The Day I almost closed Eligeo and went back

Quick little shout out to Danielle Harder who called me up the other day to ask me about my article on hiring a friend for an upcoming article that she is writing.  Best of luck!

When I first started Eligeo in 2008 I had this unrealistic expectation that people would flock to my business to take up my world class I.T. services.  I truly believed that it would be so easy for me to get business that I had no worries.  Little did I know the struggle that was upon me and it carried through until March of 2009.

If you’ve been following through my blog you’ll recall that I made an expensive mistake in December of 2008.  I made a financial commitment to a marketing “expert” that cost me several thousands of dollars which didn’t produce the results that I had wanted.  In fact, the whole program was a joke and it will certainly go down as one of those learning lessons that I think all of us entrepreneurs experience over time.  That financial set back almost killed me off in the first year of business.

In March of 2009 we were running out of money and while we had several irons in the fire, there didn’t seem to be any thing coming to fruition.  I was getting to the point where I felt like I was about to let go of my only employee and then start looking for a new job.  A new job?  Back to the corporate world?  I know, it was unthinkable.  But sometimes you have to do what you have to do and well I got lucky.  I got lucky for the first of many times to come and sometimes you need to be lucky to be good.  I was lucky.

I was in Lethbridge in March of that year trying to drum up some interest in web page design and literally the phone rang from 3 different businesses that would shape the future of Eligeo for the next several years.  Three of our clients, all of whom are still clients to this day, called me up to accept our proposals.  This all happened on the same day believe it or not and you can bet I worked my butt off to secure deposits and get contracts signed in those days afterwards.

It was almost like someone was looking down on me and putting me to the greatest test in my early entrepreneurial career to make sure that I would learn the pressure and to see how I would handle it.  I certainly handled it and that was the day that it set everything in motion for me.

Do you believe in karma?  Whether you do or not I will tell you this.  I wholeheartedly believe that everything happens for a reason. I’ve done some dumb things running my business but I’ve rebounded with some lucky opportunities but don’t get me wrong.  I might say that I am lucky but I also believe that you create your own luck.  This is where karma comes in.  I care about people immensely and I will go out of my way to make thing right for someone whether it is personal or business.  This is both a positive quality in my personal life and sometimes a negative one in my business life but it is who I am.  But with that I feel that there are those out there helping me along the way some way or not.

That day in March 2009 was the closest I came to closing this business.  We’re a profitable and growing business now but back then it was always tight and scary.  The risk of creating something for myself was immense but it certainly had an effect in building me into the man I am today.

Choosing Partnerships is Tough

I’ve always been fond of partnerships as I felt it was a great way for two people to leverage each other to increase both of their successes.  At the beginning of 2009 I made the decision to partner up with someone to start a business together and this particular partnership went sour and real fast.  A lot of it had to do with the fact that many of the expectations were never clear between both parties and because of that each party had a different set of expectations of the other.  This was the start of a disaster.

The first problem that I ran into was the fact that the concept we had decided to do together was a great idea but it really had nothing to do with my I.T. business I had.  The business partnership had goals of creating a place to create more business for a variety of businesses but to be honest, I really had no capacity to take on this sort of project.  It was something that I thought was a great concept but the expectations and selection of partner were wrong.

The selection of partner was wrong as well.  We couldn’t have been any more different in terms of our ethics in business and our responsibilities to our own businesses.  We were also in many ways different in the placement of where we were in our lives and our simple goals of our businesses.

So let’s talk about expectations.  When we started this particular business I felt it was a part time endeavour where the other person saw it as a full time gig.  To be honest, for it to be successful it would have needed a full time presence and likely more capital to make it successful.  The problem was that we never really laid out those expectations and communicated that information.  When venturing into a partnership world, make sure that you lay out the expectations of each other.

The second piece is, the partner.  Earlier on I picked a lot of bad partners and made several bad decisions as you’ve seen in my blog. However, with that said I’ve made far more better relationships with individuals over my time than I have bad ones.  There are a lot of really close people to me that I rely on for a lot of decision help.  Make sure that the partner you find is someone that you are compatible with and have qualities that are in common.  I would even suggest doing a personality test for each party so that you can understand the communication styles and determining the best way to work together to accomplish things.

Partnerships are a touchy thing however in small business I really believe that they are important.  You just need to make sure to take the right steps to meet the expectations laid out by those you bring into your fold.

The first office was…interesting.

When you start out in your business you’ll typically be starting out working from your home at least until you either have staff or have enough revenue coming in to justify having an office presence.  An office I find is an excellent way to establish yourself and it is also a nice little pat on the back indicating that you’re well on your way to growing a business that you can be proud of.  For some, having a home office is ideal, but for me I was (and still am) trying to grow an established and recognizable I.T. firm that I can be proud of.  An office is a symbol of that.

So why did I get our first office?  There were a couple of factors that I looked at.  The first was that I had brought on a web design contractor in 2008 who was very junior and was likely to become an employee (which he did in January of 2009).  The second reason was selfish in some cases but I found I just couldn’t work very well while I was at home.  There were too many distractions and too many things that I could do rather than focus on work.  I really needed a place to get away to focus on what I needed to do so that I could come home and feel satisfied that I had accomplished my goals for the day.

When I was working at home it wasn’t uncommon for me to find an excuse to crash on the couch and relax while I figured out what I wanted to do next.  Now, I’m not saying laying on a couch and brainstorming isn’t a bad idea, the problem was that I would snooze off for a few hours.  This is what happens when you’re starting out and working from home.  I needed a place that made me feel like I was at work and ready to focus and get things done.

As I mentioned, the other reason was an employee coming on board.  I feel younger and more junior workers require more mentorship and although I couldn’t give as much mentorship as I would have liked to at least I would be able to be near the employee to give them feedback on what was going on.

The office we had went into the first time around was very small.  In fact, we even shared the 150 or so square feet with another individual and as you can see from the picture to the right, it was tight in there.  As an I.T. company you make do and you can even see our Home Depot purchased rack stand with our server, printer and spare computer on it.  My desk was to the left and our sole employee at the time was on the right.

Regardless, it was home for awhile and it would be the first of several offices up until signing our long term lease in 2011 with the Crossroads Market.  I really felt that the office was a place of coming together and I still very much believe in that.  Those that have been to the new Eligeo office can atest to the collaborative environment that we have as well as the atmosphere that we portray and how important it is to me.

So if you’re starting out your business and thinking about an office then I hope this little article helps you out a bit.  My main driver was always having a place to collaborate but also to be accessible to my staff, contractors, vendors and customers.

Tags: office space

2009 – My second year in business

If you’ve been following along the last couple of months you’ve noticed I’ve been posting articles related to things that I did in 2008.  Well, for every quarter of the year I will gradually move through each year up until 2011 by December of this year.  I’m using this blog to share my experiences but also to pull together a book that will describe the things that I’ve been going through the last few years since I started the business.

I like to think of 2008 as my initiation and really the first kick in the butt to get things going.  Over the coming weeks I will be sharing a lot of my 2009 experiences, which some I cherish incredibly, with all of you.  I will be discussing our first office, first employee, nearly calling it quits along with an incredible spurt of business growth that has started the path to where we are today.

2009 was also the year that I learned that you can have connections outside of the world including my incredible experience in Italy as well as my nomination as Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year.  This was also the year I learned how hard it could be on a personal relationship to last and if you didn’t give the effort then things could crumble quickly.

After 2008 I wasn’t entirely sure if I wanted to keep doing what I was doing.  Eligeo was still a small dream and a small thing that didn’t pay me a dime.  I was losing money quickly and was even burned to the tune of $9,000 by an individual that I haven’t talked to in years to this day.  It was a rough patch in the road that would ultimately lead to many successes and opportunities.

I’ll begin posting tomorrow including our first office in Calgary that was shared with another individual in a rather small, no windows and crappy lighting setting.

Happy April.

Push yourself and keep pushing

When of the things that has been the hardest for me, and it is to this day, is to keep pushing yourself to be better and take risks.  My very first sales call was so incredibly nerve racking and I was scared.  Very scared.  Which is really silly when you think about it because all I was doing was having a simple conversation with someone who needed me.

Let me repeat that.  HE needed ME.  Yet, I was scared.

I love a line I heard a few years ago and it was we fear what we don’t know.  That was the issue I had back in 2008 was the fear of rejection, I didn’t know what it was like.  I didn’t know how the person would react to this guy in his office and what it would mean to me.  But thankfully it turned out to be pretty easy and that same person has been a customer of mine for nearly 4 years.

So how do we keep pushing ourselves?  How do we forget about fear and channel it into excitement?  Well, I’ve found a few tricks along the way.  The easiest is to find a way to build up confidence in yourself and I have a few ways I do this:

1. Conferences

I love going to business conferences and meeting other people in my industry.  I get so psyched up and excited about the products I represent and the services that I offer.  After I come back from a conference I am completely rejuvanted and ready to make deals.  It’s a temporary increase of mental state but I find I am super productive during the week or two after the conference.

2. Blogs & Podcasts

I have a few favourite blogs and podcasts that I tap into to keep a tab on what’s going on in the world.  At the same time I look for others who provide me with ideas and things that really excite me.

3. Books – Sci-Fi books

And last but not least, books.  And not business books, I like sci-fi books.  And no, I’m definitely not a geek that way where I am into Star Wars or any of those things but I do enjoy a book that has nothing to do with reality.  It takes my mind off of everything including stressful things.

So what do you do to push yourself and energize your confidence?  Is it any of the things I spoke about above?  I would love to hear your ideas so make sure to connect with me on Twitter at @DerekMajor and share your thoughts.

Being an entrepreneur isn’t your typical 9 to 5 job

I thought I’d touch a bit on the whole 9 – 5 aspect of everyday entrepreneurial life.  You know that dream many have when they are working their current day jobs and dreaming of entrepreneurship?  The dream that you’ll only work the hours that you want, when you want and how you want.  How about the take time to be with friends and family whenever you want?  Be your own boss.  Have nobody to report to..etc..etc.

I could go on for awhile but I thought I’d bring some learning lessons that I have found and talk a bit about them.  We’ll call them the entrepreneurial myths.

Myth #1: I get to set my own hours

Ah yes, set your own hours.  To be honest I actually really thought I would be different than every other mentor I had out there and I would actually set my own hours.  I was in I.T., I had computers and Internet; I could do it whenever I want!  Well, I quickly learned as my clientele list grew that setting your own hours just simply doesn’t exist.

Depending on what kind of business you get into, you’ll be working 9AM – 5PM, 1PM – 11:59PM, 2AM until 8AM…you’re getting the idea.  Well, I’ll give you the run down of how my life worked for awhile when I had no staff.

• Monday Morning from 8AM until about noon I’m usually dealing with the “emergency” issues that customers are having that morning after a weekend.  (Tuesdays after a long weekend are even nastier).
• From noon until about 3PM I’m catching up on bills, learning new tools and trying to find new opportunities.
• From 3PM until 5PM the phone’s keep ringing as more things to deal with pop up.
• The rest of the night I’m updating the Eligeo website, replying to emails and checking in other things that I need to do with the business side of things.

This kind of continues throughout the week.  It’s sporadic because you wear so many hats that you find yourself a bit all over the map.

Myth #2: I report to no one but myself

So, you finally quit your job.  Told your boss what you thought of him/her and you’re now your OWN boss.  You report to nobody but yourself.

That is until you get clients.  Your new bosses.

Yup, I said that plural because now you are responsible for the experience and happiness of each customer as they interact with your business.  It is imperative that you build systems and solutions to help your customers better utilize your services/products.

I used to joke that I’m now free from the politics of the corporate world but truthfully I hadn’t escaped that at all.  You never will and it isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Being in business means you need to continue to interact with people and in this case with a lot more senior people.

I deal with executives and business owners day in and day out.  It is part of the job now since our company deals strictly with businesses.

Myth #3: I can do whatever I want

OK, this isn’t really a myth.  It really is true that I can do whatever I want.  I can’t say that everything I do or want to do is necessarily the best thing or has been the best thing but I have the ultimate power.  I did learn that with great power comes great responsibility.  If you don’t learn to use it properly, you’re going to go out of business fast.

I’ve watched a lot of competitors start up similar businesses and fail.  They failed because they didn’t take the time or effort to really understand their clients and most importantly listen.  I spend a lot of time hearing business owners tell me about their businesses everyday.  I can’t just go out there and throw out any offering or product but I need to offer solutions that I believe in and trust so that my customers will in turn trust the decisions I make for them.

I love what I do and I wouldn’t change a thing.  But remember, if you are thinking it is going to be a walk in the park you’ll be mistaken as it isn’t a 9-5 job and you’ll end up reporting to more people than you ever have before.  But that isn’t such a bad thing as you get to meet some incredible people and bring some very unique individuals into your life.

Tags: 9 to 5, myths

Remember to Celebrate

When I was in the corporate world I used to love the annual Christmas parties and the little co-worker get togethers.  When I worked at Telus we used to hang out downtown quite a bit after work going to places like James Joyce on Stephen Ave and the Bear & Kilt which was a bit of a bar in a dungeon.  I also got very good at practicing and showing off my karaoke skills at O’Sullivans down Macleod Tr from the Telus Tower.  I loved doing these things and if you know me, you know I like to have a good time.

So here I was in 2008.  It was just me.  No co-workers, or even suppliers/vendors here in Calgary that could be considered a remote possibility of being a co-worker.  But, in Derek fashion I took my then girlfriend out to dinner at a nice restaurant around Christmas to celebrate the first year.  It was a really good steak since it had been a long time since I treated myself like that and believe me I really enjoyed it.

I guess my point of this blog is to reenforce how important it is to celebrate every success.  We sometimes get too caught up in the day to day of our businesses (or starting them) that we forget to sit back and smell the coffee.  I look around our office at Eligeo and it is pretty amazing to think about it.  Because of me several people have a job that they love to do.  Because of me I have a cool sleek office in Crossroads Market full of potential and opportunity.  I’ve created new relationships with people that I would have never connected with.  I think of our shareholders, I think of the business partners I have across North America and all of the people I’ve met through vendors at a variety of conferences all over the world.

I love what I do.

When Arthur started with Eligeo back in January, 2012 I did something that surprised him a bit.  We had a really slow day and things were running fairly smooth that day.  So I looked at our team around 3PM and said, let’s go to a movie.  But don’t forget your cell phones just in case.  So here we went to a 4PM matinee to see Mission Impossible in the IMAX.  I won’t forget the look on Arthur’s face when he couldn’t believe we would just go do something like that.

We do all kinds of events these days.  We have the annual ball hockey tournament but we also do a lot of impromptu things like going out for lunch to a different type of restaurant.  We may do little excursions on the weekends or we even just give a guy a day off since he’s been working his/her butt off.

The annual Christmas party seems to get bigger every year but I’m the kind of person that likes to do creative things.  This past year I took everybody to Jubilations but I also took 2 tickets and raffled them off at the Brown Bagging for Calgary’s Kids Christmas party.  This party was full of volunteers and 2 people joined us who were super friendly and we were really glad to have them with us.

The year before that we all went out to Smuggler’s Inn for a fun evening out with our team.  This 2012 I have some ideas up my sleeve as we have a cool group of advisors and shareholders which we never had until the last 6 months.  I’m sure it will be a big bang.

So what do you do at your business?  How do you keep people excited about things?  Or surprise them?

Tags: celebrate, christmas, parties

A book that saved my butt: Duct Tape Marketing

Everybody wants a quick fix to their sales problems but I know one book that really saved me from a lot of mistakes and really helped me propel my business.  Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch was the book that really gave me a lot of great ideas and focus on my marketing efforts.  In fact, it was how it focused on not using too much effort to create results.

Eligeo’s client acquisition numbers are interesting and very common for the I.T. industry.  We have received approximately 90% of our business through referrals in the last 4 years.  We’ve been working hard to change that number a bit but it was the principles that Duct Tape Marketing had on our business when it came to work of mouth, referral programs and other ways of using your network to generate business.

One of my favourite parts of the book had to do with web site design.  John talks about shooting your web designer if he/she says any of these three things: suggest flash intro pages, suggest frame pages and suggest templates.  I agree with the perspective that you really need to create your own identity and I only think that can be achieved by building from the ground up.

By why did it save my butt?  Well, I learned how to build relationships really well.  We have tried referral programs in the past but those were hard to implement in a business setting.  We did find really great ways to thank our customers through a variety of means including gift cards, referrals and in some cases just simply calling them up out of the blue and thanking them.

You need to ensure that you have a solid rapport with your clients in order to continue to grow your business within theirs.

I also really liked his emphasis on newsletters.  You really need to come up with a strong strategy to communicate with your customers on a regular basis.  We’re working on it at Eligeo as we still are not completely perfect in this regard but we’re looking into many ways to open up more dialogue through social media and emails.

So a couple of things I took away:

• If your business can handle it, come up with a smart referral program.  Some verticals are hard to implement but get creative.
• Start up a smart and timely newsletter.  Information is key and being fresh in the minds of customers is critical.

Tags: duct tape marketing, marketing, referral program

Watching out for Scam Artists

When I started out as an entrepreneur there was a lot I didn’t know about (then again, there still is a lot I don’t know about).  The one thing I kept running into were the so-called scam artists.  You hear about it a lot in anything but I was a bit oblivious at the start since I felt I needed to learn every piece of knowledge from anyone and sadly it came from the places and people that I really don’t want to do business with.

You know the guy.  He is a very good talker, has a lot of confidence in what he does and convinces you that you need his services.  Now there isn’t one single person that I dealt with that I am talking about as there were quite a few but they all can be lumped into one group.  I never liked the way they did business and they thrived on taking advantage of those that just didn’t seem to have the confidence in themselves or they were in desperate need of assistance to get their business going before everything went south.

One individual used to hold regular seminars and events throughout the city and it was always a different topic.  He loved to take others under his wing to milk them for all they were worth until they had no money left and no business.  I’ve seen computer companies partner with him to the point where they faced lawsuits because they got caught up in the behaviour all the way to turning good people into bad.  I never did get caught up with this person since my spidey sense kicked in and I avoided them at all cost.

But once I ridded myself of that person I quickly found myself caught up with another.  I look back now and boy did I feel like fresh prey to these guys.  They saw a young guy who was starting a business and they wanted to get in there as much as possible.  The second guy managed to get some stuff out of me since I felt there might have been long term benefits (it’s been over 4 years as I write this and believe me, no benefits).  But as I quickly realized how it wasn’t good for my business, I got out.

Most of these guys tour the business networking groups in Calgary and some start their own networking groups.  I’ve been in many networking groups and I’ve found some that work and others that simply don’t.  It all depends.

So now this all leads me to a dilemma I have during this present day.  I don’t trust anybody that’s a “consultant” as I think back to when I was burned over $9,000 or these guys that managed to be good talkers and pulled a fast one on me.  I have trust issues and I know it.  If you ever get into a job interview for my company I will flat out tell you that I don’t trust you and you need to earn it.  I’m currently exploring bringing on a business coach right now and there is a couple of individuals that I’ve met that have “systems” and they do scare me off.  I love systems, heck I run a computer / IT consulting firm, but it is just I didn’t like the first one and I find that some of it is quite expensive and useless.

But we will see.  I’m waiting to see who can gain my trust since the whole scam artist thing really through me for a loop back in 2008.  One thing you find out as an entrepreneur is that you will make mistakes, there’s no doubt about it.  What really matters is how you respond to those mistakes and learn from them.  My problem is learning to get past some of the mistakes.

Tags: consultants, networking groups, scams

My first Employee

I can’t say that hiring an employee was the easiest and most thought out process during the first run.  It was actually a bit scary and I certainly knew I needed a bit of help.  In the fall of 2008 I brought on my first contractor who eventually became an employee of the company.

I have to admit I was extremely fortunate to bring on the person that I did.  He was by no means the most technical person when it came to managing computers but he was certainly a very creative person which showed in a lot of web work that we did.  I wasn’t really ready to have an employee in my world at that point but we ended up working together for a good 1 and a half years.  Many ups and downs, but also many successes.  It’s too bad we left on bad terms since I still have a lot of respect for him to this day.

Hiring your first employee should be a thought out process.  It took me almost 3 years to find the perfect person to come work for Eligeo, who has since become a business partner.  Back when I started the company everybody said to avoid hiring friends and family.  So I did exactly that and went through a lot of people I never knew until the hiring process.  I went through a lot of good people throughout but there was always issues that I ran into whether it was commitment, level of mentorship required or simply work ethic.

The first employee I hired was simply the wrong person.  I wasn’t entirely settled on the business model for the company but he was incredibly loyal to me as I was to him.  I worked hard to make sure he was always paid appropriately and did so at the expense of my own salary most times.  But the problem was I was building a tech consulting company, not a web design firm.  His expertise was web design.  I had him in the wrong job and not only that he was very young so he needed more mentorship than what I would be able to provide as a new business owner.  I felt that I failed him in his path to success.

When we finally parted ways it was during a period that became one of the most critical in the 5 years of running Eligeo.  We had experimented in building our own CRM product but ultimately abandoned it as it really wasn’t what I was trying to build in a business.  We went quickly to 5 employees and quickly down to only me in a matter of months.  I attribute this suddenly change in some bad business decisions and personel decisions.

From this point forward I got smarter.  I went back to the drawing board on the business and re-focused a lot of the business model.  This was all happening in 2010 when the re-structuring occurred.  I brought in some good friends to help out throughout the year and the business model was starting to take shape.  We were finally becoming a very solid I.T. business.

I learned that hiring friends wasn’t such a bad thing at all.  The employee I mentioned in the second paragraph is Karim who has since become a valued shareholder and partner in Eligeo.  He not only brought expertise and knowledge to the business but he finally set us on the path to building my vision that I had started working on earlier that year.

I also learned that the process to hiring people you don’t know changed as well.  I actively sought out a variety of resumes from different resources and I learned to evaluate people a lot differently and objectively than I had ever before.  We have now a real strong team of individuals that are helping make this company a real success into the future.

To close off, here are a few points:

• Hiring friends and family can be risky, but if you have trust issues like I do, sometimes it isn’t a bad thing.
• Learn to evaluate talent either through third party resources (recruiters) or by picking up a book to learn how to evaluate talent.

Tags: employees, hiring, recruitment