As entrepreneurs, we all face the challenge of scaling a basic business concept or strategy. These days, our growth is accelerated by technology, bringing with it certain hurdles we are forced to jump. My business has faced many of these issues, and I’ve learned how to evolve with the technological times as a result. In my experience, the following IT-related challenges are both unique to and universal for entrepreneurs, specifically startups.
1. Finding a Trusted Advisor
Why else have we come to EO, if not to seek trusted advisors in the form of our peers? Many of us, if asked to cite key factors of our success, would include our legal counsel, bankers, CPAs and even our Forum members. These are the trusted advisors from whom we seek counsel on issues that are key to our businesses and outside our core competencies. Finding a trusted technology advisor is the number one technology challenge a startup entrepreneur faces. Without an experienced guide, the rest of these challenges may prove daunting.
2. Developing Systems
AT&T once had a slogan: “The System is the Solution.” They recognized that repeatability and consistency brought value to the customer and reduced risks to the enterprise. The power of software is that you can buy or build a system that fits your business. It’s a lot like buying a suit. The most precise fit will be the system that’s built specifically for your business, but sometimes “buying off the rack” and having a good tailor brings the best combination of fit and affordability.
In his bestselling book, “The E-Myth Revisited,” Michael Gerber states, “Once you innovate a process and quantify its impact on your business, once you find something that works better than what preceded it, once you discover how to increase the ‘yeses’ from your customers ... it’s time to orchestrate the whole thing.”
Automation for you may mean connecting your order entry system directly to your accounting system so that you get bills out faster and without error. It may mean creating a website on which customers can track the status of their projects to replace the multiplicity of spreadsheets on your engineer’s laptops. Without systems, every problem is new. Without systems, all the knowledge needed to solve a problem must be reinvented with each new challenge.
3. Measuring Success (and Failure)
In the hit movie “Jerry Maguire,” Tom Cruise’s character declares, “Show me the money!” Well, if Jerry wanted to be a successful entrepreneur, he should have been shouting, “Show me the metrics!” One of my last programming jobs – before I created my own company – was for a company who had the catch phrase, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” Without the ability to quantify your business through metrics, sometimes called KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), the business is totally reliant on the instinct of the owner.
4. Welcoming Change
Many of us started companies because we like to ask difficult questions, such as, “Why is it done that way?” We are not satisfied with answers like, “Because that’s the way it has always been done.” However, in our own businesses, we are often guilty of drinking our own Kool-Aid. We believe that we’re smart, capable and, “We can do that in an Excel spreadsheet.” The sooner you welcome change, which includes technological advancements, the easier your entrepreneurial ride will be.
5. Losing Sight of the Primary Goal
Outgoing messages, automated attendants, out-of-office emails, online customer service— each of these tools is technology automation at its best … or is it? In my business, it’s easy to let technology get out of hand and lose sight of the primary goal: serving the customer! I make it a point to exercise technology, but I don’t let it run away with my business.
Although it may seem that simply getting your BlackBerry to work can be insurmountable, finding a trusted advisor, developing systems, measuring success, and changing and maintaining focus are the greatest technology challenges facing startup entrepreneurs today.