Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Business Could Not be Better

My business has been in business now for one full month, and I could not be happier.  I actually woke up this morning thinking, "I love my job".  I haven't had that feeling in a long, long time.

It has been a tough six weeks.  Getting a new business up and running in only a few short weeks was unbelievably challenging and stressful.  I don't think I got more than a few hours sleep for an entire month, the two weeks before the business started, and the first two weeks of business; but it was worth it. I now have a legal, functioning business; contracted customers, a working help desk complete with customer portals and invoices, and a management console from where I can keep an eye on servers and desktops located all over the world.

My next goal: learning how to build a sustainable social network.  I know how to build the computer-kind, that's easy for a nerd like me.  The social stuff I find very intimidating.  A classic introvert, I always feel like "reaching out" is way too close to "bothering".  Yes, I am proud of the work I do.  But then it of course follows (says the little voice inside my head), that people who know me, know that I am a perfectionist, and I will do anything short of killing myself to get things to work properly.  So, since everyone already knows that I love to excel in what I do, what is the point of me actually announcing that fact?  I need to learn how to follow the advice my customer gave me, and "toot my own horn".

My customers are amazing.  They have been supportive, understanding, and enthusiastic.  I've even gained some new customers, and I feel already that the quality of service provided by my new business far surpasses what we were able to provide before, with my previous employer.  I am proud of what we have to offer, and so from now on, this blog is going to be mostly about how my business can help your business.  I am going to try to toot my horn by showing off what I know, and am learning, about cool ways IT can make your life easier, and how my business can help make your IT work better for your business.  Don't understand what offsite backups are?  Want to know why you should start looking at "the  Cloud"?  Need a quick, effective anti-virus program that protects your work without getting in your way?

I can answer those questions for you, and more.  Toot, toot!

--Indigo Brude is the owner of "Brude Consulting", with over 20 years hard experience managing IT systems large and small.  Have an IT question that you would like to see addresses in a future blog?  Send it here:  indigo@brudeconsulting.com.


Saturday, April 7, 2012

Brude Consulting - The Beginning

April 7, 2012, 2:46pm.  It's the Saturday before Easter, and I am working.  I'm at a client in downtown Los Angeles doing maintenance on their Exchange server in preparation for an upgrade/migration that I will be doing for them soon.  Once the maintenance process has been started, there's not much for me to do except wait for it to complete, so I sit here and (in between checking Facebook every few minutes to see if anyone else is stuck inside on this beautiful spring day), I think about this new business that I am creating.

It's been 11 days since my boss on the East coast informed all of here on the West coast that they have decided to shut down our office.  It was a shock at first, kind of.  I think we had all noticed the signs of impending failure, but they had told us recently to be resolute and loyal, and they promised that if we continued to work hard and faithfully support our customers that they would keep our doors open.  The owner told us, "don't worry, I have deep pockets.  We will get through this."  So, the feeling is, more than anything, a sense of betrayal.  I have continued to be loyal and faithful.  They have not.

Last week the customers were notified. Our company will be closing it's doors at the end of April.  My colleague and I here will be laid-off.  She and I sat down a week ago amidst the panic and went through our options, which came down to three; first, form our own business and take over the existing customers, second, go independent as consultants, third, start looking for a new company to work for.  We diverged on what seemed the most appealing option.  She decided to look for a new full-time job.  I decided to form a new business and see if I could make it work. 

This last week has been a whirlwind.  I consulted quickly with a few trusted advisors, the main ones being a former boss, who had worked for this company until recently; and my husband, who for better or worse would be sharing the financial outcome of any new venture.  They were both extremely supportive.  When I enquired of my old boss, "Do you think I can do this by myself?", his response was, "Haven't you been doing it all by yourself the last few months anyway?".  Hmmm... yah, that's true.  I can do this.

I quickly "pinged" our current customers to see if they would be willing to go with me in a new venture.  Their reaction was happily positive and helpful.  They've given me excellent encouragement and advice: "communication needs to be your number one priority", "make sure you get liability insurance to protect you personally if something goes wrong", "don't forget to toot your own horn; if you don't do it, no-one else will".  Superb suggestions, and I've been working hard to follow them.  I don't want to let anyone down.

I've gone into professional mode.  I filed the papers to create an LLC.  I applied for a reseller's license.  I picked a new business name, sketched out a logo, got a PO Box for a mailing address.  I built a new website, setup a new email domain, put together proposals for the customers, improving the menu of services and standardizing the pricing options.  I've started enlisting the vendors I'll need to continue providing existing services, and have begun investigating options for new services as well as ways to provide existing services more efficiently.  One of my strengths is organizing chaos, and project planning, and these traits are proving invaluable at the moment.

I've also gone into what I'm calling "pirate mode".  My current company has provided me with a gracious license to grab whatever physical and virtual assets I like from the current company.  I realize that most of this is laziness on their part - they have flat out refused to send someone out from the East coast to do the dirty work of shutting down the business.  But their loss is my gain, if I can figure out all the angles of how to grab and use what is grabbable and usable.  Do I really need a new desk, and is it worth hiring a truck and some movers to acquire a few offices worth of crappy, old office furniture?  Is there any hardware in the datacenter that is worth taking with me into the new venture, and is it worth the time and hassle of uninstalling, relocating and reinstalling?  What is sellable on E-bay, and what would be useful for a charity if donated?  How do I best download, migrate and transfer old sales contact lists, proposals, client histories, purchasing and order information?  How do I safely destroy any residual data to protect my current clients? I've got three weeks to figure it all out and do the best I can, all while continuing, for now, to support my current customers.

So here I sit, in an office tower in downtown LA, the Saturday before Easter, and wonder what the future holds.

--Indigo Brude
Owner and Principal Consultant
Brude Consulting, LLC