In 1994, I had more hair and weighed less. I was struggling with a new
baby (and two more on the way) and all the other stress of being a
young husband and father. So naturally, I quit my job and started a
business. Seems logical, right?
Fast forward 20 years, the kids have made it to college with no
arrests (so far), and the business is still going.
It’s been
challenging, rewarding, stressful, fun, not fun and not at all romantic.
I’ve made many mistakes as a business owner, but luckily I’ve managed
to change with the times. How?
1. I now watch what I say.
The world has
changed a lot in just 20 years. I, like many of today’s managers, have
adapted to our people’s different races, cultures, sexual orientations
or even someone’s physical appearance (you got a tattoo where?). I don’t
ask, I don’t tell, I don’t comment. Because I’ve learned that my
comments are not only irrelevant but definitely not funny and are more
than likely just plain ignorant. I’ve learned that getting the job done
is the most important thing of all. So I keep my trap shut.
2. I have different communication skills.
In 1994,
there was the phone. Today’s business owner must be prepared to write
long emails, tweet in less than 140 characters, post on Facebook, update
on LinkedIn, speak to groups of hopeful employees or prospective
customers and be comfortable appearing on a Skype call, his company’s
YouTube channel or sitting down for an interview with the local TV
station. It’s a multi-media world and we must able to communicate our
messages to our communities, wherever they are and whatever platform
they choose to hear it. Whether we’ve got something relevant to say is
besides the point.
3. I am on call 24/7 and totally mobile.
There is no
such thing as “out of office” anymore. I am expected to respond to
emails, texts, tweets and calls within minutes of receipt. I get them on
my phone, tablet and laptop. A wireless connection is everywhere. In
1994, I would literally make calls from pay phones at gas stations
(Remember? They had extra long cords). I had my weekends mostly free.
Those days are long gone.
4. I travel more.
Even with all the social media and
online communications, customers still expect to see me. Talk about
demanding! Now I’m frequently jumping on planes, staying at a Marriott
Courtyard (breakfast included!), eating dinner at a Bennigan’s (the
Irish Tower O’Rings is awesome -- talk about progress!) and be home the
next day. This is easier, cheaper and safer today than it was 20 years
ago, so I find myself doing that more often.
5. I’m virtual.
Twenty years ago we had an office
with computers on desks and a phone system. Today we don’t. We closed
that down years ago and everyone works from their homes. All of our
applications are managed by someone else. Our phone system is hosted. I
pay every month for all my services. My people are Skyping, chatting and
using online collaboration tools to share files and data, track
projects and invoices, submit expenses and just to get work done. None
of this was possible back then. I’m not saying it’s the greatest setup
in the world or that Yahoo’s Marissa Meyer would agree, but it’s
definitely kept my overhead low.
6. My work is coming from different places.
In 1994,
we had a telemarketer. Our leads came through calls and maybe a
referral from a partner. Today we’re getting our leads online. Retailers
and restaurants are using services such as Groupon and Foursquare to
attract new customers. There was no mobile back then, let alone mobile
ad spending. I’m attracting new clients from all over the world, and
thanks to remote technologies we’re actually able to do work for them
too.
7. There is less paper.
We’re still cutting checks,
but not as many we did in 1994. We take credit cards from many
customers and eat the fee. We don’t send paper invoices anymore. I have a
fax machine, but it’s more of a copier. We archive everything on
DropBox, keep our customer files on our hosted customer relationship
management system and will be moving to a mobile e-signature system
sometime soon.
8. Yet, there are more people.
That’s because things
are more specialized than they were in 1994. I use people to help me
with social media, marketing, taxes, bookkeeping, payroll, collections
(now there’s one thing that hasn't changed, unfortunately) C++
development, C-Sharp development, SQL integrations, website coding,
reputation management, etc. Today I need people who know Microsoft
networks, Google searches and Apple devices. I need people to help me
evaluate new products, respond to customer requests and do training in
various specialties.
9. I rely on people from far-flung places.
Thanks to
the Internet, I can now get that help from qualified people no matter
where they are. My social media assistant lives in Manhattan, my
marketing support lives in Maryland, my phone system is hosted in
California, my developers are in Ukraine (at least I hope they still
are) and my entire company’s database is hosted on a server
God-knows-where.
10. I have more data.
I’ve got years of customer
interactions, gigabytes of scanned documents, analytics from Google,
metrics from my marketing service, blogs about the economy, tweets about
technology, alerts about the Phillies (lost again), photos from a
client, updates from my high school friends (still drunk and stupid) and
an email from LinkedIn every day telling me that a guy I once met at a
conference in 2007 has recently changed jobs. I'm not sure what to do
with all this data, but I’m sure someone will figure it out for me
someday.
What about you? Are you running your business the same way you did 20
years ago? I hope not. Because if you are, you won’t be for very long.
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SOURCE:ENTREPRENEUR
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