Summer wind down?
How's your summer been? Ours has been rocking! It's really pretty wild. I spoke to Vlad last night, and he has a different view of the world and the IT Business from us. In terms of location, Orlando, in terms of client base, much larger and more diverse, and in terms business focus. We both see a massive thinning of the herd in the SMB IT Consultant landscape, but he seems to be seeing it on a much larger scale. So with the kids starting school in a couple of weeks, I got to thinking about what the summer was supposed to be on our business plan. And it is drastically different. Taylor, our intrepid Aggie intern, did a great Job, but it was not what we had planned for him. I really thought we'd be Marketing, Selling, doing events, calling people, but instead it has been the opposite. We have been doing the work or IT Consulting. Now I am looking at the Business Plan, and looking to bring in Partners to the jobs we have lined up. We are getting out of the doing business and into the leading business. So as the Fall sets in, and the Winter, both days of it in Texas, approaches, L2TC will become a Project Management and Solution Management shop.
A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to a another Partner, and he was telling me about their grand plans. And so I compared that to others, and ourselves, and I have to say…some people have their sh!t together, and some just plain don't. I often feel like we fall into the later category. But after talking to some people, I just can't help but think, what are we doing?!?! Every year, we sit down, and do our budget. Every year we start off with grand plans and goals, but invariably the year goes by and some things go well and others, not so much. So this year, I have changed it up. We did those things, like normal. But I am adjusting, calling an audible at the line of scrimmage if you will. While others are dropping out of the game, or , perhaps unconsciously, walking away from partnerships and consolidating their efforts, we are focusing. Consequently we are growing. Taylor is off to A&M early for Corps duty, good luck dude! And we are filling his part time gig with a couple of people. And rather than hourly across the board, we are going to results based work. After all that's what we do for clients. So employees and partners will be tasked to do things…for money
Pick up the phone…cha ching
Write a Case Study…cha ching
Bring in an Opportunity…cha ching
Follow-up on a trouble ticket…you guessed it…cha ching
Along with process, we are looking for people who are results oriented. We do things our way, yes, because we want it done. I get a haircut, I pay for the haircut. Mr. Balderas cuts my grass; he gets paid for cutting the grass. We are incenting our people to do the work we pay them for, whether as employees or as partners. Is your summer winding down, or is your year ramping up? Going into the summer, I was thinking vacations, swimming pool, xbox 360, schmoozing. Going into Fall, I am thinking year end will be on us before we know it! Time to get cracking!!!