Drive Your Computer Business Forward in 2016

A lot of techs know they need to grow their business, and this could be having more clients this year or making more money. A lot of people really try to press their goals at the start of the year but few actually put anything into place. In this episode of the Technibble Computer Business Podcast (with transcript below), I’m going to show you how to find your way forward.

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Discussion

00:16 – The next step for your business to grow forward
00:46 – Check your CRM to know where your money came from
01:33 – Find out what is essential for you to grow
03:05 – Take what you think will work best
04:02 – Write down your goals and go backwards and think how to get there
04:50 – Focus on specific products/services that brings you money
05:22 – Upcoming Technibble Mastermind

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Technibble is launching a mastermind for computer technicians to help take their businesses to the next level. Fill out this form to be notified when its available.

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Transcription:

Bryce Whitty here, and welcome back to the Technibble Computer Business Podcast. A lot of techs know they need to grow their business, and this could be having more clients this year or making more money. A lot of people really try to press their goals at the start of the year but few actually put anything into place.

In this podcast, I’m going to show you how to find your way forward. The problem is, a lot of techs don’t actually know what to do. What the next step is forward. The tips I’m about to give is primarily for the people who have already gotten started, but I will have some advice for the people who are yet to start shortly.

For those who already started, and already have some data on your business, take a look at your accounting software, or tech CRM. Where is the most of the money coming from? How much time does it take? You may actually be quite surprised to see where the money is coming from. What makes the most money and ideally takes the least time is what you should be focusing on. You can actually see some very quick gains here is you tend to focus on that. This is known as the Pareto principle, or the 80-20 rule.

This is where 80% of your effects come from 20% of your causes. In our business, 80% of your income could come from 20% of your effort, or maybe 80% of your clients come from 20% of your advertising. This rule can be applied to most things in life.

Once you find out where most of your money is coming from, find out what is essential to get to this goal, and focus on these things. We constantly have distractions thrown at us and new opportunities come our way. Opportunities can actually be sometimes a bad thing because they can take you off your course. Also, a lot of people get stuck “playing business”, which is going through the motions, doing things that you think you should be doing, but not actually making any advancements.

Some examples of these could be minor tweaks to your business, sending emails back and forth, starting out craft online. All these need to be done at some point, and they can help a business, but they won’t help with big advancements. Bigger advancements can be made by reaching out to people, talking to business owners, getting out there and networking with your potential customers, finding new places to advertise, and so on.

It actually takes a fair bit of discipline not to lose focus on these tasks and going back to “just playing business”. There’s actually a book on this topic that absolutely changed my life, it is called Essentialism: The Discipline Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown.

If you’re not collecting data, learning what kind of jobs you were doing and how much you are getting paid for them, then you don’t know your numbers and if you don’t know your numbers, you don’t really know your business, and it makes it very hard to make informed decisions on what to do next. Otherwise, you are just shooting in the dark.

To track this, you could use a tech CRM, accounting software, or even an excel spreadsheet. To the new businesses or the one who are yet to start and don’t have this data, you really have to take a Ready-Fire-Aim method where you take what you think will work best, then take the shot, and then adjust it accordingly based on the results. Map out what you think will work, but keep in mind that what works for others, may not necessarily work for you. There are different locations, cultures, markets, populations, all of that. Go with what you think will work best. Go with your gut. Think about what steps are required to reach it. What is the absolute minimum you need to do to get to that goal?

Do you remember back in the school days when you had a 5000 word essay and then you realized that it’s due tomorrow? The same energy that you have, and you go just the essentials, tap into that. The reason why you have a month to write that essay, you’ll take a month. If it’s due tomorrow, then you’ll focus on just the essentials and get it done quickly. Write down what that goal is, and then go backwards. What do you need to get there? What’s between where you are now, and where you want to be? Add only the essential items. Only the things that will make the biggest difference. Don’t get caught up in playing business.

One thing I see a lot is computer technicians are infrastructure builders where we create big systems that can scale quite nicely to do something in your business, but is something of that level needed right now? Probably not, just do the essential. Distractions will constantly come at you in this business, but ask yourself, “Does this help me get closer to what my goal is?” You may feel that many things will help you get towards this goal, but does it really make a difference? Is it really essential right now to help you get there? You’re probably find that most things aren’t.

To the guys further down the track, I want you to look at your data in your tech CRM, and see where your money is coming from, and then try focusing on that. Maybe put out advertising specific for that product or service, and then track the differences.

For the new guys, I want you to write down what your goal is, and work backwards. Only focus on the absolutely essentials to get there. Again, like the school example when you have essay due the next day. Only what is essential, and be careful not to get distracted.

That’s it for this podcast. If you need help remaining focused, staying on course, or even finding out what you should be doing, we’ll be launching a paid mastermind very soon. We can help you find out what to focus on, because it’s sometimes hard to see the shape of the forest when you’re among the trees. When you discover what you want to do, keep you accountable to those goals. If you’re interested, leave your email using the link at the bottom of the show notes for this episode and we’ll let you know when it’s launched.

This is Bryce Whitty from the Technibble Computer Business Podcast. Thank you for listening.

Technibble is launching a mastermind for computer technicians to help take their businesses to the next level. Fill out this form to be notified when its available.

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Drive Your Computer Business Forward in 2016

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Drive Your Computer Business Forward in 2016

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Drive Your Computer Business Forward in 2016