From the desk of Jimmy Raybon

I am pleased to report another challenging and wonderful week. Shortly after last week’s update I received a reply from one of my former partners, Jimmy Raybon. Ever supportive, Jimmy felt he had to intervene with the following email that I’d like to share with you because it provoked a response which I think offers some insight into the meaning of this blog, its intended audience, and most importantly, how it relates to Milestone Marketing Associates.

From: Jimmy Raybon
Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 3:18 PM
To: Matthew Anderson
Subject: RE: Weekly Update from Matthew Anderson

Dude don’t take this personal. But, how is anything you put in your blog other than about customers and interesting projects relevant in attracting potential clients who want to spend thousands on marketing and advertising?
I am a simple guy but if I were say MC2 why would your personal life and travels, time off, etc mean anything to me if I was wanting to hire you?
Have you ever thought about having a personal blog for your friends and keeping you website completely prospect interesting? Just my two cents – you know I love you man….

From: Matthew Anderson
Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 9:08 AM
To: Jimmy Raybon
Subject: RE: Weekly Update from Matthew Anderson

Hey Bud,
Thanks again for the feedback. I’ve thought a lot about your comments, and wanted to share something else I’ve been thinking about. As a small business owner working from home I find myself working all the time. Not only that, but as the only salesperson I also find myself always promoting the business. The point is that I am no longer able to separate my work life from my personal life.

Traditional wisdom would suggest that’s a bad thing. Always being “on” will undoubtedly have a negative effect on my mental and physical health. Not to mention the risk of alienating my wife and kids in the process. However, I am coming to the conclusion that perhaps it’s not so bad after all. Of course the trick is always finding some balance, but the reality of building a business from scratch is that it requires this level of effort.

Believe me, I don’t want to continue working this hard for the next 10-20 years, but I have to believe that working this hard for the next 5 will eventually produce a significant return on investment.

I guess the new bottom line for me is that business is personal. I made a conscious choice to only work with and for people I care about. Ultimately this may prove to be unwise and/or unprofitable, but at this point it’s the strategy that I want to follow. And you know me, once I get an idea in my head… Love,

One Way Anderson

Challenges came in many forms last week. From basic constructive criticism of this blog, to complex planning decisions for this business, the most difficult challenge was personal. My brother should have turned 40 last Friday.

I spoke to my nephew Sky about John’s birthday on Monday during our bike ride, and I talked to my wife Dana about it later in the week. By the 19th I couldn’t think about him anymore. It was too painful.

Fortunately I have many wonderful distractions in my life. I have great friends who care enough about me and this business to send me an email when they think I’m doing something wrong. I have wonderful associates who support this business with their time and effort. I sent the following email out to the team after our three-hour meeting on Thursday night: Thanks again for attending our Quarterly Planning Meeting. I truly appreciate your time and input into the planning process, and remain confident in our ability to build this business.

I found our discussion about who we are, where we’re going, and how we’re going to get there to be a worthwhile use of our time. After taking some time to reflect on our conversation I thought I should follow up with the group to make sure we’re all on the same page. We talked about different ways to define what we do and different ways to drum up new business. Should we narrow the focus of our offer (event management experts)? Should we position ourselves as an industry expert (construction)?

I believe the right direction for Milestone Marketing Associates at this point is to NOT fundamentally change our corporate position. We are a full-service marketing company. We specialize in software businesses.

When it comes to our website and our brochure, we still need to figure out a better way to define “full-service” so that people understand what services we offer. We need to speak in terms and images that our primary target audience, software companies, will understand and appreciate. As for the overall design direction, I think we should stick with the travel theme and extend that concept throughout the site and into the company brochure.

I am confident in this direction for two primary reasons. First, we’ve only been promoting this position for four-and-a-half months, and we need to allow time for our message to spread. Not only that, but when I reviewed our sales progress more closely, I noticed that the number of software leads is growing. Perhaps you may recall over the last few months that I expressed some concerns about the fact that we only had a few software leads and a whole bunch of other businesses in the pipeline. Second, I remain convinced that our experience in technology is an important differentiator. Just like many business owners have a hard time with marketing, most also struggle with technology. The fact that we understand both is a powerful combination.

As for opportunities that exist outside of our defined space, we can and will continue to chase those through targeted campaigns when it makes sense. I don’t see anything wrong with tweaking our message to cater to contractors or the construction industry. Likewise I have no problem with saying we’re event marketing experts. If that’s what the client wants, whether it’s a local non-profit, or a contractor in Wisconsin, or a software company that needs help with tradeshows, we can tailor or presentation to meet their needs.

Remember that our goal is to build a business. Whether you think of it as an “advertising agency” or a “marketing company” doesn’t really matter. The point is that we’re creating something new that didn’t exist before. I was looking back through my second journal because I’m down to the last few pages. It begins with entries from October, basically the official beginning of Milestone (the first journal is filled with entries from the planning stages). In these last few months we’ve gone from a pipe dream to a real company, a concept for a new business to a new business with paying customers. I am absolutely thrilled with our progress to date, and I can’t wait to see what happens over the next few months.

Taking time to look back at our progress, consider making changes, and reaffirm our direction and purpose with input from the entire team was a highlight of the week. However, it didn’t hold a candle to the other birthday.

Our Mia turned three on Sunday. We had a princess castle bounce house and more than a dozen little princesses (and other costumed kiddies) over for her party, which she had been talking about for the last three months. This was a big deal. Nana even spent the night.

The party lasted about two hours. By then end it looked like a pink tornado went through our house. Here’s a special moment:







I am looking forward to another challenging and wonderful week. I hope you are too.

Until next week,
Matthew Anderson, President
Milestone Marketing Associates, Inc.