How the Recession Almost Tanked My Business & Helped Me Create a Life I Love via @heatherlloyd
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How the Recession Almost Tanked My Business & Helped Me Create a Life I Love
It took losing every single one of my clients within less than a week for me to finally get healthy and build a business that I love.
Let me explain…
Back in 1998, the SEO world was hopping. Big clients needed SEO help, and they had equally big budgets to spend.
There was a lot of work to go around. It was fun, fast-moving, and highly profitable.
And then, the recession kicked in.
At first, the recession felt more like a rumor. I heard about canceled contracts and shrinking budgets and layoffs, but I thought I was OK.
After all, I specialized in helping big-brand ecommerce companies. I've been in SEO since the beginning. I'd be fine, right?
Nope.
Suddenly, I started losing easy bids.
One well-known catalog company chose to save money by outsourcing their content offshore.
Other proposals went unanswered.
I started to worry.
Like the optimist I am, I continued my crazy conference speaking schedule. After all, I always got writing or training gigs from conference speaking. Sure, it was expensive lead generation – but I was sure I'd land another client.
(It's a common misconception that conference speakers are paid to speak. Typically, speakers pay most or all their travel expenses, which can cost thousands of dollars per event.)
Did I land some leads during the events?
Yes.
But the budgets were way smaller.
That meant making some hard choices. Choices I didn't want to make.
It Wasn't All About Me
I had loyal vendors/friends who worked with me. Folks who helped me build my business and put up with my weirdness.
Suddenly, I had to choose between the ability to pay my operational expenses – and the ability to pay my people. It was a horrible choice.
Short-term, I decided to burn through my savings a