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· 4 min read

Like many company leaders, due to government lock-downs, I’ve been forced into a change of scenery. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some ideas and experiences from my background in business. We’re all in this together, I hope my ideas are useful to you in some way.

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

- T.S. Eliot

What is the Entrepreneur Trap?

I have spoken to countless business owners whose business "used to be much larger". Regardless of the type of business, if I ask them about their story, it is always the same.

They Grew. They typically started as a sole trader, exploiting their own training or skill, be it architect, designer, programmer, plumber, whatever. They looked after their customers, gained a reputation and business grew. They hired staff to help. It was exciting. The trap was set...

Paperwork, HR and QC took over. They soon found themselves spending their evenings doing paperwork and their days relentlessly trying to manage a team, write proposals, manage stock and deal with quality issues that never existed when they were a sole trader. They tried to solve their personal workload issues by hiring more staff, but it never worked. They never quite figured out why it got so hard.

They downsized. Eventually, it got too much. They got rid of the staff - except for perhaps one or two. They got back on the tools. Stress reduced, and they made more money than they did as a larger company, vowing never to go back to it.

We all know someone like that. Perhaps it’s you. I call this the “Entrepreneur Trap”. The Entrepreneur treats their business as an extension of themselves, adding resources and marketability to their own skill, but never allowing the business to become a separate entity.

Avoiding the Entrepreneur Trap

Business owners need to find a way to overcome this trap. Their own involvement in the business actually holds it back. They need to ask the question "how can I sack me?". Every business owner thinks they are indispensable. It's never true, even when it appears the owner is essential.

Oprah Winfrey leveraged her own reputation to create her production company “Harpo”, and launched the “Oprah Winfrey Network” TV station. If a seemingly indispensable people can extract themselves from their own business as she did, then so can the plumber or architect. The question is "how?".

I've been on that journey with 5 businesses of my own. There is no simple answer, it's never the same, but there is always a way. Owners like the idea of being free of their business. I just think they're looking at it the wrong way. Their business needs to be free of them.

Thanks

Thanks for allowing me to share my ideas. I have enjoyed writing this series of posts and I hope you got something useful from them.

For those of you that have taken note of my signoff (below). The language is Te Reo Māori (The Māori Language), which is the native language of the indigenous people of New Zealand. Although not widely spoken, it is an official language of New Zealand (along with English and NZ Sign Language) and has undergone a resurgence in recent years.

I hope to share my thoughts in future Blog articles. But now that we are back in the office, and life is heading back towards our future normal, I'm going to sign off for now.

Kia mau, kia ū, otirā, kia haumaru (Hold fast, stay strong, furthermore be safe). Peter Thomas, Director, Comet Backup

Need help configuring computer backups?

A lot of our partners are using this downtime to migrate data backup customers to Comet. During this time, we are offering free hands-on support to customers wanting to migrate your computer backup customers to Comet Backup.

We can help with that.

· 4 min read

Like many company leaders, due to government lock-downs, I’ve been forced into a change of scenery. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some ideas and experiences from my background in business. We’re all in this together, I hope my ideas are useful to you in some way.

“Predicting rain doesn't count, building the ark does.”

- Warren Buffett

Yep, business is unpredictable. Who knew?

In 20 years of business, I’ve learned that unpredictability is well, almost predictable. You just don’t know the ‘what’ and ‘when’…

There are a few fundamentals that I have learned. Not all of these can be applied to all businesses, but for me, they have helped me build secure and resilient businesses.

Build and keep a good team. Keeping a team for the long term and supporting them through ups and downs gives a strong base of knowledge and experience in the company. You can leverage that in good times and bad.

Keep Admin systems slim. Admin bugs me... it seldom adds any tangible value to customers. It's just an internal cost, so I keep it as small as possible. At Comet, we have almost zero human input into administration. Our office is 100% paperless. We never manually send invoices, payments are automatically reconciled, income and payroll-tax are calculated and paid automatically. Accounting is cloud-based and linked to our accountant’s office. If our office burnt down, and we never returned, it would barely be an inconvenience.

Build recurring revenue. I love recurring revenue businesses. Look for ways you can add value to your customers for a “small monthly fee”. Licensing, service contracts, support agreements, reviews, renewals – anything that makes their life easier, and smooths your revenue. Create a system and automate the billing, it’s lifeline in difficult times.

Work on relationships, in good times and bad. Relationships are like bank accounts; you make deposits and withdrawals. Make sure you’re doing lots of depositing in the good times, you might need to make an unexpected withdrawal when trouble hits.

Sell before you buy. If you are a stock-holding business, talk to your suppliers about just-in-time stock management, deferred payments, sale-or-return or other arrangements that help you sell product before you have to pay for it.

Consider pre-payments. My favorite coffee shop has a discounted pre-pay card that I can charge up with coffees in advance. It’s good for them and for me! We do a similar thing at Comet. Customers pre-pay and we give them extra free credits. This gives them total control of how much they spend and when, so they are in control of their own cash-flow.

Chase the little fish. Salespeople expend a lot of time chasing the biggest customers. Don’t get too hooked on those “whales”. They will lever your pricing down, your competitors will constantly be knocking on their door and they contribute a disproportionate amount of revenue compared to profit. A broader range of smaller customers will spread your risk, be more loyal and often result in more profit.

Next time, I’m going to talk about avoiding the “Entrepreneur Trap”

Kia mau, kia ū, otirā, kia haumaru (Hold fast, stay strong, furthermore be safe). Peter Thomas, Director, Comet Backup

Need help configuring computer backups?

A lot of our partners are using this downtime to migrate data backup customers to Comet. During this time, we are offering free hands-on support to customers wanting to migrate your computer backup customers to Comet Backup.

We can help with that.

· 4 min read

Like many company leaders, due to government lock-downs, I’ve been forced into a change of scenery. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some ideas and experiences from my background in business. We’re all in this together, I hope my ideas are useful to you in some way.

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”

- Bill Gates

You've been here before

If you were starting your business today, you would have costs but no revenue. You would expect to run at a loss. Staff would work on activities that create future revenue, developing services and making products that can be sold. It’s normal for a new business to run at a loss for a time while it builds its offering.

For a mature business, having costs suddenly outstrip revenue can be a shock. After having been profitable, it can be hard to return to the mindset of “building a business”. You did that when you started the business, can you do it again now?

If you’ve suddenly got too many staff due to a loss of revenue, you may be able to redeploy them to projects that will jump-start the business? Sometimes it is necessary to lay off team members; but this shouldn’t be the default course of action.

If you need to downsize, do it now

Businesses that do need to shed staff, usually do it too late. Most businesses that lay off staff do so within the last quarter of a recession. By then, they have bled all their cash, missed opportunities and suffered a drop in morale. To put a nail in their own coffin, they then go and lay off their experienced people right before things start to pick up. If you absolutely must shed staff, do so now.

But don’t be too hasty. If you’ve been through a couple of business cycles, you will know how long it takes a new team member to become productive. Months, or even years. If you’re thinking holistically about your business, you might be able to redeploy people into new areas of opportunity or tasked with their own cost-reduction project.

What if you were starting out again?

Think about what your business looked like when it was a start-up, and see if you can redeploy staff to meet the needs of your new, emerging company. Here are some ideas:

  • Optimize administration by moving to automated invoicing, accounting and debt collection. You can task an idle staff member with this project.
  • Call existing customers to see if they need any help. They are more likely to answer your call when they’re working from home.
  • Look through old databases of contacts and see if you can make a marketing list of new prospects.
  • Start a new project. Could an Idle staff member begin building a new project for you? I started two successful businesses that way.
  • Look for internal efficiency. Clean out your CRM, tidy databases and get internal systems working efficiently so that you are ready to move when things pick up.

Your team have been your biggest investment. You have invested time, resources and money in them well over and above their salary. Don’t give that investment to your competitor by letting that person go. Hang on to them and they will reward you by growing your business on the other side.

Next time, I’m going to talk about how you can use your lock-down time wisely.

Kia mau, kia ū, otirā, kia haumaru (Hold fast, stay strong, furthermore be safe). Peter Thomas, Director, Comet Backup

Need help configuring computer backups?

A lot of our partners are using this downtime to migrate data backup customers to Comet. During this time, we are offering free hands-on support to customers wanting to migrate your computer backup customers to Comet Backup.

We can help with that.

· 4 min read

Like many company leaders, due to government lock-downs, I’ve been forced into a change of scenery. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some ideas and experiences from my background in business. We’re all in this together, I hope my ideas are useful to you in some way.

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

- Winston Churchill

Find the opportunity

Many of your customers have just had their world upended. Some businesses have been forced to close, but many others are adjusting to working from home. This creates opportunities for MSP’s.

Remote workers have specific needs. Laptops & mobile hardware, secure connections, video conferencing, collaboration, virtual meetings, remote support. These are all the new normal. Instead of predictable, tidily configured office environments, people are suddenly working from home in much less predictable and considerably less-secure environments.

The Guardian reported on a surge in hacking as workers take corporate computers out of the office and work from home. ABC News reported on techniques are being used to hack video conference calls within the Zoom App. There are many other reports of increased hacking, malware and even direct cyber attacks on hospitals at this time.

The working-from-home revolution creates a huge opportunity for managed service providers. The three main opportunities are Remote Support, Cloud Services and Backup. Backup is going to be particularly important. People can no longer rely on data being centralized in office servers, NAS or SAN devices. We are seeing an unprecedented dispersion of data. Cloud computing can solve this to an extent, but there is an increasing demand to keep copies of critical data in one centralized location.

It’s critical to listen to customers at any stage, but none more than now

Now is a great time to get the attention of your customers and talk to them about how you can support their business through this new revolution. Smart businesses will embrace this and call it an opportunity. Others will be overcome by the size of the challenge. Successful MSP’s will thrive in this new environment as will many of their customers.

Getting started

Identify your most affected customers. You can probably filter your customer base using your knowledge of their workforce size and type of business.

Make a list of work-from-home tools you can provide. You already have a suite of great services, think of the ones that are most effective in this situation.

Write one or two whitepapers about how to work from home effectively. Upload the papers to your website (good for SEO) and email an excerpt to your customers. Start with the most affected ones.

Talk to your customers. Right now, we are phoning all of our customers, wherever they are in the world. There are a lot of them and it’s taking a lot of time. That’s ok, we have time. If you haven’t heard from us yet, you can book a call.

Listen to your customers. The purpose of calling our customers is not actually to talk. It’s to listen. They’re teaching us about what we need to be doing. It’s critical to listen to customers at any stage, but none more than now.

Next time, I’m going to talk about how you may need to redeploy staff for resilience and success.

Kia mau, kia ū, otirā, kia haumaru (Hold fast, stay strong, furthermore be safe). Peter Thomas, Director, Comet Backup

Need help configuring computer backups?

A lot of our partners are using this downtime to migrate data backup customers to Comet. During this time, we are offering free hands-on support to customers wanting to migrate your computer backup customers to Comet Backup.

We can help with that.

· 5 min read

Like many company leaders, due to government lock-downs, I’ve been forced into a change of scenery. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some ideas and experiences from my background in business. We’re all in this together, I hope my ideas are useful to you in some way.

“If you ever find you're the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room.”

- Austin Kleon

What the heck just happened?

Global downturns are like flash floods, they have an immediate impact like a torrent of water sweeping down a previously tranquil stream. The torrent appears to take everything with it, but after the waters subside, what is left? The large boulders remain, along with a lot of debris and new sand and stones deposited from upstream.

There will be winners and losers… and opportunity.

The rocks represent the solid businesses that were unmoved and survived the torrent. The debris reminds us of the new and unfamiliar landscape, full of opportunity and the small stones are the beginnings of new businesses. In the long run, economies benefit from upheavals. People rethink, innovate and revitalize their businesses. New businesses start, and old stagnant businesses are lost. Good people who were trapped in unproductive occupations get released and make new beginnings. I know of countless people who started great businesses after being made redundant. Would those skilled people have ever left the safety of employment to risk it all and start that business? Probably not.

The talent tap is about to be turned on.

Downturns release talent into the marketplace. Skilled people who have been in secure employment for years may suddenly be looking for new opportunities. Previously, these people were hard to find, and had to be head-hunted, usually at a premium price. If your business is poised for growth, maybe now is a great time to think about tapping into that new pool of talent.

The opportunity to hire talented, experienced team members may be the best we’ve seen in a lifetime. Looking for great people to join our team is always a top priority. Here’s are a few ways you can find that talent:

LinkedIn. It’s an obvious one but shouldn’t be ignored. Advertise on this site and other employment sites in your city/country.

Chamber of commerce. Contact your local Chamber of commerce. They will be able to connect you with companies that are having to downsize or restructure. Sometimes they will act as a confidential intermediary to connect employees with you.

Press releases. While other companies are talking doom and gloom, a positive article about a growing company will certainly attract attention. As well as outlining how your company is bucking the trend, mention that you are looking for talented team members. It will surely attract attention.

Keep an eye on the news. Look out for tech companies that go bust or announce redundancies. After a major earthquake in our city, I approached some major employers who went broke and asked them to connect me with some of their best staff – they happily obliged as they wanted to help out their staff. Just phone the CEO, like I did.

Contact the university. There will be less opportunities for graduates as well, and the best ones make great interns. I once offered a job to a student with excellent grades a full year before he completed his study. He accepted and started with us the following year. I’m incredibly grateful to say he is still with us.

Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.

- Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett was referring to investing, but it also applies to hiring. After all, hiring great people is investing in your business. At Comet, we're growing. Not because market conditions are good, or any other external factor. We're growing because we choose to, and that starts with a focused and talented team. Right now, we're using all of the above strategies to grow our talented and passionate team.

Next time, I’m going to talk about how working from home creates opportunities for MSP’s.

Kia mau, kia ū, otirā, kia haumaru (Hold fast, stay strong, furthermore be safe). Peter Thomas, Director, Comet Backup

Need help configuring computer backups?

A lot of our partners are using this downtime to migrate data backup customers to Comet. During this time, we are offering free hands-on support to customers wanting to migrate your computer backup customers to Comet Backup.

We can help with that.

· 5 min read

Many parts of the world are currently in various states of lock-down or restriction of movement. Even businesses that remain viable will struggle to find ways to grow. However, out of every difficult time, new opportunities arise, and innovative businesses will use this time to better their business.

Like many company leaders around the world, due to government lock-downs, I’ve been forced into a change of scenery and pace over the past few weeks. Although I go a little stir-crazy at being locked up, it’s a good time to reflect on the future of how we do business.

It’s also a good time to share thoughts and ideas. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some ideas and experiences from my background in business. We’re all in this together, I hope my ideas are useful to you in some way.

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

- Henry Ford

You’ve been forced to spend time ‘outside’ your business. Use it wisely.

Business coaches and consultants have long championed the mantra “work ON your business, not IN your business”. This is simply the conscious action of taking time away from the daily activities and looking at the business holistically (as a whole, made up of its interconnected parts). If you’re working from home, now is a great time to work ON the business without the distractions of the office.

If you’re working from home, now is a great time to work ON the business without the distractions of the office.

When it comes to business planning, I don’t like big documents and executive summaries. My business plans are simple, fluid and visible. Here are a few steps I find useful.

Evaluate. Write down obstacles to growth, opportunities, challenges and ideas. All bets are off here, so write down any idea that comes to mind. Post-it notes are great for this sort of thing. Color-code them. Green ones for opportunities, red ones for obstacles, orange ones for ideas. Don’t use your computer or a phone app for this – the ideas need to be visible. Put them on a wall.

Prioritize. Put your ideas into order – in difficult times, you might put the cost-saving measures first, but don’t become fixated on these, as you might overlook opportunities. This is where the post-it notes come in handy – you can move them up and down the wall to prioritize.

Plan. Turn the best ideas into an action plan, including specific actions to undertake each month. More post-it notes. Each action should be concise and be connected to a direct action. “Grow revenue by 10%” is not an action. “Contact 100 previous prospects with free discount voucher” is an action.

Communicate. Let the team know about your plan, get their buy-in and delegate responsibility. Don’t decide who is going to lead the project until after your team meeting. You may find someone in the team who is excited about championing your ideas.

Act. Each action should fit on a post-it note. Yes, more post-it notes! If it won’t fit, it’s too complicated. It’s very important you can articulate these actions in one very brief statement. Once you have this, get started.

Measure. If you didn’t measure it, you don’t know if you succeeded. Each action point should be accompanied with a simple measurement of success. Your champion should know this measurement at the start and agree to the parameters.

Reward and Celebrate. Figure out how you will celebrate as a team when you meet your targets. I’ll leave the details up to you. To wrap up, I read an interesting quote this week:

“If you don’t come out of lock-down with a new skill, a side-hustle or a new plan for the future, then you lack discipline, not time”.

It made me stop and think. Our go-to excuse for not making better plans is ‘lack of time’. Like many people, I don’t have that excuse right now. No excuses for not pausing, reflecting and planning!

Next time, I’m going to talk about how you can access great talent in challenging times.

Kia mau, kia ū, otirā, kia haumaru (Hold fast, stay strong, furthermore be safe). Peter Thomas, Director, Comet Backup

Need help configuring computer backups?

A lot of our partners are using this downtime to migrate data backup customers to Comet. During this time, we are offering free hands-on support to customers wanting to migrate your computer backup customers to Comet Backup.

We can help with that.