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One of the buzz words that permeated my workplace at Arthur Andersen in Chicago was "Business Unusual." It was also the name of an Andersen-hosted CNN program in previous years, and the concept was simple: The key to innovation is to abandon the status quo and begin thinking out of the ordinary. Within the company's walls, the intended recipients of this message were the partners who ran the company, and based on the partner/drone structure of all departments, the rest of us drones (including no-name contractor units me) were supposed to ignore this bit of inspiration. But I didn't ignore it. In fact, I adopted it and ended the contract to start my own IT business!
I've been running my IT services from home, but after seven years of doing business this way, I finally have the opportunity of opening up a small office in San Francisco! Many office workers and full-timers will never know the exhilaration of freelancing and entrepreneurship. Our style of work is quite different from a cookie-cutter 9 - 5 job, and we have total creativity in planning and building our business. I am launching my business without a business plan, an accountant, or an office assistant. I did not major in business, nor do I understand much about finance. Yet I am very excited and convinced that my willpower and IT knowledge alone will guarantee success. I will offer such a breadth of IT, networking, and personnel services that the list will not fit into a brochure. I will seek out and consider every business venture, pursue contracts and projects in every region and every nation, telemarket my basic hosting services, bid on requests for proposals in every industry, form business relationships with other entrepreneurs, and advise other aspiring self-starters! Whenever I find a very specific market niche or gold mine (let's say for instance an association for cybercafes), rather than pass on the opportunity, I will launch that as a separate business, hire employees, and have them run with the idea! And as soon as I hire my first employee or contractor, I will instantly procure all human resources that will guarantee employee happiness right from day one.
I don't see how anyone could ignore the need to break out of the norm, as such is true in almost any discipline. Indisputable is the adage that all discoveries and innovations in science, technology, and medicine are realized by "seeing what everybody else has seen, and thinking what nobody else has thought" (Albert Szent-Gyorgi). I am breaking from the mold in many ways, the most obvious being that I am disregarding the festering California economy and drilling straight into a sluggish market already saturated with ubiquitous IT services. Yet I will prove that no market is impenetrable, and I hope to watch my loyal base of customers multiply every month!
My office will be located in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco- a perfect pivot point for targeting my LGBT community first. I am sharing an office with someone else (a business consultant) to keep overhead low, as well as sharing office equipment and other services. My only other obligation is to procure some liability insurance and a business license, both of which will be painless. Starting your own business is not the complicated hormone-surging nightmare that most people will program you to believe. As old and embattled as this advice may sound, it's still all a matter of attitude!
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(By Daniel Culveyhouse | No comments yet | comment here)
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