We caught up with the brilliant and insightful David Chaumette a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

David, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

Looking back, I wish that I had started business earlier in my career. For years, I played it safe — working in large law firms on a path that was easily followed and largely prescribed.

The signs that I needed to do something different came early, but I ignored them. I tended to enjoy my work with small clients the most. And there were other aspects of “corporate” issues that I did not enjoy. All of it was more performative than impactful and it was not really for me. I needed to leave the law, but I didn’t know how or when.

It took me time to act, and it wasn’t until I faced challenges in my personal life that I finally made a change. The transition was not smooth — not in the slightest — and I stumbled significantly along the way.

I did not plan enough before leaving. I acted impulsively when I should have taken the time to be more considered in my actions. This led to missteps because I did not fully understand the environment I was in.

I did not properly evaluating my business partners and associates. It is a truism that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. When I made bad choices for those people in my life, I suffered and it has taken me years to correct for these mistakes. Today, my inner circle is an important part of my success and the value I bring to any situation.

I did not fully consider the impact of my actions on other people. Some of that was due to self absorption or conceit, and developing a “big picture” view of things has been a part of my subsequent success.

All of this is to say that I should have made a more deliberate move earlier than I did. I ended up being more reactive than proactive, and, as a result, I did not have control over my path and that led to years of issues. As I like to say, it’s better to have conscious choices than to have default decisions. And moving earlier would have allowed me to make more conscious choices and probably would have resulted in even better outcomes than I have been able to achieve.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have spent over twenty years working with companies, large and small, as we struggled with their different and unique challenges. Those experiences did reveal themes in those challenges.

Small businesses all face some similar issues — from managing staff, planning for the future, and growing the business. And in today’s economy, it’s hard to find the time (and attention) to dedicate to those longer term projects, including those which would clearly help the business and its bottom line.

Several years ago, I pivoted to focus on helping small businesses (especially solopreneurs) grow their business and make their business better for them. It is more than just making more money. It’s finding more time for the things that matter and finding more enjoyment in life in general. Simply, small business owners are good at working in their business, but not always good at working on their business.

Chaumette Solutions works to develop those goals and helping you achieve them effectively and efficiently. Sometimes that is developing better internal procedures, learning how to hire the right people, or launching a new product line (or income stream). We have decades of experience across several industries and have helped numerous small business owners make their businesses better.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

Keeping touch with clients is a critical part of any business’s long term success. The question is how. Business owners can fall down a huge rabbit hole continuously reaching out to clients and potential clients without a purpose or a plan.

Today, most people do not like to be sold to all the time, so when we reach out, we are trying to provide value. I once heard someone phrase like this: in the past, you had to find people and introduce them to the product. Today, customers look for your product and find you.

The key then is to remain top of mind with your clients and potential clients, and to do that, the key is to provide useful information, that is hopefully evergreen if not timely.

The sad truth is that most of us do not have products that are unique. Instead, we are more successful when we make the effort to understand clients and their specific concerns and need. You foster loyalty by being interested and being loyal.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

The biggest challenge in managing a team is making the incentives align. Many business owners try to inspire their employees by speaking to them as if everyone has the same goals. Simply, they don’t. As the owner (or manager of the team), you need to spend time to learn what matters to those working for you. Some want recognition. Others want freedom and creative outlets, while others still want financial motivation. It’s worth considering those issues.

Years ago, one of the lawyers working for me said that employee handbooks should be just one page reading “Stop looking at the handbook and get back to work.” Today, that would not be a good approach for keeping employees long term. The key to success is more nuanced than that.

Spending this time will keep morale higher in the business, but it will also will allow you to evaluate the fit of those employees over time. Both are important to the overall success of the business.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.chaumettesolutions.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Chaumsol
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dchaumette
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidchaumette/
• Twitter: https://www..twitter.com/ChaumSolutions
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCV_K3lcUtMWXkPX7zdDR_Dw

Image Credits
Alefiya Akbarally