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Hi Reader,
Notes from a Female Founder
It's October. If you haven't started planning 2027, start this week. Don't wait until December, when everyone is tired and the holidays are pulling at you.
Next year I celebrate 30 years in business. In all that time, the year has rarely gone exactly the way I planned it. Plan anyway. A plan gives you something to measure against. It guides you on what to say yes to and, more importantly, when to say no.
Plan the revenue. You have to know where it’s going to come from. Plan to get it the easiest way possible, not the hard way like most do.
Then plan the rest. Your health, your family, your time off, the help you will need. Put it on the calendar before the year fills it for you. Real life should get planned first, but that is not the way we do it. Revenue does not happen separately from the rest of your life. That is exactly why I launched Revenue + Real Life™. More on that below.
Sales Sharpenher
Here are a few questions to ask as you plan sales at your company for 2027.
- Can you trust the data in your CRM? What does it tell you about next year? If you pulled a pipeline report right now to see what is already scheduled to close in 2027, what does it add up to?
- What are you basing your 2027 number on? Where is the evidence that you can hit that number?
- What revenue number are you committing to next year? How much of if still depends on you personally closing deals?
- Before you add AI or automation to your sales process in 2027, what problem are you solving? Is your data clean and reliable enough to support layering in AI?
This week’s conversation
Tamar Gill was practicing law in the Republic of Georgia when she moved to the US and had to rebuild her career from scratch. Becoming a mother reshaped her path. An unexpected remote job introduced her to the world of data. Then, during COVID, she took the leap and founded eCore Services, a B2B data company.
She chose not to take venture capital route. Instead, she bootstrapped eCore to protect the people-first values at the heart of the company. She landed her first client and grew through relationships and referrals. Today eCore is a team of 150 people, fully remote.
What she shares.
- Know what you refuse to compromise. For Tamar, bootstrapping meant she could keep people at the center as the company grew.
- Learn to delegate. Founders who try to do everything themselves become the bottleneck.
- Fix your data before you add AI. Bad CRM data quietly drains sales productivity, and you need reliable data before you put AI and automation on top of your systems.
Never say you can't, because you can. If you want and if you decide to do it, you can. - Tamar Gill
👉 Listen to the episode - and forward it to a founder who is building it her way.
On LinkedIn this week
I was in NYC for the Pavilion Women's Summit and GTM2026, where I spoke on a panel about self-abandonment and was honored as one of N.Rich's 50 Women in GTM. The best part, as always, was the people.
👉 Read the LinkedIn post
To Your Sales Success,
Alice Heiman
P.S. Revenue + Real Life™ is live. Our first Roundtable was in September, and our Founding Members are already inside. If you are a female founder CEO leading an AI, innovative or technology-driven company, plan for the support you need in 2027, not just the revenue. Founding membership is open now. Hit reply and tell me you want to join, or learn more here, https://aliceheiman.com/revenue-real-life/
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