus on building up enough working capital: that is, the amount of money that remains after business liabilities are subtracted from business assets (see your Balance Sheet). Working capital is liquid, meaning it’s available to float you now. You also want to promote good cash-flow, so that you can stay on top of accounts payable and, if applicable, payroll (whether for 1099NEC or W2 employees)—ideally, without dipping into the working capital fund. Your intentions to grow, expand and/or make capital improvements or upgrades to your business depend on the amount of available working capital, which is supported by revenue and cash-flow. If necessary, working capital can be used to pay operating costs while you’re waiting for the accounts receivable to be paid. That said, keep in mind that business growth plans cannot be viable unless adequate working capital is available to put things in motion. In other words, getting your financial house in order, step by step, is integral to facilitating the business growth that you envision. To that end, below are financial management practices that you may find effective.

Accounting–Staying on top of accounting/bookkeeping functions will keep you fully apprised of your company’s financial condition. You know that it’s not possible to effectively plan or manage the company without accurate financial records that provide information that you can review, analyze and use as decision-making guideposts. If your monthly revenue exceeds $2000, you might have the wherewithal to hire a bookkeeper or business accountant to prepare the monthly financial statements and the quarterly and annual tax filings. Personal referral is probably the best talent search method, but social media or NextDoor can also be helpful sources. However, don’t be afraid to do your own bookkeeping! Taking on the financial management of your company, even if only for a year or two, will give you numerous valuable insights that you would otherwise never obtain. You might investigate Quicken Simplifi to start the process.

  • Ensure that all transactions are recorded—every business lunch, every office equipment expense, each fee paid to attend a business networking meeting or professional development session, all client invoices. Document every spend, every month.
  • Ensure that transactions are correctly categorized.
  • Can every payment you receive be cross-referenced to an entry in the books?
  • Are monthly Profit & Loss and Cash-flow Statements and the Balance Sheet completed and closed out within 14 business days of the next month?

Accounts Receivable–A joint study conducted by SCORE, the Small Business Association mentoring program and the financial services company U.S. Bank revealed that as many as 82 percent of startups and small businesses fail due to poor cash-flow management. Sending an invoice is a wonderful feeling, but you hold your breath until payment is received. You need to get paid within 30 days in order to control and predict cash-flow. Business plans cannot be made until you can confirm the amount of available funds. Help yourself by invoicing in a timely fashion and also by discussing the invoicing schedule with every client and following it.

  • Is anticipated revenue (i.e., accounts receivable) linked to agreed-upon project milestone payments or, if you sell a product or service via subscription, are subscription renewals linked to accounts receivable? Are invoices promptly, perhaps automatically, sent according to contracted agreements?
  • Is the status of receivables updated once they are collected? Is there timely follow-up on unpaid invoices (e.g., reminders are sent on day 45)? Automated reminders will be a helpful method to implement a formal accounts receivable follow-up process.
  • If you have the type of business where extending credit to customers is the norm, have you developed a standard set of credit terms and customer credit limits?

Forecasting and budgeting–Planning, budgeting and forecasting are central to financing the company’s operations and short- and long-term goals. When forecasting and budgeting, you will be greatly assisted by software such as QuickBooks, Quicken, or other financial software solutions.

Forecasting is the process of making informed predictions about future business outcomes. The process can involve projections for specific business metrics, such as sales growth, or for industry changes, or recommending how you will be best positioned to navigate the economic landscape in which your company operates. Forecasting uses your company’s historical data and analyzes current market conditions to make predictions as to how much revenue your organization can expect to earn over the next few months or years. Companies use forecasting to support the development of business strategies. Historical company data is analyzed so that patterns can be recognized and used to predict future outcomes. While forecasting consists of estimates of future conditions and possible outcomes, the process can encourage you to consider a range of potential scenarios and in that way position the company to capitalize on potential outcomes that appear most likely to occur or prepare the company to adapt to potentially challenging conditions if they arise. Forecasts are usually updated as new information becomes available, to promote accuracy and relevance.

Budgeting details how the financial plan will be carried out each month and addresses items such as revenue, expenses, debts and anticipated cash-flow. A budget is a forecast of revenue and expenses over a specified future period, typically one year, and details how the financial plan will be implemented each month. The budgeting process can be challenging, particularly if clients don’t pay on time and undermine cash-flow, or if sales revenue is intermittent or your sales cycle is long. It is acceptable to adjust your budget to reflect the actual amount of revenue received or compare actual financial statements to determine how close they are to meeting or exceeding the budgeted revenue and expenses. Once the budget period has ended, it is essential that you compare the forecasts to the actual numbers. It is at this stage that you’ll discover whether the budget aligned with the expected expenses and revenue.

  • Operating Budget: The operating budget includes the expenses and revenue generated from the day-to-day business operations of the company. The operating budget also represents the overhead and administrative costs directly tied to producing the company products and services.
  • Cash-flow budget: A cash-flow budget helps determine the amount of cash generated by the company during a specific period. The company’s inflow and outflow of cash is critical because timely payment of expenses is dependent on cash that is both generated and available. Monitoring and encouraging the collection of accounts receivables helps you forecast the income that is due in a particular period.
  • Strategic Forecast: A spark of inspiration may strike like lightening and you might be amazed by your own creativity. If you’re serious about bringing your brilliant idea into reality, you’ll test its potential viability with strategic forecasting; the goals you pursue be both realistic and most likely attainable. Strategic forecasting is integral to making that determination. In Step I, you’ll determine whether your goal should be a primary or secondary target and whether it is short-term (e.g., one year) or long-term (e.g., three years) initiative and address the question of what the business aspires to achieve by pursuing this goal. Next, you’ll define the market conditions that the company operates in, to further evaluate the capabilities and resources needed to take on the goal. In Step 2, you may find it helpful to categorize the strategies you’ll use to pursue your goal into functional strategies and operational strategies. Functional strategies refer to the action plans and tactics you’ll use to implement the strategies; operational strategies focus on resource allocation used to achieve the goal. If your goal passes muster in Step 3, you can then develop your strategy roadmap. A successful strategy will anticipate challenges that are endemic in today’s fast-moving economic environment and will integrate risk management and an agile approach that bakes in the ability to adjust your strategies as new trends, opportunities and—to be realistic—obstacles appear.

Pricing–how you price your products or services is based on factors such as market demand, customer behavior, competitors and market position. Identifying a pricing strategy capable of driving revenue and maximizing profit without alienating customers is critical; identifying the pricing sweet spot your service or product can be challenging. Begin your pricing strategy by determining your pricing objectives, e.g., maximizing profit, increasing market share, or stimulating client acquisition. 

Remember that pricing influences your ability to pursue, and achieve, business goals because it determines the sales revenue and is, in most cases the primary, if not sole, contributor to working capital and profit—the engine that keeps your entity solvent and sustainable. When evaluating potential business goals, examine and, when necessary, adjust your pricing to enable the company to generate sales revenue that’s capable of providing the financial foundation that will facilitate your ability to achieve the growth, scale or expansion goals that you envision.

Give yourself reliable data and insights that enable informed pricing decisions, rather than relying on intuition or outdated market info when determining prices. Avoid methods inclined to produce ineffective pricing strategies that are unlikely to access the full revenue generation possibilities of your services and products.

Finally, be aware that clients may be willing to pay a premium for services or products that possess what they feel is a desirable differentiating characteristic. A unique characteristic may be perceived as a competitive advantage that sets your service or product apart from what is offered by other vendors—sustainability, for instance. Furthermore, clients are not infrequently willing to pay a premium to do business with a brand they consider trustworthy or prestigious. Below are pricing strategies and factors to keep in mind.

  • Cost-plus pricing is based on the cost and value of the time and effort (talent) required to develop your B2B solutions, or source/manufacture B2B or B2C products. From there, a profit margin that target clients will presumably accept is added, to create the selling price.
  • Value-based pricing is particularly attractive in that it reflects the maximum amount clients are willing to pay, and minimizes the focus on service or product production or acquisition coat, which might be difficult to calculate when developing B2B solutions.
  • Tiered pricing targets different customer segments and may produce additional revenue from those willing to pay a premium for upgrades and add-on features, or offer volume discounts to attract clients who have higher consumption rates.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Quentin Metsys (Flemish, 1465/1466-1530) The Money Changer and his Wife (1514) courtesy of the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.

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Business Rescue Strategy—Push Through, Pull Out, or Pivot?

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If the fluctuating and unpredictable economic conditions that have impacted the U.S. economy since well before the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic have taken a toll on your Freelance enterprise, know that your struggle is not an isolated incident. The persistence of those fluctuating and unpredictable economic conditions have been so prevalent that they’ve given rise to a group of defensive business practices collectively known as agile. Agile business practices equip organizations to respond quickly and effectively to adapt to unstable economic circumstances and position the organization to survive and perhaps even thrive when encountering a challenging business landscape.

Business owners and leaders, including Freelance professionals, who typically operate as a single-person entity must, as they navigate unexpected shifts in marketplace conditions, identify viable trends and other potential opportunities that will cushion their organization from destabilizing economic conditions. In some circumstances, the business owner or leader may eventually realize that the best way to access more favorable marketplace conditions is to institute substantive change within the organization’s business model and/or its product or service line. it may become apparent that in order to guide the company toward sustainable profitability, it will be necessary to pivot.

What is a pivot?

You’ve no doubt heard the term dozens of times in the last 10 – 15 years, but do you understand what a pivot entails? A pivot means to change direction and often refers to dance, sports, or business. Referring to the business realm, a pivot requires the company owners and/or leaders to implement a course correction, a change of direction intended to alter the organization’s business model strategy and, in many cases, alter the product or service line and target customer segments. The pivot confirms that an organization’s owners and leaders recognize that its products and/or services are not, and may never become, viable performers in the marketplace. The pivot is intended to jump-start revenue and grow market share; the pivot is a relaunch into what is expected to be a more favorable competitive environment that will enable the company to grow and thrive.

A pivot that performs and produces the outcomes you need requires considerable preparation, skillful execution and good timing. Preparing to pivot begins with moving beyond merely entertaining the possibility of launching a pivot to rolling up your sleeves and doing the necessary work that will tell you whether or not a pivot will be a good choice for your company and which components of your business that should pivot. You’ll use relevant data to guide the strategies you’ll develop to implement a pivot that’s capable of saving your company.

Will the Key Performance Indicators you choose for the pivot recommend that you stay the course and push through—or pull out and close the company? Or, do your KPIs support your plan to pivot and take the company in a new direction? What elements of your business will it be beneficial to change—products or services, sales or distribution strategy, or the target customers? Whatever your data and organizational capabilities indicate as the best format and execution for your pivot, agility, flexibility, collaboration and communication will be central to achieving long-term success.

As I’m sure you’ve guessed, pivoting is a risk and only you can define what represents acceptable risk. Define your capacity to create and manage change by measuring the cost of implementing your pivot and then weighing that cost against the potential rewards. Knowledge is key—a data-driven decision has the best capacity to bring about the best outcomes and it is therefore essential that you access trustworthy sources of relevant data. You may also want to engage the services of an experienced business coach to advise you with the pivot. The Small Business Association SCORE program can be an excellent resource; it is free and available in all 50 states.

When should you consider a pivot?

From technological advancements to the evolving preferences of target customers, from economic upheavals in your local, regional, or national location to cratering company performance metrics or the appearance of an aggressive new competitor, either internal or external factors can force a company to consider pivoting in response to difficult changes. Business owners and leaders are advised to continually observe the environment in which they operate and that includes recognizing signs that indicate it’s time to respond to powerful changes in your marketplace that may indicate the need for radical response—that is, a pivot.

In contrast, not every pivot is a response to negative factors. Sometimes, an attractive opportunity presents itself, providing motivation to hop on board, perhaps by entering a new and potentially lucrative market niche. be advised that pivoting isn’t a magical solution for all business problems; a decision of this magnitude requires due diligence. You might consider a pivot when:

  • Substantial investments of focus and capital have not produced adequate progress
  • The ability to find new customers reaches a plateau and ceases to show a significant upward trajectory
  • Customer response to your products falls short of expectations
  • Intense competition in the market blocks growth

Decision process

1. Understand the business’s strengths (and weaknesses) If you recognize that there must be a pivot, then confirm which areas of your business will change and why. It is imperative to recognize the value of those elements of your strategy and operations that are still relevant. Have the wisdom to play to your strengths and maintain what works.

2. Check in with customers Talk to customers through surveys, feedback forms, or social media to confirm their needs and pain points. This exercise will either tell you that the core offering is not the problem, or it will tell you where, within the offering, change must occur. Additionally, consult the customer data produced by tools like Google Analytics and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms. Analyze all of your customer behavior, such as how they used the product or service, what pages they visited, and how long they spent there. Customer preferences will emerge. You can also monitor social sites to see what customers are saying about your brand. Figure out where the market is, what customers actually want, and go from there. Conducting extensive market research, data analysis and forecasting is essential before deciding whether or not to pivot.

It is well known that the cost of acquiring a new customer costs significantly more than that of retaining an existing one. During the pivot, do your best to keep existing customers. Whether you are a B2B or B2C business, a change in your operating model could mean significant disruption for customers; show customers that they matter by developing and communicating a transition plan as a way to make continuing to do business with you seamless and pleasant. It is in your interest to maintain customer trust and prevent an expensive post-pivot acquisition campaign. However, understand that the pivot will not appeal to everyone. As long as you have consulted customers beforehand and know how the majority feels, you can be confident that those expressing discontentment with new prices or useability, for example, do not represent your base. If you have done your homework, you will already know who these customers are, just as you will have identified those likely to benefit most from the pivot.

Timing

Recognizing the need to pivot and deciding to execute are two different things. Conducting extensive market research, data analysis and forecasting is essential before deciding next steps. Listening to what the market tells you to decide in regard to the pivot is most likely the right move. It is often said that too many people fall victim to over-analysis and miss market opportunity.

Realize that every business encounters change and owners must react if they want to stay current with their audiences and be competitive within their industry. The worst thing for a business is to become stagnant and irrelevant. The success of a new business model depends on the ability to adapt to fast-changing marketplace conditions. The window of opportunity opens only briefly, so the confidence in your team, resources and ability to execute are key measurements in evaluating a decision to pivot. Adapting to new market developments is the only way to ensure success, especially and timing is always a consideration.

Successful implementation

The next phase of the pivot is setting everything in motion. Implementation can be one of the most challenging aspects because your business will be vulnerable to push-back from customers and, if you have any, your employees. Change is often perceived as threatening.

This is the phase where clear, effective communication becomes critical. You will feel resistance from your employees who are uncomfortable with change. Stakeholders who weren’t involved in the decision will feel slighted. Your company’s messaging and resolve must be unwavering regardless of who says what. Communicating this shift from the point of empathy and care while respectfully sharing the need for a pivot and how it will work is essential to keeping the process steady. Pivoting your business is never easy, but planning and implementing the process effectively can be successful.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Bebe Neuwirth models a dancer’s pivot in the musical Chicago (written by John Kander and Fred Ebb, choreography by Bob Fosse, 1975). Photo by Dan Chavkin (1996), courtesy of Dance Magazine Archives.