I got an email asking me if I’ve gone gay today or if I’ve underpaid anybody on my writing staff. Writing staff? Apparently being polite just doesn’t win with my demographic. Here is a little secret: I’m not as big of an ass as I come across on my blog. Oh sure, I write some really controversial stuff here but for one purpose only: to make you think. One of the negative side effects of the community is that if we’re all in agreement that makes us right! Right? No. Sometimes you need to step out of your comfort zone, look at the ugly picture you’ve painted and choose whether you can change it or make the most out of what you got.
I am relentless in my defense of what it means to be an IT Professional. I coined the term SPF on the message board to spotlight the people we don’t like to admit are among us. Unfortunately some legitimate guys assumed that just because they were sole proprietors they were SPFs. Quite the contrary, here is how you make a difference. This message came in earlier today from a fellow partner:
I also want to say thank you for pissing me off about a month or so ago with your post about the one man band IT consultants that do everything but are masters of nothing. I was pissed for about an hour or two, then I realized you were right. I immediately started offloading the tasks that weren’t my main focus and started working to improve my key services (full service out-sourced IT for small business). I appreciate what you have done for me and forced me to really think about my business.
Notice the subtle keywords there… offloading.. improve.. think.. business.. Think of what your value is, think of were you are going with your business and take it there. Challenge yourself to put down a vision, a map to where you want to be 1 year from today. Block your calendar 1 hour a day. Just one hour. 60 minutes. Use that one hour to drive yourself to that goal. If your goal is to be a fully managed shop in one year then establish a timeline – In October, organize. Evaluate. In December, document. Evaluate. In January, seek accounting advice. Evaluate. In February, seek legal advice. Evaluate. In March, image the documents. Evaluate. In April, integrate with CRM. Evaluate. In June, go to a technical conference. Evaluate. In July, go to a business conference. Evaluate. In August, review. Evaluate. In September – evaluate the year, redraw your goals, review your vision and.. heck, take a vacation.
What are your goals? Be fully managed? Be totally efficient? Quit your current IT job? Get married? (oh, I’m going to get killed for that one) Susanne has a nice writeup of how she got her business closer to Microsoft. Don’t be afraid of the community. Don’t be afraid of asking for help. None of us are 100% satisfied with what we have and what we do - this is why we are still out there trying, working, communicating, asking, connecting, evaluating, competing, most of all: bsing. This is all a big learning experience, a big puzzle. We’re all trying to put it together one clueless piece at a time.
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