LizzardKing

A multipart series, Rome wasn’t built in a day…

That is true, Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it certainly burned down in a day.

Over my time as an IT professional, I often got tempted by the idea of one day starting my own business. I mean, certainly there was a better way to earn money than give your skill sets away at market related prices and then paying the penalty of doing it for a company who takes fair margin for themselves. Fair margin. I don’t know about you, but that never felt fair to me. What I knew was how much money I was earning at the end of the month, and what I saw was how the bosses kept upgrading cars.

I was angry. Bitter. Why could I not start a business? What makes them so special? Why does my salary reflect my value to be so little, yet clearly there is money to be made. Some of the answers or rather excuses I gave myself, was that there were no market opportunities, I had no knowledge of business, and the risk of not earning some form of insured income, was always top of my mind.

Since there were many excuses offered in my mind, I might have overlooked many opportunities which was dangling right in front of my nose. One late winter afternoon, I was sitting with a client outside in the smoking area. This guy carried all my admiration. His leadership skills, management tools and all-round delivery gave me chills, and I would find myself always hovering around him to see what he was going to do next. As we were sitting there, he looked up at the sun starting to set, and asked me a simple question:

“How many sunsets do you have left?”

That question floored me like a Bakkies Botha tackle. I was forced to stare mortality in the eyes and realise the wasted time and opportunities. We had a brief conversation about average life span, estimating the days left, and the number that came out scared me. His follow up question was even worse, or so I thought.

“What are you going to do with them?”

Well one thing was for damn certain. I knew I wasn’t doing what I wanted to. I explored that question for several more days. I knew I needed to make a change. What that was, was unclear at that stage. But change was needed.

When the thought occurred, I was ready. I was excited. I was stupid. Don’t get me wrong, the Idea was solid. The potential for business was incredible, and the skills needed was already in my ambit. But I was stupid. I ran around like a guy that was tackled by Bakkies and looked for a place to start. I jotted down ideas. I built the code. I googled registering a business. I was about ready to get started, when I realised, I was doing things wrong. I needed help. In my career, I have built truly trusted connections with some people, and I approached the two people I knew who part of this vision of mine could be. We sat down, discussed, got scared, let the idea settle, chatted some more, did some more nothing, and finally pressured ourselves into a corner. Do it or don’t ever talk about it again.

We bit the bullet and set some clear goals. Each person had tasks. We got the necessary approvals. We registered a business. We drew up partnership agreements. We built pricing options. And finally, was ready to go to market. We got lucky. Zane had a connection, and they were willing to let us do some work for some of their clients. Over a period, the business kept growing, and we were quite happy with the results.

Let me introduce to you, ShadowSQL.

Our SME targeted DBA business, with a Netflix business model, structured to give basic administrative DBA skills built into an automated package to handle daily, weekly and monthly DBA tasks for the average SME, which rarely if at all, have a DBA on site. This package was designed for maintenance, optimisation, and simplicity. It worked. It still does. And as I said, we got lucky. We are growing at a steady rate of clients, and are generating benefits for our clients, and can’t complain about the revenue it generates. But we got lucky. That is it.

Creating a business is easy. Failing at it is easier. Getting lucky sometimes is a bonus. So, we decided it is time for a refresh. Our business is stagnating a bit, and it is time we revamp, refresh, and renew.

In this series, I will take you through our steps as we walk through the process of building a business. Obviously, some steps are already covered, as it is an existing business, but I will not skip any steps, I promise. Where needed, I will showcase the relevant processes and tasks to start a business. I decided we should follow this route, as since then, I have had many opportunities to build business ideas out with other clients, and thought it was time for us to actually go through the steps required to do this properly for once. Not just get lucky. Our end goal will be to use this “Building a new business” process to optimise, strategise and grow our business. I will cover the topics required individually and give you an inside view into this process.  

In my next article, I will start of with what I believe, is the only place to start, if you want to build a successful business. If you have a business, and want to rebrand, renew, re-energise, this is the core piece you will need to drive that process. The business plan. I will showcase options, and guide you through the process of compiling, reviewing, and maintaining a business plan, to help drive your success. If you don’t have a business plan yet, I suggest you follow along and gain some benefit for your business. Like Gary Player said, the more I practice, the luckier I get. Well, damnit, it is time to do some practice I suppose.

Comment down bellow if you found this piece informative, or if you want me to give you call, and see whether you are ready for a coaching session, please reach out, the first session is free, so what do you have to lose?

Until next time… Amor Fati