A Business in a Box
By Newton Asimov
Evolution is key to any start up. When MachinaTek first began, we started with the goal of creating amazing, new, and intuitive products for the masses to change the world. We quickly learned two things. The first, dreams don’t feed you. The second, if you have this great idea for an amazing product, no investor is going to take you serious without showing you have what it takes to manage a functional company. So began our journey from narcissistic “know-it-alls” into a well-managed, efficient company, complete with the growth found through failing.
As our Journey progressed, we began to meet other like-minded companies that shared our ideals of big design for the masses. Connections were made and opportunities arose. We first offered product design, graphics and web. This then grew into more efficient and talented (in our weaknesses) relationships to better reach our target market. One of these very talented connections used the term “so you guys are like a business in a box?” With that, everything clicked.
I tell you this to stress the importance of the challenges that face any new small business or entrepreneur as you grow. As problems change, so must solutions. When you’re faced with the reality that 81% of small businesses fail in their first ten years you must begin to address pitfalls right from the start. Avoidable mistakes will kill you. The even more difficult part is to make sure the solutions you implement today don’t turn into the problems of tomorrow. I know what you’re thinking, “One does not simply know all the answers to build a company that will stand the test of time”. Well there are measures you can put into place to help you through this evolutionary process of your company.
In our opinion the most important thing to understand is that things change. Nothing lasts forever, and even though it is your “baby”, if you’re not willing to roll with the punches life throws at you, you will sit there finding yourself no better off than when you started. In some instances worse even. A popular saying I grew up with was complacency kills. This holds true just the same in business as anywhere else. Stay current with technologies in your market and renegotiate contracts that hurt you. You already proved you can be uncomfortable by starting your own business. Don’t forget what it took.
Systemization is the foundation of any successful company. Take it from people who have been there. When we first began everything was a “hodge podge” of jobs and emails. It hurt us, we lost clients through mismanagement and lack of attention to detail. This wasn’t because of the expertise of our professionals. It was due to mismanaging the huge influx of clients and crucial directives were being lost in the cracks. As you grow, you will start to experience huge volumes of information thrown at you and if you can’t keep it organized through an efficient system, it will start to hurt your reputation. A good system usually isn’t as cut and dry as you would think. It is going to take good problem solving and out of the box thinking, pun intended.
Finally it is you that effects your company, whether positively or negatively, it is all driven by your attitude. We learned very quickly that there is a difference between the entrepreneur mindset and an operation management mindset. A mentor used the term “The Entrepreneur Syndrome”. Sit back, eat your cake, and realize you might not know everything and there is no shame in delegating to more experienced people. After all there is no I in team right?
We enjoy writing these posts to benefit the people just like us, who have a dream and are willing to work hard to see it succeed. We might have started as a lone product design company but through our failures, trials, and tribulations we have begun to embody the skills required to take a business to the next level. We have become that business in a box, and you know what? We like it.
