10 Years in Business: 10 Lessons Learned

I started BOOST LLC 10 years ago this fall, and what a long, strange trip it’s been!?One filled with absolute highs, continued growth, many professional accomplishments with a little heartache in between.?Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned.

#1 No matter how much you may plan, the universe has other ideas. This is common knowledge, but nothing teaches you this lesson more than being a business owner.?If anything, I’ve found that it’s sometimes the exact opposite of what you think.?In the beginning, I had a laundry list of folks I thought would help me get started.?None came to fruition.?But those that did help were completely unexpected.?I have a million examples of the universe having its own ideas vs my plan, but I think you get it.

Take Away: Don’t neglect to plan, but plan on your plan changing.

#2 It will always take longer than you think it will. ?Longer to get clients, longer to get paid, longer to grow, longer to implement policies, and longer to build a culture.?We all think we are building a better mousetrap and therefore it should be built quickly, but in reality, it takes time to build anything of value.??I started BOOST without outside investment (no daddy money here!), without clients or pipeline. Man, was I naive on how long it would take!

Take Away: Build flexibility into your plans.?Know that things will slide to the right.

#3 People will surprise you.?This is both amazing and awful.?I’ve seen my teams pull off the impossible, dig in deep and really deliver and provide extremely powerful results.?I’ve seen people rise to their abilities, continue to pursue learning, work through hardships, build resiliency, battle cancer, and deal with loss.??

I’ve also seen former employees steal clients (despite non-competes), openly commit perjury about their employment circumstances or completely not do their jobs (what do you mean this system isn’t set up completely?!).??

Take Away:?Humans are weird. You must maintain your faith in people despite what may have happened in the past.?Otherwise, your level of distrust will make you nuts.?“Trust but verify” is always a good approach.

#4 You are only as good as your people.?People make your business. Not your software, not your product, not your social media accounts….PEOPLE.?They will make or break your company (see #3), so treat them as you would like to be treated.?Be kind and be patient. But the old adage about hiring slowly and firing fast is true.

Take Away:?Hire people that you care enough about to want to know how their weekend was.?Do you care about them as humans?

#5 Differentiate.?It is easy to say but almost impossible to do.?Many of our clients struggle with this in the federal market. We often say it’s our people that make us stand out….but is that really a differentiator if everyone is saying it??I made the decision to serve only government contractors when I started BOOST.?Many second guessed this decision and told me I was limiting our client base.?But it has turned out to be the best decision for us.?We don’t try to keep up with non-profit regulations, nor do we chase any company that we come across.?We are deliberate about knowing our industry and knowing our craft.?Staying on top of one industry is hard enough without trying to learn multiple industries.

Another differentiator for us is something that should be a given, but isn’t in this town…honesty.?We won’t take your money if we don’t think we’ll do a good job.?If it is outside our core offerings, we will refer it to people who will do a better job.?The few times we’ve strayed from this, we’ve learned the hard way (ah, Y!).??

Take Away: Have compelling reasons for why your company is different, not soundbites or platitudes.??

Stay tuned for part two, because I'm not done yet!?