Pre-MYOB
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

Pre-MYOB

I'm in Austin this week and weekend for HOW's Mind Your Own Business Conference. With all due apologies to my colleagues, Megan and Bridgid, who are holding down the fort at HOW HQ, the conference venue, the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort, absolutely rawks. (They'll get theirs next week, though, when they head to San Francisco, which I adore, to host our in-house event.)

The conference kicks off this evening, but in between collating paper and stuffing binders, I've had a chance to explore this place; it's like summer camp for grown ups. Archery, tennis, golf, kayaking, s'mores over the firepit in the evening. But for the really sweet bar, I could just as well be at Gnaw Bone Camp in Southern Indiana circa 1980. I still have my archery badge.

We're all in store for two and a half hard-core days of focused business work, and that's the M.O. for MYOB. From the beginning, we've chosen resort-y locations for the event, knowing that design-firm principals rarely take vacations (though they should). So we've set MYOB up as a way for folks to take a vacation from their business even while they're working on it.

First up tonight: The ever thought-provoking (and provocative) Blair Enns, back for a third perspective-shattering presentation at MYOB. I'll be posting tomorrow and Saturday with details on the sessions. Assuming I can get wireless out by the pool.

Day 1

Blair Enns made a repeat appearance to kickoff MYOB last night, with a presentation that was as thought-provoking as his previous gigs.

Specialization has been a constant theme at all MYOB conferences (learn more about that here) -- the idea that design firms that develop deep expertise in a particular market, discipline or category have huge advantages over firms that do all work for all clients. Enns definitely espouses that idea, and he talked about creating a positioning strategy. Positioning, he says, starts with your specialty -- expertise makes up 85% of your firm's identity. Then he talked about the role of personality, passion and ideology in crafting the last 15%, what he calls the "flavor" -- the tie-breaker element when a client is considering working with you.

Enns noted that designers often pour too much passion into their work and thus burn out. Likewise, personality isn't a good foundation for your position, because, as Enns says, most firms have similar personalities (we're fun! we love our clients! we have dogs in the office!). Rather, ideology should be the generator of a firm's "flavor" -- a higher goal, a bigger philosophy, a flag in the sand that tells clients and employees what you believe in.

It was very smart stuff that had people in deep conversation throughout the evening.

Day 2

Where to start? There was too much information in play on the first full day of the MYOB Conference: selling, finance, staffing, relationships. I took pages of notes, and I'm not even an attendee -- all the principals in the room were scribbling.

A few highlights from the sessions:

From Darryl Salerno on building client relationships:
• Networking is the primary sales activity for a design firm; you should spend 20% of your time on developing relationships
• Don't pursue relationships purely for business ends, but rather because you're genuinely interested in connecting. Put something into the relationship, and the business results will come.
• Each week: call 3-5 people you know, call 2-3 people you don't know; meet with 1-2 people you know and with 1-2 people you don't know
• Prompted by Darryl's comments about the value of LinkedIn, I'll be creating an MYOB group on the networking site

From Blair Enns on the sales function:
• The selling cycle for a design firm involves 7 steps: Planning (positioning); Lead Generation; Qualifying (determining whether your client to be is in the early stage or late stage of buying); Nurturing (staying in front of your early-stage clients to be); Closing your late-stage clients to be; Diagnosing & Prescribing; Executing
• In a small firm, the principal might do all those activities; in a larger firm, she can delegate some. But she can't delegate the Planning and Closing stages.
• A design firm (of any size) should shoot for 10 clients ongoing, each contributing 10% of the firm's revenue. Every year, as 2-4 clients leave, the business-development function is geared toward replacing those 2-4 clients. Sounds simple, eh?
• Set a "minimum level of engagement" -- that's the 10% of your firm's revenue -- and, get this: tell your prospects that's what you expect. The right clients will agree; the wrong ones will walk away from the table.

From Rick Gould:
• 30% profitability is achievable for design firms; most operate way below that.
• The key is watching your finances and hitting benchmarks, like keeping compensation at or below 50%, rent at or below 7%, operating expenses at or below 10%, sales costs at or below 3%.
• The goal is to build your firm's value so you can ultimately sell it.

Day 3

Talk about brain overload. With 10 new speakers on this year's roster, there was a TON of great business information shared during MYOB. More recap:

From Katherine Spencer Lee of The Creative Group on finding, hiring and keeping the best talent:
• Never use a previous job description when hiring; challenge yourself to create a new one. Ask yourself, what has changed? And then develop a new job description based on your current needs.
• Invest the most time in your best people, not your underperformers. Do this: On one side of a sheet of paper, list the staffers you spend the most time on. Flip the paper over and write the names of top contributors. Do both sides match? If not, you may need to reallocate your time.
• Develop a set of 8 to 10 questions you ask everyone you interview. Each should have strategic significance. By asking the same questions every time, you can better compare applicants and avoid the "halo effect" -- that tendency we have to hire people who are like us.

From Ed Fiander and Linda Rappaport of Gazelle Strategic Partners on strategic planning:
• Use the Balanced Scorecard for planning your firm's growth
• As we head into an uncertain economy, now is exactly the right moment to devote time to strategic planning work.
• Everything -- staff development, business processes, customer relations, financial systems -- stems from your vision and strategy. Everything.

From Darryl Salerno of Second Quadrant Solutions on presentations:
• Learn to read your audience, using a formula that's loosely based on the DISC profile: Thinkers, Feelers, Intuitors, Sensors.
• Avoid canned presentations (the dreaded "Dog and Pony Show") -- they're about you, not your client/client to be. Instead, probe their needs and talk about your capabilities as proof that you can meet those needs.
• The first 30 to 90 seconds of your presentation are crucial; you need to engage your audience at the start. How? Ask a yes/no question; tell a joke; state a fact; make an emphatic statement; use a quote.
• Practice every major presentation -- every time! Do it two ways: in real time, and dramatically condensed. By doing the latter, you'll see where the "meat" of your presentation lies, and you'll be prepared if the client suddenly tells you you have 30 minutes instead of 90.

From Donna Karlin of A Better Perspective on leadership:
• Pay attention. To your own hidden leadership qualities (those things the people around you respond to but that you may not consider leadership traits). To your own success.
• Find the extraordinary in an ordinary day.

Bryn Mooth
Editor, HOW magazine