Tracking time = Focusing on the wrong thing
When most prospects ask you about what’s your hourly rate, the focus is on the wrong thing —either to measure AND to use as a metric. Because time is not a resource. Because a rate is not a price, but a variable. Because it doesn’t focus on value, but on an arbitrary “cost”. Here’s what Tim Williams says about it in “The Unnecessary Cost Of Tracking Time”. Even the most ardent adherents to the time-based billing system will acknowledge that time logged on a timesheet does not equal value…
Rates and scope
The first reply to “What are your rates?”is NOT “It depends on the scope and time involved”. Neither is “What’s your budget?” Rates A rate is a factor to multiply or measure with another.”My rate is X. I’ll need Y time. The bill should be around X.Y” (Which is always more) It guesses on how much (time) it will need to get done. It transfers the risk onto the client. Which brings us to say”I miscalculated how long it would take. I should have estimated 3X. Well, dear client, now YOU have to…
A new luxury
Talking to a person is the new luxury. And that’s the worst business decision made by most companies. While tech is essential to our everyday lives, getting to use it for the sakes of “efficiency” is off focus. Isn’t it abhorrently bad (annoying and frustrating) that when you try to find some answer to a question you have… you end up “talking” to a bot that loops you into a never ending non-sense cycle of same, flat answers? If businesses were really customer-centered, wouldn’t they try to…
Boredom and creativity
Get bored and make something. If you make it a prompt What would you LLM of choice do? Answer: nothing. Because a machine can’t get bored.
Trends for 2024
Personal brand(ing), authentic content, content repurposing, community, experiences… All of these are flat and chatgpt can give you the same answer. And none of them will make you stand out. Personal brand… bc it doesn’t exist. You’re not a thing. Authentic content… because it’s not you who determines what’s authentic and what not. It’s your audience. Content repurposing… bc it’s been always there. It’s using a different medium for content. Only now under this “pretty(?)” name….
On trend
If you’re focusing most of your efforts on “What’s on trend for the next year”, there might be some higher risk that things don’t work out —in the long run. A trend is temporal. It van get “in fashion” for a certain period… and then be “out of fashion” just as fast. While it’s good to see what’s going on around you and where things might be trending, get a deeper view of where your customers are trying to get. Agnostic of product, solution and tech. ‘Cause they might change in the blink of…
The option to say no
When you’re about to ask for something, be gracious and give control to the other one to say “No” without feeling guilt for saying so. That way you’ll save both of you of fake “Yes” and “I’ll think about it”. A couple of ways to do this: Feel free to say no, but it’d be amazing if you could. [Here comes your ask]. It’s totally ok to say no, and here I have something to ask [your ask]. We’re fine if you say no, but I need your help with something important to me.
Tennis or golf?
It doesn’t matter. Business (or innovation or disruption) is not a “winning” game. Unlike golf or tennis, where you know when you win (because the game finished), innovating/disrupting doesn’t have a fixed timeframe. It’s like saying that if someone didn’t stand out or reached a set of metrics in X timeframe, they lost. Even when setting yearly goals. ie X revenue in a year. If the goal was not achieved, it doesn’t mean it’s lost (in most cases). Could it be because of lack of resources? Lack…
Great work is not what makes people hire you.
Really. You’ve seen this: “We do great work.” Have you ever seen anyone coming and saying: “We do shit work. Hire us. We’ll make you fail.”? Of course not. It’ll be ridiculous. Of course you want to do great work. Who would not? (taking you actually care about your customers and business). And good-fits for you are customers who actually don’t (really) care about how great work you do, but how great is the transformation you help them go through. Just think about this: If “great work” is what…
Does great work really matters?
The common advice is that, if you do “great work”, you’ll close more deals or that this “great work” will make you stand out —which will automatically bring you clients that value what you do. However, the only ones who can tell good enough on the outside from “great work” are your peers. On the other hand, the ones who can tell work that delivers and brings results on what your clients expect, are your clients. And they fund your mission. While “great work” is a nice way to say what you do…
