Wow. Another week gone by and another bank down the tubes. That's what happens when you build your business around fluff. No substance just to make a buck will always come back to bite you.
The tech sector is still going strong and believe it or not it will be a good thing for all of you that work as consultants to the banking industry. With all of the buyouts and bail outs going on, there will be a huge need for systems integration and data migration. Get it while it's hot!
No what size your business is, 1 man show to 100 people, it must be run like a business to build value for your clients and you as well. Obviously bad things can bring a business down but a good foundation will keep it from crumbling.
Unfortunately even good things like a surge in new found revenue can put a business on the rocks. That's what happens when the business owner does not have the infrastructure to handle a growth spurt (read as bad/no hiring practices, no business metrics in place, no/bad financial systems used, no/weak business processes and systems in place, non-existent client management systems, lack of time management, leadership problems, etc)
Oh yeah, you heard me correctly. If you pour all of your time into marketing, hit the mother lode you wished for and double or triple your revenue, you could be heading for big trouble. I've had almost as many clients fail due to a doubling (or more) in revenue as those that failed due to other "bad" issues.
A blueprint to success that includes all aspects of your business is the only way to build your technology company for yourself and for happy clients.
If you're available, join be for a discussion with Karl Palachuk of KP Enterprises and SMBBooks.com as we talk about the "glass ceiling" that entrepreneurs, especially those in the technology industry, put over their OWN HEADS.
Click here to get in on the Wednesday October 1st free teleseminar as we discuss ways to keep you from holding yourself back in building business value. Call time is 9am Pacific/12 Noon Eastern.
"See you" on the call.
To Your Business Success-
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
Monday, September 29, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
School's Been In for a Few Weeks but for Technology Business Owners It Should Never Be Out
Once a kid gets out of high school, they can decide to continue on to get a number of different degrees and certifications.
For those that choose to be business owners, true entrepreneurs, school never stops. Sure you need a "vacation" and "holiday break" but stopping your education is not an option. And I'm not referring to your technical education either.
The best business people out there keep learning, regardless of how many businesses they own or the size of those businesses or the industry they are in. For the most part, that may be the only true difference between you and them.
Some stick with the same mentor that they follow around and/or have a speaking relationship with. Others combine that with hooking up with people to meet short term goals like getting to a certain income level or business size. Then they move on to the next person that has been to, and can get them to, the next level on the list.
Especially with technology business owners (engineers, IT, computer services, etc), I find that they are much more interested in keeping up with the technical world than the business world. That's very disheartening since it's a true sign that they have more of a job than a business. Honestly, for most of these people, they would be better off just sticking to working for someone else since it would probably greatly reduce their stress levels.
When I was still the owner of a 10 person engineering and IT business, I quickly learned that I need to hire people to do the technical work if I wanted to get anywhere or I should just get a job. Something I strongly did not want to do and actually have never done.
Now don't get me wrong. I still kept myself in the tech loop every once in a while by jumping in on a project so I could keep up my knowledge of what my clients needed but my job was to run the business on a strategic level.
Even if you're a 1 person show, you still need to hand off as much as possible to contractors and part time admin help. If not, you'll be looking for ways to work 30+ billable hours and 20+ "business" hours. What's the point of that?
What ends up suffering is your business potential and your business education, which you need to reach that potential.
I'm all about helping technology people have a true business and the first step is to understand that you actually have a business that needs your attention. And that includes taking the time to keep learning.
By the way if your problem is no time, then make the time to first learn about time management. When you figure out how to save yourself 5 hours+ a week, then you can dedicate more time to running your business and getting the rest of your business education.
To Your Business Success-
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
For those that choose to be business owners, true entrepreneurs, school never stops. Sure you need a "vacation" and "holiday break" but stopping your education is not an option. And I'm not referring to your technical education either.
The best business people out there keep learning, regardless of how many businesses they own or the size of those businesses or the industry they are in. For the most part, that may be the only true difference between you and them.
Some stick with the same mentor that they follow around and/or have a speaking relationship with. Others combine that with hooking up with people to meet short term goals like getting to a certain income level or business size. Then they move on to the next person that has been to, and can get them to, the next level on the list.
Especially with technology business owners (engineers, IT, computer services, etc), I find that they are much more interested in keeping up with the technical world than the business world. That's very disheartening since it's a true sign that they have more of a job than a business. Honestly, for most of these people, they would be better off just sticking to working for someone else since it would probably greatly reduce their stress levels.
When I was still the owner of a 10 person engineering and IT business, I quickly learned that I need to hire people to do the technical work if I wanted to get anywhere or I should just get a job. Something I strongly did not want to do and actually have never done.
Now don't get me wrong. I still kept myself in the tech loop every once in a while by jumping in on a project so I could keep up my knowledge of what my clients needed but my job was to run the business on a strategic level.
Even if you're a 1 person show, you still need to hand off as much as possible to contractors and part time admin help. If not, you'll be looking for ways to work 30+ billable hours and 20+ "business" hours. What's the point of that?
What ends up suffering is your business potential and your business education, which you need to reach that potential.
I'm all about helping technology people have a true business and the first step is to understand that you actually have a business that needs your attention. And that includes taking the time to keep learning.
By the way if your problem is no time, then make the time to first learn about time management. When you figure out how to save yourself 5 hours+ a week, then you can dedicate more time to running your business and getting the rest of your business education.
To Your Business Success-
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
Monday, September 15, 2008
Kentucky Fried Technology Business...
If you've been following the business news in the last few weeks, you would have come across the story about the armed guards moving Colonel Sanders' secret recipe around.
But do you know how this secret recipe even got started? It's an amazing story with a list of incredible lesson for all entrepreneurs including and especially, in my humble opinion, technology business owners.
Here's the story really quick:
The Colonel had a restaurant that did well but decided he needed to sell when a new highway was going to bypass his area and significantly reduce traffic to his location. He closed up shop and took his secret recipe along with his social security check on a road trip.
His idea was to challenge places that sold chicken to its restaurant customers by saying" my chicken is better than yours and I can prove it". Basically it was a cook-off challenge. Whenever the owner was convinced the Colonel had better chicken than his, the entrepreneur Colonel would offer them a franchise for his recipe and the deal was to pay him 5 cents per chicken.
Well, after a little over 1000 challenges he had no takers on the franchise. Finally he came across a bar owner that agreed his chicken was better and wanted the franchise but only under 1 condition. He said that although good, he needed to sell more beer than food so the chicken had to be saltier. He added the salt himself and said it was now the best chicken he ever ate and was sure it would make him more money as well as justify the 5 cent per chicken fee.
It's important to note that the Colonel also tried the salt induced recipe and he hated it. Probably because he hadn't ingested salt in 30 years. But he was smart enough to go with the flow because that's what the customer wanted. The rest is history.
By the way, I just let you in on a big secret. That 11th spice is what the old chicken buckets used to be talking about when they said "When Colonel Sanders added the 11th spice, he instantly knew it was the best chicken he'd ever had." Funny but true. Now we need to crack the code on the other 10 and get rich. :-)
Anyway, take a lesson from the good Colonel on how to run your engineering, IT, computer services or other technology business. Namely these:
1. Sometimes to really see a new business take off or get to the next level of an existing business, you need to be willing to CHANGE SOMETHING in your business.
2. You may love what you have to offer your customers and clients but you need to listen a bit more to them to really give them exactly what they want. It could mean a huge difference to them and to how well your business profits.
3. Adding "salt" to a bad recipe does nothing. So knowing you are doing everything correctly for every aspect of running your business is the key for tweaks to work. The recipe for success is good processes and systems so little adjustments can make a huge impact and huge adjustments are not needed.
4. If you have good processes/systems to start with, then persistence will pay off in spades.
So go out there and be the Colonel in your technology business.
To Your Business Success-
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
But do you know how this secret recipe even got started? It's an amazing story with a list of incredible lesson for all entrepreneurs including and especially, in my humble opinion, technology business owners.
Here's the story really quick:
The Colonel had a restaurant that did well but decided he needed to sell when a new highway was going to bypass his area and significantly reduce traffic to his location. He closed up shop and took his secret recipe along with his social security check on a road trip.
His idea was to challenge places that sold chicken to its restaurant customers by saying" my chicken is better than yours and I can prove it". Basically it was a cook-off challenge. Whenever the owner was convinced the Colonel had better chicken than his, the entrepreneur Colonel would offer them a franchise for his recipe and the deal was to pay him 5 cents per chicken.
Well, after a little over 1000 challenges he had no takers on the franchise. Finally he came across a bar owner that agreed his chicken was better and wanted the franchise but only under 1 condition. He said that although good, he needed to sell more beer than food so the chicken had to be saltier. He added the salt himself and said it was now the best chicken he ever ate and was sure it would make him more money as well as justify the 5 cent per chicken fee.
It's important to note that the Colonel also tried the salt induced recipe and he hated it. Probably because he hadn't ingested salt in 30 years. But he was smart enough to go with the flow because that's what the customer wanted. The rest is history.
By the way, I just let you in on a big secret. That 11th spice is what the old chicken buckets used to be talking about when they said "When Colonel Sanders added the 11th spice, he instantly knew it was the best chicken he'd ever had." Funny but true. Now we need to crack the code on the other 10 and get rich. :-)
Anyway, take a lesson from the good Colonel on how to run your engineering, IT, computer services or other technology business. Namely these:
1. Sometimes to really see a new business take off or get to the next level of an existing business, you need to be willing to CHANGE SOMETHING in your business.
2. You may love what you have to offer your customers and clients but you need to listen a bit more to them to really give them exactly what they want. It could mean a huge difference to them and to how well your business profits.
3. Adding "salt" to a bad recipe does nothing. So knowing you are doing everything correctly for every aspect of running your business is the key for tweaks to work. The recipe for success is good processes and systems so little adjustments can make a huge impact and huge adjustments are not needed.
4. If you have good processes/systems to start with, then persistence will pay off in spades.
So go out there and be the Colonel in your technology business.
To Your Business Success-
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Dr. Sharon Melnick is at It Again
My good friend Dr. Sharon Melnick is putting together 1 more awesome event this year (and maybe the last live event for a while). Although many that attend her event are business owners or salespeople, I have also personally witnessed everyday people with lots of things stressing them out also attend.
http://sharonmelnick.com/confidencezone
Yes, that's right. I have also been to a live Dr. Melnick event so I can attest that it's really life changing. If you feel anything or anyone is blocking you from your goals, her stuff is the way to go.
A little background on the good Dr.:
About Sharon Melnick, Ph.D: A dynamic speaker, coach, and psychologist affiliated with Harvard Medical School, Sharon helps talented and successful businesspeople ‘get out of their own way’ so they can achieve greater than imagined career success and personal fulfillment. She works with service professionals, solo entrepreneurs and clients at diverse organizations such as Deutsche Bank, Deloitte Consulting, Oracle, Pitney Bowes, Visiting Nurse Service of NY.
The event is called From Comfort Zone to Confidence Zone. This special invitation only going out to Sharon's friends (like me) to give out to our friends and colleagues. There is limited space and also limited time to get in. Click the link below for details on this life changing opportunity.
http://sharonmelnick.com/confidencezone
Although this live event is help in NYC, if you can't make it but are very interested after reading more about the program, I would suggest you drop Sharon an email and tell her. She may just do something lie in your area or give you the inside scoop on her self study/video version she's working on.
And I'll say it again. From personal experience this is something you really want to at least read up on. The results are truly eye opening with weights lifting right off of you. It's amazing to find out what's really blocking you and how to get past it.
I hope you can take advantage of this unique opportunity like I did. It can truly help you out in business and life.
To Your Business Success
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
http://sharonmelnick.com/confidencezone
Yes, that's right. I have also been to a live Dr. Melnick event so I can attest that it's really life changing. If you feel anything or anyone is blocking you from your goals, her stuff is the way to go.
A little background on the good Dr.:
About Sharon Melnick, Ph.D: A dynamic speaker, coach, and psychologist affiliated with Harvard Medical School, Sharon helps talented and successful businesspeople ‘get out of their own way’ so they can achieve greater than imagined career success and personal fulfillment. She works with service professionals, solo entrepreneurs and clients at diverse organizations such as Deutsche Bank, Deloitte Consulting, Oracle, Pitney Bowes, Visiting Nurse Service of NY.
The event is called From Comfort Zone to Confidence Zone. This special invitation only going out to Sharon's friends (like me) to give out to our friends and colleagues. There is limited space and also limited time to get in. Click the link below for details on this life changing opportunity.
http://sharonmelnick.com/confidencezone
Although this live event is help in NYC, if you can't make it but are very interested after reading more about the program, I would suggest you drop Sharon an email and tell her. She may just do something lie in your area or give you the inside scoop on her self study/video version she's working on.
And I'll say it again. From personal experience this is something you really want to at least read up on. The results are truly eye opening with weights lifting right off of you. It's amazing to find out what's really blocking you and how to get past it.
I hope you can take advantage of this unique opportunity like I did. It can truly help you out in business and life.
To Your Business Success
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Good News For Tech Companies of All Sizes
If any of you were wondering what the economy is really like and not just from the media hype, here's a taste. It seems technology based business owners are doing pretty well still. And it should stay that way.
Below is a quick excerpt from an article that was written last week by the associated press with real statistics on what is happening in the business world.
{NEW YORK (AP) - Technology appears to be one of the least hard-hit sectors in an economy beset by unemployment at a five-year high.
The Labor Department reported Friday that companies slashed their payrolls by 84,000 jobs last month, sending the country's unemployment rate to 6.1 percent from 5.7 percent in July.
Automakers and housing-related manufacturers were among those losing the most jobs during the month, while education, health and government saw job gains. But unlike in 2001, when a bust in the technology sector - accompanied by massive layoffs - played a central role in sparking a recession, this time around the industry is more insulated.
"Overall technology employment is up in America and the wages associated with it are up," said John McCarthy, a vice president with Forrester Research.}
That sounds like pretty good news to me. It also tells me that my principles regarding plowing ahead through a supposedly horrible economy is the way to go.
Technology businesses are an important staple in both the business and consumer communities so continue on with your marketing. Nobody gets more business by cutting down their marketing in any economic condition. If you have been doing your job of tracking your marketing and know what works, push that envelope even harder.
Keep moving forward and keep grabbing market share/customers from those competitors that are hiding in a corner waiting out a hurricane that's more like a thundershower.
To Your Business Success
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
Below is a quick excerpt from an article that was written last week by the associated press with real statistics on what is happening in the business world.
{NEW YORK (AP) - Technology appears to be one of the least hard-hit sectors in an economy beset by unemployment at a five-year high.
The Labor Department reported Friday that companies slashed their payrolls by 84,000 jobs last month, sending the country's unemployment rate to 6.1 percent from 5.7 percent in July.
Automakers and housing-related manufacturers were among those losing the most jobs during the month, while education, health and government saw job gains. But unlike in 2001, when a bust in the technology sector - accompanied by massive layoffs - played a central role in sparking a recession, this time around the industry is more insulated.
"Overall technology employment is up in America and the wages associated with it are up," said John McCarthy, a vice president with Forrester Research.}
That sounds like pretty good news to me. It also tells me that my principles regarding plowing ahead through a supposedly horrible economy is the way to go.
Technology businesses are an important staple in both the business and consumer communities so continue on with your marketing. Nobody gets more business by cutting down their marketing in any economic condition. If you have been doing your job of tracking your marketing and know what works, push that envelope even harder.
Keep moving forward and keep grabbing market share/customers from those competitors that are hiding in a corner waiting out a hurricane that's more like a thundershower.
To Your Business Success
George Sierchio
The Consultant's Coach
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Business, Pushing Yourself, and Football
Well, the end of the summer is upon on us. That means 3 things to me. Baseball is ending, football is starting and it's time for my final push to meet and exceed my business goals for this year.
As a business owner, at least the 3rd thing in my end of the year list should be important to you.
Just a quick story as to why I wanted to write on this particular subject and why I have included the video below. (if you want to skip right to the video, I won't be insulted but I strongly advise you to come back to the top to read this story.)
I was recently going back and forth answering some questions with a person that caught my eye/ear in an IT and business online forum.
He was struggling in his IT business situated in a small town, duking it out in a small local niche. Normally I would have charged this person about $3000 for the time and info I gave him but like I said, something caught my charity side and I continued a week long back and forth via email with him.
As with this person, struggling in a small and difficult niche with no marketing skills whatsoever is very often the case with most small business owners. I can't blame him one bit but this was the first time he ever sought help.
That is completely his fault and way too common with technology business owners. What a mistake.
He didn't let on that the next few weeks, including our week of emails, was a last ditch effort to not shut his doors this year. He got the info he needed, but not the answers he wanted. In other words, he needs a complete overhaul on his niche and his marketing, which was not what he wanted to hear.
That answer prompted him only a week later to thank me for my very generous time and let me know he was calling it quits. It kills me when that happens.
There still is time for this business owner as there is for you if you're struggling, but it does take a commitment. That's the funny thing about being an entrepreneur, you have to know the fine line between a really bad/dead business venture and one that is actually on the cusp of breaking through. And sometimes it truly is an extremely fine line.
Mentors, coaches, mastermind groups, seminars, books. Use the ones that work best for you. Don't be ashamed to do what the most successful entrepreneurs out there did and still do in terms of getting help.
Now for a little inspiration. I played football as a young kid and right through high school. I'm a true fan of the sport. But even if you are not, this clip below should be something to push you along through the end of the year to reach those business goals. I've seen this literally 25+ times and it gets to me every time. Hopefully it will do the same for you.
As a business owner, at least the 3rd thing in my end of the year list should be important to you.
Just a quick story as to why I wanted to write on this particular subject and why I have included the video below. (if you want to skip right to the video, I won't be insulted but I strongly advise you to come back to the top to read this story.)
I was recently going back and forth answering some questions with a person that caught my eye/ear in an IT and business online forum.
He was struggling in his IT business situated in a small town, duking it out in a small local niche. Normally I would have charged this person about $3000 for the time and info I gave him but like I said, something caught my charity side and I continued a week long back and forth via email with him.
As with this person, struggling in a small and difficult niche with no marketing skills whatsoever is very often the case with most small business owners. I can't blame him one bit but this was the first time he ever sought help.
That is completely his fault and way too common with technology business owners. What a mistake.
He didn't let on that the next few weeks, including our week of emails, was a last ditch effort to not shut his doors this year. He got the info he needed, but not the answers he wanted. In other words, he needs a complete overhaul on his niche and his marketing, which was not what he wanted to hear.
That answer prompted him only a week later to thank me for my very generous time and let me know he was calling it quits. It kills me when that happens.
There still is time for this business owner as there is for you if you're struggling, but it does take a commitment. That's the funny thing about being an entrepreneur, you have to know the fine line between a really bad/dead business venture and one that is actually on the cusp of breaking through. And sometimes it truly is an extremely fine line.
Mentors, coaches, mastermind groups, seminars, books. Use the ones that work best for you. Don't be ashamed to do what the most successful entrepreneurs out there did and still do in terms of getting help.
Now for a little inspiration. I played football as a young kid and right through high school. I'm a true fan of the sport. But even if you are not, this clip below should be something to push you along through the end of the year to reach those business goals. I've seen this literally 25+ times and it gets to me every time. Hopefully it will do the same for you.
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