HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!

Happy Birthday to English Management Solutions, 15 years old and we have just gotten our learner’s permit. Seriously, I thought I would like to share some of our history and some of the lessons learned in the hope that those of you starting out can benefit and even seasoned business owners may find that some of our experiences resonate.

First of all, I didn’t start my business as part of some master plan.  I had worked in corporate America all of my life, I figured to retire in corporate America, like my dad did.

Fast forward to 2002.  After being right sized from my director level position job in the wake of 9/11, I went looking for a job in software support.  Months went by without a nibble.  I got close once only to be told that they were afraid that I would leave if a better opportunity came alone since all they had to offer was a manager level position.   Sigh, what to do.  Well, I had spent 3 ½ year working for Intuit supporting QuickBooks.  Through that experience I knew there was business.  I searched QuickBooks’ web site, finding the ProAdvisor Program.  I signed up immediately and told my wife.  She looked at me and said that If I provided her a business plan and a Proforma, I had 2 years to make it work. Got to love being married to an MBA.

So here we are 15 years later, what are my take away:

I have met so many great clients.  Back in the day, I read an article about calling customer’s users as if they were some sort of drug addict.  I took it to heart and always try to understand the issue from their perspective.  We work with a lot of retailers.  If a retailer’s POS system goes down, they are basically out of business, therefore we work hard to get their systems back up as quickly as possible and never take the stress personally.

I can point to several inflection points that got me to where I am today.  I am extremely grateful to Doug Sleeter for the Sleeter conference where he told the attendees to specialize.  Up to that point, I would pretty much take any business that came my way.  After that, I strove to be “the” expert in retail/wholesale.  Worked out pretty well for me.

Also to Joe Woodard for helping me take my teaching to the next level and for the Woodard Group for helping to raise the bar of our profession.  Another inflection point was when I became one of the first Retail Solution Providers through a chance encounter with the editor of the ProAdvisor Newsletter.  That set me down the path of delivering solutions to customers that met their needs and for which I earned revenue that didn’t depend on how many hours I worked.  If you asked me if I would ever be in sales, I would have broken out in a cold sweat. Here is the thing though, being a small business owner is all about the ABC’s (Always be Closing) Whether you are a bookkeeper with a group of monthly clients or a consultant with lots of projects, you need continually be looking for new clients.  Intuit are masters at this and through my relationships with the Intuit Reseller Program, I continue to learn and grow my business.

So what is next?  The Cloud is here for REAL and I am slowly transitioning to offering more cloud based solutions and services.  Revel which we have written on is part of that, we are also working with SalesPad, a company that is bringing Enterprise level inventory management to the QuickBooks Online world, so never stop learning, growing you and your business.

I also wish to thank all of you who read these blog articles.  I discovered that I like to write.  Hated it in school, but having a delete key makes all of the difference in the world, who knew… I think it is our job to impart our knowledge and experience to those who can benefit from it and I like to think that this is my way of paying it forward to the next generation as well as honoring those who mentored and taught me.

So what does the next 15 years hold for EMS.  I have told my wife that I never plan to retire and that part is true.  What I expect is someday we will have inexpensive high speed Internet globally, so you will find me on the sailboat of my dreams anchored off of some tropical island answering the phone English Management Solutions, this is Will, how can I help you…