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Estimated reading time: 8 minutes, 35 seconds

Running a Tech Business? Easy with the Right Tools

In the 1970's my dad developed and sold accounting software. Frankly, it wasn't that good. Back in those days, there were no PCs. No QuickBooks. No Microsoft Office. Not even a Starbucks. Small companies did things manually and larger companies used mainframes, mostly built by IBM.
When a prospective client was interested in my dad's software he and his main developer would fly out to the company's site days in advance. He would work all day on their mainframe server to create a demonstration system. Then he would perform his demo. And, after taking one look at my dad's software, he would usually...not get the deal. I loved the guy...but his software really wasn't that great.

Running a tech company back then was tough. But today? Not so tough.

Just last week it was reported that Kodak may be seeking Chapter 11 protection. HP is having its problems. Research in Motion is suffering. The current story is how difficult it is to run a technology business nowadays and how innovative companies can trip up by making the wrong decisions.

As the owner of a small technology company my experience is the opposite. I look back at what my dad had to do back in the ‘70's and I shudder. No, it's not the hair or those ridiculous pants he used to wear. I find that it's much easier to run a tech company today than ever before. And, contrary to what we're reading, I'm finding it's easier to innovate too.

Can you imagine taking days out of your life to demo a software product like my dad did? What a waste of time and money. Today, the in-person software demonstration is a rare event and usually reserved for only the largest of opportunities. Instead, technology companies that want to show their products use online demo tools like WebEx and Saba. They do spur of the moment demos by sharing their desktops with tools like Glance and JoinMe. They host phone calls with free services like Freeonferencecall and Skype. They record their product demonstrations in advance so that prospective customers can watch videos whenever they want. They setup cloud based systems so that software can be test-driven with actual data.

None of this stuff existed when my dad was in the software business. In fact, most of these options didn't really mature until the past ten years or so. This technology has changed the way companies like mine do business. When I started my company in 1994 I never would have considered an opportunity beyond driving difference from my office, unless it was super lucrative. Now I'm happy to show our software to prospects in California, the UK and Australia. Because of these tools my customer base has expanded dramatically, geography is no longer a factor.

When I was growing up I became friendly with the programmers that worked in my dad's company. There was Mickey and Doug and Nancy and Mike and Kathy and a few others who I forget. They worked odd hours in a rented air-conditioned office on the ground floor of the same apartment building where we lived. That way my dad could keep an eye on them. Because programmers need a lot of supervision - many tend to get off track or think they're smarter than the guy running the business. This, sadly, hasn't changed much since my dad's day.

But what has changed is how programmers are found and managed. Few small companies today would have a full time payrolled staff of developers smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee in a room all day and night.

When we hire a developer it's almost always on a contract basis and we don't care where they are (or what they smoke). Today, many developers work from their homes. They use the same tools mentioned above to demo their work to their employers. There are masses of talented people based in the Ukraine and India who are happy to do development work for reasonable rates. Most speak English. Most are familiar with Skype. Of course outsourcing work overseas has its risks. But I know from firsthand experience that even having American programmers sitting in your office is no guarantee that a project will be done the right way. And I'm finding that over time there are some overseas programmers and development firms that are becoming more known for their work quality and reliability. And no, I'm not going to share who they are because they're my secret, OK?

And where do you find these guys? My dad was pretty much stuck with advertising in the local area and keeping his fingers crossed. I grew up in Philadelphia, not San Francisco. Finding a guy who could make a killer cheesesteak wasn't so tough. But finding a guy who could write a killer app was. Nowadays, it doesn't make a difference. I advertise on Craigslist or look for and manage contracted help on Elance, Guru or Freelancer. I can review resumes online, exchange emails and calls with ease and check references on LinkedIn. There are no guarantees, but I can significantly decrease the risk of a bad hire more so than my dad ever could.

The development environment has changed too. Back in the day, everything had to be written from scratch. If you needed a tool or a utility to perform a common function you pretty much had to create it yourself. There were few forums for sharing information. How many remember Compuserve or The Source? Those were the big online forums of the day. And looking back I can't believe how laughable they were. Today I think that most developers spend more time piecing together and customizing already written apps and tools then creating new apps themselves. People have been writing code now for decades. And most of it's available somewhere online. Application Programming Interfaces are commonly made available by software makers. And operating systems like Windows, iOS and Linux have toolsets available to encourage programmers to develop programs that run on their platforms.

Once an application is written, implementation of it is much easier today than ever before. My dad had to be very wary of the risks involved in an out-of-town job, as travel and time out of the office could be devastating if he worked with the wrong client. For me it's not that risky. In fact, most of the implementations we do today are remote-based. We connect using tools like GoToMyPC and LogMeIn. We download the software and do our installations, customizations and training all from afar. Of course we encourage some face time because there's nothing that replaces this kind of interaction. But we've cut down on it significantly. And because of these tools we've been able to sell and execute jobs all around the world.

And providing technical support to these clients is much easier than it was in the past. That's because good technology firms enable their clients to get their own answers through self service options on their websites. They use tools like Wikispaces and Zen Desk so that clients can do their own support research. They offer instantaneous chat services using tools like Zopim and Chat4Support. And they rely heavily on their mobile devices to email, text message and call back their customers whenever there's a problem. And if that problem is related to someone else's technology, like Microsoft or Dell, we can Google the problem and usually figure out the answer from someone else who ran into it before us. In my dad's day there was....the phone. And a lot of imagination. Oh, and cigarettes too.

My company operates at a much lower cost than my dad's. We don't have offices like he did. We do all work from our homes on a virtual private network. Our databases are hosted by a cloud based provider. And so is our phone system. Many of the people I use are hired on a contract basis to accomplish their specific task. I have no rent. I have no utilities. I spend much less on transportation because we do so many things remotely. I'm able to outsource so I can reduce employee related costs like healthcare and taxes.

And therefore....innovation is easier. When I think of all the headaches my dad had running a tech business in the ‘70's I wonder how he had any time left over to innovate. Which probably explains why the accounting software he developed was never very good.

Yes, I'm busy. But I feel like I have more time to think. And more resources to help me think. I like to follow the many great experts in my industry like Chris Pirillo and Ramon Ray. I get alerts and RSS fields from tech sites like this one, All Things Digital and Fred Paul's excellent tech site at AllBusiness. I attend conferences. I visit with clients. I speak with others in the industry. I'm way more mobile than my dad could ever be. I have way more information at my disposal than my dad ever had.

I realize that the products we sell today may be dinosaurs only a few years from now. And if I don't make the right bets I could end up like Kodak or RIM. Or my dad. That's my biggest risk. But I don't think it's as big as when my dad was running his company. That's because, compared to him, running a tech company today isn't as difficult.

 

Gene Marks
Gene Marks, a columnist, author, and business owner, writes monthly online management and technology columns for Forbes and Business Week and a bi-weekly column that appears nationally in American City Business Journals. His books include Gene\'s books include the #1 Amazon Small Business Best Seller The Streetwise Small Business Book of Lists (Adams Media), The Small Business Desk Reference (Alpha Books, 2004), Outfoxing The Small Business Owner - Crafty Techniques for Creating a Profitable Relationship (Adams Media, 2005) and The Complete Idiot\'s Guide To Successful Outsourcing (Alpha Books, 2005).

He owns and operates the Marks Group PC, a ten-person firm that provides technology and consulting services to small and medium-sized businesses. Before starting the Marks Group, Marks spent nine years in the entrepreneurial services arm of the international consulting firm KPMG in
Philadelphia where he was a senior manager.
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