Chickens and Eggs (LtB post 2)

Chickens and Eggs (Learning to Business post 2)

When I was 13 or so my Dad (and maybe my sister?) took off one morning and returned at the end of the day pulling a trailer they hadn’t  left with. The truck bed had 5 ewes, a ram, and a llama. The trailer had some portable fence panels to rig up a place for them to live while a sheep ranch emerged around them. Until that moment, we’d never had any animals except dogs and cats. The curse words that came from my mother’s mouth…

I think my partner was glad that my truck towed a research consultancy and not livestock. My approach, though, shares the idea that the need should come before the infrastructure. This hasn’t been my professional experience. In most roles, I built out lots of infrastructure and process before we had work to apply it to (and to go and get the work!). I should also name that KEI, like the sheep, is enabled by privilege. In that case land and capital. In my case access to reliable health insurance, a stock of savings, and the space and equipment to get started.

With KEI, to continue mixing the rural metaphors that I earned on the ranch, I’m trying hard to keep the cart behind the horse. I started the steps to legally exist the same week someone asked if I was doing any consulting. I finished getting my corporate bank account set up with a few days to spare before the first check arrived.  I saw the range of coverage potential partners required before I finalized my insurance coverage. Most notably,I had enough work on board to know I’d make it through the year before I talked about it publicly. 

I have a post queued up for tomorrow on my efforts performing legitimacy as a business. The essential context for those efforts is that there was already business starting. I was and am trying to keep the two streams of work--establishing the business and doing the work--in tandem. Not least because there was, still is, a risk that the right person offers me the right job on the right day and this is left as a fun interlude and a few stray business cards to use as bookmarks.