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by Martin DesRosiers @ Fully Managed™ I decided to write this post after recently being interview by Joel McKay who writes for Business in Vancouver on an article that they were publishing on a one-man IT operation and the pros and cons of being a solo venture. I was asked to provide some analysis as I used to operate an IT consulting firm and have learned the limitations that one may face.
Trunk Slammer; A contractor who works out of the trunk of their vehicle (Internet source)
When I was an independent consultant I wasn’t the complete definition of a trunk slammer, however, the majority of independent freelance consultants operate within the confines of either a small home office, or the trunk of their vehicle. Now there is nothing wrong with operating out of a home office, but it obviously has its limitations.
I recall an instance a few years back where I landed a new client, a mid-sized client to be exact, and they ask for a tour of our offices. I had to be creative with my reply and suggested that we were in the midst of moving to a teleworking model where everyone worked remotely. This was partly true as I interfaced with my subcontractors 100% remotely and had no need for a physical office. That being said, this is the type of physical challenge one may encounter, especially when a client would like to have a meeting on premise at your location.
There are some decent solutions to this problem, such as The Network Hub which provides a variety of services for those operating in a virtual space, they have a meeting room for rent and can provide a live answering service. However, you are still constrained by thing such as availability and optics, things you wouldn’t encounter if you were able to leverage your own office environment. The physical working environment is only one challenge that a consultant may face, most of the time this isn’t an issue as you are out consulting and bunkered within the environment of a client. The greatest challenge a consultant may face is scalability.
Depending upon the type of service you’re offering, scalability is a huge obstacle that one may face and is bound to become an issue. As a one-man operation, how do you expect to support a 100 users spread across 5 clients? It’s impossible; you will run into situations where you need to be at two places at once, you will then need to tap into your pool of subcontractors who may also be engaged elsewhere which in turn impacts the relationship with your client. It is almost impossible to commit to a SLA with a client; you are definitely assuming a severe amount of risk if you commit to certain response times as a solo entity. Sure, as you grow you can add staff but most people would prefer to bite off more than they can chew and deal with the conflicts as they arise. This is when clients start to shop elsewhere and seek a better level of service through a company with more manpower.
At Fully Managed™ I lead a team that makes up our dedicated Network Operations Center; this provides our clients with the ability to tap into multiple technical resources, not just one. This type of environment fosters collaboration and allows for efficient solution design and robust support. If you are a one man show, you are on your own; you have to juggle support, projects, strategy, and all the other things that come at you. You are bound to drop things, service levels will be impacted, and there comes a point in time where you either need to hire staff or refuse to take on additional clients.
I merged my IT consulting company late last year with Fully Managed™ (CDot Networks at the time) for a variety of reasons:
Operating as a small firm has its pros and cons; I did it successfully for 3 years but reached a point where I could not take on any additional clients. I hit a crossroad and decided that in the best interest of my clients, partnering with an established firm was the best way to go. My clients could then benefit from rapid support, increased coverage, and a diverse technical team to manage their IT needs.
If you are a small business looking for IT support and management, you assume a level of risk by dealing with someone you find off Craigslist offering independent services at abnormally low prices. At Fully Managed™, we have an enterprise approach to technology when applying it to a small business environment which comes from years of experience spread across our entire team. Why run the risk of having to rely on one person when you have the option of being supported and achieving peace of mind from an experienced team of IT veterans? Maximize your technology investment and partner with a leader than can scale with the growing needs of your business.
