by David Andrew Wiebe | Mar 30, 2022 | Entrepreneurship
What do you do when you’re starting to feel burnt out, your bank account is less than ideal, you’re waiting on a payment that’s being held in escrow, you need to move in two months, and as result, you can’t move certain aspects of your project forward?
This is exactly what I’ve been facing. And here’s what I’ve been discovering in limbo.
Clear Thinking & Problem Solving Go Out the Window with Burnout
You have a project, you know what the goal is, even your team knows what the goal is (having worked with you for months).
But some part of you feels responsible for things not moving. And then you feel like you should start inventing work, even if just to keep busy, or to find some ancillary activity that might end up contributing to the project.
The problem is you’re too exhausted to problem solve or come up with good ideas. So again, you return to self-blame.
But realistically, bad decisions are made when you’re tired, so adding to your workload at the wrong time might ultimately be a waste of time, energy, and resources. Only, you won’t realize this until later.
What I’ve recognized is that having a good team makes a big difference. They will help you stay on track when you feel like you’re losing sight of what matters.
Backup plans can also help. If you can prepare for those times you know you won’t be able to access clear thinking, you won’t have to, because you’ll have structures in place that inform your decisions.
People Don’t Know
There’s someone on the other end of every interaction and it’s altogether too easy to forget. You never know the kind of day that person has had, what’s happening in their life, or how things have changed, even in the last 24 hours.
As we continue to embrace and get entrenched in remote work, perhaps the biggest challenge of all is you don’t know what state anyone is in, and it’s too easy to bypass the conversation altogether.
“Since I can text or email them 24/7, shouldn’t they also be at my beck and call 24/7?” It gets weird headed fast.
I was talking with my landlord just yesterday, who asked me how work was going with a tone that said, “do you ever do anything?”
And the truth is 12-hour+ days have been quite the norm with my leadership program, businesses, musical projects, and freelance writing work. And it’s been that way for months now.
Given the world we now find ourselves in, being considerate in every conversation is a practice we’d all do well to adopt. Because you just never know how others are doing.
Cash Flow Makes Everything Possible
Some of the slowdown I’ve been experiencing is directly tied to the availability of resources. There would not have been any stalling out if cash flow wasn’t an issue.
And this is one of those classic cases I’ve talked about before.
Things are going well for me. I have enough work. And new opportunities are already starting to line up.
So, it’s not as though I don’t have a solid base income. I’d just hit a spell where too much money had gone out, and not enough money had come in. So, my hands were tied for about two weeks.
Money is not required to move every aspect of a project forward. Most of my team, in fact, are working without financial incentivization. But realistically, some things just aren’t going to get done without reinvesting in the project.
Cash flow makes everything possible. When you need to invest in a business app or some hired help, you’ll be able to spring for it. Importantly, if your needs are met, you’ll have more time and energy to dedicate to the project too.
I’m Relieved
It’s fair to say that much of the above is already starting to work itself out.
I’ve been off caffeine for four or five days and I’ve been getting to bed earlier. I also haven’t been starting work until 10 AM and hold to a hard cutoff at 9 PM (though I sometimes end earlier). I’m feeling better, bit by bit.
The payment that I’ve been waiting on finally came through. And now I need to go and celebrate.
Best of all, I think, I’ve been able to glean a few lessons from limbo. And in the future, I will have this document to refer to, should I find myself in limbo again.
See what else I’m up to.
by David Andrew Wiebe | Dec 19, 2021 | Creativity
And so, we arrive at a rather difficult subject.
Cash flow seems completely obvious and an easy field to navigate, only to entrepreneurs with no experience worth talking about.
“Earn more than you spend,” they say, which is not incorrect, but it doesn’t demonstrate a deep understanding of a potentially devastating issue, especially if you don’t constantly have your finger on the pulse of your career or business.
You can keep your project afloat so long as you have access to cash, but the moment that runs out, and your expenses exceed your revenue, it’s game over.
And it’s not always obvious how or why this happens. That’s the most challenging part.
I hope you never have to face that. But we know full well that even our heroes have gone through rejection and failure – in most cases, more than we even know!
So, while I don’t claim to have a foolproof method, here’s what I’ve learned about cash flow issues and how to solve them:
When Revenue isn’t Keeping Pace with Expenses
This is perhaps the most basic, most common cash flow problem (which doesn’t mean it’s easy to solve).
Even though your cumulative revenue is greater than your total expenses… because your expenses are piling up faster than your income, you’re having trouble meeting ongoing expenses.
As you can see, the plain logic of “earn more than you spend” isn’t going to apply here, and if anything, it’s going to stifle your efforts to resolve the issues at hand.
The solution here would be to control the flow of income and expenses. And, I’m not going to lie, some of this can be uncomfortable.
On the income side, invoice your clients early, take pre-orders, increase your rates, increase the frequency of purchases, and if possible, get paid upfront for your work.
On the expense side, negotiate with your suppliers and reduce the velocity or frequency of payments. Cut services you don’t need or find more affordable replacements. See if you can work out a bulk order deal or move to an annual plan instead of a monthly plan.
Rapid Growth Usually isn’t Sustainable or Profitable
We’ve already asked the question, “are you ready for a million streams?”
And the answer is if you don’t already have the right structures in place, you’re not.
Rapid growth seems like a dream come true, the very thing you’ve been waiting for your whole life. And yet, it can derail your project just as quickly as it can boost it. There’s a reason a lot of growing artists sign with a label.
Think about it. With rapid growth, you can be bombarded with emails and calls, customer support inquiries, media requests, bugs that need to be fixed (payment processing, refunds, overloaded servers), and more. And people generally expect these things to be resolved at the drop of a hat.
It’s one thing if you know how to handle growing demand. Quite another if you end up taking random stabs in the dark.
Rapid growth usually isn’t sustainable or profitable because you need to onboard and train new team members to meet the demand. Which isn’t to say you can always control growth, and that’s the troublesome part.
The only solution here is to educate yourself on the following before demand gets out of hand…
Leverage the Power of Structures & Systems
“I’ll just hire people once things get crazier,” said only the greenest of entrepreneurs.
One of your greatest expenses is bound to be team, and for good reason – they are just as much an asset as they are an expense.
But onboarding and training alone can be quite expensive, never mind the cost of turnover and having to replace departing team members.
Even the most experienced people are going to need direction, get a good sense of what you’re about, and have a clear understanding of your needs before they’re going to be 100% effective on your team.
The good news is that even small teams can be incredibly effective if they have the right structures and systems in place. In every enterprise, there are ongoing opportunities to eliminate, automate, and delegate.
With the right tools, you can systemize your operations to run more efficiently, and that means major savings.
But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. I’ve interviewed some entrepreneurs who had to work evenings and weekends (on top of their regular workload) just to get their systems in place.
The good news is, whatever cash flow problems you might be facing, there are answers if you’re willing to go look foring them. And, sometimes, you will need to pay for good advice. That’s accurate thinking.
Quick reminder – you can now get The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition (just in time for the holidays). Don’t get left behind – be the first to get my latest work into your hands!
