How to Deal with the Stigma of Being a “One Man Shop”

Sooner or later it comes up in a discussion with your clients. ‘How many partners do you have?’ ‘Do you work by yourself?’ ‘Is it just you?’ ‘Are you the only technician behind that logo?’ Some businesses have contracted one-man shops in the past and something happened and they got left in the lurch. Tragic accidents happen, health issues appear, life emergencies suddenly pop up without warning.

As a result, some business managers have decided never to do business with one man shops again on that basis. If you’re a one-man shop, how do you deal with that ‘prejudice’ toward your services? How can you work towards restoring their confidence and their faith in your capability and dependability as a ‘one-man shop’?

First of all, just because a business is bigger doesn’t mean it’s better, and that’s a solid fact. How many times have you tried to contact your utility company or other contracted services company only to be kept on hold for an hour or more and passed from one representative to the next? They may have perhaps hundreds of call representatives, but you’re just a number on the screen to be tallied up when your ‘problem’ is solved. There’s no personal interest, and each representative isn’t personally responsible for your satisfaction, and it’s often reflected in their tone when they speak to you.

When people do business with you as a one-man shop, they personally talk to you, the same one who does all the work and is personally responsible for your business reputation as well. You have a dedication to quality and to the people you deal with as the business owner, while for many employees, it’s just a job. At the end of the day, you’ve forgotten like all the other ‘problem’ calls at work, and next week they might be fired and someone new will take their place, and you’ll have to go through everything all over again with the new employee who doesn’t know what you’ve been through with the last one.

With your business, people aren’t passed from one unconcerned rep to another, searching for supervisors with enough authority to get things done, they deal directly with you. They won’t have to deal with miscommunications as jobs get passed from one employee to another or even lost in the shuffle between departments. They’ll never be passed off to a lesser skilled worker when they deal with you because you’re the owner and operator, and your business name stands for professional quality work, as you perform it all yourself. There will never be any surprises as to what new Tech they’ll have to deal with next time someone is sent to help them because it will always be you.

One point I like to emphasize about why I prefer to work on my own has to do with my tools. When you work under a company as an employee, there are policies to follow, and guidelines to follow. ‘No, you can’t use that new tool that does the job much better than the old one, we have to be consistent with all our tools, and not everyone is trained in how to use the new tool.’

While employees may be forced to use old software and outdated tools for the job, I’m constantly on the search for newer and better versions and variations of tools to help streamline my processes and automate more of what I need to manually take care of. That means I can often do the job better and faster due to having better tools and fewer restrictions that hold me back because I’m only allowed to use a specific toolset. For those of us who partner with other Techs, we have the flexibility to bring any set of skills on the job with us through our partnerships, and not based on fellow employees.

Tell your prospective client: “Yes, I may be a one man shop, but I have the power to make all the executive decisions for my business and all my services, unlike corporate employees who spend precious time getting permission and communicating with superiors. I set the company policies rather than follow someone else’s. The buck stops here. It’s my personal responsibility to solve your problem and you won’t be passed from technician to technician, spending more of your time having to reeducate each new technician about your problem.

With my operation, I’m always using and on the search for better ways to do the job and better tools for the job, and I’m constantly refining the way I work. Corporate employees usually have to follow procedures or manuals that may be outdated and not work for every scenario.”

Secondly, cutting out one-man shops from the list of service providers isn’t the best business decision. In some areas, that means cutting out 60% or more of current service providers, and that means higher prices from larger businesses who have overhead they have to cover. Lower and more competitive rates are cut out. In the long term scenario, if the majority of businesses chose that route, small startups would fizzle and die, competition in the market would die, and we would have much less variety in software choices, in service providers, and in material suppliers, and in the end, it means higher rates, less competition, and less diversity in the economy.

While it wasn’t technically a one-man shop, Google started up with only two university students, and look at all the useful services and software it provides today! Emphasize that by supporting and making use of one-man shops like yours, they’re revitalizing the economy, supporting local small businesses, and stimulating economic development in their region.

Tell your prospective client: “By doing business with me rather than a corporate entity, you’re stimulating the local economy, supporting local small businesses, which enriches the community economically and promotes growth and diversity.

In addition, when you hire me instead of a corporate entity, you’re not paying me for my large building or the resources needed to keep employees or staff on board, including training and workers’ insurance, (if applicable) you’re just paying me for the work I do, and that’s it.”

Some are tempted to bend the truth, ‘massage the facts’, and mislead clients and business associates into thinking that they have employees or fellow Techs or even partners that they really don’t have. Dishonesty in business dealings is the fastest way to lose a good reputation. When, not if they find they’ve been misled or lied to, you’ve lost their trust, and that trust is crucial if they are to let you work on sensitive data or valuable business assets they own.

Be honest when you’re asked about your operations, even if it means you miss out on a chance to make a business deal. What you didn’t know is that later on down the road, someone else lies to them, loses their trust, and they call you back and hire you because you were honest from the start, and you have a chance to prove that your one-man shop can handle everything they need.