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I’m Natasha Veenhof. I’m a Camosun College Business student and I finished my first year in April. As a part of the program, I’m participating in Co-op, co-operative work experience. I spent most of April and May applying for job after job, only to have other people get selected ahead of me. At the beginning of May, I saw a position available for an “Online Marketing Whiz” at Directis Consulting. I was skeptical, I’ll be honest, but I applied anyway. After the interview, I got the job. I was so happy, but I had next to no idea what to expect.

May 24th rolls around and I head into the office for my first day of work. Sue and I set up my desk together and go over the kinds of things I’ll be expected to do while I work for her. Not much actually gets done, but that’s almost to be expected. The next day, I come into the office and Sue asks me to go over the presentation she’s going to be giving in the evening, see if I can tweak it a bit. It’s a whorl-wind of a day, and so much happened that I can barely keep it all straight in my head. The presentation in the evening went well and was very informative. Working on it through the day and watching it in the evening really helped me get a grasp of what Directis Consulting does and helped me understand what I would be doing.

Friday, at lunch, I walk into Sue’s office and say to her, I’m not sure how much more I can do. We go over what I’ve done and, I’m right, I’ve basically finished everything she assigned me to do on Tuesday. She thought it would take me three weeks. We go over a plan and she assigns me more work to do and we carry on with our day.

Week two goes by and I’m pretty sure, every day I get assigned a new task, but that’s okay, I’m usually finishing two. It’s been three weeks now, and every day has been busy and hectic. It seems sometimes like my priorities change by the minute. But that’s okay.

In learning how to use social networking to market Directis, I’m also learning oodles about strategic planning and all the steps and bandits in the process. The projects I’m working on are all fun, like the Strategic Planning Bandits I had to draw for Facebook, or the SWOT Analysis video I had to put together. I can’t wait to see what else comes up through the summer and I’m really excited to keep learning.

Jeremy Colwell is CEO of CPG Systems and my trusted adviser for technology issues. He’s very kindly agreed to respond to these questions and be featured on my blog. As small business owners, we all want to get technology to work FOR us rather than against us, so I asked Jeremy for some advice on technology for businesses.

Hi Jeremy, thanks for doing this interview! First, why don’t you tell readers who you are and what you do?
Well, I’m a geek really (not a nerd, there’s a difference). I own a small company called CPG Systems, that helps small and medium businesses with their tech support needs. We do managed services, some equipment sales, and some cloud services offerings as well. We think of ourselves as the IT department you wish you had.

When you’re doing strategic planning for your small business, what IT issues should you consider?
The big strategic planning issue is growth, and making sure that your systems are flexible enough to handle change. If your organization expands (or contracts) you need to have IT systems than can easily and quickly adjust to accommodate this. You should also be considering your data integrity… backups. What would your business do if someone broke in and stole all your computers? Being able to budget for costs is always a big issue, since many organizations deal with widely varying support costs ($200 one month, and $3000 the next makes it hard to plan). And perhaps the biggest issue to plan for is downtime. (or more accurately, how to prevent it). Downtime can ruin groups that have major computer problems too often. We actually did a blog post on this a while back, with worksheets and everything. It’s available here.

What are the best ways for small business owners to save on their IT costs?
There are lots of ways, actually. One is to never be afraid to question your current IT people. For example, if they say that a computer will cost you X dollars, but you can find something similar for half the cost, ask the tech people why. A good tech support person or company will be able to give you a clear, non-technical explanation of why you need to spend the extra money. If they can’t… well maybe you need to examine that relationship. Which in the long run will save you tons of money.
Another area is to look for “all-inclusive” support offerings. For example, most IT service providers will allow you to have unlimited tech support for a fixed monthly cost. And while the costs may initially seem high, you have to look at your past spend, and compare that against having cost certainty. For larger organizations, you can look at outsourcing. I know of companies with a staff of 50, who have full time internal staff. Where the reality is that you can get the same (or better) service levels through outsourcing, and save literally thousands of dollars per year doing so.

And since I know you do a lot of work with non-profits as well, what do you think are the things non-profits need to pay attention to for their IT?
Well, non-profits are a completely different creature, aren’t they? Non-profits need to pay attention to the trust they have with their IT people. Start by seeing my comments above about asking questions of your IT people. Does the IT group inform you about special non-profit pricing from software publishers and hardware vendors? If the NPO uses a lot of volunteers, the IT people should be okay with letting go of the reins (so to speak) so that volunteers can help defray some of the ongoing IT costs. It all boils down to the IT people doing the myriad little things to show that they care about the non-profit group’s mission or services, rather than their own profit. It may sound like a direct contradiction in terms, but believe me when I say that it can happen.

If you were trapped on a desert island and could only take one technology tool with you, what would it be?
Is there a power source and cellular signal? If so, I would have to say my Android phone. I can surf the net, connect in many different ways, and phone my friends to gloat about the fact that I’m at the beach.
If there’s no power, I guess it doesn’t matter what geek-toy I have with me, since it won’t power up anyway.

What’s the best part of your job?
That’s easy… helping people understand their technology. I really like teaching people about computers, and seeing the light of understanding dawn on their faces. I really like using analogies to explain computer subjects, and people really seem to get them.

How can somebody contact you if they want help with their IT?
Lots of ways! There’s our website at cpgsystems.ca, Twitter at @cpgsystems, Facebook at facebook.com/CPGSystems, and the good old fashioned way (telephone) on 604.838.6811

Today I attended a meeting with the Emerging Leaders Network, an initiative of Volunteer Victoria. Our speaker was Sandra Richardson, CEO of the Victoria Foundation (VF). I’ve been a Community Advisor with VF since early 2009 and I’ve met Sandra several times, but I didn’t know the background of how far the VF had come in the years Sandra has been leading the organization.

Sandra’s presentation was about being a change agent. I had my notebook and favorite pen set with me, so I took Graphic Notes!

June 6 Emerging Leaders Notes

I was recently asked by a graduating MBA student to summarize the conditions in the consulting industry, and how the field has changed since I’ve been in it. My answer made me wonder why anyone would voluntarily start a consulting business:

As more Baby Boomers retire from their executive jobs, more of them are deciding they’d like to be a consultant, so competition is steadily increasing. Clients have become more cynical about management consulting, and as trend after trend of management/strategy has been introduced people are becoming a little weary of new management theories.

With the mass expansion of high-speed/broadband Internet, connecting with clients remotely is becoming almost easier than picking up the phone. So whereas there used to be a “local” market for consulting, it is now getting progressively more global.

With governments cutting back their use of consulting, the consultants who were working in the public sector are now eyeing private sector clients to make up for the lack of government contracts. This puts further pressure on the competitive space in business and non-profit consulting.

When you look at it like this, it’s a wonder anyone makes a living at this.

Amusingly, I reflected that I often look at various other industries and think to myself, “the competition in that industry is fierce. I’m glad I’m not a (insert profession here).” I consider myself a savvy decision-maker and I have avoided opening several businesses because I didn’t think the industry structure was favorable for success. Yet here I find myself in a highly crowded industry, trying to build a brand presence.

I guess it’s just evidence that one person’s meat is another person’s poison… pick your poison… and love it! (Mmm, meat. Now, I need lunch).

Thanks to Cedarwood Productions for making all the nomination clips for the 2011 Business Awards. There were some really fun clips – my favorite was the one for Megson Fitzpatrick Insurance (it’s not posted online yet, but I’ll keep looking for it).

Here’s the Nomination Clip for Directis!

Directis is hiring! Directis has hired a Camosun College Business student to be our online marketing whiz this summer. Her name is Natasha – a proper introduction will come when she starts on May 30.

This position is made possible with the kind support of the Small Business Internship Program.

Here’s the position description. (Click on the graphic to get the PDF).