I have a fun job. I’m currently a Solution Engineer at a large SAAS (software-as-a-service) company. Our software helps businesses of all shapes and sizes better connect with their customers via a number of applications on our platform. As a Solution Engineer, I work as a pre-sales resource, which means that I am working closely with our sales reps (but am technically not one) in helping get a deal done. Customers come to us with business problems and it’s my job as a Solution Engineer to understand those problems, the impact they have, and present a picture of what solutions could look like on our platform. More simply put, I do customer discovery (asking questions) and demonstrations of our product. It’s super fun and challenging and it’s been a great 2 years and counting!
One of the great things that I love about the job is the ability to meet and learn about customers. Although I’m in one of our focused industries (healthcare), I’ve had the fortune of interacting with hundreds of businesses, some of which are similar, and many of which are very unique. I learn about what they do, how they make money, and how they grow. As an aspiring entrepreneur who hopes to one day own their own business (I first need to figure out what that business will be), I pay attention to how entrepreneurs grow, scale and pivot their businesses. I’ve learned a lot about how I’ll scale and how I’ll grow my own business one day. I thought perhaps that you (the aspiring entrepreneur, or current business owner) might also benefit from these principles!
Invest in solid, scalable tech
It is amazing to me the number of very large and profitable companies that I run into that run a fair amount of their business on Microsoft Excel. Yes, the very simplistic spreadsheet tool is used by businesses small and large for their day in day out business activities. Now, I’m certainly not knocking spreadsheets, I’m a huge fan and have been known to break out a spreadsheet for virtually everything in my life, but a spreadsheet is not meant for running a business. While it may work early on, sooner or later you’ll outgrow it, and find yourself in need of a more modern tool, like a CRM or an accounting software. While yes you could get away with growing your business off of a spreadsheet, I wonder how much that’s held companies back. Spreadsheets are good, but they are not meant for growing a business.
I’ve become a huge believer in getting the right tech early on. As a startup, you have ambitious growth goals, and that growth may come very quickly. The last thing you want hindering your growth is the lack of a solution that can keep up with you (like a spreadsheet). In my opinion, plan for growth and get setup with best of breed technology very soon after the revenue starts coming in. I know that it can feel like a large financial investment, but your future, fast growing self will thank you when you have a scalable solution that keeps up with your business. Even better, most modern tech solutions are cloud based and subscription based, many with starter packages. Getting in the ecosystem now even at a beginner package will allow you to get the right processes in place early on, and when that growth comes, you’ll have both the platform that can keep up with you but also the right processes so everything will flow easily the more business that comes in!
Have fewer systems
One of the things that blows my mind in addition to spreadsheets is the number of systems that businesses have in place. For some customers I talk to, it takes two hands to count how many! “Well we use this for this purpose, well actually this team uses this, and we have this and that…” it’s a lot for me to keep up listening as a solutions consultant, much less them running their business!
As best you can, I believe that fewer systems are better than many. Once you get many systems, you a) lose that source of truth and/or b) create a lot of manual or automated methods (which are never as good as you think they’ll be) to maintain that source of truth. Having everyone on one page not only provides a better experience for your end customers, but it also gives a better experience for your internal users. No one likes having to duplicate efforts or learn that something isn’t accurate (data integrity is the buzzword here).
Businesses work well when employees are able to a) work together and b) work quickly. Anything whether a process or a software that doesn’t help you achieve those shouldn’t be considered. Less is more!
Buy don’t build
Ugh, I cannot tell you how many frustrating deals I’ve lost because the customer ends up saying, “well we think we’ll just give building it a try”. I want to pull my hair out (which I don’t have much of left anyways) not only because it sucks that we lost a deal, but I also hate it for the customer. Time and time again I’ve seen and truly believe that buying is better than building. Let me tell you why.
I firmly believe that you should focus on what you do best, and spend your time and efforts there. This 100% applies to businesses. If I wasn’t so polite, I’d ask, “Mr/Mrs Customer, since when did you get into the business of developing portals? Or apps? Or IT ticketing systems?” The point is; they’re not in that business and while it may at the time seem ‘cheaper’ to just use internal resources to develop it on their own, more often than not it’s going to take more time, more money and it won’t be as good as a product. Oh, even worse — there’s also the time to maintain and upgrade that you need to consider — even more time and energy!
As a startup, figure out what you do well, i.e. your ‘secret sauce’ and focus on that. Anything else that comes up — my recommendation is to buy a solution, don’t build it. Building it won’t ever go as well as you think it will, and it’ll just distract and slow you down when you could be spending your time on the thing(s) you’re actually good at.
Don’t pinch pennies while dollars are flying away
I hear a lot from customer (both big and small) that enterprise software is expensive. I mean yes it is, but that’s not really the question they should be asking (and neither should you). What you should be concerned about is the value that you get from the solution. I don’t care what it costs me, I care what the value is. Assuming the value I get is significantly more than I’m a) getting now and b) what I’d pay for a solution, it’s worth an evaluation in my mind.
I remember one customer we worked with got cold feet at the last minute, and it was so painful to watch. We had taken through a phenomenal return on investment (ROI) analysis and they agreed with every step of our calculation. We ended up with an amazing number for them — that by spending X now on our solution, they could be getting 4x or 5x in returns. Of course the exercise is part of a sales pitch so they (should) take it with a grain of salt but still — even a 2x or 3x should be worthwhile!
Business is always going to be a risk — learn to mitigate that risk but still take risk. Nothing risked, nothing rewarded! Don’t be afraid of spending money, instead look at the value you’ll receive — and chase after that value!
Ads aren’t everything
So many businesses today are thinking about marketing, and when they think marketing, they’re often going after Google Adwords and Facebook/Instagram. While I think that this is an important part of growing a business, I believe it’s overvalued and honestly those dollars could be spent in better ways. We’ve almost become accustomed as consumers to ignore those ads; I gloss right over them when I doing a Google search, and actually personally I don’t get on Facebook very often but when I do I’m always disgusted by the number of ads.
I believe there’s gotta be a better way, or at least a different way. Some of the businesses I work with seem to have this figured out, and rely more on relationship selling, having a robust blog presence (which can show up for free on Google at the right time if you do it correctly), or just by word of mouth. Focus on building and delivering an incredible product or service, tell a compelling story while you do so, and worry less about online ads. Spend your money in those areas before just buying another ad on Facebook, I think you’ll be surprised as to the effects!
Don’t boil the ocean
This partly goes back to my spiel about figuring out what you’re good at doing as a business and focus on doing that. So many customers I meet are trying to boil the ocean — meaning they’re trying to take on too much at once. When you take on too much at once, you lose focus and when you lose focus, things start to slip. Whether it’s your brand, your product, your customer service, something always gives when you focus in too many areas.
The best and most successful customers I meet with have figured out a gap in the market and have developed a compelling solution to that gap. They’re not focused on too many other products or services, and instead are laser focused on filling that gap. It’s also important to have a north star — your vision/mission and a set of values that unite everyone in your organization. Have this displayed loudly and proudly, and make sure everyone is aware of it. If whatever you’re working on isn’t helping you get to that north star, re-evaluate it. If a new process is taking too long and distracting you, re-think the importance of it and find a better way. The ocean is way too big for one company to boil it — so don’t even try!
Summary
I love working with up and coming businesses. It’s so cool to see their passion and drive, and to be able in my own small way help them achieve that goal. I hope that these tips of being focused, working towards your north star and setting yourself up for success early on with technology will help you in your own business endeavors!
