First a quick reminder: don’t forget about our Project Planning Workbook and Punchlist Spreadsheet, and our consulting services! Targeted, useful, practical, and developed over my 20 years in the industry…take a look!
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 23% of new businesses fail within the first two years of opening, 48% within the first five years, and 65% within the first ten years.
As I’ve been preparing to celebrate Runcible Studios’ tenth birthday [yesterday!], I’ve thought a lot about those statistics.
Only 35% of businesses make it as far as we have, here at Runcible. To say I’m proud of that would be quite an understatement!
As anyone who has started and run a business knows, it’s a constant stream of ups and downs, of having confidence and being wracked with insecurity and doubt, of curve balls, challenges, and surprises. [Global pandemic, anyone?!]
To make it through all that, while providing good services to our clients, gainful employment for our employees, steady income for myself, great projects we’re proud of, and showing year over year improvements in profit, revenue, and client satisfaction is - in a word - exhilarating. And exhausting. And fun! [Most of the time.]
I could go on and on and on with thanks to the people who’ve been a part of Runcible’s success. There are hundreds, if not thousands - clients, employees, friends, contractors, engineers, consultants - people who believed in me when Runcible was me on a laptop at my dining room table.
But I think it might be more interesting to share some lessons I’ve learned over the past ten years, to honor the contributions and support of all those folks!
So let’s dive in. First of all…this is not a comprehensive list! I could probably do one of these every month for the foreseeable future. Maybe I will?!
People do business with people they like.
Profit first, then art.
Get to NO.
This meeting costs $37,500.
Let’s take a look.
Find the dogwalkers.
Think at 1/4 scale, 1/16 scale, and 1:200 all at once.
How hard can it be?
There is always a way.
The buck stops with you.
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