by Daria Steigman on March 9, 2010
I was a little surprised last week by all the attention surrounding Chris Brogan’s day rate. A little of it reminded me of when I started my business and a few (former) friends decided I was really sitting around eating bonbons and cashing trust fund checks. Mostly it reminded me that too many people don’t know how to value their work.
My day rate may not be $22,000, but I do not allow organizations to pick my brain by the hour. My hourly strategy rate is primarily used to establish a retainer or a project fee–both of which build in start-up, research, concepting, and so forth. Not to mention intelligence, know-how, and expertise.
Why would anyone walk into a room and discount that?
Photo by Esparta (Flickr).
Tagged as:
Business,
Chris Brogan,
pricing,
Strategy
by Daria Steigman on November 16, 2008
There seems to be an evolving debate in the association world around the value of strategic planning. An August Associations Now article quite correctly pointed out that most strategic plans don’t work; but then the author went on to argue that strategic planning is not an essential business function. Scott Briscoe continued the discussion in a post on ASAE’s Acroynm blog, expressing surprise at the vehemence of the debate and saying that “I thought the idea of strategic planning having lost its vitality and usefulness in favor of a more nimble, open planning process was pretty well set.”
Here’s my opinion: Businesses that don’t plan end up operating in reactive mode. And if we’re going to plan, shouldn’t that process be strategic?
I suggest we dispense with the notion that strategic planning is no longer relevant, and focus instead on what makes for an effective process and what the outcomes should be. Businesses need to have short, medium, and long-range goals and develop strategies and tactics within and across divisions to achieve these. They also need to periodically evaluate their activities and initiatives against their goals and objectives and make adjustments as needed. Businesses also need to periodically assess whether how they view themselves correlates to how others view them–whether their employees, customers, investors, or other stakeholders.
Strategic planning fails when people think the plan is the outcome. It’s not; it’s an iterative tool to help your business stay focused and moving forward. What do you think?
Tagged as:
Business,
Strategy
by Daria Steigman on October 30, 2008
There’s one local candidate who lost my vote several weeks ago. I have no idea what his platform is or how he would govern if elected to the city council. All I know is that he wants my vote. His campaign has robocalled me so many times I’ve lost count.
If you really want my vote, stop using a megaphone and start engaging me and other citizens in a conversation. Find out what issues matter to me. Tell me what you’ll do for our city.
I wouldn’t do business with a company just because it wanted me to, so what makes someone think I’d pick a candidate that way?
Tagged as:
Business,
Campaign,
Strategy
I was a little surprised last week by all the attention surrounding Chris Brogan’s day rate. A little of it reminded me of when I started my business and a few (former) friends decided I was really sitting around eating bonbons and cashing trust fund checks. Mostly it reminded me that too many people don’t know how to value their work.