As a postscript to an email exchange the other day, I asked an entrepreneur I know how his business is doing. He responded with much more than I bargained for.
His comments below are slightly edited to preserve his anonymity.
Hi Rick:
I’ve got to tell you that I have learned so much about business in the last six months.
Our clientele was mostly U.S.-based companies. Our budgets got cut or eliminated so we lost over half our business. It nearly killed us.
We reacted by redefining our business model. By tackling smaller businesses and creating a monthly residual service, we pulled through. We are now squeezing the most profit possible out of the jobs we have.
Basically we got lean, eliminated unnecessary expenses and expenditures and got totally focused on our clients.
Last year we grew so fast that I kept hiring bodies and throwing them into the mix. We grossed a lot of money but had no profit at the end of the year.
Knowing what I know now, I would like to go back in time and do things our new way. I can’t help but think of how much profit we could have had.
The good news is we pulled through and I’m now slowly growing the business in a more intelligent manner.
Cheers!
Cheers indeed. Here's to learning from our mistakes!
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