As entrepreneurs, we don't apologize for taking chances, we don't apologize for winning, and we don't apologize for our work.

But we apologize for our websites.

"Oh, sorry, please ignore my site—it's outdated."

I've said it. You've probably said it. And we don't really mean it as a joke—not when we cringe at someone mentioning they found our site on their own, or when we take that half-second pause before sending the link ourselves.

Your business is your kingdom, and your website is its flag.

When you're not in the room, the flag is what speaks for you.

The problem is that most of us have planted a flag we didn't design, whose details we never reviewed—and it's the same flag hundreds of other kingdoms are flying, too.

Gurus claim they woke up one day and had an "aha" moment; I haven't had any of those.

But selling to dozens of Fortune 500s and large enterprises taught me that your flag—when done right—will get you in the room.

My legal training taught me that if you can't say precisely what your kingdom offers, you don't actually know what you offer.

And teaching myself to write software taught me just how powerfully tech can be used to make your flag one of one.

Over hundreds of conversations with service-based business owners, I've noticed a pattern that became impossible to unsee:

Owners could sell brilliantly face-to-face. But that was the trap.

The better they were in the room, the less they'd built anything that could sell for them outside of it.

That inability is the real chokehold.

We help consultants, creatives, and tradespeople break through the chokehold—so they can sell even when they're not around.

We start with The Human Test: a five-step process to measure just how unique—or how generic—your current flag is.

Home Base

Where you plant your flag,
establishing your context.

Unique Traits

What's true about your business
that others can't replicate.

Most Excited

The buyers who deeply care
about the value you deliver.

Available Alternatives

What customers would do
if your business didn't exist.

Novel Offerings

The capabilities you have
that your alternatives lack.

The name isn't decoration: when we make the flag more human—more unmistakably yours—everything downstream gets easier.

The right clients recognize themselves, the wrong ones move on, and the apology disappears.

You know what is one of the greatest feelings in the world? Relief.

When you hit a revenue milestone; when a client renews; when you finally take that vacation.

We watch a version of that relief arrive in real time when clients see their new flag for the first time, knowing it can sell at a level they used to only deliver in person.

The gap between how they see themselves and how a stranger—a potential client or partner—sees them has closed.

Their flag is flying high; they're proud, and so are we.

Sincerely,

Doug P. Spencer

Doug P. Spencer

Managing Partner

Cornerstone21, Inc.