Updating stakeholders

Marc Barros (founder of Moment and Contour) wrote an interesting post the other day about writing business updates. He makes a great case for not doing investor updates but use business updates. I have seen quite a few investor updates and he hits the mark they are too much forward-looking and less about how the company is doing today.

I always feel that investor updates are about where you wanted to be today, but have not gotten there yet while it gives not enough info about how the business is doing and the reason for where it is today. I think that many entrepreneurs feel like it is too much like a report card and with our optimistic attitude, we tend to think in the future where we want to go. But many decisions on direction are embedded from what you have learned and what you need to improve.

The audience of the business update is every stakeholder. This is important because as a leader you need to align everyone towards a common goal. A business update helps with that. It is information they can act on and use.

It might be subtle but I also like that he writes that sending it on Sunday 4pm achieves the highest open rate, but does not necessarily means writing it on Sunday. Everyone needs down time and it is healthy. Every entrepreneur works 24/7 when necessary, there is never a doubt about that, but you also have a family and friends. Without their support, you will not get anywhere and this means that for some people like me Sunday is for family.

Keeping everyone in the loop and marching in the same direction is a challenge. Especially if you consider that you simply do not have the time to sit down and interact with everyone on a regular basis. Business updates are a great way to do it while creating an archive for new people to read through when they come on board.