By: Andrea Mac | August 25, 2023

If you can only take me in small doses, here's what's new:

My new business hack: I led a training this week that required me to print color materials. I uploaded my files to Staples, and the cost for 10 packets, 7 pages each (that's 70 pages for the arithmetically challenged folks out there), was a whopping $63! Not today, sir. I checked my local library, which has a print-on-demand program. I submitted the files, received a code, went to the library, typed in the code on a machine, and voila, got my printouts for $8. How is that for being a responsible steward of my client's money? Sidenote: Support your local library.

If you're wondering: The training went amazingly well. It was a great, receptive, and very engaged team. And the best part – the CEO, who participated in the training, emailed me twice throughout the training asking me to work with the company on two more projects.

No: Even if I become flushed with cash and new opportunities, I am not going to spend $63 on printing. I am also a responsible steward of my own financial resources.

Building Prequal (#8): Oversharing Is My Thing, But Maybe Not Everyone's

I am not one to shy away from vulnerability or transparency. I don't often withhold my opinions, stories, examples, or even fears.

Those of you who know me in real life would likely certify to the internet folks that I am an open book and someone who communicates very directly. Sometimes, too directly…

So, why is being 100% completely open in this newsletter proving to be more challenging than I expected?

Even typing that was hard.

I started the Building Prequal newsletter because I wanted a space to build a business out loud. My goal was to share my trials, tribulations, and lessons as they happened so you could watch a business being built. Maybe even other entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs might feel more inspired and less lonely by what I share.

There are regular challenges that I face in building a business. Many. But not many of which I've shared yet. For instance, I'd love to tell you about a recent proposal/pitch process in which there were red flags all over the place and how I intensely deliberated, phoned a friend, and ultimately decided how to take on the work despite my hesitations.

I'd love to tell you about our struggles and opportunities as a team. Even better, I'd love to invite my team to openly talk about what it's like to be a part of a fast-paced start-up run by yours truly. How it can be frustrating to work with an Enneagram 8 and how we are learning how to be a team in a start-up, even though we've worked together for years. It's a whole new ballgame, as they say.

I'd like to share a recent occurrence while working with another client who was straight out of the best scripted "reality T.V." shows out there. Quite honestly, I would kill to crowdsource some ideas on how to solve it - or at the very least get a collective, "Can you believe this!?!?"

All of these stories would make for interesting and useful content, and they would help you connect with me on a deeper level content. So what's the problem, Andrea?

This is the question I'm wrestling with: "But would it be good business?" Is it wise of me to share all of it – the good, bad, and downright insane things happening behind the scenes at Prequal - publicly? (Even though I have baked in permissions in all contracts and agreements. Have I mentioned I spent 20 years in the legal industry, friends?)

Is the risk of damaging any relationships, losing capital, or disintegrating relationship capital worth it for the sake of transparency?

I honestly am uncertain at this point what's the right level of sharing.

On the one hand, why have a newsletter about building a business in real-time if I'm not yet sharing the daily ins and outs of what I am struggling with? And on the other, I am not the only character in the stories. There are other people involved, so do these stories belong only to me to decide what to share with the World Wide Web? (Deep, I know.)

That's all I've got. Questions with no concrete answers yet. But I'm working through it and working on next week's Building Prequal. While I may not be certain about sharing every story, there are definitely more stories to share.

Cheers to your sales success,

A.

P.S. Who needs sales resources? My team is working on adding resources to Prequal's resource vault, and I'd love to know: What resource could you use? A script? A template? A checklist? A guide? Tell me, please.