Is often the motto of the freelance techie, and make it work you can often do. Some of the most talented innovative and resourceful people I know are technicians, and many of them pride themselves on making things work. However, sometimes the “˜make it work’ motto is one that can get you into a lot of bother, especially when providing technical support, help, fixes or advice for larger organisations.
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There’s often no easier target than a new business. Full of the joys of being the newly appointed senior executive managing director, with a few K behind you from one of your grandparents and maybe some of the business you’ve been doing for friends and family, there’s a great temptation to fall prey to the unscrupulous methods of wily sales teams.
Our commenter last week (in response to our Stock story), Bay Geeks Computer Repair shared these words of wisdom:
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When our family tech shop first started out, it was co-managed/owned ““ by what effectively was Ying and Yang of stock control (and we’ll leave the names as such to protect the guilty!). Ying’s approach was to buy nothing. Anything a customer wanted, over around the £20 mark, they had to order. You’d come in to make a purchase, ask for the part you wanted (e.g. monitor, hard drive, CDROM etc.) and have to leave a deposit and go back for your component in a couple of days.
Yang was the opposite. Anything and everything he could get his hands on, he did. However, Ying was the financial backer, and therefore was the one who got to say yes or no to new stock.
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Part 1 ““ the layout: If you’re lucky, and successful enough, to be able to consider opening your own bricks and mortar “˜shop’, we’ve got some hints and tips below that will give you some food for thought. This week, though, we want all you Linus Torvalds (Bill’s day off) esq/Alan Sugar success stories to contribute to our advice ““ if you’ve opened your own place, either a workshop or a reseller, WHAT do you think our newbies should know? Here’s our take on it ““ and let’s get some input from you guys during the week (our very own Wiki article!). If we get enough input, we’ll include it all in the Part 2 we’re doing for next week. Here goes….
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We’ve been providing you with nuggets of weekly business hints, tips, sarcastic commentary on your communication, dress sense and management skills since January 2007. As this week’s offering, it’s a good time (hitting exactly the six month mark of our advice, guidance and general pointers in the right direction), for you to spend a little time reflecting.
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Almost a twenty percent of people in employment in the UK (a small island with a lot of places that are next to each other and therefore quite easy to get to unlike the US or Australia) are teleworkers (CIPD Autumn 2006). These are people who work from home at some point, using a telephone and a computer to conduct their business. Some of the reason for this is geographical (it makes sense from a travel point of view), some of it is financial, and some of it is to do with flexible working and family friendly arrangements. However, the one area where your front bedroom is definitely at a disadvantage to your office is the distinct lack of technical support available. Any takers????
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Back to customer service again, I hear you say to yourself. However , we never send you far wrong, so this week’s foray into keeping good and reliable customer records has got to be worth five minutes of your time.

Customers - the one thing you can bet they have in common is that they expect their needs to be met, if not their expectations to be exceeded, they have little or no idea of the lengths you have to go to, to service them and their business, and they think you do nothing else other than sit around, wait for them to call, and of course you keep details of their business needs, family setup and inside leg measurement at the tip of your fingers (so to speak!)
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A business operating manual is the difference between a business that can run without you, and a business that can’t. Normally, not being indispensable would be certain bankruptcy for a small business owner, however, as a techie, your customers will still be there, even if you aren’t, and you need to ensure your business continues being able to service them, even if you’re absent, away, ill or unable to function. Someone else needs to be able to follow your work, and to carry out further support for your customers if they need it.
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If you are a business owner worth your salt (or silicon), you’ll be planning big things for your small business in the future. Either you’re going to want to grow your business to the tune that someone from Google/IBM/Comet want to offer you a cool few mil to acquire you, or else you want to make sure your precious life work yields more cash than just to keep you in a good line in designer tees and holidays in far flung places.

In other words, you need to think big, and you need to think ahead. What is it about your business that makes it valuable? Where is the income from your business coming from for the next few years, and what is its potential? Your business, once you’ve been operating, should be more than just YOU - after all, once you have a brand, a loyal following and some measurable income, you become a business not just an individual with a winning way with a screwdriver.
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The customer’s always right. Even if you work in a technical area where the customer is actually (pardon me customers) CLUELESS! They are still right. Know why? Because if they don’t like what you do, they take their business elsewhere. So even if they weren’t technically correct, they’re still right, because they’re buying, or not, if you fall foul of one!
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