When I started my agency business, I didn’t know how to succeed. I didn’t know what sort of clients I wanted, and I didn’t know how to structure the deals. I didn’t even know what I wanted to sell.
I made a lot of trial and error. But when I finally, by chance, found what was working, it took me a long time to focus all my efforts on that.
Why? Because I had a lot of long contracts. Before, I wanted long contracts to protect my business, but now I wanted all of those contracts to end. It did cost me energy, time, and money to keep these contracts, but I couldn’t do much. Long contracts keep you from pursuing new opportunities.
I will never again write a long contract until I know that what the business should focus on is what I agree on. Maybe not even then.