This week I was approached for advice on starting and running a small business.  I get similar requests once a month or so - so I thought I would put together a blog post that I could just point people to in the future.

First of all - I need to say; it’s hard to sit and write this kind of an article because:

• A - It wasn’t my idea to start Boyink Interactive
• B - I don’t feel like I’ve really done anything all that special.

Really most of what I have to say on this topic in general was covered in an interview I did with Nathan Smith on his SonSpring site.  It’s already two years old, but re-reading it the points I tried to make (and the Boyink Interactive history) are still valid. 

Essentially - if you’re thinking of pro-actively going on your own, freelancing, or starting up a business expecting to hire employees you are already taking more initiative than I did.  I’ve said all along - the reason I’m self employed is that God wanted me to be, pure and simple. I never thought about it and - with a depressed local IT market, a mortgage and a stay at home wife - would have immediately discounted the idea as being too risky even if I had thought of it. It took a layoff with no immediate job prospects to put me in the position of having nothing to lose by trying.

So the “unwilling entrepreneur” is still at it five years later.  How?

Again - some might call it luck, I call it God’s hand again proving His faithfulness, and doing it through crises.  One of the first sites I did as a formal business was a site for the church we were attending at the time.  As part of that project I came across a lesser-known piece of blogging software called pMachinePro.  It was cheap and flexible, and allowed us to build immediately parts of the site we had initially thought would be Phase 2 or 3 items due to cost.  While that project (and our relationship with the church) came to a less than ideal ending, I had started using pMPro to build websites on for my business clients. pMachine then came out with ExpressionEngine, and later invited me to be one of the first companies in the Professionals Network, which accounts for the majority of my business today.

In hindsight it’s obvious to me that God was again being faithful - bringing me to a place where leads for new work are plentiful, prospects are for the most part nicely qualified, and I don’t have to do much pavement-pounding sales work.  But what we had to get through to get to this place was really tough and painful.  The lessons I had to learn were endurance, faithfulness, prayer, and the courage to stand by my convictions in the face of (so-called) authority.  In both this case and others I’ve seen that it takes some things - projects, meetings, relationships - years to germinate into paying work, so have learned to bite my tongue and not always say the first things I want to say, as it’d be easy to kill a future project with a “witty at the moment” response.

However - I still don’t see myself as a “great” business person.  I haven’t brought any wildly innovative products or services to market.  I haven’t gotten rich beyond my wildest dreams.  I don’t get invited to speak at big industry conferences.  We still live paycheck to paycheck more than I’d like, but are constantly taking steps to improve that.  It’s not that I don’t see myself as successful - for me just the fact that I’m still plugging away in my basement, not punching a clock or enduring quarterly performance reviews is a success.  Being around my family all day most every day is a success.  Having happy clients is a success.  But if you’re looking for advice on tripling your income or being able to retire at 40, I’m not your guy.

So that’s the high-level stuff, what about day-to-day advice?

I can only tell you what’s important to me in my dealings with clients and projects.  I want to be:

• Reliable
  I’ll do what I said I would do, for the price I said I would do it for.  I’ve never been a big “mission statement” person, but if I had one it would probably boil down to simply “Be Reliable”.  This is what I want as a customer of other businesses, so this is what I want to offer my own clients.  This can be costly—I’ve put in dozens of non-billable hours during 18-hour work days in order to meet the deadline and budget I agreed to.  But when someone asks a past client of mine what it was like to work with me, I want them to be able to say that from the initial contact, to the proposal, to completing the project there were no surprises, no issues, that I just simply did what I said I would do and stayed within the quote that I provided.
• Responsive
  There’s two parts to this; First just plain respond.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen prospective clients complain that they contacted several web development companies and never heard back.  I simply don’t understand that.  For me the whole goal of putting my own website online, having business cards printed, spending time in business networking groups, being part of different online communities etc, is to be contacted.  Those inquiries are pure gold to me - five years later I still get a little thrill every time a new one comes in.  I don’t understand how other companies can just plain ignore what, to me, is the lifeblood of my business.  Second - respond quickly.  I don’t have a formal response time for myself—but it’s usually within the hour, and more often than not, immediately.  Even if the response is “Thanks for the email, sounds like a great project, but at the moment I can’t take it on”.  My goal is to have the person answer back with “thanks for getting back to us so quickly” in their email.  I use my inbox as a rolling to-do list, and my daily goal is to keep it empty.  Responding to inquiries from potential clients and issues from current clients helps me stay sane and on top of things while also letting others know that their emails are important enough that I take action on them as quickly as possible.
• Real
  I hate dealing with companies who only have a “corporate face” with no personality or “realness” to them.  I know this is often a result of growth, so since I’m small it’s easy for me to stay real.  My website, my blog, and my email interactions are intentionally casual and informal while staying professional and informed - because that’s who I am.  I want your “virtual interaction” with me to be as close as possible to working with me in person.
• Realistic
  I want to earn a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work.  I’ve seen both ends of this spectrum - I’ve been contacted for $9/hr development work, and I’ve seen quotes for $40K on what should be a $10K site.  I’m not in this business to get rich, but I do - just like most of you - have a mortgage to pay and a family to feed.  If you come to visit you’d quickly confirm that there is no excess at Boyink Interactive - no big homes, no new cars, no photogenic offices.  My rates and project costs are fair based on the quality and functionality of the final product, and my costs of doing business.  I take a lot of time putting together quotes to ensure that the project is priced as fairly as I can.

Heh - I feel like a pastor.  4 points, and all starting with the same letter....

But there you have it - for what it’s worth.  I don’t claim this to be any special knowledge, or universal truths that will apply to any type of business.  It’s just what’s important to me as I sit here at the monitors, doing the work that I both greatly enjoy doing while providing for my family.