IT Family Business

Foreword

Many thanks to jimmy_webs , who in the comments to the previous article gave me advice to write about 5 years in the family business. And to all those who left encouraging comments urging them to write more. Well, you asked for it yourself.

In no way do I pretend to be an authority or a person wise by life experience. On the contrary, I understand that our company is at the very beginning of its development path. However, we have already passed some part of this path. I just want to share my own experience and I hope that this will help novice entrepreneurs make fewer mistakes.

Take the booklet or where it all started

I never had any thoughts of creating my own business. And the husband, as it turned out, never had the thought of not creating his own business. He constantly offered different ideas, I listened, nodded. Then she said that it was too early. You need to gain experience, make money.
It’s good that he decided to “listen to the woman and do the opposite.” I chose IT outsourcing as the main activity, registered a company, rented an office. Well done. We need to look for customers.

I, as a person who had defended at one time for more than one hour at promotions, handing out leaflets and conducting tastings, offered to make brochures and go to neighboring offices. The idea was accepted and we got down to business.

An initial capital of 10 thousand rubles is all that we had at that time. Of these, 6.5 thousand were paid for the first month of renting an office, 2 thousand to a girl friend of the artist for illustrations for the booklet. And the booklets needed to be printed somewhere.

As it turned out, a friend of his parents had a color laser printer. He did not refuse our help and printed out booklets for free. We spent only on paper and a stapler. It's time to go to the offices of potential customers.
I took a day off at work and the whole day my husband and I went around offices in the city center. At first it was awkward, but then we joined. They enthusiastically told people what IT outsourcing is and how it will solve their problems.

After the promotion summed up. The conversion was 1%. Those. 1% of organizations decided to cooperate with us. And since we handed out 100 booklets ... Yes, we got our first client. With a monthly fee of 2,000 rubles per month. By the way, this company is today our client.

Everything is not according to the business plan

Why did we choose IT outsourcing as the main activity? Of course, this was not a spontaneous decision. We thought, considered, built business plans. And as a result, they came to the conclusion that IT outsourcing is stability.

We reasoned like this:

• we find 10 clients for support, this will provide an income of 40-50 thousand rubles per month,
• then we take the employee who will leave for calls. In the meantime, we are looking for 10 more new customers,
• then we take another employee and continue to increase our customer base.

The reality was as follows:

• outsourcing 3 clients who bring 14 thousand rubles. per month,
• something always breaks down among these customers, and instead of looking for new customers, you have to drive old ones,
• about once a month a client appears who needs a site. Website development costs 10-15 thousand rubles, there is absolutely no time, so you have to work on weekends.

In general, the business plan lived its own life, and the business lived its own. Although let's call a spade a spade. It was not a business, but a freelance with a monthly payment for office rent. It was necessary to change something.

Alexander (my husband) decided to look for an assistant. At that time I could only help from time to time, as I worked in another organization. We posted an employee search ad on a local forum. The salary is small, but the work is interesting and intense.

So the first employee appeared in the company, with almost no work experience, but with burning eyes. This is exactly what we were looking for. Sasha dragged him on all fronts. Together, they solved the problems that customers experience in IT outsourcing. Despite the fact that Edward worked 2-3 days a week, sometimes he really helped out and took off the load from her husband.

So, there is a little more free time. However, instead of spending it on business development according to plan (remember, new customers -> stable income -> employees -> new customers), my husband began to pay more attention to website development. And over time, IT outsourcing has faded into the background.
I must say that Sasha was fond of the web since school times, constantly monitored trends, pumped himself up as a specialist. Therefore, even the first sites developed in our company were very worthy and brought their owners a stable profit.

Goodbye Information Security

Meanwhile, I was engaged in the protection of personal data in medical institutions. Over time, information security has disappointed more and more. The leaders of organizations (both budgetary and commercial) were not concerned about how to protect the personal data of their customers and employees, but about how to protect themselves from the state. Those. hide behind papers as much as possible and be ready for checks.

This situation was depressing, although deep down I understood that the probability of running into large fines from the state is really great.

I was more and more fascinated by the idea of ​​joining my husband. I read Lebedev’s “Covodomy”, “About Advertising” by Ogilvy, “Customers for Life” by Suel and other books that provoke a burning desire to act. But it was terribly scary. What do I know about business? About website development? About IT support?

The impetus, as you know from the previous article, was the execution of a large order to organize the protection of personal data in a network of car dealerships.
Then in 2 months I earned my annual salary and decided to leave the protection of information.

And what will I do?

Now the three of us worked. I took up content, prepared information for new sites, processed photos, filled sites. Then she took charge of all the documents, for this I had to study the basics of accounting and the tax code.

Soon we realized that it was important for clients to offer not only the development of sites, but also their promotion. After all, what is the point in the site if visitors do not find it? In general, I was instructed to deal with SEO, which I did.

At first it was scary. And the first two orders for promotion as luck would have been unrealistically complicated: the construction of houses and a hotel in Gelendzhik.

Website development is easier: developed a website, signed an act, closed an agreement. And you have been working in SEO for several months and practically do not see the result. But what if it doesn’t work out? What if the site does not come out in the top ten?

But what a thrill it is, when your site goes to the first page of search results for all your queries!

Who am I? Or a slight digression

I was not sure whether to write about my thoughts and feelings. But on the other hand, if you are not interested in a description of my mental torment, just scroll down the article.

And while I pour out my soul. I was a valuable information security specialist. I was repeatedly invited to work in large Moscow companies, they offered a good job and a high salary. But still, the choice was made in favor of business. And this is not a choice from the category of "made and forgotten", I have long doubted the decision.

She was busy filling out the next site or preparing a report in the FIU and was tormented by the thought: “What am I doing? I’m losing my qualifications! ” I felt that I was further and further removed from the protection of information. I didn’t know where I was going. All this content, SEO, accounting seemed so inconsequential, everyone can easily learn this. What will I write in my resume? Will anyone take me to work?

In this state, I probably stayed for a year. She shared doubts with her husband and he explained that I do not see the main thing. Yes, I’m losing the qualifications of an information security specialist. But the choice has been made, what's the point of rushing around? And in fact, I acquire invaluable skills in another area. I create and develop a business. I'm a businessman.

After that, I told myself that the protection of information was over, put an end to and forbade myself to think about it. A heavy stone fell from my shoulders and I gave myself even more to my only business now - business development.

Where employees go

Among our customers was a guest house in Anapa. And we thought that it would be great for a guest house to place 3D panoramas on a site. We naturally did not know how to make them, but when did it stop us? Need to try! The client expressed his consent, we concluded a contract and began to experiment.

How we did these panoramas is a separate sentimental story, but this is not about that now. Edward was very interested in the process and realized that this is exactly what he wants to do. After some time, he opened his own studio and is now developing virtual tours. And he is doing very well.

I think we charged employees with our enthusiasm. Looking at us, practically their peers, they understood what to try. We did not hide that it would be incredibly difficult, but did not dissuade, helped with advice and shared experiences.

Subsequently, another 3 employees left us precisely in order to open their own business.
One of the programmers who worked for us decided to open an online store, a sales manager was a company providing electrical installation services, and a girl admin started providing IT outsourcing services.

In the bottom line, one of 4 of our former colleagues managed to stay in business. I think this is a good statistic. Being an entrepreneur is very, very difficult. But it was easier for us than the rest, because we were together. I think we would not be able to do it alone. I certainly would not have done it.

What's next?

Well, I think that's all for today. And in a week I will tell:

• who is still the main in the family business;
• how we abandoned IT outsourcing and raised prices by 2 times;
• why I do not like Sberbank.

To be continued ...

PS Continue reading:
Family IT business. My three golden rules
Family IT business. Time to make money.
Family IT business. How we launched our first
Family IT business service. The first six months of our startup’s life.
Family business in IT. How we put together a team