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When the Founder Is the Rainmaker: How to Scale Without Losing the Spark
In many founder-led businesses, the founder isn’t just the leader—they’re also the best (and often only) rainmaker. They land the big deals. They have the trusted relationships. They know the pitch inside and out because they are the pitch.
It works—until it doesn’t.
As the business grows, this model creates a bottleneck. Every new opportunity depends on one and only person. And it’s the same person every time. But there’s a downside. When that person is also responsible for running the business, mentoring the team, and shaping the vision, something eventually gives.
Selecting a Strategy for Market Leadership: Part Two
Tue, Sep 29, 2020 — Customer Needs and Scanning for Trends In the business-to-business (B2B) world, the purchasing process is far more complex than the journey undertaken by an individual consumer. B2B deals tend to be more concentrated and have larger value, and include more people in a higher-stakes battle for large sales. In the first article of the series, we talked about the importance of having a strategy. Understanding the role that the customer and current trends take in influencing the purchasing process is critical to defining your go-to-market strategy. In this blog, we’ll take a deeper look at these influential factors.
Selecting a Strategy for Market Leadership
Tue, Sep 22, 2020 — Part I: Your Business in the New Normal Small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) are the shoulders upon which America stands. With more than 90 percent of American businesses comprising the SME universe, it’s easy to understand why they are considered to be the backbone of the economy. Far more people deliver goods and services – and earn their paychecks – on behalf of SMEs than they do from large enterprises. In spite of this, it’s the large corporations that make headlines on CNBC and wield disproportionate influence on their chosen markets. Though these headlines make it easy to believe that competition is a slug-fest between huge players in a market, the reality, it turns out, is quite different: Even in spite of the pandemic, many mid-market companies have maintained profitability -- and are still growing.
Executing Through Economic Challenges: Part Three
Wed, Sep 16, 2020 — Capital Considerations of COVID As a business owner who has planned and prepared your company to survive dips in demand, little could have braced you for the Grand Canyon-sized maw that opened when the coronavirus struck this spring. The journey back from the challenges of pandemic gloom, for many, has required a type of mettle that we never thought we had. If you’ve tuned in to the two earlier segments of this series, you have understood that the climb back to the rim of the canyon requires a commitment to execution, insights, and empathy, as well as gauging the economic health of your organization.
Executing Through Economic Challenges: Part Two
Mon, Sep 14, 2020 — Gauging Your Economic Health As a business owner in 2020, there are two words that would likely strike fear in your heart – and they are not “global pandemic.” “How’s business?” has become the couplet most reviled by many CEOs – including those who traditionally answer that query with a smile, thumbs up, and hearty laugh. The coronavirus has indeed transformed the outlook for many businesses, and in my previous blog we discussed the critical importance of execution, perspective, and empathy in withstanding the challenges that continue to lap at our doorstep.
Executing Through Economic Challenges: Part One
Wed, Sep 9, 2020 — Shake Off the Shock-and-Awe Hardly anyone wants to hear it—it’s all so obvious—but the grim reality is front and center, so I’ll step up and say it. Nothing has torpedoed the U.S. economic growth engine like COVID-19. All at once, business ground to a halt back in March 2020 and we’ve all been grinding the gears and cycling the starter ever since, in a desperate bid to spark a restart. The desire to revive the revenue machinery has caused many businesses to tear up the playbook, toss out the strategic plan, and feed the engine whatever fuel they can get their hands on.
Top 5 Actions to Positively Impact Financials that CEOs of Mid-Sized Companies Can Do Now
Thu, Aug 20, 2020 — Co-Authored by Aurora Toth, CMO, Chief Outsiders and John Morris, Partner, B2B CFO We are well past the initial shock that first accompanied the onset of COVID-19, and the ensuing economic downturn. At this point, many CEOs realize that coping strategies need to evolve. So how does a company move forward without increasing financial risk while focusing on future growth? My colleague, John Morris, a Twin Cities-based Fractional CFO with B2BCFO and I recently talked about how we are counseling our clients on this key topic, particularly in light of the still-uncertain future. John offered up five immediate actions CEOs of mid-sized companies should be taking to ensure their companies are set up for financial success.
How to Right-Size your Marketing Budget and Get C-Suite Alignment – Part Two
Tue, Jul 7, 2020 — Part Two: Aligning Priorities and Spending with the CEO and CFO Part 1 of this article looked at best practices for determining optimal marketing spending levels. In part 2, we look at how marketing leaders need to align with the CEO and CFO on marketing spending priorities. To help answer this question, I’ve turned to marketing strategy and budget expert Peter Mahoney, CEO of Plannuh, Inc. Peter has decades of experience managing marketing teams, strategy and budgets, including managing a $150M annual budget at Nuance. Peter started Plannuh in 2017 to address the pain and suffering companies experience managing marketing budgets and plans with disconnected tools.
The Reopening Playbook — Real Strategies to Succeed Right Now in Today’s Marketplace
Mon, Jul 6, 2020 — Unless you are reading this blog from the Marshall Islands, Samoa, or about 10 other remote archipelagos, you likely have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. And my guess is you’re sick of reading introductions like, “In light of these trying times,” or “We’re all in this together.” Chances are as a company owner/CEO, you feel quite like you’re in this all by yourself. After all—it’s lonely at the top. So, a few practical tips to move your business through the hiccups and return to healthy growth might be helpful. In the next five to seven minutes, I hope to help jumpstart your current and post-COVID playbook. One prerequisite: Take a look at my previous blog about dealing with changes in the economy - in particular, the section that helps you assess what phase of growth your company finds itself in as you prepare to “reopen.”
How to Right-Size your Marketing Budget and Get C-Suite Alignment
Tue, Jun 23, 2020 — Part One: Determining Optimal Spending Levels and Overcoming Key Challenges Marketing budgets make CEOs and CFOs uncomfortable. They often are large, have lots of complicated moving parts, and their impact can be hard to measure and attribute to marketing. Marketing budgets commonly range from low single digits to 15% of revenue (and even higher for companies undergoing rapid growth). And by the way, there is no one “right” benchmark for marketing budgets. In this two-part series, marketing strategy and budget expert Peter Mahoney and CMO Jeff Loeb will pull from their experience and share tips on right-sizing marketing budgets and preparing for challenges you may encounter.