Ruchi Pinniger is a former Wall Street hedge fund CFO turned international speaker, venture capital investor, and Founder and CEO of Watch Her Prosper, a financial mentorship and consulting firm for women-led service-based businesses. With nearly two decades of corporate finance experience, she blends practical strategy with a holistic approach, offering financial guidance, bookkeeping, tax readiness, and prosperity mindset coaching. Ruchi has helped thousands of entrepreneurs transform their relationship with money, release guilt, and align personal and business goals. A recognized industry leader, she speaks globally and serves on nonprofit boards while living in New York City with her family.

Here’s what we covered:

• Ruchi’s backstory and why she launched Watch Your Prosper

• The lessons she learned from launching her own business

• The Three Pillars of Redefining Prosperity™ Framework: Well-being, spirituality, healthy relationships with people, and money

• Ruchi’s RIR Method™ for addressing negative thought patterns

• The most common challenge she sees in founder-led businesses: “I’m profitable, why do I feel broke?”

• Revenue reality: Why focusing on revenue alone is insufficient

• What does your prosperous life look like?

This was such a rich (pardon the pun) and fun conversation. Watch (or listen to!) it above.

Follow Ruchi on Instagram and connect with her on LinkedIn.

Learn more about Ruchi’s upcoming Redefining Prosperity™ Workshop here where you can use the code FOUNDERSPROSPER for $100 off your investment.

Until next time.

Katherine

Join me for my next live video in the app.

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On wanting to clone myself.

It happens pretty much every time.

I’m invited to attend something or I hear about an IRL or online event via a friend, a fellow female founder, or some form of digital media (email, social) on a particular day and time, and I decide I’m going. Then that process repeats itself. So that inevitably there are two to three places I want to be (virtually or in person) at exactly the same time on the same day.

The latest… I host a monthly gathering for female founders in Manhattan the last Tuesday of the month. For April that means Tuesday the 28th. Needless to say, I need to be at my own event.

Late last week I learned that Restauranteur and Author Will Guidara would be doing a live, in-person event at Barnes & Noble Union Square to talk about and sign his new book “Unreasonable Hospitality: The Field Guide.”

I loved “Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect.” So much so that I considered attending his second annual The Summit gathering in Nashville, before ultimately deciding against it. So when I saw that he was going to be in New York, I knew I wanted to be there. Until I saw the date and time. Which is, of course, at the same time as my monthly founder salon.

Hence my wanting to clone myself.

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Prioritizing IRL events.

One of the shifts I made going into 2026 was to prioritize IRL events over virtual group meetups. I still attend webinars on topics I want to learn more about and those held by founder friends I want to support. But when it comes to networking, I’m focusing on those spaces where I can meet people in the flesh.

And I’ve shifted my language to accompany this change. I’m no longer “networking,” I’m “connecting.” I changed the title of my Google Tracking Sheet and my associated Gmail folder to reflect that.

And you know what? It feels better. I really don’t like networking but I do love connecting. So that’s what I do now.

When you connect, especially in-person, conversations stick, you associate people with their ideas, you get ideas for ways to help and connect beyond event. For me, this is the basis of good business and new opportunities.

Planting seeds.

Growth isn’t linear.

You can put in a ton of work meeting new people, following up, reaching out, pitching, marketing yourself in a certain way, essentially “doing all the things,” and the results may not be immediately visible.

This is where I see founders get frustrated and want to give up or do something else… now. Note, I struggle with this right along with you.

That’s when I ask:

• Is it really not working?

• Are you really doing everything you can, consistently?

• Have you given it enough time to get the result you’re looking for?

The reality is you can’t predict when and how the seeds you plant today will bloom. You need to plant them anyway. You need to do the work anyway.

Because there’s growth happening underground. And when things do start working, it can happen quickly. You need to be ready.

I came across this Instagram Reel last week. It touches on so many of these points in terms of the creative process. And to be clear, I consider building a business to be a creative process.

“Resting time is making time.” Amen to that.

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Here’s what’s coming up on Substack Live.

I hope you’ll join us.

And a few pre-postscript p.s.’s.

1. Did you know that can listen to my Substack Live conversations in audio mode?

   1. Here’s the link to the show on Spotify

   2. You’ll find it in Apple Podcasts (I’m having trouble finding it, but a friend showed me it in the queue in her Apple Podcasts app, and I can see the podcast download in my stats, so I know it’s there)

   3. In the Substack App, just click on the headset icon for audio-only mode

2. If you’re in the New York area and you’re not yet on the invite list for my monthly Business/Women Salon, just reply to let me know you’d like to be added. I chose a spot near Union Square that’s central for those coming Brooklyn, Downtown and Uptown Manhattan, and New Jersey. I’ll send you the details for April.

3. If you’re interested in Will Guidara’s unreasonable hospitality philosophy, he has a bi-weekly newsletter called Pre-Meal. The latest issue tells the story of a gas station that has a popcorn stand installed between the pumps. Simple, yet oh so powerful.

4. One other language adjustment I made late last year was (in most cases) replacing “but” with “and” (see exception above). As in, “The call went well AND next time let’s make sure to move more quickly to the business topics so we get through the agenda.” Normally it would have been a “but,” and now it’s an “and.” It sets up just about any statement you make to be more positively received by the listener. One client told me she’s using it now in her business and with her partner. #gamechanger

Until next time.

Katherine

#ICYMI

Allison is a Certified Hypnotherapist, Human Design Guide, and Change Catalyst helping ambitious seekers shift from the inside out. Her work blends subconscious re-patterning, Human Design, and intuitive guidance for real, long lasting change. Since 2008, she’s guided clients through career pivots, relationship patterns, health challenges, and identity shifts–so they can reclaim their truth and live in alignment with their natural rhythm and design. She offers both 1:1 work and group mentorship, and teaches workshops on both coasts, including NYC, SF, and LA.

Here’s what we covered:

• Her path to hypnotherapy and how she practices it with clients

• What Human Design is

• The BodyGraph

• The five Types, how they operate, and their associated Strategies (including mine and Allison’s)

• How to tailor your approach to your business so it’s aligned with your Human Design

• Bringing Human Design to your relationships (business and personal)

Definitely check it out up top.

And follow Allison on Instagram, and visit her website where you can use code KD10 for 10% off all of her Human Design offerings.

Until next time.

Katherine

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If you’re not yet in the know, Etalon is a wellness brand reimagining posture as a pathway to alignment - physically, mentally, and emotionally. With a background in engineering and years as a yoga and Pilates teacher, Kristina has brought together science, movement, and intuition to create products that support women in feeling stronger, more present, and more connected to themselves. Her work is rooted in a simple idea: when you change how you carry your body, you change how you move through your life.

Kristina and I had a wide-ranging conversation during which we touched on:

• Kristina’s founder’s journey

• How her relationship with her body led her down the path to Etalon

• What alignment means to Kristina (think more than just the body)

• Reinventing herself, going from employee to founder

• Defining success on her own terms (in spite of the pressure of living next door to Silicon Valley)

• The importance of being close to your customer

• Connecting the dots

Etalon is on a mission:

I hope you’ll watch the entire conversation above.

Then follow Etalon and Kristina on Instagram, and visit their website where you can use code KATHERINEDANESI for 15% off your first order.

Until next time.

Katherine

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After Noon Foods makes dried dressing blends you mix with oil and vinegar to create fresh, homemade dressing in minutes. Made with real herbs and spices, the brand is built for busy home cooks who care about flavor, quality and convenience. After Noon Foods brings a modern, better-for-you update to a familiar pantry staple.

In our conversation, we discussed:

• Their origin story — why this product and why them.

• When they launched the business and what the early days were like.

• The many learnings they’ve had since then (think initial product order, marketing, packaging, and more).

• The importance of testing.

• What Expo West is and what it’s like to attend.

• What the SKU Accelerator is and why they applied even though they didn’t fit the usual profile of startups accepted.

• Their advice for other women wanting to launch their own brands.

• What’s next for After Noon Foods.

Everything they shared was gold.

Check out the entire conversation above and don’t forget to get in on what Erica and Kelly are up to with After Noon Foods on Instagram and their website, where you can use code HOMEMADE25 for 25% off your first order.

Until next time.

Katherine

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This is a quick note to let you know that the first Substack Live has been moved from Wednesday, 4.1 to Friday 4.3 and will now take place at 12:00 noon EDT.

Connecting With Food - After Noon Foods founders Kelly Duerr & Erica Gendell

You’ll receive an email just prior to when it starts.

And if you’re new to Substack Live — you just need to create a basic Substack account (no detailed information needed) to join.

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I hope to see you there!

And do share this with someone you know who might be interested in learning about what it takes to launch a food brand (aka a product in the CPG space).

Until Friday.

Katherine

What really happened.

Back in January, I shared that this newsletter was going on hiatus for the first quarter. My reason for the break… “Nothing dramatic. Just an honest break to focus on different strategies, tactics, and activities.”

The truth is I ran out of steam and I ran out of ideas. The thought of writing it each week began to feel like a slog. I was no longer eager to share what I was seeing in the businesses I was working with (and in my own).

Out of nowhere it hit me that I needed to just stop, and it was like, “Of course.” As soon as I admitted that to myself, I felt so much better (yes, I felt lighter). I knew I really wanted to leave this behind for a while. So I did.

It wasn’t easy and I still knew it was the right thing to do. So, I share this:

Thank you “gentle readers” who told me that they’d miss the newsletter landing in their inbox on Wednesday morning. It made me feel a bit bad and also it helped me to know that when I’m doing something for the love of it, it works.

And I was no longer doing it for the love of it.

Aries season as the start of my personal New Year.

I knew on December 31st that the traditional New Year was a non-event in my life. I could feel it. So much so that it didn’t even register.

In those first days of 2026, I decided to honor the astrological new year which is the start of Aries season. That meant giving myself the grace to not force anything (or worry!) until March 20th. It turns out that was a gift.

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The fallow period.

My Human Design Type is a Generator. That means I work best (in business and life) by following what lights me up, by being energized and excited about an idea and what I’m doing.

When December hit, nothing was lighting me up or getting me excited. This continued into the traditional start of the New Year. My creative well was dry. And most of the places I’d been showing up online (platforms and networking groups) no longer felt good when looked at under the lens of real outcomes (emotional and otherwise).

If I was to truly lean into my design, it would mean doing nothing (client work aside). I quickly learned it’s really, really difficult to do nothing. And there was this — it’s so easy to think that doing something (anything) is better than doing nothing.

But that’s not always the case. Forcing myself to do nothing rather than do things that didn’t feel right or were not generating a desired result was not easy. Yet I came to see that, over time, by not giving into the temptation, I was gradually opening up some space for other things to come in.

A first green shoot emerging out of the soil.

In late February, looking for something that might help, I joined a creative salon hosted by author and creativity coach . It was a tea held at a Soho hotel on a Friday afternoon and it was an intimate group. I’d not met Lindsay before. She was warm and welcoming and clearly a pro at these types of gatherings.

She started by having each of us introduce ourselves and what we did, and share what had us inspired and excited at the moment. Note that at this point, I was still in full “fallow mode.”

There were five women ahead of me. As I listened to each of them share what has them jazzed at the moment (so many interesting things!), all I could think was, “F*ck. What am I going to say when it’s my turn?” Really, f*ck. What could I make up, even though it wasn’t my lived experience, to satisfy the group so they would move on to the next lovely human.

Then I decided not to go that route, not to let myself of the hook. I decided to tell the truth. I simply said, “Nothing. Nothing has me inspired or excited at the moment.”

As I said, Lindsay is a pro. The rest of the group just looked at me, not sure what to say, but Lindsay had exactly the right response. She said, she’s been there, and it’s a really tough place to be. And she appreciated that I shared that with the group and had the courage to hang out in that uncomfortable liminal space. That was exactly what I needed to hear.

We moved on to brainstorming an idea another female founder had for a new Substack and then (my courage up now) discussing how I could extend my monthly Business/Women Salon meetups to longer, more intensive gatherings on a quarterly basis. I left Lindsay’s afternoon tea slightly uplifted and moved on to see some art at a few galleries on Broadway south of Canal.

Whether I realized it or not at the time, the seeds had begun to sprout in the compost of what I had let die away. A week or so later, I knew exactly what I wanted my Substack to be in its next iteration. I was excited by the idea, like tingly in my body excited, in a way I’d not been in a very long time.

What to expect here going forward.

Each month, I’ll be writing one long form piece like those you’ve come to expect, with business advice and guidance. Note(!) I’m always open to answering burning questions you have about your business in an upcoming newsletter. Just hit reply with your question(s) and I’ll confirm receipt.

The rest of the month, I’ll host two to three Substack Live conversations with other female founders. These are women who are expert at what they do. They’ll share their knowledge, wisdom, and expertise and, in some cases, their learnings as they’ve grown and evolved their businesses.

No two will bill exactly alike. But I can promise you they’ll be interesting and you’ll have at least one nugget to use in your business (and life). Choose which of them resonate and meet you where you’re at.

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The Substack Live schedule.

Here’s what’s coming up, so mark your calendars! April starts off with some real Aries energy… there are four Lives on the schedule.

To kick things off on April 1st (no April Fooling here), we have the founders of After Noon Foods. If you have an idea for a healthy food you want to bring into the world, this is for you or you’re just curious about what it takes, this is for you.

April

April 1 - 11 am EDT — Connecting With Food - After Noon Foods founders Kelly Duerr & Erica Gendell

April 9 - 2 pm EDT — Getting Aligned with Etalon founder Kristina Rudzinskaya

April 15 - 1 pm EDT — Let’s Talk Human Design with

April 29- 1 pm EDT — Redefining Prosperity for Female Founders with Watch Her Prosper founder Ruchi Pinniger

May (so far)

May 6 - 11 am EDT — “The Big Unlock: Liberate Your Creativity Through Mindful Journaling” with author, creative coach, and AllSwell Creative foudner

May 19 - 1 pm EDT — “The Anti-Marriage Pact,” Creative Channeling, and Overcoming the Starving Artist Narrative with writer and creativity coach

I hope you’ll join us.

On alignment.

My Substack Live guest on April 9th is Etalon Posture Bra founder Kristina Rudzinskaya. I was introduced to the brand at the end of 2025 and have been wearing my Etalon bra pretty much daily since then.

That consistency has made all the difference. My posture has noteicably improved. I now carry myself differently in my body, and I even walk differently (yes, more aligned) which is, frankly, awesome.

What I've found fascinating is the body really knows how it wants to be once you've shown it what correct posture is. Even when I'm not wearing it, my body auto-corrects if I happen to be hunched over my laptop.

Recently, the Etalon team interviewed me about creating meaningful connections, practicing discernment, learning when to say, “no,” and alignment in business and the body.

E: What does “living in alignment” mean for you right now — in your work, your relationships, and the communities you choose to invest in?

K: For me, living in alignment means showing up in the most present and truest way possible, no matter the circumstance or the setting. It means creating and holding respectful boundaries and exercising the right to say “no” when something feels out of alignment…

Read the full interview here: Strategy Meets Self-Knowledge With Katherine Danesi.

And if you know your body is whispering to you for better alignment, use code KATHERINE DANESI at checkout for 15% off your first order.

A new chapter.

Thanks for hanging around while I figured this out. I am truly grateful.

Until next time.

Katherine

#ICYMI

A New Year update.

First off, Happy New Year! 🎆

I hope you enjoyed a real break from your business and spent engaged time with those who matter most to you. I mean really, it’s why we do what we do, right?

After much thought (and more than one gut check), I’ve decided to spend my time a bit differently as we move into 2026. And part of this shift in my business is putting this newsletter on hiatus for the first quarter (possibly a bit longer).

Nothing dramatic. Just an honest break to focus on different strategies, tactics, and activities.

If you’re a paid subscriber, no worries. I’ve already paused paid subscriptions, so no action is needed on your end.

While I’m on pause, I’ve unlocked a good portion of my Substack archive so you can explore past posts by topic whenever it’s useful.

👉 Business/Women Archive

Just click on the magnifying glass on the top-right of the list of articles to search for an answer to your question.

There’s a lot there on pricing, structure, scaling, and running a business that actually moves the needle and makes sure your business works for your life.

I hope you find it helpful.

Ways to work with me in 2026.

If you’re thinking, “I could actually use help with my business this year,” or you know someone who could, here’s how I’m working with clients right now:

• Strategic Advisory Sprints
  Short, focused engagements for founders who want clarity, structure, and a real growth plan… fast. We look at the whole business (offers, pricing, capacity, finances, team) and map the right next moves for you to take in the right order to get you unstuck and taking thoughtful (and exciting!) action.

• Business Model Redesign
  A focused reset for when what used to work… doesn’t anymore and scaling beyond where you’re at seems impossible. We rebuild the foundation — your offers, pricing, positioning, delivery, capacity, and team — so the business actually supports the revenue you want and the life you’re trying to live.

• Ongoing Strategic Advisory
  For founders who don’t need another coach cheering from the sidelines, but do want a trusted, senior thinking and accountability partner as they implement, make decisions, and scale their business.

This work is best suited for established service-based businesses that are doing well, but feel stuck, stretched, and unable to generate meaningful, sustainable growth (aka they can’t get to “the next level”).

You can learn more here:

→ Website
→ Services
→ About

If this email has been forwarded to you, you’re likely in the right place.

TL';DR.

I work with established service-based founders through Strategic Advisory Sprints, Business Model Redesigns, and ongoing Strategic Advisory. This is for businesses that are doing well but feel stuck, stretched, or more complicated than they need to be in order to grow. Details here.

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In gratitude.

Mostly, I want to say thank you. For reading. For replying. For spending your time here. I don’t take that lightly.

I’ll be back. Just giving things a little breathing room for now.

Thanks for being here… until next time.

Katherine

#ICYMI

We’re closing out 2025. Looking back, there were 70 posts published here, and frankly, not keeping count as the weeks went by I was surprised. I thought I’d share the best of this crop of pears (opens, reach, comments, likes, shares) to use as part of your year-end business review and planning for 2026. They’re listed in chronological order, starting with January.

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Winter. ❄️

Spring. 🌷

Share Business/Women with Katherine Danesi

Summer. ☀️

Fall. 🍂

Thank you. ✨

It’s a wrap for 2025.

Thank you for being a reader of Business/Women. Your time and attention are your most valuable resources, and I deeply appreciate you spending some of both here.

Wishing you a Happy New Year!! 🎆

Until 2026.

Katherine

Now we’re onto pricing. This is a sensitive subject for pretty much every female business owner I know. My guess is you’re one of them.

So let’s dig in.

How do I know if it’s time to raise my prices and by how much?

When I saw this question in my inbox, I knew it was one I needed to answer before the year was out.

It can be sneaky, and it often sounds like:

• I’m busy, but the money doesn’t feel great.

• I’m doing better work than ever, but my bank account doesn’t seem to reflect that.

• I know I probably should raise my prices… I just don’t know how to go about doing it.

This is a clarity problem. And it’s a confidence problem.

Let’s get you some of both.

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Know that price increases are not arbitrary

Most founders I know and work with are not charging enough for the work they do. Raising your prices is not about “charging your worth” (a phrase I would happily retire).

It’s about whether your current pricing supports:

• the business you’re running now

• the quality of work you’re delivering

• and the life you’re trying to have

If the answer to any of these points is “no,” it’s time to look closely at what you’re charging.

Here are the clearest signs it’s time to raise your prices.

1. You’re fully booked or close to it

If demand is steady, you haven’t received any pushback on your pricing from potential clients, and you’re saying no due to capacity issues (or squeezing people in), the market is giving you feedback.

It’s not “work harder.” It’s “adjust your pricing.”

2. Your skills, judgment, and scope have grown, but your pricing hasn’t

Many founders get stuck with pricing based on who they used to be.

If you’re currently:

• faster

• more strategic

• better at problem-solving

• able to anticipate issues before they arise

• delivering revenue-driving (or otherwise measurable) results for your clients

… your pricing should reflect that evolution.

Experience has value. Quite a lot of it.

3. You’re doing work that feels heavier than it should

If projects feel draining not because they’re hard, but because they’re underpriced, that’s a signal.

Resentment is usually a pricing issue in disguise. As I said above, this question of pricing can be sneaky.

4. You can’t invest in support, systems, or yourself

If your pricing only works when you personally do everything — delivery, admin, thinking, selling — then your business is not sustainable.

Sustainable businesses have margin. Margin to pay yourself and invest in growth. And margin comes from your pricing.

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Okay, but by how much?

This is where I see people get stuck. So let’s make it practical.

Here are a few grounded approaches for you to consider:

1. The next-client approach.

You can choose to raise your prices for new clients only. This gives you real-world data without blowing up your existing book of business.

How to determine what your fees should be? I wrote about this in post from last year. I consider this evergreen content:

My only update for the end of 2025 would be to engage in a conversation with ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini and have it challenge your new pricing based on your target market and what you’re delivering for them.

If you feel a little nervous but not totally nauseous, you’re probably in the right range.

2: The 10–20% rule for current clients.

If you have retainer clients, or clients that come back to you for occasional project work, there will come a time when you need to raise your rates for those folks. A 10–20% increase is meaningful without being destabilizing.

Anything smaller likely doesn’t move the needle in your business. If you choose to go with a larger increase, it should come with clearer positioning or scope changes.

3. Price to the business you want, not the one you have.

This ties back to the article I shared above.

Ask yourself:

• How many clients do I actually want to work with at one time?

• How many hours do I want to work per week?

• What support do I want to pay for?

• What do I want to take home?

The idea is to back into pricing from there.

This is how you move from what feels reasonable (cue finger in the air) to what actually works in your business.

A quick reality check.

Raising your prices will not magically fix a broken offer, unclear scope or work, or less-than-desirable delivery process.

Solid pricing works best when it’s paired with:

• clear boundaries

• defined deliverables

• strong positioning

• and a business model that makes sense

This is why price conversations are rarely just about price.

Confidence is part of your pricing strategy.

Confidence throughout the business development process, confidence in your pricing, and confidence in your interactions with clients.

Because you’re not just setting a price, you’re setting expectations. And when you present your structure clearly, directly, and without apology, clients will mirror that energy. It builds trust. And it reinforces the desired nature of the business relationship.

Your business is about delivering results. And doing so, means running a smooth, thoughtful, sustainable operation. Pricing and your fee structure are both part of that.

The big picture

If you’re asking this question (and I hope you are), it’s likely because you’ve outgrown the current version of your business.

And that’s a good sign. Follow it!

Until next week.

Katherine

#ICYMI

Last week, we dove into ways to scale a business with no retainer clients.

This week, we’re exploring a pain point of pretty much every seasoned creative founder I work with. They’re maxed out. They’re tired. They’re actually afraid of scaling because they equate growth with more work.

Let’s dig in.

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How do I grow my business without drowning? I’m fully-booked, but my revenue isn’t increasing and I’m stretched way thin.

This is the question I hear from creative founders more than any other and for good reason. “Fully booked” sounds amazing. And it is. Until you realize it’s become a ceiling for your business. One you don’t know how to move beyond.

You’re not able to scale because you’re at capacity. And capacity, not demand, is what determines your ability to grow. It includes your pricing, systems, team, offer design, and more.

Let’s break this down.

What’s actually happening?

When clients ask this question, it’s almost always a mix of:

1. The business model can’t support growth.

• You’re selling time, not outcomes.

• You’re offering too many custom solutions.

• Your pricing was set in 2021 and not revisited since then.

2. The founder is the bottleneck.

Everything routes through you. Review, approvals, delivery, client communication, all of it. You’re running the creative business equivalent of a “one-man band.”

3. You have no systems in place.

This works beautifully until you hit a wall. Then it stops.

1. Raise your effective hourly rate (yes, even if you don’t bill hourly).

Most founders underprice simply because they’re too busy to stop and think about how they’re designing their fees.

If demand is consistent and your calendar is full and you’re not getting any pushback on your rates during the business development process, that’s the market telling you to adjust your pricing... up.

Revisit your fees with that in mind.

2. Simplify your offerings.

If everything is custom, nothing is scalable.

Ask yourself:

• Which services are truly profitable?

• Which clients energize me?

• Where do projects run smoothly vs. drag endlessly?

Cut what’s not profitable and what’s not working for you.

Double down on the offer(s) where you can deliver great work that you enjoy and send money to the bottom line doing it.

3. Redesign your delivery model to remove yourself as the bottleneck.

This part can be… uncomfortable. Because this is where the leverage lives.

Some ideas to help make this shift:

• Document the way you work (your method, templates, review steps) — think SOPs.

• Automate what can be automated.

• Delegate what doesn’t require your brain.

• Bring in support before you think you’re ready.

Your job is to design the experience for your clients. Not to personally execute every piece of it.

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4. Buy back your time strategically.

If you hire someone only to give them low-value tasks, you won’t feel the relief.

Instead, ask: What work do I do that someone else could do 80% as well?

Yes, as a recovering perfectionist I know this is not easy. But I can tell you, it works.

Start there.
That 80% unlocks enormous capacity.

5. Replace intensity with consistency.

The biggest trap I see: you work like a maniac during busy delivery seasons and do zero business development.

Then you wake up shocked that your pipeline is empty.

Try this instead:

• One hour per week of proactive business development. This is non-negotiable.

• One to two marketing channels done regularly (not five done sporadically).

• Quarterly review of pricing, profitability, and capacity.

Consistency is what scales a business.

6. Let the numbers, not your wave of emotions, guide you.

Look at:

• Your true capacity in terms of your time and money

• Your average revenue per client

• Your delivery timeline

• The cost of support

• Your profitability by offering

Your path to growth becomes clear when the math is on the table.

Most founders make decisions based on overwhelm instead of data. Trust the data.

The truth.

You’re not stuck because you’re not working hard enough.

You’re stuck because the current version of your business is maxed out.

Your next level requires a different design — one that gives you space, margin, and actual room to grow.

And yes, it’s absolutely possible.

Your turn… submit your question.

Does this crack something open for you?
What’s the question you’d love answered in this AMA series?

Hit reply and send it my way.

I read every question myself.

Until next week.

Katherine

#ICYMI

Here’s the question. I hope you find this helpful.

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How do I scale a business when I have no retainer clients? It either rains or pours. I can not forecast anything!

This is such a good and important question!

To get started, I’m going to make a couple of assumptions so that we’re on the same page. The first is that you’re a service provider and your work is project-based (perhaps you’re a branding expert or a web designer).

And then I have a few questions…

• Why do you not have retainer clients?

• Does your area of expertise lend itself only to project-based engagements?

• Or is it a case of it being the way you’ve always done it?

• Is it possible to shift future proposals to retainers rather than project fees?

• How could you restructure the way in which your services are delivered to shift to 6- or 12-month retainers?

My goal with these questions is to create some space for new ways of thinking about your business.

Offering structure

Assuming your core offering is project-based by default, I’d ask you to consider whether there’s an aspect of what you do that can be designed as a retainer. This would be a service that complements your core offering.

Some examples:

• Is there one aspect of what you do that clients want on repeat? If so, package that as an entry level offering to allow people to experience your magic or as an add-on once someone has complete a project with you.

• Monthly advisory — a set number of hours per month that you’re available to answer questions, advise, guide your clients for a set monthly fee

• Monthly maintenance — this works well for website designers/developers

• Quarterly design/content refresh — too often we think in “all or nothing” terms; this gives you a middle path where the client signs on for an annual retainer that you can invoice monthly or quarterly

• A membership — is there an aspect of your work that can be applied to a group setting once you’ve completed the core project?

These are just a few ideas to get you imaging the possibilities. The idea here is to keep your main services intact and add an offering that is retainer-based to reduce the financial impact of the feast or famine cycle (aka, smooth out your cash flow).

Cash flow

This is the challenge with project-based work. As you point out, it either rains or pours. This directly impacts your monthly cash flow. I’ve written about this topic in detail — you’ll find that article here.

Having a solid handle on your consistent monthly outflow (expenses) and the timing of your inflow (revenue) is key. With that number you can calculate the amount you should ideally have in savings to help smooth out your cash flow and provide a cushion for lighter revenue months.

Seasonality

Every business has some seasonality baked into it. When does your ideal client typically look for what you have to offer? What months are typically quiet (perhaps it’s year-end or the summer). If you’ve been in business for at least a year, you’ll start to see patterns. And awareness of those patterns allow you to plan for them in your savings and cash flow, as described above.

That said, traditionally quiet periods can unexpectedly be busier some years. I have one client who for whom this is typically their slow season and they’re busier than ever leading right up to the Christmas break.

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Payment structure

How (electronically!) and when you get paid is critical to your project-based business.

• Always send an invoice for 50% deposit up front, with payment to be received before the work starts.

• Then the next 25% is invoiced at a reasonable, mutually agreed upon milestone. That could be as simple as midway through the project — for example 6 weeks into a 3 month project. Payable upon receipt.

• The last 25% invoiced before the project is complete or final deliverables are sent. Again, this is payable upon receipt.

• If it’s a short project, go with 50% and 50%

This does a couple of things. It helps you to avoid doing work for which you don’t receive payment; and it mimics a retainer… in this example above, 3 months, but it could be 6 or 9 months. If the project is short, let’s say 4-6 weeks, keep it to two invoices of 50% each. And map out your revenue and cash flow with this in mind.

Set up the right payment structure from the start. And always get payment before the work starts.

Business Development

As you’ve no doubt heard before, there’s working IN your business and working ON your business. When you’re in “pour” season, it can be easy to devote all of your time to client work (working in your business) and spend none of it tending to your own needs (working on your business).

In my clients’ businesses, this most often shows up as forgoing any proactive business development work. Which of course leads to the “rain” season once current the client project(s) end.

One way to help is to schedule even one hour per week for proactive business development activities. It gets booked on your calendar and it’s non-negotiable. You can reschedule it within a given week if need be, but you cannot punt it to the next week.

Your Team

If you have a team, even a VA, leverage them to free up your time to work on your business, doing the high value activities that only you can do. As your revenue increases, thoughtfully grow your team to support this continued evolution.

Client Feedback/Testimonial + Referrals

When you wrap a client project, ask them to complete a feedback form regarding your work together, one that includes a request for a testimonial, or simply ask for the testimonial on your wrap call or via email. And let them know that you always welcome referrals… those from current and former clients are always the best.

Your turn… submit your question.

Does this have you thinking about your own business? What would be helpful for you to know?

It could be on the topic of getting new clients, your positioning, your offerings and pricing, hiring a team, your operational setup… Whatever challenge you’re facing that has you stuck or opportunity you’ve created that has you not quite sure how to move forward.

Just hit reply to this email to submit your question.

Until next week.

Katherine

#ICYMI

Here’s the next Resource Roundup — the best of what I’ve been listening to, reading, and watching in November.

Enjoy the rest of this long weekend.

Read more

It’s hard to believe it’s already Thanksgiving. I’ve had the same conversation with a few other female founders… as soon as we hit October, it’s felt like this year has been flying by.

In response, I’m trying to slow the roll a bit. I find that narrowing my focus to the little things, the everyday, the mundane, helps. Slowly eating a perfectly ripe Bosc pear. Going for a walk at 4:15 in the afternoon, as the sun is about to set, and the cold air soothes my jangled nerves. Enjoying the interaction between the coffee purveyor and the customer in line ahead of me, and not wishing they would just hurry up already.

I find that poetry helps as well. The focus and attention required for close reading slows things down in a way few other forms of media do.

Thinking of abundance and the everyday at Thanksgiving, I went in search of a poem that spoke to both. A reminder that what we see on the table has a story — it’s everything (and everyone) behind it.

Here’s The Traveling Onion by Naomi Shihab Nye.

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The Traveling Onion

Naomi Shihab Nye (1952 – )

When I think how far the onion has traveled
just to enter my stew today, I could kneel and praise
all small forgotten miracles,
crackly paper peeling on the drainboard,
pearly layers in smooth agreement,
the way the knife enters onion
and onion falls apart on the chopping block,
a history revealed.
And I would never scold the onion
for causing tears.
It is right that tears fall
for something small and forgotten.
How at meal, we sit to eat,
commenting on texture of meat or herbal aroma
but never on the translucence of onion,
now limp, now divided,
or its traditionally honorable career:
For the sake of others,
disappear.

Source: Poets.org

💪 A year-end “ask me anything” 💪

You have questions about your business. And I (most likely) have answers.

To that end, I’m doing something different as we move into December.

Next Wednesday’s email will be the start of a series of mailbag style AMAs in which I’ll respond to the specific questions you have about your business (anonymously, of course).

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It could be about getting new clients, your positioning, your offerings and pricing, hiring a team, your operational setup… Whatever challenge you’re facing that has you stuck or opportunity you’ve created that has you not quite sure how to move forward.

Just hit reply to this email to submit your question and I’ll answer it in the coming weeks. This is a “first-come, first-served” situation. So, submit early!

And if you’ve not already completed it, I’ve prepared a short, three-question survey about this newsletter. The goal is to continue to provide the information you need to grow your service-based business and feel good in the process of doing it. I would so appreciate your input.

Take the Survey 🔥

Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!

Until next time.

Katherine

#ICYMI

A self-described “serial entrepreneur,” Kim has founded businesses in both the U.S. and Mexico across multiple categories, including food service, event planning and now product sales within the surging THC/CBD industry.

Her last company, “Mi Padrino,” grew from an idea to over a million users in three years and was acquired by a bridal events company in 2022. Her new venture, “Sober(ish),” is a non-alcoholic marketplace and product line that has quickly surged to over $1 million in sales — all without spending a dime on advertising. Now, she’s helping other entrepreneurs through her role at Michigan State University’s Research Foundation, where she coaches startups across the state.

One note before we dive in… this interview took place before the federal spending bill was passed on November 13th. A provision was quietly added to the bill that “prohibits products containing more than 0.4 milligrams of THC per container,” essentially banning all hemp-derived THC products (think CBD gummies and topical pain relievers, and yes, THC infused drinks).

In response, Kim shared this thoughtful, honest, heartfelt video on Instagram and this post on LinkedIn. I encourage you to watch the video and read about how she’s taking action in the now less than 365 days until the ban goes into effect.

1. I’d love to learn about your origin story. What was your path to entrepreneurship?

Honestly, I was raised by entrepreneurs. I didn’t know a different way. My parents were real estate investors. They own their own real estate firm. So right out of high school, I remember I got $2,000 in gifts for my graduation party. And my dad was like, gosh, you could put a down payment on a house with that. And so at 18 years old, I bought my first duplex because I didn’t know that wasn’t what the normal 18-year-old did.

When it came time to get a corporate job, I remember looking at my parents, specifically my mom, and she was able to attend all of our sporting events. And I remember thinking about my dad and how he wanted that new boat, so he went and hustled to be able to buy a new boat.

And so I thought gosh, with a corporate job, I’m only ever going to make the same amount of money, where when you’re an entrepreneur, if you really want it bad enough, you can maybe figure out a way to make it happen.

So at 18, I invested in that very first rental property. But that same year, I started dating this very cute Mexican man (Hugo), who eventually became my husband at 20. So I was 20 with a husband, and then I found out that I was pregnant.

That same year, I remember my husband telling my dad or my parents that it was always his family’s dream to own a restaurant. And so in our first year of marriage, there was this little hole in the wall bar in our downtown. My dad was going to list it and he said, you know, before I list this, I bet you they would take a land contract. And I said, well, what’s a land contract? It meant you can buy it for little to no money down.

My dad told us that you don’t have to get a bank involved and you could follow Hugo’s family’s dream and open this restaurant. And so again, we were naive [about the restaurant business] – I had waited tables and my husband had line cooked in a restaurant – but we’ve never obviously run any type of company before.

We ended up buying that restaurant on the land contract. A fun fact, you can have a liquor license in the state of Michigan, or at least you could at the time at 18 years old, you could serve the liquor, but you could not consume it. But, you know at 20, I had test recipes for the menu. So it was all in good fun.

We had that restaurant for 17 years. And along the way, even though we didn’t know anything about running a restaurant, what we did well was we really just loved on our customers. We asked them what they liked. We were open all kinds of crazy hours. And I learned what hours they actually came in. What hours were the peak hours.

And now, 20 some years into this, I see that’s customer discovery, learning from your customers, having your customers tell you what they want. Really not necessarily what they say they want, but what they actually want.

And then with that… I didn’t know how to be a bartender, my husband didn’t know how to manage a kitchen. And we had this amazing staff. So, not only did we love on our customers, but we loved on our staff, because we realized at the end of the day, a customer wasn’t going to come in again, or, if they had a complaint, it wasn’t because of my husband and me, it was because maybe a bartender, a server, or something was wrong with their food.

We had to make sure that we took care of the staff knowing that was ultimately taking care of our customers. And that’s continued with me from that restaurant to another restaurant, and a banquet facility.

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2. What came next?

While we had the first restaurant, we invested all of our taco money into real estate. Again, just because, I didn’t know any better. I’m like, stocks? Like, what is this? I understand real estate because of my parents.

So we invested more into real estate. We opened another restaurant and a banquet facility. And about that time, we had just around 140 rental units. And we were getting pulled at all angles.

I was not looking for another business, like not at all. But I was helping my niece plan her quinceañera. If you’re not familiar with what a quinceañera is, it’s a coming-of-age celebration for 15 year-old-girls in the Hispanic community. So I was looking online [to find out] how you plan a quinceañera. Is there a checklist for planning?

I was trying to find anything on the internet to help me help her plan this event. And I was shocked. There was nothing online to help families plan. And I thought, well, goodness, if I was planning a wedding, I’ve been to plenty of weddings, but the second I have to actually plan my own wedding, I don’t know how to plan a wedding.

And there’s a million resources to plan a wedding online. Why are there no resources to help these families plan these events? So, I did a little bit of market research and realized there were over 500,000 of these events celebrated in the U.S. every year. And the average quinceañera was around $20,000. So quick girl math. That’s huge.

So, I thought, well, gosh, I don’t know how to, I don’t know how to launch an app. I don’t even know where I would begin. But I thought back to the restaurants. I don’t even know how to turn on these fryers in the kitchen. I have an amazing staff who knows exactly what to do and can bring our ideas to life.

And so with that, I knew I could probably hire a team, which we did. Then I ended up convincing my husband to sell the restaurant and banquet facility and use our savings to invest into launching what was called Mi Padrino.

It was an event planning platform focused on the Hispanic community. We were hoping to have, maybe 100 users the first year. We ended up with 50,000 users the first year. And we had 150,000 users in the second year, and a million in Year Three.

And then, it was ultimately acquired during the pandemic. So it was just kind of mind boggling.

3. How did you market Mi Padrino?

When we launched, I was assuming we would be marketing to the 14-year-old girl who was going to be planning her 15th birthday party. We soon realized she does not plan this. This is her mom’s party. Her mom is living through her daughter. It’s her mom who picks the color. Her mom picks the band. Her mom does everything.

So we’re like, okay, where’s Mama Quinceañera at? She is on Facebook. So we started doing some different ads, just testing different things. But I remember it was crazy. When we first launched the site, I said, let’s put up a Facebook [video] ad. And I know people will respond to this or share this ad with someone just because I know this community I feel like so well.

I just said, do you know anyone planning a quinceañera? There is a new quinceañera app. Because everyone in this community knows someone planning a quinceañera. And that video went viral. We were hoping to get 10 signups or something like that that first night. We had 20,000 hits to our site, and it actually broke our site.

So although it was terrifying the night of, “how is this down and what happened?” It was honestly great because we went back and said, okay, we can’t handle 20,000 hits to the site. But what can we do to the platform so we can handle not only 20,000 hits, but maybe 20 million hits in one night? We were able to identify that early, which was kind of a blessing in disguise.

4. Tell me how Sober(ish) came about?

Mi Padrino was acquired in 2022, and when my contract with that company was up, I was like, “what am I going to do now?” And I had this awesome opportunity to lead entrepreneurship and innovation, a part of the Michigan State University’s Research Foundation, and I thought, wow, they’re going to pay me to give my opinions and help startups the easy way. I want to share all of the knowledge. I hate the fact that I had to just learn it all on my own. I thought, this is a dream job. And I do. I love it.

I am still at Michigan State University. I still love my job there. But in all honesty, always being an entrepreneur, your brain is busy all the time. And so I didn’t know what to do with myself at 4 p.m. when they were like, OK, you’re off work. I’m like, “what do you mean? I don’t have to think about anything all night long. I get weekends off. What?”

Think about this. I was around restaurants, seven days a week, an all-day job. Then I was a landlord. Same thing. No time off. And then I was a startup founder. And so again, you just never have this time off. Very quickly realized I’m a better wife and mother when my brain is busy.

And I realized that I was sharing all these marketing tips and tricks to these companies [at MSU], but knowing that marketing constantly changes – something that’s hot with the algorithm this week might not be next week. So, if I’m out of the game for a year, I’m going to lose it all. Like this sensei is not going to be able to fight. How am I able to teach or train these startups? You know, with all of this, these skills that I’ve mastered, if they’re not relevant in a couple of weeks.

So, I remember at the time I was coaching a company and they were talking about Tik Tok. I told them my kids used that app, but I’ve never really played with it. They were trying to boost a video and wanted to know if I knew anything.

I said, no, I don’t, but you know what? Let me look into it. So with the help of my 15-year-old daughter, I got started creating an account and with the goal of posting a couple of cool videos. No one will know me. I’m 40-years-old. Obviously none of my friends are on TikTok.

So, I threw up the phone and I just started posting videos. Nothing really worked. But at the same time, my mom, who struggles with alcoholism, moved in with us. And I told her there’s like this whole sober curious movement. Let me get some of the products and we can try them.

I remember we got our first order in and I decided to prop up my camera and do a video review because those [product reviews] seem to be hot on this app. Let me see if we can do something that actually has some views. So, we crack open these beverages and do our first review.

And people were just flooding the comment section. Where did you get those products? And they had all these other questions. I thought that’s interesting. So that was kind of the start of my mom and I becoming these mini, sober curious influencers, which was really fun.

Brands were reaching out for us to try their products and they would send us things. And honestly, a lot of the products had cannabis in them, hemp, specifically hemp, not marijuana. And it was really fun. Fun to just experience this new category as someone who was a non-cannabis user and just being vulnerable to the people that were watching the videos.

And I’m thinking, “oh my gosh, this is CBD. Am I going to get high?” And people in our conversation were like, you are a moron. That will not get you high. I didn’t know. But so many women, just like my mom and me were like, wait, how did you feel? Where did you get those products? And I knew that there’s something here. We just kept leaning into that. And that was the early story of what is now Sober(ish).

5. Who’s the Sober(ish) customer?

The Soberi(ish) customer is the 35- to 65-year-old woman who is a non-cannabis user. She was raised in the D.A.R.E. era, as we call it — you know, say no to drugs — but she also can’t hang with the hangovers anymore.

She’s a professional or a mom. A lot of our customers are saying that they’re either watching their weight and the empty calories, but it’s just really, they’re looking for a healthier alternative to alcohol.

6. Tell me about the products you sell on your site?

So when my mom and I started trying these products online, a lot of the brands that were sending us products said, here’s an affiliate link. If you sell anything and you give them your coupon code or this link, we’ll give you a commission.

Originally, I didn’t want the commission. But then I realized we’re creating value for these brands and that I would have a way to track conversions. I put together this simple landing page. It was KimmyG.com. I put the image for each one of the products and links with the affiliate code. I thought maybe we’re creating a couple thousand dollars in value for these brands and maybe we’ll sell a few a month. This will be fun just to see.

We launched that two years ago in August. And we ended up selling $60,000 worth of product in our first month. And I thought, well, damn it. This was supposed to be this fun little hobby with my mom. Now I have a business on my hands.

The customers were speaking. They wanted a place where there the products that have been tried and explained [to them]. As I mentioned, these were non-cannabis customers, just like me, who wanted somebody to actually walk them through what they should be buying. That was the “aha” moment that spun into us launching February of last year, soberish.com, which is a marketplace for all things we consider sober-ish.

We have hemp infused products, through just non-alcoholic wines and spirits, and kind of anything in between. But during the course of us launching the marketplace, I was trying these mocktails, non-alcoholic tequila for example. And I thought, these are delicious, but I really miss that buzz that I was getting from the hemp derived products because this micro-dose buzz really does feel like wine.

That’s how I launched our very first product, which was our Sober(ish) Drops. It’s a small bottle that has 30 servings. You can carry it in your purse. So, if you’re out and having a mocktail or a Diet Coke, you can add one drop into your drink and get that wine-like buzz in 15 minutes.

Then, about six months into Sober(ish), with both the marketplace and our singular product, I was trying to describe these products, sometimes virtually, without having somebody taste it. It’s hard. And I thought, why is there not just like a vodka flavor replacement? Like an Absolute Citron or a Bacardi or a Smirnoff raspberry.

Why is there not a simple brand flavor replacement for a particular vodka? We were in a meeting and I thought why not a Sober(ish) berry or a Sober(ish) citrus. You can make it the exact same way as if you were using a berry vodka. I didn’t really want to launch another product, but I thought it should exist. So we started out with shots. Let’s do a test and see if they sell. We launched a line of four flavored shots and that was our second product.

And again, just really leaning into, what are the customers saying? What kind of products resonate with them? In this case, it was something that they easily understood versus the drops, where the customer was not used to putting a dropper of something in their drink.

Now with a shot on the other hand, they were used to making a cocktail with some type of liquid, like a shot and making a cocktail. And so we thought that form factor was a little bit better for her [our customer] and it’s proven to be right. Our shots have been really successful.

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7. What has been your experience fundraising for your businesses?

It can be a double-edged sword, because at least for Mi Padrino, our whole business model was the eyeballs game, similar to Facebook. Once you have all the eyeballs, you can monetize them. And so we were just straight burning capital every month. It was tough. We knew we needed so many users per city to turn on, because we had a vendor platform. Think about bakeries, DJs, photographers who could list their businesses, similar to Yelp, to get in front of our user base. And so we needed the users there [on our site]. We had to spend a lot of money to get them there to use all of our free tools.

This meant we had to raise capital, but it was really hard. I don’t know if you can see in the pictures behind me, I have five kids. And so what happened when I invested, when I convinced my husband to sell the restaurant as well as invest all of our savings into this business, guess who showed up pregnant two weeks later?

This girl. And I’m like, what am I going to do now? I don’t even know how to do this thing called building an app. I don’t know one thing really about raising money from investors, but I guess we’re going to figure it out with a baby bump. And it proved to be just as difficult as you read about. And it was even more difficult being pregnant.

I’m a pretty good salesperson when I’m passionate about something. I wholeheartedly believed in the idea that I didn’t feel like I was selling. I really was giving the opportunity for these people to be a part of this with me, but it was tough.

I pitched easily 250 times, if not more, to get to 15 yeses. And this was prior to Zoom being as cool as it is now. So I had to fly all over the country to pitch to investors. Two weeks after I had my daughter, I was on a plane [with her] and pitching an event in upstate New York.

When it came time for Mi Padrino to be acquired, I don’t know what was harder, raising the money or selling the company. Everyone [all of my investors] had an opinion. It was like herding cats to get everyone to sign off on it. I thought that should have been the easiest time to work with my investors.And it actually was probably the hardest because everyone had to agree and it was just really tough.

So when I started this company [Sober(ish)], I thought either it’s going to be profitable from day one, or I’m just going to invest my own money and we will grow this as far as possible, but I’m not raising a penny from investors.

Fast forward. I haven’t raised money and I haven’t invested a penny of my own money. We have been profitable since day one. I actually used the money that TikTok gave me from their creator fund to start the business. I used that first $400 they sent me to pay for the Shopify, you know, website or whatever that I built.

We haven’t put any money into this company. I do work for free. I haven’t paid myself anything. But now as we’re growing Sober(ish), so we’ve been a hundred percent direct to consumer. So we can ship directly to our consumers at home, but consumers at the end of the day want to buy beverages in-store. They don’t want to wait three days. They know they’re going somewhere tonight. They want to stop by their local, you know, liquor store, grocery store and buy what they want for the weekend.

The whole plan this year was to launch in retail. Well, retail is tricky because there’s distributors, then there’s larger retailers. And typically they have net terms, whether that’s 30 days, 60 days, or 90 days. You have to pay for the inventory up front. And it’s not just the inventory up front. It’s that you have to pay a deposit on the inventory that you’re going to create to get the inventory to sell the inventory to distributors to eventually get paid in 30, 60, 90 days. It’s literally six months before that first payment on your deposit is actually paid back to you by the distributor.

So although we’ve been very profitable, I don’t know how comfortable I am going into retail because I’d like to grow as fast in retail as I have direct-to-consumer, but I could see there to be a cashflow crunch. With that, I have been discussing whether to raise capital or not, but for now, we’re growing slowly.

I want to do it. I’m trying to do it exactly how we did it, direct-to-consumer. It’s one thing online for me to be able to show a video of me talking about a product. For example, our shots. You’re going to feel like this. You’re going to taste like this. On a retail shelf, that bottle has to say that entire message. If our packaging isn’t correct, or the container that they’re in on display isn’t correct, or the little shelf talker isn’t correct, they’re not going to sell. I need to make sure all of that is correct before I go all-in.

And so again, just like with customer discovery, we’re seeing what works, what doesn’t, what flavors resonate in-store that maybe don’t online or vice versa.

It’s just been fun that we’re in probably a dozen retail locations now. It’s nothing crazy, but we’re learning so much about what’s moving on the shelf to actually build up, it’s almost like a roadmap for how to go after larger retail.

Then we should be able to back into what will that cost? And then I hope the case is that I’m going to need to raise capital, I will.

8. What’s your approach been to team building?

I think I was blessed learning about that early on by not having the skills for my first business. It was the restaurant and I started making a list… you’re going to need a cook, a server, a busser, and a bartender. And because I don’t know how to do any of those things, they have to be good at their job.

I had to do research to make sure that they’ve managed a bar before and all these things. That approach goes with a tech startup. I don’t know how to build an app. I need to find some developers. And like there‘s different kinds of chefs, there’s different types of developers. So again, researching.

And because I’m very vocal, I shared the idea anywhere I could and people would say, you know, I love your idea. What can I help you with? I’d say, I’m really looking for a developer. I don’t, I don’t know what kind of developer, because I don’t know anything about that, but I need somebody who can build this for me.

And just because I was vulnerable, people said, all right, girl, I think you’re going to need a front end developer and back end developer. I’m like, I don’t know what that means. And they’re asked, well, what kind of language are you going to build? And I’m like, in English? And they’re like, no, no, what kind of language is the code? And I’m like, computer language?

I just had no idea. I will leave that to whoever I hire to build it in their language of choice. I was so oblivious, Katherine. I had just no idea, but again, being vulnerable and putting myself out there, people just genuinely wanted to help me. They’re thinking, this poor blonde has no idea what she’s doing. Also, when I was building Mi Padrino and pitching to raise capital, there was always an ask around building on my team.

And I don’t know if it’s just luck, but I would have people say, hey, if you need help, let me help you. So, I’d bring them on part-time. I never brought anybody on full-time at the beginning Mi Padrino or Sober(ish). It was always contract employees. Why? Because I couldn’t afford them full-time and I could fire them if they didn’t do what they said they’re going to do.

That’s been a recipe of success. With my last company, I could not afford the senior engineer at Amazon, but he wanted to help me for whatever reason. And when I raised my first just over a million dollars, part of that raise was to bring Alex on full-time. It went from a contract position, with him helping me a couple hours a week, to hopefully, getting him to love me enough and love the mission enough and the thing that we were building enough that he really wanted to leave that secure job and help us. And he did.

Right now with with Sober(ish), it’s been the same thing.

9. In your experience, what are the differences between running service-based and product-based businesses?

Well, for one, whether it’s a service business like Mi Padrino or a service business like a restaurant, you can anticipate your team costs. With the restaurant there was a math equation for your employees. If you had more than a hundred tables in a day, you knew you’re going to have to have another cook on. With Mi Padrino it was the same thing. We had a sales team that worked 1:1 with vendors and, each one needed a new salesperson.

On the product side [with Sober(ish)], I still have the same four employees as when I was selling 40 products a day. And now I just sold 450 products yesterday. I have the same team. It did not require any more bodies.

The other difference on the product side is the inventory. And we’re still learning every day. It’s hard to project, when we’ve reached 30 million people a month on social media. You never know which [organic] video is going to pop off and we’re going to sell through one of the SKUs.

Why? Who knows? The algorithm is an interesting thing. It’s easier when you’re just putting ads out and you can say, you know, I’m going to get Y amount of sales by investing this amount into ads in.

When you’re banking on 50% of your sales coming organically, it can be a surprise to see what works. My experience of this was when we launched the drops and people were asking, what were those drops you put in that recipe?

I thought, I know I need to create a lot of content, and I don’t even have my hair done, but you know what? I got this silly can opener that takes the top off of the can. I’m going to talk about these drops and try this can opener.

So I prop open my phone again and I look like hot hell, and I’m like, alright, you want to know about these drops? Well, I’m going to try this can opener while I tell you about these drops. I just started taking the top of the can off with the can opener. And I’m talking about why we created them [the drops] and whatever else came to mind. And then I’m like, damn, this thing is stuck.

And you know what? It must’ve been entertaining because I have millions of views on this ridiculous video that has now produced millions of dollars in revenue for those silly drops. Did I think that it was gonna go viral? No idea. I would have put on some mascara. Maybe I would have maybe thrown on a bra. But no, it probably wouldn’t have worked if I would have looked halfway decent. It’s just crazy how things work.

Back to inventory… it’s brutal, brutal, just because you don’t know. You just don’t know what things are going to move. You might have a hunch that something does really well. But the rate that we’re growing, even for Black Friday this year, it’s like, what would we do last year?

Last year, we had 80 sales a day on a very, very good day. Now we have anywhere between 400 and 500 orders a day. And last year, we sold out of our Black Friday special three days. Which means we have no baseline for the rest of November or December because we were out of stock.

So here we are wondering, well, what are we going to do this year? That’s exactly how I feel with inventory most days. It’s terrible.

10. What other challenges have you faced in your businesses?

So many challenges. Whether it was pitching to investors or talking to our partners, I kept getting the feedback like, why should we trust you? You’re not even a Latina? And so just knowing about our customer base and understanding her, I was able to bring that back into conversations.

Same thing with Sober(ish). I was a non-cannabis user before I started this. I keep saying I have no business running this business because I’m just an outsider, but I think I’m using that to my superpower because I understand our customer.

I understand her more than anyone else because I was her. I was there. That professional mom who couldn’t hang with her hangovers, was on a weight loss journey, was tired of drinking her empty calories.

I think if I was a Latina, knowing the language and being immersed in the culture, I might’ve built the platform completely differently and built it for myself instead of building it for the community. But on the flip side of that, I’m building Sober(ish) for me. Our customer is just like me.

That said, with Sober(ish), people think I’m selling drugs online. I mean, it’s just tough. Being an entrepreneur, gosh, what’s the saying? If it was easy, everyone would do it. It’s not easy. And so just that constant like pep talk of you’ll get it, you’ll get through it, you’ll do it, is sometimes exhausting, but it’s all hard.

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11. What advice would you have to someone launching or scaling a business?

I always say, if you want to dream big, you have to think like chess. Meaning you need to think 10 steps ahead and then back up. How are you going to get there? And then, that very first step has to be very small.

I’ve used this analogy before. Let’s say you want to create a scarf company and you want to sell scarves globally. You want to be known as the whatever scarf lady. You want to have your scarves in all the fancy department stores.

You need to hand sew those first couple scarves. That is not scalable, but you need to get them in front of people, see how they use them, see how they wash them, see how much they’re going to pay for them. Then you’re going to take the next step and do 10 scarves and see how you’re going to market them.

What do people actually say about them? It’s a very manual process of getting somewhere and then taking a step and saying, is my scarf different than the scarves that are where I want to be? And if it’s not, okay, is my story big enough? Do I have a different skill set that’s going to get me to be able to compete with them? Or is there something really magical about what I’m doing that the big guys aren’t doing?

Just start small, love your customers, love your staff. Because at the end of the day, not only should you just be a descent human and be great to your employees, but they will make or break your business, whether it’s a scarf company, a restaurant, an app, and you’re going to spend a hell of a lot of time with them. So you might as well like them. And so, just love on your staff, really understand your customers.

Also, try to put aside your personal biases. With the scarf example, if your favorite color is blue and you think blue is going to be the next thing, but your customer’s telling you she wants ivory, make that ivory scarf. Really listen to your customers, love on your staff, start small, but keep your head up.

And dream big, because you don’t want to get into habit of making all the scarves yourself. You have to think like, okay, I’m making it this way, but is there a way that, how am I going to scale this? Is there, you know, a company that can sew this way? Because if it can’t scale, then don’t do it. To get there, give yourself permission to think outside of the box. Challenge yourself… why can’t you scale this way? Could I bring someone on to do things differently?.

If you were to start a company today that you wanted to grow large – nationwide, globally, or even locally, for God’s sake, right now, social media is your secret weapon.

Know that people want to buy from people. Right now, they’re scared that they’re going to buy something online from someone overseas that is just going to steal their money. The more that you can put your face out there, your story, your why behind your product or your service, the more people will want to take a bet on you, the person.

When you’re showing up, show the good, bad, and the ugly of growing a company. I feel with that approach people trust me because I’m very vocal about things that are happening and why I’m doing something. When you’re starting your company, just start sharing your journey. Maybe it’s with a customer wearing the scarf. Maybe something happens to it. And you’re like, oh, this thread did whatever and that didn’t work. And you’re sharing that with the world. And guess what? When you start launching them [the scarves], people will buy and you won’t have to pay for ads.

When we launched Sober(ish), I said to my mother, if we did a hundred thousand dollars this year, wouldn’t that be crazy? And that was the goal that we set for ourselves. And we ended up doing a million dollars in our first year of sales without ads, press, or investment.

And it was just because I leaned into telling our story, telling the highs and the lows and sharing it, loving on our customers, loving on staff. It all worked. And I didn’t have to pay Meta. I didn’t have to pay Google $1 to get those customers.

Now I am. Now, because I know the game and I want to grow larger. But if you can do that and keep all that money to yourself to grow the company, while learning what works organically, you can convert those high performing posts to paid ads.

And when you create on social media, if it works well organically, you can convert that to an ad, just like that crazy can opener video I recorded on the fly. That did really well and then we put money behind it and made it an ad and it’s like our best performing ad.

12. What do you wish you had known then when you started Mi Padrino and Sober(ish) that you now know today?

I think the biggest thing is to dream big. You know, when I first launched Mi Padrino, when I just had the idea for it, I thought, wow, there’s a half a million of these parties [every year].

What if we could help a thousand moms? Then I would doubt myself and say, well, gosh, Kim, in our town, there’s probably only 10 women who maybe would be able to use this. Do you really think you could get a hundred, let alone a thousand? I just had all this like self-doubt.

I refused to think really big, but I thought even at a hundred moms buy and they are paying X, Y, Z money, it can work. And it’s probably only going to cost us a couple hundred dollars a month to have an app. I just had no idea. But I didn’t allow myself to think big until it happened – when we launched that first app and it went crazy.

We had 20,000 hits and 20,000 people wanted to plan their events with us. What?! Then the next year it blew up again. And I thought, oh my gosh, you can be just this. I always say, I’m a six-foot-tall blonde from Jackson, Michigan, with five little kids, who has an idea for a platform and you get to dream dream big.

That was a sobering moment. Now, I don’t think small. People are like, oh, you could set up at a farmer’s stand or you could do this [Sober(ish)]. And I’m like, I’m not doing this to set up at a farmer’s stand. I’m doing this to sell a million bottles.

Just that permission to tell yourself, you don’t have to be someone special to do the big thing. You just have to allow yourself to dream that big.

Learn more about Kim and Sober(ish) in these online spaces:

• Website HERE

• Kim’s LinkedIn HERE

• Instagram HERE and HERE

• TikTok HERE

And in case you’re wondering about the story behind the name, Sober(ish) comes from…

“The original name for the company was my TikTok handle, which my daughter created, which was Kim Gamez 301. And my daughter was like, that is so lame. She deleted it. And she was like, Kimmy G. And I was like, am I a stripper? Am I like a DJ? Is this my stage name?

She’s like, ma, just leave it. It’s way better than the name you created. And I was like, Kimmy G it is. So when I was trying to come up with the company and remember that landing page I talked about, I was like, what, what am I going to call it? What’s the domain going to be? I was like, Kimmy G LLC is what I named the company initially. Then I created KimmyG.com. [And I knew}, we needed to come up with a better name.

And so it was just spitballing maybe over a couple sober-ish cocktails. And I’m like, you know, we’re not sober, we’re sober curious, try it to like it, and I don’t know, ish, like, kind of sober-ish.

Which made me go to GoDaddy and check to see if soberish.com was available. It was expensive, but I purchased it because I thought it was well worth it. And I, you know, did a quick search, called my girlfriend from high school, who’s a trademark attorney. And I asked her, do you think we could get this name? And she’s like, yeah, I think we could. So that’s how the name came about.

#ICYMI

TL:DR:

Your goal is to run a simpler, more scalable business and, no, you don’t have to become a “systems person” to do it. You just have to stop doing everything in your inbox and your head. Instead, you need to stop and think about the simplest way to achieve your business goals. You need the right tools and processes used the right way.

With that in mind, here’s how to leverage technology to simplify and scale your business operations — whether you’re a one-person PR shop, a two-partner brand studio, or you’re finally ready to bring on a VA/social person/project lead to help you grow your business.

This is another meaty post so save it to refer back to. And if you missed Part One, you’ll find it here.

Now, picking up where we left off last week…

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6. Meeting recordings & transcripts

This has changed how I show up in my business, especially on client calls. It’s allowee me to be more present. Having a recording, summary notes, and a detailed transcript to review and share is a game-changer. I still like to take notes sometimes as it helps me take in and process what I’m hearing. That said, I’m not going back.

Here are three tools work with Zoom and Google Meet (and there’s more):

• Fathom

• Fireflies AI

• Otter AI

Zoom, Microsoft Team, Google Meet - all three now have built in recording and transcription tools with AI (this is an evolving space with changes happening every week)

7. Automation (the glue)

This is where it gets fun. Or in my case, where it gets fun for my assistant (my brain breaks at this point).

• Zapier

• Make (Integromat)

Use case examples:

• When someone books a call → create task in Asana → add to CRM

• When invoice is paid → send onboarding email

• When form is submitted → add to “leads” spreadsheet

• And you can create zaps for your chosen AI agent

The idea is to start with 1–2 zaps. See how you like them.

And one note — never automate what’s broken. Get the process right first, then automate.

8. Payments / proposals (optional but nice and adds an element of professionalism)

• HoneyBook

• Dubsado

• PandaDoc (for proposals/contracts; pair with Stripe) These can bundle proposal → contract → invoice → workflow. Great for brand/marketing studios.

• Quickbooks (client invoices + payments + bookkeeping)

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What this flow looks like in practice.

Lead comes in → lands in CRM → gets auto-email with booking link

They book → your calendar updates → project board creates a card → you get a Slack ping

You do the work → you follow your SOP in Notion/Drive → deliver via shared folder → task gets checked off

You invoice → auto reminder sent if they’re late → payment is recorded

That’s an operation. And it’s the same if it’s just you or you plus two contractors.

And here’s where AI comes in.

You can now create roles for your business within AI. This can be you or your Admin creating them. You do this by creating Custom GPTs, Gemini Gems, or Claude Projects.

Some examples of roles for you to consider:

• Email copywriter

• PR pitch writer

• Social media content creator

• Researcher

• Financial analyst

Here’s a great LinkedIn post on this concept with a marketing/SEO lens. It was written by Meg Clarke, founder of Clapping Dog Media. It will get you thinking.

This approach will help streamline your team roles and raise everyone to their best level of contribution to your business.

When you add people to your team.

This is where many founders get tripped up: they hire BEFORE they standardize.

It’s time to reverse this: standardization and tech first → then people.

When a VA/social manager/project lead joins, you should be able to say:

1. “Here’s the tool we use.”

2. “Here’s the template we follow.”

3. “Here’s where tasks show up.”

4. “Here’s how we name files.”

5. “Here’s where to put questions.”

If your systems are in Monday.com/Asana + Notion/Drive, they can be productive in a day or two (latest a week). If everything is in your iMessages, Voxer, Slack, email… they can’t help you.

I took this approach before hiring a new VA last year and it was immensely helpful.

Here are a few principles to keep in mind.

• One source of truth per thing. One project tool. One document hub. One calendar. Fragmentation is how things get dropped. Remember one of my favorit words… simple.

• Buy the $12–$20/mo plan. The time you save on reminders and automations will pay for it.

• Use templates everywhere. Client kickoff agenda, monthly social report, website project plan, launch checklist. Templates = scale.

• Default to async whenever possible. For example, Loom + task comments rather than more meetings.

• Review it all monthly. Look at what’s messy, add a field, add an automation, or delete a step. And make sure you’re getting the most out of each tool before you add another.

This is a continuous process.

As I mentioned above, this will require ongoing review and updating. In doing so, you’ll streamline and scale your business operations so you have more time to invest in your high value activities.

Start with the simplest version of this stack, get your offers moving through it efficiently and without too many errors, and then you can invite humans in to help you.

Reply and tell me: Which tool in your business is the biggest mess right now — calendar, project management, or client communication?

I’ll tell you where to start.

And if you’ve not completed it already, I’ve prepared a short, three-question survey about this newsletter. The goal is to continue to provide the information you need to grow your service-based business and feel good in the process of doing it. I would so appreciate your input.

Take the Survey 🔥

Until next time.

Katherine

p.s. After last week’s email was sent, I received the following message from Danielle Cooke, Web Design Business Owner, Lodge Digital:

Maybe not quite as polished as some like ClickUp but I like Moxie.

It does project management, scheduling, CRM, and lead management, and some async updates, though as we’ve seen Google Drive is better for some use cases. It also has ticketing and email and an accounting integration but I don’t use those, at least not yet.

I also use Loom, think it’s great for comms and bringing docs to life.

In case it’s helpful.

#ICYMI

I love writing the Business/Women with Katherine Danesi newsletter each week. My goal is to continue sharing ideas, inspiration, what’s working, what’s not, and everything in between in a way that’s useful to you and your business.

A short survey…

To that end, I’ve prepared a short(!) survey. It’s only 3 questions and will take less than 5 minutes to complete.

So you have them before clicking through:

1. What do you hope to get out of reading Business/Women with Katherine Danesi? Select all that apply. (multiple choice)

2. Has Business/Women helped you in any way? If so, please let me know how — knowing ths helps guide me in what I can do more of.

3. How would you describe Business/Women to a friend?

There are two optional questions which I’d love for you to answer if either/both resonate.

🔥 Take the Survey

I know you’re time is valuable and appreciate you taking some of it to read this and complete the survey.

Happy weekend and see you on Wednesday. ✨

Katherine

#ICYMI

TL:DR:

Your goal is to run a simpler, more scalable business and, no, you don’t have to become a “systems person” to do it. You just have to stop doing everything in your inbox and your head. Instead, you need to stop and think about the simplest way to achieve your business goals. You need the right tools and processes used the right way.

With that in mind, here’s how to leverage technology to simplify and scale your business operations — whether you’re a one-person PR shop, a two-partner brand studio, or you’re finally ready to bring on a VA/social person/project lead to help you grow your business.

This is Part One of a meaty post so save it to refer back to. Watch for Part Two next week.

Why this topic and why now.

AI is changing the game. And it’s not a one-time thing. It’s happening weekly. You’ve got the major players — Open AI (ChatGPT), Anthropic (Claude), Google (Gemini and Notebook LM), and Perplexity. Then add to them the fact that every major platform is incorporating AI into their tools.

Now more than ever, it’s easy to end up in a place where you’re paying for the same functionality across multiple platforms and it’s something I’m thinking about in my own business.

Suggestion… monthly (or at least quarterly), do an audit of the tool subscriptions you’re currently paying for.

• Check for updates regarding the functionality of each tool (get your chosen AI platform to give you this)

• Look for overlap

• Is there anywhere you can trim?

• Is there a better tool for what you need to have done?

Fewer is better. Not only from a cost perspective, but also in term of simplicity of your business operations and your mental load.

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There are two starting points.

1. You’re a solopreneur or partnership with no team

Goal: get things out of your head and out of your inbox.

You need:

• a place to manage work

• a place to manage clients

• a way for people to book/pay you

• a way to document how you do things

• light automation so you’re not chasing people

That’s it.

2. You’re ready to add team members

Goal: make it incredibly simple for someone else to help you without you voice-noting them 20 times a day.

You need:

• the same tools as above

• PLUS shared access, permissions, and basic SOPs

• PLUS notifications in one place so you can oversee, not micromanage

Technology makes people scalable. People makes your business scalable and you sustainable.

The minimum viable tech stack.

I firmly believe that fewer tools is the way to go. It helps remove complexity. I’ll give you more than one option for each area. All of them have free or low-cost tiers (~$0–$20/mo at the I’m writing this — and goodness knows that will change by next week:). They’re all best-in-class.

And one note… I always tell my clients this: the best tool for you is the one you’re going to use (see the story below under 3. CRM).

1. Project & task management

This is where the work you’re doing lives.

• Monday.com (visual, customizable, scales easily as you grow)

• Asana (structured, great when you start delegating — I’ve got two growing agencies that have both switched from other platforms to Asana. If you’re building a team, it’s the way to go)

• ClickUp (do-it-all, can replace several tools if you set it up well — another client with a team is using ClickUp and it’s working for them)

What you want to track: clients, active projects (both for clients and internal to your business), recurring tasks (content, approvals, invoicing, reporting — flagging issues before they become urgent), and “parking lot” ideas.

2. Scheduling & intake

Stop emailing 7 times to find a time to meet. Truly. If you’re not already using one of these tools, make that change now.

• Calendly (monthly subscription)

• Acuity Scheduling (monthly subscription)

• Cal.com (free version, great for solopreneurs)

• TidyCal (one-time payment via AppSumo)

You’ll use it to set up:

• new client consult/discovery calls with intake questions

• current client meetings

• VIP/Intensive days with a connection to Zoom/Meet + your calendar.

• coffee chats

• podcast interviews

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3. CRM / client hub (lightweight)

If you have more than 5–10 clients/leads at a time, you need to see your pipeline. And it helps to have an all-in-one platform to move a prospect through the sales cycle from initial contact to signed agreement and first invoice).

• Bonsai CRM (freelancer-friendly, all-in-one proposals + invoicing)

• Zoho CRM (robust free tier and affordable paid plans)

• Pipedrive (simple, visual pipeline with automation)

• Notion (you’ll need to find a pro to help you customize it for your needs, but I know people who’ve done that and love it)

At minimum, track: lead source, status, last touch, next step. This alone increases close rates. And sending a contract and invoice via a top-tier platform ups your professionalism game.

And now to the story I teased above. I started working with a client back in January, and one of the first things we did was look at the tools that could help her streamline her processes. She’s a Solopreneur operating a service-based business.

We agreed she needed a way to track her business development efforts — outreach, opportunities, client conversions. After looking at several platforms and the pre-formatted Google Sheet I had created, she chose to go with Pipedrive.

She’s pretty tech savvy and dove in setting it up. After a month of using it, she realized it wasn’t for her and she wasn’t really using it. So, she cancelled that subscription and went with the Google Sheet. And she’s still using it today. Again, the best tool for you is the one you’re going to use.

4. Communication & async updates

So you’re not living in email.

• Slack (for your team + select clients)

• Voxer (I use this in all of my client work - voice and text messaging)

• Google Workspace (Gmail + Google Drive + Google Meet - again, this is a go-to, though I prefer Zoom to Google Meet)

• Loom (asynchronous explanations instead of meetings — my bookkeeping coach uses this on the regular and now I’m replying the same way… so. much. easier.)

You can teach your clients and team: “Questions go here.” That’s operations. It’s also great for SOPs (see below).

5. Documents & SOPs

So you can hand things off.

• Notion

• Google Drive (Docs + Sheets + Folders)

• Loom

Document: team and client onboarding steps, monthly reporting steps, deliverable templates, “how we name files,” “how we post on IG,” etc. Don’t overthink it — bullet points beat chaos. Create a template and use the same format every time.

Link SOPs as needed in your Project Management tool.

To be continued…

Until next time.

Katherine

#ICYMI

I missed sending this email for September (more swimming, sightseeing, and being outdoors, and less watching and reading) but I’m back at it this month. Here’s the next Resource Roundup — the best of what I’ve been listening to, reading, and watching in October.

Have a fabulous weekend.

Read more

Let’s dive in.

Continuing with the deep dive into each of the “10 business lessons to learn sooner rather than later,” we’re on to…

Lesson number 6 - Everything will take longer than you think.

TL:DR - summary from the roundup article

And I mean everything. You want to find the right bookkeeper or creative agency. You want to create a rocking online course. You’re ready to sign your first client. An example from my own business… I planned (and worked the plan) to launch this newsletter on Substack at the end of June; I launched it at the end of July (2024).

Too often, you think you can get more done in less time than it truly takes. And most efforts are 1) contingent on other people and their timing and 2) contingent on life.

Knowledge is power. When you know this you can plan for it. And you can give yourself some grace when the timing doesn’t go according to plan.

Everyone experiences this.

When I shared the complete list of business lessons in a LinkedIn post, one of the women business owners I know said this:

Suffice it to say, everyone I know has experienced this in one form or another. As I mentioned in the roundup post, I really did think that launching on Substack by June 30th was doable. I’d purchased an online course, so I knew what needed to be done, and I started the work with what I thought was plenty of time. But it turns out it wasn’t. I needed another month to get it launched in the way I wanted to. More on why that was below.

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This is true for the short term.

The short term — projects or initiatives you’re pursuing in your business that you hope to execute in the next 3-6 months.

Some examples:

• Making your first (or any) hire for your team

• The time it will take the person to meaningfully contribute to your business once you do

• Setting up a new CRM or project management tool

• Launching on Substack and making the move from another email platform

• Creating and launching your first (or a new) course or program

• Getting a guest spot on a coveted podcast or getting media mentions

And for your long-term goals.

Your big, juicy long-term goals will also take longer than you think.

Things like:

• Hitting a revenue target

• Getting to a specific number of email subscribers (free and/or paid)

• Or to a specific number of clients, program participants, or members

• Landing your first paid speaking gig

• Buying your first home (or second spot in your dream location)

Why you don’t accurately estimate the time things will take.

There are a number of reasons that come into play when planning the expected timing of projects, initiatives, and goals.

Here are a few:

• You set overly ambitious goals and timelines at the start without thinking through what’s actually involved.

• You don’t accurately assess the amount of time you truly have available to work on the project when all of your other business and personal commitments are taken into account.

• You don’t take into account the availability and timing of others involved in your initiative — your timeline may not be their timeline.

• You’re a perfectionist — note, this is part of what was in play for me when it came to my Substack launch (I refused to forgo functionality and offerings that could have waited until after launch).

• You don’t build in “buffer time” for unforeseen circumstances (a storm and resulting power outage, getting sick or having a team member get sick, a client emergency that pulls you away from your plan) — this also played a part in my delay.

A suggestion — go through a recent project or two where you didn’t hit your anticipated timeline and, with the list above as a guide, see what caused the delay.

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What you can do to meet your goals.

Once you have a sense of where you’ve run into problems in the past, you can take action to do things differently the next time around.

Here are some tactics that I’ve found helpful:

1. Knowing that “things happen,” you can build in “buffer time” — that could be one or two weeks (or longer, depending on the goal) to allow for unexpected delays.

2. You can involve team members in the creation or review of the timeline to get their perspective and buy-in.

3. If being a perfectionist is causing you to severely delay “shipping” new initiatives, you can address this with a trusted advisor or mentor.

4. You can adopt calendar blocking in your business — I wrote about the power of time blocking in detail in a prior article that you can find here. If you’re new to the concept, it’s worth a read because it works. And it does so in a few important ways:

   1. You get real with yourself regarding the time you have available to work on XYZ Project;

   2. It keeps you accountable to do the activities assigned to the calendar blocks;

   3. It forces you to create a realistic timeline once you see the time you have available to do the work.

This is especially important when there’s revenue involved. If you’re counting on launching a course in 4 months with 10 paid participants, and 4 months becomes 6 or 7 months, that has the potential to cause financial pain.

And for your sanity, don’t believe what you see on social media.

I came across this genius Reel last week when I started writing this article. Great minds were clearly thinking alike:). I'm sharing it here because there are so many people out there on social selling the quick-wins and the 7-figure businesses. Frankly, it’s bu$$shit. And it can make you feel like you’re a failure when you’re just on your own path with your own timing.

If you’re a fan of the Fleetwood Mac album “Rumors,” click through to see what Malcolm Gladwell shares about that multi-platinum classic. I for one am a fan and had no idea…

Until next time.

Katherine

#ICYMI