In honor of groundhog day...where are you "stuck" in your business

[ntep36]

Hey Folks - I'm doing a special episode for my podcast this week with Groundhog day coming up. Hopefully most of you have seen the movie (one of my favorites), but I wanted to hear from the community on areas you might feel "stuck" or "trapped" in your business. Are there certain aspects or issues that you can't seem to escape?

Looking forward to hearing people's thoughts!

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Working a FTJ and trying to secure business clients to go full-time with the business.

 

[ntep36]

Working a FTJ and trying to secure business clients to go full-time with the business.

How long have you been running your business in tandem with your FTJ?

 

[Gotenks64]

Working a FTJ and trying to secure business clients to go full-time with the business.

Agreed. I haven't gotten ONE yet lol. I only have been at this part of the business for a few months though. Jungling it with my FTJ

I feel as if most people dont really respect the trade, and feel they can do it themselves or just pay some guy on Craig list when they REALLY need something. Maybe I just need high caliber clients, but that in itself mandates I start of with lower clients to "prove my worth".

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

How long have you been running your business in tandem with your FTJ?

About 5 years now. We are slowly adding businesses.

 

[callthatgirl]

I am finally getting out of groundhog day, been here almost 2 years. And boy does it feel good to have a new spirit. I was tired of the old company and tired of living it day to day My income was almost the same in 2014 and 2015. I was getting no where and the thought of 2016 being the same, almost depressed me.

I think the first step for me was realizing where I wanted my company to be in the future, what growth opportunities I have and can offer and how do I get there. I don't want employees, so building this company based upon service businesses to help me was a good starting point. Sometimes we think we are successful doing what we are doing, but have no path. I figured out the path and now it's building the roads for the path to follow. I have a lot of people helping me now, so I get to manage that for now. I can handle it.

To answer your question, what I couldn't escape in the past 2 years was getting out of work I didn't enjoy, but felt I had to do it and if I didn't like doing it, it didn't get done well and it needed to be done. So alot suffered.

 

[ntep36]

I am finally getting out of groundhog day, been here almost 2 years. And boy does it feel good to have a new spirit. I was tired of the old company and tired of living it day to day My income was almost the same in 2014 and 2015. I was getting no where and the thought of 2016 being the same, almost depressed me.

I think the first step for me was realizing where I wanted my company to be in the future, what growth opportunities I have and can offer and how do I get there. I don't want employees, so building this company based upon service businesses to help me was a good starting point. Sometimes we think we are successful doing what we are doing, but have no path. I figured out the path and now it's building the roads for the path to follow. I have a lot of people helping me now, so I get to manage that for now. I can handle it.

To answer your question, what I couldn't escape in the past 2 years was getting out of work I didn't enjoy, but felt I had to do it and if I didn't like doing it, it didn't get done well and it needed to be done. So alot suffered.

That's a great point. I think it's important to map out a plan for your growth and figure out where you want to be, not what you should be doing today. A good methodology I've heard is transitioning from a "left-to-right" thinker to a "right-to-left" thinker. If you look at a standard timeline, instead of moving across step by step from left to right, think about where you want to be on the far right, then map the steps back to where you are today and how you can get to where you want to be.

Having that end vision will help guide you towards where you want to go.

 

[jzukerman]

Converting existing long term break-fix clients to MSP models.

 

[vickie thivierge]

For me......it's the realization that this form of business is going to head into a different direction in the next three years and everything I'm doing today to generate revenue will be next to useless in the future. Lets face it, MSP and computer repair as we do it today will be extinct in the future. So what do we do next?

And that is my groundhog day.