087 What IT Consulting Taught Me About Running A Business
What I learned as an IT consultant and how it’s helped me run my business.
The answer is that it’s rarely one thing, it’s a combination of things.
I used to be called into Fortune 500 companies to troubleshoot issues with performance on their software that I used to work on. And it was never just one thing.
My IT Story
For example, so many factors just from the IT side, it could have been:
- how the software was installed and configured
- size of the (server) machine
- configuration settings on the database
- speed of the network
- network security within the company
- user’s machine capacity
- where the users are located (if they were in the US, if they might have better bandwidth than if they were in Europe or Asia.)
- how the application was designed
- when the software is being used
- how much data was the user pulling (I’ve seen users try to pull fifty sheets of data, the max number of rows and they’re wondering why it’s taking a while).
So, there are multiple factors.
This troubleshooting also applies to business. There are multiple factors when things aren’t working.
Talent
If you’re having talent turnover or retention issues, factors that would weigh in:
- not hiring correctly
- not managing properly
- don’t have the right culture
- lack of employee training
- poor accountability
- lack of good managers
The same thing with too much email. If you’re getting too much Email, it is rarely Email. It is typically:
- the process before it gets to your email inbox
- not empowering your employees with decision making
- micro managing
CRM
Similar issues with your CRM (customer relationship software). If a CRM is “not working”, it’s probably not your CRM. Your CRM is a “dumb machine”, it doesn’t know what to do, you have to tell it. If the CRM is setup properly, configured of your business, data integrity, using categories, trained employees, using it consistently, etc.
Owner
You, as the owner, have to be “set up” properly, with the right mindset, the right money mindset. There are multiple things that you have to have as an owner – grit, determination, curious, etc.
The multiple factors to a problem is the lesson I learned while troubleshooting Enterprise-wide software installations. So, these things have to be set up for you to run your business properly.