Abstract Collective: An *Unofficial* Year in Review

DE-RISKING THE DECISION

What do you mean by Unofficial?

I’ve had the idea of founding something like Abstract Collective for a long time. In fact, I have a post-it note from my college days with the concept written on it. 

I did not take a blind leap of faith, but rather I took the time to test the waters and de-risk this venture beforehand. Before I started, I wanted to answer the following questions:

1. Would I enjoy operating a service business?
2. Could I bring value (and in turn, make money) by serving clients with marketing, design, and strategy problems?
3. Would this allow me to have more impact in the startup community?
4. Would I be financially secure enough to take on this risk?

That is why I started doing this work nights and weekends and landed my first three clients in May of 2019. Balancing a 60-80 hour workweek at a startup with another 20 hours per week of client work on top of that is not an easy thing to do (nor would I recommend it). However, doing this allowed me to begin answering the questions above and decide on my next course of action.

1 - Would I enjoy operating a service business?

Yes. I love it. No two days are the same as each project is unique to the client, their problem, and the industry that they play in. Although a service business forgoes scalability, I believe I am getting my fair share of variety.

2 - Could I bring value (and in turn, make money) by serving clients with marketing, design, and strategy problems?

Yes. At the time of this writing (a couple of months into COVID-19), my monthly revenue has been following an upward trajectory. Over half of my new clients come from existing client referrals too which means that I am able to not only deliver value to my existing clients, but they are so happy with the work that they refer me to other business operators.

3 - Would this allow me to have more impact in the startup community?

Yes. On average now, I have between 10-25 hours of client work per week (depending on deadlines and how busy things are). With the extra time, I am more intentional with how I reach out to and support early-stage entrepreneurs. 

In just the past few months, I have co-launched Crisis Response in partnership with Newberry Consulting Services. Crisis Response is a recurring webinar that features experienced business operators who survived crises such as the Dot-com bubble and the Great Recession. Our next one is in June with two incredible speakers to discuss product/hardware businesses (find out more here!)

I also have been able to carve out time to do more coaching and pro bono work (see the “A Look at the Numbers” section later in this post for more details).

4 - Would I be financially secure enough to take this risk?

Yes. I had two major priorities in 2019:

1. Pay off the remainder of my student debt
2. Build up savings that could last me roughly a year if the economy took a nosedive

Accomplishing those two priorities along with beginning to build up a client pool in May allowed me to thoroughly de-risk taking the leap to full-time in December of 2019.

THE TIMELINE AND NUMBERS

The Timeline

May 2019 - November 2019

• Worked nights and weekends on this venture
• Secured first 9 clients
• Had my last day at Fledging (November 30th, 2019)
• Formally launched Abstract Collective on December 10th, 2019
• If you are interested in the playbook we used for launch, message or email me and I will send it your way.

December 2019 - April 2020

• Worked full-time on this venture
• Secured next 11 clients

A Look at the Numbers

Here is a look at the numbers since our *unofficial* beginnings in May of 2019

• Paid Clients Served: 20
• Paid Projects Completed: 61
• Pro Bono Projects: 15
• Projects Lost: 12*
• Partnerships Formed: 8
• Client Archetype: Startup Executive leading a team with a headcount of 1-20 employees, Industry Agnostic**

* = This is an underestimate. A project lost is defined as a project that we bid for or were close to securing, that did not convert into an engagement. In reflection, this number is too low and needs to be much higher. Moving forward, we need to reach higher, fail more, learn, and adapt.

** = This is not a surprise to me as the bulk of my work has been with teams of this size. Moving forward, we are planning to broaden our scope by reaching out to teams with a headcount of 20-50.

MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS

What was the hardest part?

Dealing with my first upset client. After getting negative feedback it became clear that there was a misunderstanding around expectations. I learned from this to always make sure to cover expectations by asking questions like:

• What would success look like after this engagement?
• How will success be measured?
• Anything that I did not ask, that I should have?

Thankfully this was a small project and I worked to remedy the situation and completed a pro bono project with them after to help resolve everything. That client has since referred me to two more clients that I work with today.

What was the most surprising part?

I was surprised by how much of a lifestyle shift this would be (in a good way). I shifted from working 60-80 hour work weeks on a startup salary to working closer to 20-30 hour work weeks surpassing my previous monthly earnings within the first few months of being full-time. This had led me to be able to invest in hobbies of mine like woodworking, reading, cooking, and a few other side hustle ideas. For the first time in a few years, I have truly been able to unplug and relax on a weekend which is very much appreciated.

A *BIG* disclaimer here is that this is my experience with running a service business and that does not mean it will be the same for you. 

What is the top piece of advice I would have for someone planning to start their own service business?

Don’t “take a leap of faith” and “dive in”. This advice is bullshit and mainly said by two groups of people:

1. People who are already successful
2. People who have never started a business themselves

Take your time and think through things fully before you start your own business. Go back to the list of questions I asked myself and ask yourself the questions that you need for your situation. Running a business has magnified highs and with that magnified lows.

What are you most excited about in the next year?

Serving others. Like I discussed earlier, Abstract Collective allows me to experience variety in my work, solve complex problems, and bring value to business operators facing real roadblocks. I plan to measure this objectively by the number of clients I serve and the amount of revenue (or portion of the total value I create for a client) that I bring in.

What did you mean earlier when you said: “partnerships formed”?

Partners are other groups that offer a type of service that does not compete with mine and serve the same target client as Abstract Collective. Some of the partnerships I have formed are with angel networks, law firms, fractional CFOs, and other consultants. This is a trusted list of people that I respect the quality of their work to be comfortable referring clients to them and vice versa.

How do you structure your workweek?

• Monday: Deep work (I try to have zero calls on Mondays in order to get a large amount of my work done for the week early)
• Tuesday: Client work/calls
• Wednesday: Client work/calls
• Thursday: Client work/calls
• Friday: Personal Projects (no Abstract Collective work)*
• Saturday: Unplug, relax, hobbies
• Sunday: Unplug, relax, hobbies

* = Yes, that means I have a 4-day workweek (Monday-Thursday). I did this to make those four days more “full” and also to carve out a dedicated day where I work on personal projects. I made this shift recently in April and love it.

Have you experienced working with bad clients? How do you identify them?

Yes. Thankfully, I have gotten better at identifying them before an engagement and no-going them or I figure it out the hard way and offboard them at the next potential offramp to minimize issues. 

Some common tropes of bad clients:

• They are more focused on price than value
• They do not know what they want or what they are doing and expect you to do that for them
• They are poor communicators (this can be over-communication too)
• They want to pay you in exposure or a testimonial
• They say if you do good work they will refer you to their friend who runs a business too (I am beginning to doubt this “friend” exists)

ABSTRACT COLLECTIVE AMA

Interested in learning more?

I will be doing a small group Ask Me Anything (AMA). During this, I will be answering questions about our journey so far with Abstract Collective, what we have planned next, and what advice I have for people planning to or already running their own business. Post a comment or email me directly at [email protected] if you are interested.