Diary of a CEO: Entry #3
Dear Reader,
I hope you're doing well, I'm excited to tell you about my week. This week I focused on creating opportunities for the New Year, and thinking outside of the box. I went into the week feeling really positive and confident and I’m ending the week feeling the same way.
A few key things I did:
Listened to positive and affirming music all week, I call my playlist “reinforcements” – it's corny (I know) but you can’t get stressed or bogged down listening to upbeat music!!
Meal prepped so I didn’t have too many decisions to make each day
Took intentional breaks to breath and breaks at the end of the day to connect with people, this really helps me to get out of my head.
Researched how businesses in other industries operate to generate ideas for Ringlet
The research piece really helped me to think about how to make Ringlet more agile and what I can learn and apply from other industries to improve our services, sales, and efficiencies.
From construction, I read a lot about how subcontractors work and thought about how we can create more jobs and opportunities to work with other companies at Ringlet if we subcontract expertise. This will require giving ourselves a longer sales and onboarding lead time, but it will benefit our clients in being a one-stop shop for all their needs.
From the legal industry, I worked though what restructuring some of our services would look like on a different type of retainer basis and hourly beyond that retainer.
From art, I thought more about how value and perceived value impact work and what the art world can teach about building brands and evoking emotion through work. I know I want Ringlet to provide work for its employees that is truly fulfilling to them in the way art tends to be.
So from all of that I focused on two things for 2023 planning; sales and services.
I tailored the 3 core services we offer; Strategy, Design, and Marketing Campaigns, and developed new copy and SOPs for those services. Then I looked at everything our clients additionally ask us for and developed a menu of a-la-carte services that we’ll be launching in 2023 to highlight our team and subcontractors skill sets and lock in affordable pricing for clients.
With sales, I wanted to develop a more dynamic way to make sales and create job opportunities for marketers and Ringlet fans. In thinking about what’s in my LinkedIn DMs, the ability to give people a flexible work experience, and fostering community I’ve decided to do sales differently. Rather than having 2 full time sales reps at Ringlet I’m introducing a generous commission based sales cohort.
People will be able to apply for paid sales training and will be welcome in all Ringlet team calls (though not required). They’ll be given all the tools to make sales, and the flexibility to work on their own time for the income they want through 5-8% commissions on won contracts paid within 30 days of the client signing.
That could be anywhere from $175-4,000/sale from commissions. My concept here is that young people who want practice in sales and training can have the ability to make supplemental income while learning key sales skills, and people re-entering the workforce who want flexible work can find community, support, and no minimum hourly commitment within this cohort. Openings in this cohort will be launching next week with training throughout the end of the year.
2023 is 50 days away and I’m ending this week feeling proud of the strides I’ve made towards our plan for the new year and I see the path of what else I need to do. The time I allowed myself in my schedule to focus, breath, and research paid off.
If you have any questions or need help making your 2023 plan know that I’m here and am beyond happy to help! I still have some consulting hours available before the New Year.
Have a wonderful weekend! As always, thank you for reading.
XOXO