The October Panic: Why Q4 Looks Booked But Feels Empty
October brings fake Q4 bookings that evaporate in November. Learn to spot ghost commitments and protect your cash flow before the holiday budget freeze.
October brings fake Q4 bookings that evaporate in November. Learn to spot ghost commitments and protect your cash flow before the holiday budget freeze.
Tuesday night. 11:03 PM. I’m sitting on the couch with the lights off and a controller in my hands, and for the first time in what feels like actual months, I have cleared the decks. No Friday Priya resignation threat brewing. No Yusuf sending me Slack messages about why we absolutely need to migrate to … Read more
I’m sitting in Martin’s office on a Tuesday at 2:47 p.m., and I can feel the yes forming in my chest like a muscle memory, like my body remembers how to say it before my brain catches up. Martin is the VP of Product. He’s two levels above me. He’s leaning back in his chair … Read more
It’s 4:47 on a Friday, and I’m watching Priya walk toward my desk with that specific angle of her shoulders that means she’s already decided the conversation is going to hurt. I know this angle. I’ve seen it roughly fourteen times this year, always between 4:30 and 5:00 on Fridays, always with the same opening … Read more
The Slack message came in at 4:47 p.m. on a Thursday, which is the worst possible time for anything to come in, because it means you’re already mentally in Friday, already thinking about the thing you’re supposed to do after work, and now that thing is not going to happen. “Production’s down,” Marcus wrote. “Payment … Read more
Monday, 9:47 a.m. I’m in the standup, coffee still hot enough to be a weapon, when Yusuf raises his hand before I even get through the sprint goals. “I’ve been thinking,” he says. “We need to talk about the backend stack.” I know this voice. This is the voice of someone who found a blog … Read more
It’s Thursday at 2:47 p.m. I know the exact time because I’d just closed my calendar and marked Saturday as “DO NOT TOUCH” in all caps. The Merge Conflicts finally had a slot—a real slot, booked at The Larder, our usual spot that only fits 40 people but smells like old beer and possibility. And … Read more
Here’s a fun exercise: add up every hour you’ve spent this year on hiring, onboarding, or firing someone. Now imagine you’d spent that time on billable work instead. I did this math last month and had to close my laptop and go stare at a wall for a bit. It’s a lot. It’s always a … Read more
Nobody hands you a manual when you hire your first person. There’s no orientation packet for “how to tell another human their work isn’t quite landing.” I got promoted from Boss of Myself to Boss of Other People with zero training, same as every solo owner who’s ever brought on a VA or a subcontractor. … Read more
Three months. That’s how long I knew Priya wasn’t going to work out before I actually sat down and said it out loud. Not to her — to myself, in the shower, at 6am, doing that thing where you rehearse a conversation for the ninetieth time and still don’t have it. Three months of “maybe … Read more