A belated blog entry for the first anniversary of Keeter Consulting.
October 10 marked the first anniversary of Keeter Consulting, and I'm pleased to report that my first 12 months as a corporate juggernaut - okay, as a small, one person operation - were successful. Thank you to all of the counselors and customers who helped this to happen, and special thanks to Mike Vuillemot and Leah Dysinger at the CMU LaBelle Entrepeneurial Center, and my fellow consultant, Julie Baker (a.k.a. Baker Communications) for helping me over the learning curve so quickly and painlessly.
So what did I accomplish thus far? More importantly, what did I learn that might be helpful to others who are just starting off?
Let's start with the second question first:
- Small business is about three things: Personal selling, repeat business and generating new business through referrals. These tools are more effective than conventional methods such as newspaper or yellow pages ads. Plus they're way cheaper. And when you start off, you'll have time but not money; they provide a method of leveraging the resource you have while conserving the one you don't.
- You won't make as much money in your first year as you think. Make your best, most educated, conservative estimate at what your business level will be. Now go with 70% of that number, and you'll probably be close. Plan accordingly.
- You can make mistakes. Customers appreciate a simple e-mail or voicemail where you honestly acknowledge a mistake or give them a heads-up that a promised report will arrive later than expected. People don't demand perfection, but they expect honest effort and good communication.
- Web sites are a cheap, easy way to enhance your business's image. My site only generated one sale that I'm aware of, but it gave many of my customers a little more information about, and therefore comfort with, me. It's also a great way to make commonly used documents and information easily accessible to your customers. For $10 per month, that's a pretty good value.
There is tension between keeping your business very specialized vs. diversifying to try to draw in more business. Don't chase the quick buck at the expense of your reputation by trying to be all things to all people. There is similar tension between getting every tool you think will make you more effective and efficient and trying to limp along with what's already free or on-hand. You'll rarely regret NOT spending the money; err in that direction when you can.
So what'd I (we, really) accomplish? Well, we launched the following businesses:
- Residential Cleaning Services (2)
- Car Detailing/Minor Cosmetic Repair Shop
- Concrete Patio Furniture Maker
- Shuttle Bus Service
- In-Home Hair Styling
- Paintball Competition Facility
- Multimedia Production Company
- Sewing Instruction & Tailoring Service
We had some other interesting ideas that didn't pan out for various reasons: a home painting service, a landscaping firm, a computer repair service, an auto parts store, a tax preparer, a youth center and a different shuttle service come to mind. But in each case we were able to research the idea and determine that it either wouldn't be competitive or wouldn't sufficiently meet the customer's needs before too much time, money or effort was invested into the process.
That's a pretty good summary for a single blog entry. It's been a lot of fun and a tremendous education. I look forward to the new launches already in the works for the next year of business!
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