2024 marks twenty years of business for C2IT Consulting. It’s an exciting milestone, and I’m still considering how to celebrate it over the course of the next 12 months. There are few things in life I’ve stuck with for this length of time besides matters of faith, family, and this business. As I talked with a new friend earlier this week, I joked about how the last resume I completed was when I was 16 years old, applying for the summer internship that eventually led to an opportunity to fall into business ownership 10 years later.
If you’re a small business owner like me that found yourself owning a business doing the work you do as an employee and have never read the book E-Myth, I highly recommend it. There’s a huge difference between doing meaningful work you love for a job, owning a job, and owning a business that employs others to do that work. I’ve learned so much over these years about how NOT to do things that I feel I’ve finally learned a few things that I SHOULD do. While I’m no expert, here are a few I thought were worth writing down:
Treat your customers like partners.
Treat your employees like family.
Treat your family like a priority.
Treat yourself like a work in progress.
I’m sure there are many more pieces of advice to give about cash flow, debt, investments in capital, strategic plans, and skilled labor, but when it all boils down to it, it really is the people you interact with that make owning and operating a business and serving others a journey worth staying on for decades. I look back to men and women who invested in me early in my journey – Don Haycox, Dave and Sharon Pilcher, Jeff Harris, Stacey Peters, and Linda Smith – and realize that the effort they made into my life really wasn’t a huge endeavor for them – it was just what they did and who they were.
We have a dozen families that rely on C2IT for their livelihood now and almost one hundred clients that count on us to manage aspects of technology within their organization, and while it’s enjoyable to get the “big win” from time to time, the simple check-ins, honest talks about issues and occasional errors that have to be made right… Those are what make us a success.
I’m thrilled to have twenty years of business under my belt, excited about what’s around the corner for our team, and thankful for all who’ve been a part of our journey, including you!
Thank you.
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