94 is a start-up journey blog series that captures Jamie’s first weeks at Amplify during the summer of 2018. The summer of 2018 was the soft launch of Amplify Advisors & the blog captures the weekly journaling of a co-founder. 94 has been released one year later as a reflection of how far Amplify has come in one short year.

Week Six

 

Well, today was invoicing day. Since our soft launch on June 27 we have invoiced over $30k. This is well ahead of the plan and it gives me hope beyond hope.

 

Of course I’m not an optimist (nor am I necessarily a pessimist) so the realist kicks in and so does the worry.

 

The worry that we are basically sold out. I’m already booked at 100-125%. That’s more than at Deloitte and way higher than my ideal state. I’m building a business not renting my time. When will I build and sell if I’m that chargeable?

 

The worry is I need people. People to do all these projects. People to put on contracts. People that support the business and me so that I can eventually be closer to 25-30% chargeable and spend the majority of my time on business development, client relationships and the team. I feel it’s important to spend some of my time on client service – I need to stay relevant; and some time on strategy and operations – we need to grow and build and scale, but most of my time should be spent on connecting and building relationships. Connection and deep personal relationships are at the intersection of health, longevity, success, and happiness.

 

It’s tough at the beginning. You can’t afford the risk of full-time employees. You don’t have a brand besides your own name. It’s hard to attract and keep the best as incorporated or sub-contractors. It’s hard to build trust as an unknown.

 

I write this knowing that in a few months time I’ve got Jesse coming on-board. At this pace any worry about being ready to truly launch is old news. He’s dedicated to Deloitte today and we have to respect that, but it’s not long now until we can tackle this together. 1 + 1 = >2!!

 

HERE ARE THE LINKS TO ALL THE BLOGS IN THIS SERIES:

94: A start up journey

Week One: Surprise!

Week Two: Busy like I’ve never known!

Week Three: The Promises we make – spousal and business partner negotiations to offset cashflow risk

Week Four: Brainspace – an extreme indoctrination

Week Five: An Accountant for Accountants & an Entrepreneur for Entrepreneurs

Week Six: 1 + 1 = > 2 and we’ve “sold out”