We Are a Small Business, Supporting Small Businesses

One thing you should know about my business is that we are a small business, supporting other small businesses. I am extremely passionate about supporting other small businesses.

And I have a confession. In the past, I’ve done whatever I could, no matter the cost to myself to help someone. It didn’t matter if I lost money, or I was totally doing 3X what I said I’d do in my contract- I’d do it. Because I’m a helper.

Here’s the thing that I learned about that. I was doing myself a HUGE disservice, and I was doing my team a huge disservice. I created a situation where I had trouble paying bills, where I was up working a million hours a day, and I was running myself off the rails.

And don’t forget to mention — I was hiring people- who I was paying more than I made on some clients- and losing money- AND get this- the people I hired saw me as Mrs. Money Bags, so I could AFFORD to pay them whatever, and I would still have plenty of money left over. And they’d do crappy work, and it was a whole cycle.

It wasn’t working very well for me. OK. It wasn’t working at all. What a pain.

Trying to do the right thing, and getting burned. Clients expecting me to work for a fraction of what it actually costs to provide good service. Clients expecting me to discount services, and do whatever it takes to keep them as clients. Sometimes calling me in the middle of the night, demanding I hop to it RIGHT THEN.

Here’s the thing I learned- I have to charge rather a lot of money to be profitable. And I have to let people who are unhappy with me go- and find their own way.

The client who wanted to call me at 2:00 AM over something trivial? I’m sorry- not a good fit. I’m not your whipping girl.

The client who refused to talk to me at the beginning of Covid, and wanted me to find out what they were doing based on what they posted on Facebook, rather than telling me directly- so we could formulate a strategy to deal with it? Nope.

And the list goes on.

Ya’ll, doing digital marketing, building websites, SEO, managing social media, and copywriting are not easy. It is extremely costly to buy the right software, to spend hours and hours doing the work, creating graphics, constant training, and all the things.

Please know that we LOVE helping small businesses, but we can’t do it for free, and we’re not here to be your whipping boy. (And if you want it for super cheap- be my guest- I’ll be here when it’s time to clean it up. )