When I hear news articles about the importance of small business, I think "Hey, that's me!". Its both terrifying and exhilarating to own a business.
One strategy I use for handling the up swings in business is to pull in experienced partners. These folks all have either a full time job somewhere else (involving social media) or they are independent contractors juggling various gigs.
This works for ShinyDoor because it helps us to grow without taking on the expense of permanent payroll costs. It is also a prime example of how an economic hit gets passed on. If ShinyDoor's clients need to cut back on a ShinyDoor contract, I take that impact myself and my team members take that impact. When a ShinyDoor client increases a contract, I and the team members are positively impacted.
When I first started ShinyDoor at the end of 2008, I received lots of support from my network. Those folks were instrumental in helping me figure out a direction and strategy. I hired a couple of folks to help on various projects. When it all shook out, Laura Rees was the most enthusiastic, the most involved. I provided leads and she followed up. She found her own leads and she followed up. We worked together to provide stellar services to our clients. She was amazing. Last month, she decided to take a full time position with Ologie. I'm very excited for her. I was bummed for ShinyDoor. She is not totally gone. She's around to give us expert advice but I realized I needed to beef up the ShinyDoor team as I had been relying on her a lot.
Laura's fabulous new opportunity came at the same time that ShinyDoor's workload went up.
As a propone
nt of having a strong network, its no surprise, I turned to my network to expand the ShinyDoor team:
Shane Haggerty. Shane is a marketing and communications coordinator for a top career-technical school district. He is a leader in the field of using social media in education. For ShinyDoor, Shane is working on the Ohio Education Technology Conference.
Ryan Squire. Ryan is the program director for digital and social media at one of Central Ohio’s largest hospital systems. Ryan is a leader in the field of using social media in healthcare. For ShinyDoor, Ryan is coordinating the 2011 Government Social Media Conference, held in partnership with MORPC.
Dan Simrak. Dan has taken a leap off a professional cliff. He wants to work more with nonprofits and their technology issues. Since I took a similar leap off of that cliff, I appreciate Dan's willingness to take a risk to find work he loves. For ShinyDoor, Dan is working with us on multiple projects - research for the 2011 Government Social Media Conference, training module development for Connect Your Community, email marketing research for MORPC, and more!
I am honored to have these gentlemen on the ShinyDoor team. Humbled. And honored.
