What is a "Vacation" for an Entrepreneur?
I'm pretty good about disconnecting from work when I go on vacation, but as any entrepreneur knows, sometimes, life just doesn't play along with your plans.
The day before we were slated to go on a 2-week trip to Europe for my brother's wedding, one of our email service providers completely shut down our Google Workspace due to a technical error. To make matters worse, their support took two days to acknowledge the issue and eventually re-enable our email.
Between packing and getting our two kids ready to fly to Europe, I was frantically coordinating backup plans with the team, barraging our email provider's support lines, and trying to make sure clients knew we hadn't shut down the company as their emails to us bounced back.
While the issue was (mostly) resolved as I took off, it reminded me how fragile things are in small business. No matter how strong your processes are, team is, or recurring revenue commitments are, we're all at the mercy of things outside of our control. It's part of the reason entrepreneurship just isn't right for a lot of people.
Other than that hiccup, I have to say, my vacation was pretty great. Both companies continued closing new deals and running without a hitch while I spent time with family.
As I always say, the highs are high and the lows are really low.
12 Essential Books for Entrepreneurs
I talk to entrepreneurs every day, and I always ask them for their book recommendations.
Candidly, many of them should have just been a blog post, but there are a few that stand out. Here are 12 books that have profoundly impacted my entrepreneurial journey, but the comments are open, so I'd like to hear yours!
Reaching Developers with Content Marketing
I spent the first ten years of my career writing code for a living, and like all developers, I spent a good portion of each day searching for and reading content related to building software. A lot of people outside the industry don’t realize how much time software developers spend reading, but it’s a big part of the job.
Developers are also more skeptical of traditional marketing and advertising than the average consumer. They use ad blockers at a higher rate than others, and many are especially turned off by unsolicited email.
So how can companies that want to reach software developers build awareness for their products and reach this highly engaged yet highly discerning audience?
The short answer is content marketing.
How Selling an Agency Works
A lot of agency owners don't understand how selling their business works...at all.
I've been living in this world for the past two years and spoken to countless acquirers and acquirees. Let's talk about the different types of buyers you might see...
Talking with Competitors
I've always been a fan of knowing the lay of the land, including competitors because you never know how those relationships may help. In the past year, I've had acquisition talks with several of them, and I have to say, it wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't opened the dialogue years earlier.