For the first time in my personal and professional life, I almost ran out of gas.

2025 was a test both personally and professionally. I’m probably “oversharing”. My intent and ambition is to let brand and business owners know you were not alone. I’m more motivated and self driven than most and I almost ran out of gas in 2025. Writing this article allowed me to release my 2025 energy and focus on 2026. Have a read and let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

The Year 2025.

Heading into 2025, personally I finalized a divorce after 25 years of marriage and professionally, wrapped up a rebrand project with a major beauty brand and completed a two year software pilot with a large hospitality brand that validated Reframe AI Technologies machine learning technology.

Both milestones played a role in my approach year and after January 2025, plans changed.  Professionally client partners made changes in vendor policies, business requests transitioned too compliance and risks teams.  By the summer of 2025, client partners either chose not to renew or suspended projects until there was clarity from their legal and risk mitigation teams.

Because of the new government policies and geopolitical events, many small businesses  feared repercussions and adhered to policy shifts while industry associations froze and corporate America repositioned how they engaged with women and minority owned businesses.

Caught Between Here and There.

For many small and mid sized businesses, they were caught between here (2025) and did not know if they would make it there, meaning 2026.

As we waited for corporate America to come back from summer vacation, like many small businesses we made the decision to update our marketing website, focused our positioning and update sales enablement tools to clearly articulate our marketplace value proposition.

We did not walk away from our workplace service offerings.  However, given the macro and geopolitical events, we strategically focused on our marketplace offerings.

October 2025, we closed a small growth project and began having client meetings with leaders sharing how they were planning 2026 budgets.  There was traction because of the shift in focus.

Below are three additional key learnings that helped us navigate business challenges:

(1) Get super clear on the audience(s) you want to serve and the value you create.

I began my career at 19 selling Pepsi-Cola to large retail chains with $1BN  or more in revenue. I’ve always serviced and created value for large brands.  In 2025, I expanded Reframe offerings to include mid size companies with revenue between $250MN – $999MN.  The sales cycle and decision making was faster because of a direct relationship with the decision maker versus going through procurement.

After completing a customer analysis, 98% of our revenue was from helping brand and marketing leaders accelerate customer growth.  We followed the numbers, amplified our marketing services on the Reframe website, updated sales enablement tools and made sure prospective customers knew our focus and business value.

(2) Be open to smaller projects while reevaluating your cost to service.

March 2025, I met with a business coach and advisors.  They were adamant about Reframe taking on projects from middle market and lower middle market companies.  After repositioning our offerings and expanding our customer targets, in October 2025 we won a couple of smaller projects and reduced our cost to services to be competitive in a shifting marketplace.

(3) Reintroduce your business.

I have operating experience with profit and loss responsibilities managing large brands for nearly 20 years at Pepsi, P&G, Molson Coors, Whirlpool, Dell Technologies and Sears.  Agencies and consultants constantly pitched their services.  There is competing messaging about who does what.  Within trade publications, there are headlines amplifying artificial intelligence, how automation is going to kill service providers and how big holding companies are consolidating the industry. Take some time at the beginning of the year to reintroduce your business and the value it provides for prospective and current clients.  It provides clarity and helps them understand the value you provide.

What Does This Mean For 2026?

At the end of 2025,  I asked myself if this is what burn out felt like? With the weight of everything both personally and professionally, I was running out of gas.  For the month of December I shifted my personal focus to wellness.  I concentrated on resting, improving my quality of sleep, reading memoirs versus watching the news cycle and did not worry about what I could not control.

To kick off 2026, we are reintroducing Reframe Consulting Services and the value created in helping F500 brands accelerate marketplace growth and change at scale.

Jeffrey L. Bowman is the CEO and founder of Reframe Consulting Services, award winning author of Reframe The Marketplace:  The Total Market Approach To Reaching The New Majority and The Reframe Marketplace Change Guide Book For Growth Acceleration. If you would like to learn more or schedule a meeting, please do not hesitate to contact us: https://getreframe.com/contact/