The career track of the small business owner is generally quite different from the leadership of a large, Fortune 1000 organization. Where large companies promote leaders through their ranks or hire those with specific leadership skills, small business owners are entrepreneurs, often with a vision of the kind of work they want to do or a particular skill or expertise that they are looking to use to move away from a job and into ownership. They bring enthusiasm, drive, ambition, vision and their own ideas to their company.
As such, business owners dive into “the doing”. They drive new business by leveraging their expertise, and the early days of most small businesses have a lot of “we’ll do anything to generate revenue.”
Through research we can correlate the most profitable IT service providers as those who have also reached a level of maturity in their business. This is often standardization of their toolkits and customer base, deep process focus, and an investment in their own business.
Thus, as IT solution providers transition from their initial few customers to building their managed services practice, they begin to find the benefits of standardization and process development. While the “School of Hard Knocks” offers a robust degree program, on the job learning is often inconsistent. What it usually lacks is some understanding of how to run a business and grow it, and in particular, how to develop a business plan. Practical knowledge is invaluable in helping a business grow, but it needs to be complimented with an investment in organization and planning.
A solid foundation in developing business skills has two very practical applications. First, speaking the language of business to other proprietors ensures that the solutions that are being discussed, proposed, and implemented solve their business priorities and not just their technical ones. When surveyed, business owner’s top priorities are around their company’s growth, moving into new markets, and reducing operational costs, not implementing IT.
Second, this understanding of business is applicable within their own company. Building a scalable solution provider requires proper implementation of strong processes and controls. This involves documentation, planning, and communication; all business skills that can be grown and developed.
For many solution providers, the first step in this process is building a solid business plan. Business planning is not difficult, and often best implemented through the development of a simple, one page plan. Most important is ensuring that it is used on an ongoing basis with impact. A document that sits in a desk drawer is of little use.
Developing, honing, and mastering business skills and moving beyond the technician, and ultimately to the owner of a business is an important growth step for solution providers. By doing so, they can stand out from the competition, deliver superior service, and generate stronger business growth and profitability. The most successful solution providers have embraced this, and invest in these critical skills on an ongoing basis. Learning to run a business can be intimidating at first, but pays dividends in the long run.
