15th Anniversary

12. Success does not always lead to more work

By | October 23, 2018

week twelve

I think one of the damaging myths of business ownership is that doing good work leads to more business. While the reverse is true – doing bad work will lead to failure, there are many times that doing successful work does not guarantee that you will get more business.

Defining Success

Let’s be clear on what success means. At Spire2 we strive to define objectives that can be measured for all projects we work on. Success is moving the needle forward. If a new client has not measured anything in the past, we’ll define a measurement for the project we are working on. In 2018, it is too easy to measure almost everything in marketing, and the benefits of measuring are too important to ignore. For example, we help a client market a high-priced program. We started tracking years ago, and now have benchmarks. We know when we are ahead or behind, so we don’t panic at the end of the sales cycle. We can respond much earlier, and because we collect data, we have started to see patterns in certain demographics making our marketing efforts more effective.

The Success Trap

When a business owner believes good work will always lead to more work, the business risks two things. The first is you grow complacent – because you think your current work will lead to more work. The second is that when you lose a client you have done successful work for, you can become demoralized. A demoralized leader does not lead an organization to more success!

The Secret

There is no doubt business ownership requires strong fortitude to keep going when you don’t feel like it. Understanding that good work does not lead to success has been learned through experience. The good news is that once you got this lesson down, the path is open to make your own success.


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Celebrating 15 years

Jeffery James
Jeffery James
Jeffery is the Creative Director and Principal of Spire2. He brings marketing expertise from a variety of industries. He excels at understanding clients' corporate objectives, translating them into brand positioning and executing marketing materials that exceed expectations.