You Get To Be A Speedboat Now
Before I left my corporate life, I worked for a 100+ year old, then-Fortune 50 company (yes 50, not 500). It was a goliath of an organization.
Internally, we used to joke that the company could turn as fast as a cruise ship. Cruise ships are great at going straight and staying on course. They are not great at changing directions. And if they change directions, it definitely doesn’t happen quick.
The 100+ year-old company I was at was so slow at changing directions, when I started there in 2009, they had just moved away from requiring business formal attire (like full suit, Mad Men). So much so that when I left in 2016, there were some departments still addressing colleagues as Mr. and Mrs. (like “Today, Mrs. Goode will be presenting the monthly financials.” That’s actually how I would be introduced.)
Cruise. Ship.
Today, as a mostly-solo firm owner, I get to be a speedboat.
You, fellow solo or small firm owner, get to be a speedboat.
We get to change directions fast, if we want.
We get to try Claude this week and decide it sucks and drop it next week. (I’m just kidding. It doesn’t suck.)
We can play around with a new AI-native general ledger software (Kick, Digits, Puzzle, COUNT, etc.)…or we can test a tax prep automation software in the off-season (Juno, Soraban, Filed, etc.)
If you think you could do something better or faster (bonus points if you can do both at the same time!), you can change on a dime. You can completely change your workflow in a matter of months, if not weeks. There’s no hierarchy of approval. And very little, if any, staff to coddle through change management.
Speed of change is one of the clearest advantages solo and small firms will always have over mid and large firms.
Let’s not take that advantage for granted.
Cheers,
Erica
TOMORROW
❓Q&A with Erica: Sabbatical, Ask Me Anything
Thursday, Aug 6th
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