From the School of Hard Knocks

I posted this message to a mailing list I participate in (smallbizIT at Yahoo groups) and a member suggested (rightly so) that I post this to my blog, so here it is.

After 17 years of IT support work for large companies, including 9 years in IT management, and a year at Microsoft in 2004, I decided to go solo, and it’s been the best move I could have made. I’m a one man shop, and I’m trying to keep it that way as much as possible. I have a CPA that I trust go over my books once a month and correct any mistakes I’ve made in bookkeeping, but I’m handling all other administrative aspects of the business myself. Sure, I’d love to grow to the point that I don’t have time to handle all those administrative duties and need to partner with a “business manager” type person, but I’m still a ways off from that.

There are a few points of advice I can offer from the school of hard knocks I’ve been attending over the past 4 months:

1. Have a plan for the specific type of work you want to do. Fortunately, I learned this one fairly quickly. My business has three main focus areas. First, I’m doing the lion’s share of my business as the “consultant’s consultant.” Meaning that I work with other small business consulting firms as an extra set of hands when they need them or provide deeper technical expertise when their staff doesn’t have the knowledge necessary to get the job done. I’ve literally got regular clients around the world for this, including Holland, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada, as well as a a few in the States (NY and MN). Second, I provide traditional IT consulting services for small-medium businesses in the local area. Specifically, I avoid working on “home computers” unless it’s a home-based business or the home system of a business client. One of my local competitors advertises working on home systems, and he gets so many one-off home calls that he has not been able to develop relationships with local businesses and grow in that market. Third, I do technical training and documentation on the SBS product. This includes updates to my blog (which is horribly behind), responding to posts in this and other mailing lists, the MS SBS newsgroups, and the forums at www.smallbizserver.net, and I’m in the middle of production on a book for Sams Publishing on SBS 2003. I’ve found that when I explain my business focus to potential clients in this way, they get a better idea of what I do and the expertise I bring to the table, as opposed to my competition who comes in with a “we can do anything with your computers” sales pitch.

2. Network, network, network. Word of mouth is the most cost-effective advertising you can do for your business. Find a BNI chapter in your area ( www.bni.com ), join your local Chamber of Commerce, and ask other local small business owners about other networking/netweaving groups in your area. Get involved with these groups, but understand you’re not going to get referrals pouring in after just one visit. It takes time to build relationships in these groups and have other business owners feel confident in passing referrals on to you. Get to know some of these small business owners better by having a one-on-one meeting with them to explain your business offerings in greater depth and learn about theirs. Be able and willing to pass referrals on to these other businesses as well. With business networking, you get out of it as much as you put into it.

3. Partner with vendors in a vertical market you want to target. I lucked into this one, but it was a great move. A good friend of mine opened up his family medical practice two years ago. He researched a practice management software package for about a year before he made his selection. Once I went solo, he started calling on me for help and introduced me to the sales rep for the package. I’ve since been connected with several other small medical practices through that relationship. We’re even looking into getting a booth at a medical billing convention that’s coming through town next month to promote our partnership.

4. Understand that this is not an 8-5, M-F venture. Be willing and able to work 24×7 if needed. Fortunately, I haven’t had any clients call me at 2am with a system crash (yet). But I do spend a good deal of after-hours and weekend time with clients, because that’s when they need my services. I do still emphasize a reasonable work-life balance for myself, but it is different than working in a corporate environment.

5. Be willing to ask questions. You’ve already got a good grip on this by posting you query in this forum, but don’t lose sight of it. You’re moving into a great support community in this arena, and you should recognize the ability of this community to provide advice and support. No one person knows everything about small business consulting, but asking this community for insight is like asking one very large, very experienced person to help you out. The flip side is you need to be willing to answer questions as well. You bring expertise to this community as well, and you should be willing to share it whenever you can.