History of How I Started my Tech Business
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ย. 2020
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When Should You Hire Your First Employee?
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I wanted to try this years ago, but my wife talked me out of it, but I’m thinking of trying again, and your video has inspired me. Thanks for the advice!
You live once, maybe twice, I guess we'll see... Don't let ANYONE talk you out of something you believe in. When you're 89, in your rocking chair on the front porch, you'll regret not doing it.
This is fantastic. I love your insights and how freely you share them.
Said it before and I'll say it again, thanks for the great tutorials and reviews! But that you also let us in on a little of your business stories and background is just awesome!
SO AWESOME that you share your business history with such depth and honesty. It is so hard to find founders of small businesses willing to share their struggles, warts and all. Your technology-focused videos and resources are great, too! (From one hacker to another!)
honest people on the internet are very rare. Thank you Tom for your videos, i am watching to learn about different technologies and the industry and not only is it very good, it's also fun 🤟
Thanks Tom, I look forward to your videos. Been through a bad join venture and now in a good one. Two owners of a business can be challenging but also very rewarding.
High school graduate. That alone makes me appreciate your brilliance even more. And the system that exists would never allow you to be a teacher.
Hey Tom. I love these videos. My small business is only a couple of years old and I really appreciate your frank and honest approach.
First of all Tom, I would like to thank you for your on going content which is always well presented and the various topics seem to fit my interests. Secondly, well done with your company. Being of the same age I only wish I had ventured on my own back in 2003 in lieu of persisting with the corporates.Thanks again and cheers from Oz. Nick
Wonderful insight into your history, great when someone like yourself worked hard and is rewarded with success. Please keep the videos coming, I really enjoy messing around and learning new stuff. Cheers!
I love these videos. I don't have a tech company, but I work with tech in my buisness and your videos have really helped. And I use them to keep me motivated when things don't go right. And to help keep my expectations of beening successful in check.
Another great video. I too started my own MSP in April 2018 so I'm always interested in the nuts and bolts of how you do things. Thanks again for the transparency and for reinforcing the fact that I don't ever want to have a business partner.
You leave out a critical piece of success that not many possess, you have a high energy level and you were lucky that you applied it to a perfect fit. Not everyone gets that lucky. I doubt you would be so fun to watch if you still worked at the tool and die shop :). You also a natural talent and desire for teaching and a steady even presence doing it. You also have the gift of ordering the presentation such that when I am listening and develope a question, you generally answer it a few seconds later. Thanks Tom.
I really appreciate your videos. I'm a one man msp and utilize all your tools that you recommend and business has been growing every year since I started 4 years ago. Keep the videos going.
Tom, thank you for sharing your journey with your business. You have given a great deal encouragement to those of us that want to venture out into starting a business. I greatly appreciate the openess in sharing how you run your business. I'm a big believer that being open and teaching instead of keeping it all a secret helps everyone to grow and benefit. Thank you again. I stumbled across your TH-cam channel earlier this year and from all those videos, I've completely changed out my network to a Unifi system. Thank you again and looking forward to more of your videos.
;)
Thanks Tom, I like that your videos are down to earth without any bragging or anything like that. I registered my own business last March and trying a few things to advertize. Google advertizing attracts more of a residential callers, so it didn't work well for me. I'm curently managing another MSP company for someone, so it makes it harder for me to go on my own while full-time being employed somewhere else. But I watch your videos and find them being valuable.
Tom, thank you very much for your honest, unfiltered talks and suggestions on running a technology business. Very valuable and helpful information.
I'm happy that you found this content helpful. ;)
Keep up the good work and best of luck going forward!
I empathise your experience of taking on business partners and advise anyone be very cautious, especially if friends and family. I am strong minded and driven i was on the "making it happen side", he was strong minded and driven on the sales side "saying yes we can do the impossible" without consulting me. We clashed and a great business I built went to nothing in no time. Dumped the partner and never looked back.
I love these type of business-related videos. Thank you
I agree with you Logins.👍
Been a self-employed business owner for 17 years now as well and can’t imagine working as an “employee” again! Great video, Tom! Keep them coming!
So surreal how your life progression through employment is similar to my own - just a different industry. Fascinating stuff Tom 👍
Thank you
I've always been drawn to your videos. Now I know why. Our stories are nearly identical. Had a job doing techy stuff out of high school with a big company. Wasn't going anywhere so I ventured out on my own to fix computers for people. Ended up in a failed business partnership but decided not to let it get me down and started over. 20 or so years later, I'm doing exactly what you do. I find your videos helpful and informative and often they provide comfort when I see we're approaching certain projects the exact same way. Keep up the good work!
Thanks!
That's great, awesome journey, I haven't take that ownership yet but look forward to it, keep up the good work
This is good stuff. I'm an LLC too but can't seem to get detached from being a W-2. On one hand, I need cyber security experience/skills, which, for me, comes from working from an employer. At some point, I hope to get off of W-2 so I can consult full time. I'm still trying to graduate from college believe it or not. I need that degree to help get clients but it is W-2 and classes for me most of the time. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Congrats that your company is growing,
Well done. I have been a subscriber from the "early days". Tom comes across knowledgeable, confident and professional. I think this would also assist his growing business.
Thanks, I appreciate that.
Great video, your insights are always well articulated and detailed.
True
Thank you for sharing. I would love to do my own thing some time, also I am comming from family where almost all have their own company in some way. I would had been curious in how youre first job was, if it was basic it-support and wanting bigger things. Or what services you started out offering at very start, if you were worried not having all the tools nessary.
I did the same thing at the very end of 2002. Congrats!
I found this really useful. Thanks man 👍
I've thought about delving into self employment but run into the what to charge issue. Also there's the transition from being an employee to a business owner.
Thanks for sharing this. More people should learn from this and realise you don't need a piece of college degree paper to be succesful.. Honesty, hard work, making mistakes and persistence and delivering quality and knowing what you are doing is right, are far more important. I hope things will keep on rockin' for you and the company but above all... Good health and hapiness! :)
Awesome video! Would love to see more :D My dad owns a company same as yours, same story, no college, only high school, started his IT business and has been doing very well for over 25 years now, I'm working for him right now, to learn more of the business of IT, networking and doing some marketing, but I have a question, how do you market yourself on the internet? We live and have our business in Mexico, we do well with the customers we have already but how do you promote your business? Would love to hear how you do it!
Great video! Between your awesome channel and Crosstalk Solutions I am more and more inspired to start my own tech business. I am having a hard time though figuring out how to get everything rolling. A part of it is definitely confidence... I just bought a domain for a website and next step is to obtain an LLC for my soon to be company. What are some tips or advice on how to start while still working a full time day job? I have been working "officially" in IT for a year and a half now but always have worked around technology in previous jobs. Thank you so much!
Great info Tom. I’d be interested in your more of your thoughts on your biggest challenges over the years in the MSP space, and at what various points you felt it got easier or harder, was it a certain revenue number, quantity of employees, or some implemented processes? Just things you could point to as your keys to successes (or failures) that have brought you to the success you have now.
I've been thinking about doing a separate video just about the MSP business.
Awesome. Thanks for posting! Also, could you make a video on setting up a custom pfsense build (i.e. not a NetGate box) with Ubiquiti APs? That's all I want it for as I'm tired of the lackluster regular router/firewall setups. A friend of mine just south of Baltimore, MD has it setup like that it works wonders for him. Also how much would it cost for a simple setup like that? I have spare parts or I can get parts to build the system for pfsense, but I know Ubiquiti APs can be pricey.. I'd want at least 2 of them since my apt/possible future small house is quite large. Thanks Tom!
Love these videos as a self employed fella myself.
Thank you for sharing..
Great work, I appreciate it.
I completely agree that business and marketing is entirely different than using those technical skills. Some are born with the finesse, others have to work hard in achieving those skills. What would be nice to know is how you identified a payroll system, insurance, and convincing staff they should work for you, especially when initially starting out.
Not a tech savvy but I do enjoy your videos, keep up the good work
Amazing how you built up your company. And really learning as you go vs going to college is just the best hands on experience you could possibly get. I often wondered if you just handle client that are in driving distance of your store or do take on client throughout the country? What does that look like if you do take on clients that are not with in driving distance? Do you go yourself or send employees to the site and so forth?
We only do remote work for clients that are not local to us. That works for us because we only take on clients that have someone who can do the on site portion if the need arises.
Thank you. You can hear the wisdom of lots of hard work for over 17 years.
I need to talk more about my mistakes with the hope someone can learn from me rather than make them.
The key, which you know, is to learn quickly from them and not make the same one twice!
I currently work as a cloud engineer and I have been recently entertaining the idea of going the consulting route. I know there is a demand of transitioning small/medium size business to the cloud but I am not sure where to start. Anyone has any tips on starting your own consultancy business?
Love these videos!
Learned a lot of UniFi stuff from you. Thank you!
Thanks Tom.
Great video! We would love to hear more advice.
Any specific topic you'd like me to cover?
Lawrence Systems / PC Pickup How do you charge for discovery when taking on a new client with existing IT? Thank you, Tom!!
Good stuff. I run my own managed services company as well.
Thanks again!!!!
Every video is a charm. I like the way you explain the things. Started wird the ubi videos and Now Waiting every day for a new one. Is there a possibility to get more tech videos about freenas? Greets from Austria 🇦🇹 (no kangoos 🤣) cheers Mike
Thanks and I am making them as fast as I can.
Thanx for this Tom! Maybe a vid on how to make good decisions in business? IE when to let a client go ; when to take on a client etc etc. For example I've made a choice to not be a reseller (due to comm / bias) of products, so I can stay as unbiast as possible to my clients needs / solutions.
Much easier said than articulated into a video as I am still trying to figure that out 17 years later. Those are the hard choices made all the time when running a business.
@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS each case is obv very unique, but as a successful businessman yourself we can learn from tour experiences and how/why you made certain choices.
I find a decent amount of such advice in some business books. I often find myself recalling the words of advice during a meeting / interaction with people, which I then try and zone in on, in order to make the best choice for all parties, at the given moment.
One thing that will always stick with me is "The opportunity of a lifetime, must be taken in the lifetime of the opportunity.".
Just "thanks" for all your videos.
🙂
Video idea: "Is 2.5G worth it when you're buying secondhand enterprise gear (10G switches and big 1G switches all fully managed) and how could you integrate 2.5G into the old gear?"
Just a quick video idea. thought it would be useful to share.
I’m wanting to do what what you do. I have the knowledge but of course always learning and comercial office warehouse space already set up my issue is getting customers to trust me with there network ect.
Thanks for the video =)
Bizzare. Almost identical to how I started in 91. Weird.
My accountant keeps telling me not to hire employees. I do have the ambition to expand into an business with more than 1 person working in it.
I appreciate loyalty and dedication, employees will never be as dedicated towards to company as the owner ofcourse, but I feel like the less connections they have to the company, the less dedicated they will be. Also a bit afraid of future employees thinking they can cut me out after I taught them the technical side.
How do you deal with such things Tom?
Edit:
By teaching them the technical side, I mean the stuff that sets me apart from most competitors (and why my customers seems to like working with me)
My first accountant was the same way. Find a better accountant and grow.
My suggestion would be to bring employees on as business growth and demand dictates. Your accountant may have insight into your current and past finances...but has NO clue regarding your business services demand. Only you can ultimately make that decision when it’s right for you.
I owned a large computer company for 20 years. We grew and contracted many times over those years. At peak. We had 35 full time employees, but that literally changed quarter by quarter. I’d also suggest looking at bringing in contract employee’s which you provide a simple 1099 to for their work. We did this for larger contract projects which had predictable monthly revenue and relatively fixed budgets. Example would be upgrading 800-1000 workstation/laptops from Win7 to Win10. All my migration techs were subcontractors. Hope this helps and would be will to talk to help you out.
I owned a computer store with 2 partners in 1997. I’ve made peace with them recently, but the way it ended still stings to this day.
My main question: how do you market yourself or how do you package lawrence systems? Do you market as a networking company Or software company? Or when someone asks you, what does lawrence systems do? What's your answer?
We position the company as providing technology solutions & fully managed IT services. www.lawrencesystems.com/
@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS in my area/country that statement alone does not hold much weight as people would think of us as a "brokerage firm" and they would still ask us to break down what we actually do. Yes we can do alot in the IT field but still they would us to say something like "hey, we are a networking firm" or " hey we are a software development company", or "hey we are a telecommunications company".......in short am just havin a hard time packaging my company since am a jack of all trades....hehe...i can code, do networking, firewalls, offer support etc
@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS can we just say you are a networking company with speciality in firewalls and ubiquiti devices?
@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS can we just say you are a networking company with speciality in firewalls and ubiquiti devices?
@@kevinblac2203 Don't sell your company short on what you can offer just because someone wants to put you in a niche. Who are the "people" you speak of? Present yourself as how you see yourself/your company, not how you think someone might want to see you.
those shirts are the best
I love the T-Shirt :D
Hey Tom, I'm curious what sort of monitoring and management tools you use and why (ie: SolarWinds, LogicMonitor, DataDog, Nagios, etc)
We mostly use the Solarwinds platform.
Could you go more into depth about what Social media platforms you used and how much budget you set aside for that marketing.
That is a bit tricky because what I did varied a lot from year to year and because we stopped doing in at the end of 2018 I don't have enough data points to say it would work in 2020. But I will do some upcoming B2B videos that might be helpful.
Lawrence Systems / PC Pickup I guess I’m asking rough numbers. Would you say at the beginning marketing was 20% but as your business grew over the years it fell to 5%.
@@PrestonCovell It varied based on when we ran campaigns, but that sounds about right.
Are you doing retail now? My space is in a plaza in town so I would have walk up business and the back part is more of a warehouse etc.. so I was thinking of offering retail business although my focus would be more on commercial.
I find it funny that you're 10 years older than me, and it had and you're more running your business. I've also started a few companies...
I am curious on your thoughts and actions regarding the lockdowns and if that's affected your business at all. Perhaps it only affects my state
The events of 2020 have only made us busier on all the services we were already providing remotely and paused some of our infrastructure projects. Overall my company was still able to grow but we lost a few clients who are in markets that are not as viable under the current conditions.
Good Video.
How do you get familiar enough with enterprise grade hardware, to be comfortable installing/recommending it to clients in the beginning?
Mostly from lab testing and product demos.
What network transport do you use to interface with the clients' network for monitoring? Is it over private link or Internet?
We use Soalrwinds over the internet
A Partnership is a risky ship. I had to close one partnership due to partner problems as well. Better as a sole owner. Easier to assign blame as well.. : =>
From high school, I took 3 months summer vacation went to Uni to study computer science, my friend spent that summer studying for CCNA, passed it. So, come the fall season, I start paying about 2 grand a month to learn useless crap, while my friend started earning about 2 grand a month to learn useful crap. Next 10 years I continued to spend more than I earned, while he continued to do the opposite. Longer story short, 10 more years and he's a VP in a top company, I'm a technology "expert" several levels below a VP at a mid-tier company.
Moral: Organized education is overrated, degrees are not be all end all. Learn and do something new everyday and you will have a good life that you enjoy living.
cool shirt!
🙂
I been in business for over 20 years in IT and tho there has been changes (In IT) I fill the same as Tom, it fills the same now as the day I started, tho more work for this year due to "The Virus" but that is a day in the life of a IT person.
Congrats on surviving 20 years in IT!
If someone started an owner operated tech company, and hit a technical snag that they weren't sure about, how should that issue be solved?
Hire another company to solve that issue or learn it yourself.
INSTANT LIKE!
🙂
You did explain how you learned the tech
But Tom there has to be a secret sauce to getting business :)
People do seem to think so
I will never in my life have another partner. Short version? Dude used the company as his personal bank account. I was lucky to get out with what I put in minus a year of my life. It could have gone a LOT worse. Dude ended up on felony charges related to taxes within 2 years. Imagine my surprise ...
How did you get your first customer? That would probably be a good video
First client was my old employer
How can you come over some of the scaryness of starting your own business?
Not really sure other than just do it.
But... why is it called Lawrence?
My last name
@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS Ohh... That never even occurred to me. :-)
Not for Russia 😄
First
İ wanna be your partner pal