Snowing heavily at 6:00 this morning out by the Vermont barn, as I'm sure it is wherever you are here in New England. Looks like 13-15" on the hill today, but unfortunately for me a packed day of sales calls and zooms. When it snows, I always worry about the mechanics of dealing with it even with three snowblowers at various houses and a superb plow service from the team at Homestead up the road a piece. It's just my normal belt and suspenders approach to way overthinking too many details.
What I do know is that I don't need to worry today about the shoveling of the driveway at the NH house we own and use for work and offices. I actually enjoy shoveling and usually take care of that house myself so was surprised last year to hear the scraping of shovels in the driveway and the walks. Opening the door, I discovered the 11 and 13 year old brothers of one of the neighbors had cleared the driveway, so went out to thank them while reaching in my pocket for money. I was caught off guard when I asked them what I should pay with the response of "No money, we just do it for the smiles!" That comment led to a short lecture on entrepreneurial capitalism over hot chocolate, and a deal was struck that on any day that it snows, cash payments of $20 each would be paid. Needless to say, the driveway has been scrapped clean all season.
I mention this since when I was a kid living in a crowded suburban neighborhood outside Boston, shoveling snow was a direct path to the big money of $2 a driveway. The snow this AM also emphasized to me what an absolutely superb time it is right now to be an entrepreneur, or at least entrepreneurish in any job and in any company.
Borrowing from a friend of mine, Michael Greeley's superb blog, From the Flying Bridge, earlier this week about entrepreneurship and 2021, I took the following factoids:
- 5.4 million Americans filed applications to start companies
- 53% greater than the pre-pandemic level in 2019.
- the greatest level of venture capital with $330B billion invested in approximately 15,500 companies
Since Michael is consistently one of the top venture investors in healthcare, of course that last bullet on venture capital is important to him...and to me as a venture investor, but for the purpose of this blog this morning, unless it relates directly to you, I'd like you to forget about venture capital and forget about tech per se and just focus on what it takes to be entrepreneurish and innovative in your own business and in your job.
I've been in the business of entrepreneurship for decades starting and cofounding ten (doing two more now) companies and funding many more, and I've never seen such a robust environment of entrepreneurial thought and innovation of ideas than today! Of course, in my work at the firm and at Tufts, every week, I'm introduced to 5 to10 potential startups in AI, crypto, cannabis, cyber and healthcare. But for me what is much more exciting is what I've observed all through 2021 and even more and more this year, as a very healthy and wonderfully robust environment of being entrpreneurish and challenging status quo practices with innovative practices and tools...at every level.
So, as you're out shoveling today, or watching the neighborhood kids do the same, think through what you could do to...
- achieve 25% productivity improvement in your sales team this year
- reduce your sales cycle by 30%
- increase your MQL lead gen by 50%
All very doable, especially in 2022, as long as you sign up for being an entrepreneur!
If you want to read about what it takes to think and plan differently in the rapidly changing world of Sales in 2022, just click here, and let me know what you think...or just connect with me directly.
Have a great day selling today...and enjoy what will be a superb weekend!
AN ANYTIME SOUNDING BOARD IN '22
If at any time this year, you have a need for a confidential sounding board for your 2022 business or sales planning process, just connect with me! Text or email me, and I'll quickly set up a call. I'm a very good listener, and we can get deep into tactics if you want. Obviously, no cost for a call or two; just an opportunity to listen intently and make a few recommendations based on decades of experience.
Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts.
