I’m the founder of a writing agency called Express Writers, going strong for over five years now (launch date May 2011). We have about 60 writers, five staff members, and several hundred clients.
Here’s the thing...
Running a company, while it may look fun and pretty on the outside, can be the most blood-sucking career you’ll ever embark on.
This year by far has been my most difficult year as an entrepreneur.
I came a half-inch away from quitting it all, this year.
If I could have looked in a crystal ball and saw the month of May—and the subsequent months that followed—I probably wouldn’t have started my business back in 2011.
But on the flip side, if I could have looked ahead and saw the month of October and November, and the amount of growth in store for my little company—I would have pushed through it all even harder with a brighter ray of hope on my face.
In short, 2016 has been my year of greatest failures, and greatest successes.
Here’s what happened, and what I learned.
My greatest failures happened this year
I caught my two trusted managers embezzling from me in May—people I trusted for three years to run my business.
I lost a lot of money to an ongoing scam they were running in their pay tracker, and it made May of this year one of the most difficult months I’ve undergone in my life. I worked 90 hours in one week that month. (I put a podcast out about the major lessons I’ve since learned from the embezzlement discovery.)
Since then, we’ve had new hire after new hire fail us in subsequent months, and I’ve had to step up to the plate and work in the role I’m hiring for more times than I can count. It’s severely burned me out. But I refuse to put the quality of our products or the care of our clients in someone’s hands who is dropping the ball and not even caring about it. Nope. You live and learn: and if there’s one thing I’m learning this year, it’s how to spot the right person for the job.
My greatest successes happened this year
This year, my best move happened when I hired the best people I’ve ever found for my company. It took a lot of time, and people, to get there. And in that action, I laid the groundwork of all of my subsequent incredible successes for 2016. It is because of my new staff that we’ve had one of the busiest months we’ve ever had, and one of the biggest client contracts that has ever come our way. The content strategy, the support, and the mentoring my new staff have given to both clients and our team of writers is unparalleled.
I also was able to fly out to NYC (for the first time ever!) with three of my company staff members, and attend my first tech conference ever - the Search Engine Journal summit. (Recap of the event and what we learned on our blog, here.) It was an amazing experience and has inspired me to think about many more events in 2017.
Still, success has been a struggle this year. Picking up the work of several people when new hires drop has been my biggest burnout. To the point of turning to my husband and saying, “I could quit tomorrow, get a 9-5, and be less stressed immediately.”
But I’m not about to give up that easy. I’m going to keep plodding a little longer. We’re almost there, and I know it. We’re almost at that place where I can retire and write books the rest of my life. When the systems we are building launch, we’ll have automated 50% of the management that goes into our company.
Since I’ve been through my greatest losses, and strongest recovery as a business owner this year, I decided to write out some key lessons to share from it all. Enjoy!
1. Processes, systems, and standards aren’t the secret if you want growth: hiring people that are natural-born at what they do is the real secret to growth
There’s a reason more and more agencies are partnering up with driven entrepreneurs in their industries.
Why companies are picking young, enthusiastic marketers to “consult” their firm.
And why unique people that don’t fit within a “resume” mold are chosen to work at high-level positions, in high-level companies.
You know why?
Because an amazing person with a natural-born skillset, aka “love” for what they do, is the #1 characteristic you want in an employee hired with the purpose of helping your company grow.
You want a quality process enforced? You want someone to make sure that your products are delivered within great standards? In the past, for my writing agency, I called that person an editor. Today, I have a unique mix of people: expert content marketers with hats in the game (years and years of knowledge), and young, enthusiastic, smart creators who know skillsets on the side like how to build an entire site from scratch. These people make a company culture happen—not just an editing or support process. They’re smart, adaptive, and know what to do with me barely showing them the way.
I was lucky enough this year to find and hire someone that I’d admired in the industry for years. Our clients have told me her support is 10x better than the previous person in that role.
Here’s whats cool. If you can pick someone up when they need you, and they’re an awesome fit for your industry that no one else has found yet, you’re in luck. Your company will significantly benefit from it.
There’s a few ways you can grab this person:
- An expert with years of experience, but currently stuck in a bad job & motivated by cash
- Someone just out of college who is enthusiastic, ready to learn, and motivated to work
- Someone that doesn’t have a degree or polished “skill” to show off, but is a real diamond in the rough
Because of the unique mix of people we have in our team, we’ve heard things like “we won’t go anywhere else now” from brand new clients because of what has been growing inside our team: a culture, a mode of thinking, and even one-on-one mentoring for our writers that show promising characteristics of adaptability. It’s been incredible for our team.
And guess what? I’m seeing a trend of hiring growth hackers occur more and more.
Example: Web Profits just teamed up with major American entrepreneur Sujan Patel this fall. They’re located in Australia, one of the biggest web agencies in existence in that country, and the story was that they looked for someone who could expand their company to the U.S. in the biggest way possible. They picked Sujan, and he’s even been given the honorary title of their founder!
I think we’ll see more and more of these collaborations happen.
That’s great, Julia, but where do I find these shining stars? And how much am I going to have to pay them?
You’ll know it when you see it.
But be prepared to look for them in all corners. Who’s in your LinkedIn connections that you admire? In your Twitter feed? Who do you respect in your field that could even be out of work? Don’t underestimate any circumstance. Money, immediate paid work, talks.
2. Never let your team (outsourced help, contractor, employee) go hands-off without communication
Simple, you might say.
But when things are going good, it’s tempting to do this—and it happens a lot. Just watch Restaurant Impossible or Hotel Impossible (two of my favorite shows).
Never become a hands-off boss.
No matter how amazing they are at their job. No matter how much you trust them.
Not even if they’re family.
The day you do that is the day your employee(s) know they can start getting away with anything.
Crap they couldn’t pull if you were right there in the office with them.
This year, I went from barely holding a staff meeting in a month with my managers, to daily group meetings on Skype with everyone in my staff. We even have a separate group conversation thread for multiple conversations and will probably move to Slack soon. We over-communicate: and I wouldn’t have it any other way. We’ve caught serious issues that could have meant losing a four-figure client by simply keeping the lines of communication open.
3. Money losses don’t mean you’ve failed
No matter how big the money losses were.
I’m going to repeat this.
Money lost doesn’t mean you’ve lost.
Don’t get hung up on the fact you’ve lost money.
Get over it.
Have the mindset you’ll make double in a month—and you will.
I had scary money losses this year. If I thought too long about it, I would feel like a total failure.
Then, we had the biggest client we’ve ever had walk in. And we were able to give them an awesome deliverable. Our team rocked it. We hired one of the best people I’ve ever added to the staff. And, this year, we’ve been able to give the core of our team (our amazing team of writers) real, usable tools to help them significantly grow with us.
So, there you have it.
Some simple lessons rounded up from my craziest year in business, 2016.
Enjoy.
And go hire someone that’s born to work for your business. It’ll be your best decision.
Julia is the best-selling author of So You Think You Can Write? The Definitive Guide to Successful Online Writing. She’s also the CEO of Express Writers. Follow Julia on Facebook and read her musings at the Write Blog.