Hi everyone! Welcome back :) Sorry for the delayed post, there was some crazy stuff this weekend and I didn't have time to get this out by Sunday like I would have preferred... But anyway, here we are!

Last week I was talking about how growth usually takes the form of failing at something before finding ways in which to excel. Or, as the saying goes:

Dude, suckin’ at something is the first step to being sorta good at something.

-Jake, the dog

This week, the area I have been addressing is how for a business to grow, more often than not there is money that needs to be spent. It can be on lots of things, and the biggest thing that is new for me is investing in customer acquisition, or finding new customers. It's not as easy as messaging someone and being like, "Hey! Do you need some pictures taken?" Or, rather, it CAN be that easy, but it isn't always.

There is something I have been using off and on for the last couple years called Thumbtack. It basically matches customers with local professionals to get tasks completed. So, people go on this site, say "I need a ___ photographer" and the site sends out a notification to photographers in the area saying "so-and-so needs a ____ photographer". Then up to five photographers send a quote and the customer picks who to work with. Pretty easy, right?

That's what I thought. Things I didn't take into account:

The sheer number of requests there are
The number of qualified people sending quotes
Coming at each new client with a fresh set of eyes
Assuming positive intent sometimes being difficult
Trusting complete strangers
Navigating legal situations with contracts
People canceling at the very last minute

I have been able to work through many of these with minor roadblocks, and in fact we just finished a wedding! The images have just been delivered to the clients and they really liked them. :)

Thanks for bearing with me and this longer "wall of text" post. You all are the best!