profile

Rod Aparicio

Perspectives.

Published 12 months ago • 1 min read

Now, it’s been 10 days since my last email after 2 years of non-stop dailies. Was on a trip in India with a client and it brought some perspective (besides the jetlag that really messed up my rhythm 🙃).

It brought perspective about the level of impact. The scale of impact.

Here’s a shift in my practice. From a perspective of one, to a perspective of one who leads.

A small firm. A small business.

If you’re running one of these you’re at a disadvantage. Or are you??

I’d argue that running a small biz gives you a few advantages:

  • You can break the traditional pricing model(s) in your industry.
  • You have more flexibility.
  • You can take certain calculated risks bigger players can’t/won’t.
  • You can choose a specific focus.
  • You can make changes at a higher speed.
  • You can re-structure things in your own ways.
  • You can be pickier with who you serve.
  • You can develop deeper expertise.
  • You can ditch hourly.
  • You can reposition leaner.
  • You can focus on transformations (meaningful ones).
  • You can shift your sales culture.
  • You can scale up your ops.
  • You can increase your margins dramatically.
  • You can make a larger impact.

Yet, it won’t be easy.

You’ll have trade-offs.

And you’ll need to decide the way.

Rod Aparicio

Get one tip, question, or belief-challenge that just might change the way you market, to help your customers buy. A *daily* email for b2b founders on improving your business —without the bullshit.

Read more from Rod Aparicio

Super Deluxe Hardback Book in Cloth, Slipcase with Exclusive Blue Color LP. 4 105 EUR Would you pay for this? Material production costs. 35 - 50 EUR Effort put into it. A lot. Does it make this worth it per se? Signature. 0.5 EUR in the ink used. It's just a book, after all. Unless, the price is not about what's the book made of. Or the cover. Or its story. Or the attached LP. Or because it's "deluxe". Or even the signature.

about 20 hours ago • 1 min read

Business is not busyness. Being busy doesn't mean you're actually bringing value to your business. And even worse, you might not bringing value to your customers (the right ones). You might end up full of tasks, to-dos, overwhelm and choose to focus on every customer (because they're all important, right?). And what you're doing is choosing to ignore your most profitable ones over the ones who are not. Keeping that game for long will end in only busyness —quite likely without a business.

2 days ago • 1 min read

It's a way to have what you gain over your prospects and customers' proposed set budget. Think of it as the extra fund for fun (new projects, new products, more vacation, more bonuses, paid-time-to-think-bigger...). Blair Enns calls it your RAB Fund. And gives this example: Let’s say you have a client with a stated budget of $20,000 and you present a proposal with options priced at $20k, $35k and $90k. (Don’t read too much into those numbers or their relationships with each other.) If the...

3 days ago • 1 min read