How we began
Having gained some experience working at an audit firm and armed with the vision of one day running a consultancy firm, I approached my friends who were also starting out in business and offered to provide book-keeping services for them. The standard answer (probably because they were also starting out in their respective businesses hence bootstrapping) was:
"I cannot afford the services of a bookkeeper."
My response at the time was always the same:
"I did not ask for money. I simply offered, if you are so interested, to be your bookkeeper."
...and thus the journey began.
Now these initial clients proved to be very useful to our growth. First, they enabled us to build a company profile. We could now say we had done accounts for so and so and this in a way built the much needed credibility in those initial days. Secondly, they provided referrals. As a matter of fact, our first major client happened to have heard of us from two of those clients and couldn't wait to meet these prolific guys. As such, even if they did not initially pay, these first clients became instrumental in directing paying clients our way.
So, are we in this for the money?
In a recent article, Sunny Bindra poses this question: what kind of business might you run if making money was not its only aim?
We discussed this question at our business and found it is a very balanced question. Sunny does not completely disregard the profit motive. He shifts our thinking to consider money as one among many success metrics that a business would have. Money is important, but we agree with the wisdom posed by Sunny that there is more to the business than just making money. There is deep fulfillment in providing service that offers value to our clients. There is joy in living our passion, serving our gift to humanity and money following as a reward for exemplary service.
No comments:
Post a Comment