Lessons from lost opportunity

This post originally appeared on an older blog, MarketingIdeaBlog.com. I am re-publishing it here because I believe the information is not only still valuable, but because it can help readers better understand my approach to business communication.

In 1996, I launched the website for my creative services company, then called The Ad Shop Plus. It was my “showpiece” web development effort, bringing together my very best (at the time) strategic, creative, planning and design skills.

One day I was browsing through an issue of Home Office Computing magazine, and saw that they were seeking nominations for a column called “Sites We Like” in which they would offer up the websites of small and home-based businesses as examples of good web strategy. I submitted my site for consideration and went about my life.

Over the next few months I decided that my business name was too limiting (possibly even hokey) and did not accurately reflect my range of professional services. I prepared to change the name to Green & Company Creative Services. I had a name-change plan, a budget and a timeline in place, and a new website all ready to launch, when I got the call from HOC. That’s right, I was one month away from changing my name (from redefining my business!) and they wanted to feature my old identity.

My options were to decline the feature, since my company info would be completely different by the time the magazine hit the stands and re-submit the new site for future consideration; or, to hold off my name change until after the article had run and reap the rewards of free publicity in a major magazine that targeted my small business clientele.

I chose the former. I thanked the reporter profusely for her interest and told her I would let her know when my new site launched. I followed up a few weeks later with a personal note to her, giving her the new URL, but I never heard another word.

I realized pretty quickly what I had sacrificed: An opportunity to establish credibility in web development on a national scale, in front of an audience I truly needed to reach, for the chance to shed my old identity a few months sooner. I now believe that this was a major mistake. It certainly took the joy out of using that cool new letterhead I’d designed.

I tell this story because good lessons sometimes come from our less-than-stellar moments, and because it illustrates why agility is so important. I was small enough to be nimble – to veer off the name-change course just long enough to grab a HUGE fistful of credible publicity – but I was blinded by the notion of sticking to my plan. And in so doing, lost a golden opportunity to grow my business.