Ann Hollier
Article By Ann Hollier
I don’t recommend launching a business this way. I did just about everything I advise my executive coaching clients not to do. Truth is, I literally had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know I was starting a business of my own. I thought I was recovering from extreme burnout after helping someone else’s startup for 3 ½ years. Silly me.
I have a Ph.D. in psychological research and 20 years’ experience as a senior executive in research-based marketing and management consulting. I’ve advised Fortune 500s, television networks, and campaign strategists that put two presidents in the white house. I know a lot about advertising, branding, competitive positioning, and staff and customer satisfaction. I was an early adopter in online market research. But I didn’t know beans about running my own business.
For the first year after I left my office job I slept, exhausted from overwork. I knew going back would ruin my health for good, but as I started to feel better I had no idea what came next. So, for the next two years I procrastinated. I snorkeled. I learned to scuba dive. I went white water rafting, running Class V rapids with names like Exterminator and Nesowadnehunk Falls (that’s right, as in waterfall). I went camping and backpacking. I explored caves. I tried rock climbing. I went for long walks. I jogged. I ran two marathons to raise money for cancer research.
I lived on a shoestring, but as my reserves dwindled a funny thing happened. Clients began knocking on my door. My former employer hired me to consult. Vendors I brought in as collaborators on one project hired me for projects of their own. Referrals came my way. That was the lucky part.
Then there was the dumb part. I made almost every classic mistake an entrepreneur can make. An expert in marketing, I wasn’t doing any. I turned down boring or unpleasant clients, but I left myself at the mercy of the rest. My life was feast or famine. I made great money one month only to go six more without bringing in another dime. I had no marketing plan, and no business plan either.
I did everything myself. I had no administrative assistant, even though I would rather chew off both arms than open the mail or do filing. I had no bookkeeper, CPA, or computer guru. I spent untold hours on tasks I hated and did poorly, instead of hiring people who were experts, freeing me to concentrate on work at a far higher billable rate than such support services cost.
Worst of all, I was not actually doing what I loved. I was still in market research because it was what I knew, and working with high profile clients paid well. The nuts and bolts of research were never more than a means to an end. My real passion was sitting down with my client at the end of the project to figure out what came next. Given what we had learned, what should they now go and DO? The really successful ones usually kept me around as a consultant to help with the rollout. Those were a blast.
Over the years, I’ve been correcting my business mistakes. I’ve gradually transitioned from consulting to executive performance coaching – a blend of coaching, consulting, and advising, building business leaders and their teams into execution engines and peak performers. I’ve found help for most tasks I don’t like, or that aren’t billable. I’ve learned a lot about the relationship marketing so vital to my business. I know exactly what mix of marketing activities I need to keep my practice filled, and my business plan tells me what mix of clients I need to hit my revenue targets for the year.
Best of all, I’ve discovered that my practice is nearly recession proof. In a strong market executives want to work smarter and faster in a sustainable way to stay ahead of the competition. Now with money tight and companies downsizing, business leaders want to do more with less in a sustainable way to stay ahead of the competition.
But I am looking for a new administrative assistant to help me before I chew off both arms.
E. Ann Hollier, Ph.D. – Cogent Executive Coaching
978-270-3282
ann@annhollier.com
http://annhollier.com/
