I was frustrated with the 9-5 grind. I felt like so many hours were wasted commuting and doing work that I wasn't passionate about. I knew I had a lot of creativity inside me and potential for growth that I wasn't utilizing in my previous roles. I needed to free up my time somehow. The ability to choose my work, choose my clients, and choose how to spend each day is what inspired me.
What strategies do you use to stay competitive in your industry?
In the IT field, you have to know the latest and greatest technologies. It can be tough to keep up with every facet of technology, so it has helped me to narrow down and become really good at a handful of things. I specialize in WordPress websites, Square Online websites, and 17hats CRM (customer relationship management) platform. However, I love to learn and try new things, so I test new tools all the time and take projects that are out of my realm of expertise to keep up with what else is out there and make solid tech recommendations.
What role does innovation play in your business strategy?
Whenever I build something new and cool for a client, I ask myself "How can I streamline the process for next time?" or "How can I make this duplicatable in order to help more people?" I also think about ways to create partnerships that could be mutually beneficial in order to get the right tech in the hands of business owners who need it.
What advice do you have for someone looking to start their own business?
Start with one offering and get really good at it: good at marketing it, good at selling it, good at delivering it in a streamlined and easy-to-manage way, good at customer service, and good at getting customer reviews, return business, and referrals. THEN, add on more offerings if you want to. One of the most common mistakes I see new business owners make is trying to offer too many services. It confuses their audience and waters down their message. If and when they become successful at selling, they're running themselves ragged trying to keep up with the demand because they haven't perfected their processes.
