Breaking the golden cage & enjoying freedom

As I celebrate the 5th anniversary as Principal at Real Dynamics, I want to share a few learning for other folks wanting to be entrepreneurs.

I was a VP for Dynamics delivery at a well-known organization in the Microsoft Dynamics channel. I had earned many badges apart from just the job title by working on multiple complex projects, growing my team and spending 8 years at the firm.

While I learned a lot in this journey, I had gotten into a comfort zone with the work I was doing and the people I was working with - clients, bosses, and the team around me. And I was earning a handsome income for someone coming from a middle-class family in India. 

My decision to leave the firm to pursue the dream of being an entrepreneur was exciting, it also filled me with fear and led to a lot of sleepless nights, thinking (overthinking at times). However, when I made the move, I never had to look back. 

Here are the top eight things I would call out for folks considering a similar path:

1. Courage to break the golden cage. I had done my homework. I kept expectations low for income for first few years and I was ready with some savings. Support from my wife was crucial to get that courage. Don’t spend time on putting together plan B, just focus on making Plan A successful.  

2. Get the right people on the bus. I was able get Saket, Rahul, Jason and Sandeep to join me, and they have been great partners whom I have relied on. Their expertise and our trust in each other have been a great foundation for Real Dynamics. I was also blessed to have great mentors and friends to advise me. We have seen tremendous growth in our team across the globe and I am proud of each of our team members!

3. Customers. Pick customers you can really make successful. Be prepared to identify and evaluate factors like industry, business culture, physical location, and how they measure success. That means you must learn to say no, possibly even walking away from a presales deal you may have spent lot of time on. This is the tough one, but also the most important.

If you are working on a project and don’t see a successful landing due to factors beyond your control, then you are wasting time. Do the best you can and try to get a case study and/or referral- that’s the best asset for building your brand and can also help you land into the next opportunity.

Thanks to all of our customers for continued trust and partnership with us.

4. Community: The Dynamics community is growing and has been very helpful to me personally and to Real Dynamics. We have contributed back by writing a book for knowledge sharing. In the process I have learned a lot and also gained visibility in the field.

MSDYNAMICSWORLD is a great channel to get content out to the readers; very thankful to have come across @Jason Gumpert and team!

AXUG is great platform to connect with users and learn how Dynamics is utilized by customers in field. We have had a few opportunities to present at UG meetings and at Summit.

5. Microsoft's R&D team has improved the product tremendously since I founded Real Dynamics. I was seriously thinking about a change of career when AX 2012 RTM was making customers suffer. Some businesses did not survive, and some are still recovering.

Kudos to Microsoft’s efforts and vision (and walking the talk) to deliver best in class business solutions for #MicrosoftDynamics Finance and Operations clients in the last few years. FastTrack has been a tremendous commitment from Microsoft to support customers in the field along with actively listening to feedback with faster responses to customers' needs than ever before.

Many thanks to Microsoft for acknowledging efforts in the field and the prestigious ‘FastTrack Recognized Solutions Architect’ distinction.

6. Karma: I am strong believer in Karma. In the consulting world, you truly have to care about your clients and do the right things for them. It pays off in the long term, even though it may not look attractive in the short term. All IT projects face technology challenges; that is part of the game. But trust and integrity is not something you want to compromise on.

While this is the shiny side of the story, I want to call out few things techies don’t do well with when it comes to running a business.

7. Business risks and administration. You have to prepare for all kinds of admin work that comes with the freedom. A few to list: taxes & bookkeeping, addressing security to avoid cyber-attacks and threats, employee policies, maintaining all kind of insurances (and the paperwork that comes with it) and managing receivables and payables.

8. Patience on rainy days: When I started out on my own, I was on the bench for almost 5 weeks (it could have been worse). Managing this bench time in a productive way was challenging. This is time you have to continue to wait for the right project, ensuring you are not signing up for something long term just to pay the bills.

Breaking the golden cage and achieving freedom has impacted me in many positive ways:

1. Satisfaction for value add. Since you are picking customers you want to work with and are in the driver's seat to ensure success, you will be more satisfied with the outcome.

2. More control over your schedule. This benefit is not guaranteed to be positive for everyone; I have found that every entrepreneur must make a choice in this regard on how much work to take on for work life balance. Personally, I have been traveling a lot less and avoiding crazy work hours when I can, which allows me time with my young children, weaved in between work hours. I’ve also been able to cultivate a healthy recreational outlet of biking on trails.

3. Financial Reward. As the business grows, you are making more investments in people and in growing your customer base. These investments are a risk for which, hopefully, there is also a reward for the business owner.

For all these benefits, of course I had to give away some of the shiny toys of corporate life like a corner office, fancy holiday parties, and other perks.  

Once again, many thanks to all the customers, colleagues, community members, Microsoft and partners we work with for your continued support in this journey. For those who want to be a part of the next phase in this journey, please feel free to reach out.

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