More Signs of the Times

Yesterday brought the juxtaposition of two separate but suggestive moments.

The first was that I finally received payment from an invoice sent in February. This was one of three such long overdue accounts receivable. Not an earth shattering moment or budget busting amount, but enough to pay attention.

Over the last few months, I have often been asked how the economy has affected our business. I have often responded with the examples of having to wait to get paid, something I only occasionally experienced before.

There are others who volunteer, “You must be busier than ever!” or “your clients must really need you now.” After all, they reason, it is when there are hard decisions to be made, when there is less to give, when the philanthropic environment is more challenging than ever, that experienced philanthropic advising must be in high demand. I acknowledge that there are some clients and some others [such as the press] who agree with that. But a more honest assessment is that the phone is a bit quieter than one would like.

Which brings me to the second: a consulting firm, which to the best of my knowledge does not do the same kind of work that I do and therefore is not a competitor, sent out a e-mail broadside explicitly advertising why, in these times, one should hire them. What struck me about this email was not the argument, a not unreasonable one, that advisory and consultancy services can be a very useful expenditure during the hardest economic times. Rather that this firm was THE one to be used during these times.

In fairness, I have no reason to doubt the quality of the work of this group. But I know lots of other groups that do similar work and I am not sure I would rank them better than their peers. It left me wondering: Were they overreaching? Overstating? What is the difference between legitimate hyperbole and inappropriate exaggeration? When does such self-promotion veer into the negative?

What brings these two seemingly unrelated moments together is that they both are signs of the times. Money is tighter on almost every front. Large companies are smaller; smaller businesses are struggling; even among those who have seen some stability, it is surrounded by uncertainty. In such times, everyone makes choices about where to spend limited resources and there is greater competition for those resources. It may be that I wasn’t paid because a grantee or staff person came first; I may have resented having to wait so long and re-invoice so often but the erstwhile client may have made a rational choice in keeping me wait. It may be that the unnamed firm is faced with one last desperate push for clients or else they may have to disband. I may wish that they were a little more restrained in their marketing approach but I don’t have their overhead. I may have been discomfited; for them it may be survival.

To date, thank goodness, we are in neither place. Business comes in, even if less; bills get paid –in our case, promptly. But we too are faced with marketing choices and reviewing our business model.

Here’s the kicker: I actually do believe that funders and foundations need my services more than ever, and that there really is a value added to what I bring to their tables. All of my instincts make me want to trust that people know that; everything I read about marketing tells me that they won’t know that unless I tell them. Maybe the aforementioned firm and some of my competitors are having the last laugh. While I wonder about the propriety of self-promotion, they may be the ones getting the contracts.