Business was good for BeeSmart Social Media, which provided customized, large‑scale social media solutions to larger small businesses. However, business wasn’t really growing because she was working in the business instead of on the business. That complacency should have been a red flag. BeeSmart’s revenue fell 85 percent when two clients left. It was so bad that Julie talked herself into getting a job and closing BeeSmart.
When you lose that much of your revenue in one day, there’s only one issue to address: rebuild the revenue funnel to stay in business. It seemed simple—get two new clients to replace what was lost—but that wasn’t the right path for her. She didn’t want to work with the larger clients anymore. There is never a good time for a big transition, but when crisis happened, an opportunity presented itself during the recovery process. She wanted to focus on smaller businesses.
BeeSmart Social Media is now a thriving, growing company. Julie became more resilient helping the small businesses that make her even happier than before. She is not afraid to be vulnerable and learned to reach out to her network and ask for help. She was pleasantly surprised when many stepped up to help out.
“The number one thing learned from such a crisis is to diversify your revenue streams,” Julie said. “I used my crisis as an opportunity to make the changes in my business that I’d wanted to make forever. I encourage others in such a situation just to keep going—you can do it!”
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