Interviewed by NxBizSuccess.com - Worry About the Right Things

Here’s what small business owners want to know and want to be told. You have to worry about the right things. That’s the key point I have learned today and as we speak with Jim Hoing today right here on NxBixSuccess. My name is Lynn Hinderaker. Jim Hoing is with WhettStone Business Solutions in Omaha Ne. He is a genuine entrepreneur and has been around 3 or 4 years with his own business and his partner and has a lot of great concrete tips and subjective ideas that every one of us can benefit from.

Thanks for being on NxBixSuccess, Jim Hoing.

Glad to be here Lynn

Good to see you here. Hey, you know you started in a home office and evolved into another home office. Now you’re into a commercial office environment. Tell me, how has it been? What’s been the progress as your technology firm evolves? What’s been the thing that has been driving step by step your growth?

Well, we started as a small home based business. We are very frugal with our finances and we were careful to not dive into something we could not afford. As our client basis grew we let our vision grow a little more and at the right time we moved into this facility. It’s acceptable for us. We believe in only growing into something we can afford. As we continue to evolve we will grow into bigger and bigger facility s but this meets our needs for now.

Good! Now you have a partner and some software developers, some programmers and so on as part of your operation, probably very typical for a small, young technology firm. What do you think is outstanding or unique about your operation? What have you done along the way that you think is really going to define how your company, WhettStone, is different and is going to continue to be different and unique out there?

Well, as far as differentiating ourselves from others, we are a technology company that offers custom software solutions, custom websites, databases, desktop applications. We have a team of professionals that I would say is second to none. We worked together for years and years for another company. When that company was sold we saw an opportunity to bring that team together under a new umbrella.

I want to get interject and ask you, is this one of the key factors to success for your organization so far is that you have pulled people when you were ready to grow? You’ve pulled people from your past, familiar people. You didn’t go out looking for new bodies.

Right! It is a key, familiar people allow a small entrepreneur, a small business to grow with familiarity. We knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We were able to take advantage of those strengths and weaknesses and not waste time testing and fumbling around and training.

That is so important. As all small businesses do, they think about their culture and their processes and how “we do things around here.” It’s always an evolving story but how has your culture evolved and what have your struggled with, if anything, in terms of defining what is our culture? What do we do? What do we believe in? What don’t we do based on the people that we have around here?

Well, our culture has evolved through the necessity to grow the business and by that I mean we focus on the positives and we try not to alienate anybody, keep away from the de-motivators. Our culture has continued to evolve but we had a culture in place before we stared this company because we all knew each other and we all came from a similar background, another technology company. It was a tested environment and so we brought this team together and said, “Let’s do it for ourselves.” That way the culture was actually more energized because you are doing it for yourself.

OK, that makes great sense. Now, I started out our video podcast training thing here today with a phrase “Worry about the right things”. Give me an example of things you shouldn’t be worrying about versus things, you think, you should be worrying about as you go this first 3-4 years of your business.

Well, you should be worried about finances and keeping out of debt. You shouldn’t be worried about whether or not you have the right drapes. You shouldn’t be worried about whether or not you’re going to make a mistake because you are going to make mistakes. If you don’t, then you’re pretty special. We make a mistake but we are covered from those mistakes as critical and we do.

Ok, now do you think people are wondering if you are a small company one mistake can be enough to put the company under. So there is a tendency to be a perfectionist because it is almost out of fear because you feel vulnerable when you’re young and new. How do you personally deal with that? Do you just shake it off?

It’s funny that you should mention that because everybody makes mistakes and in trying your best you’re still going to make a mistake. But recovering from that mistake and addressing it in a timely fashion and focusing on customer service is critical. Everybody makes mistakes but recovering from those mistakes quickly is important but you can do that if you address them in an honest way.

You mentioned earlier about your vision, how you started out in your home and evolved, what you were thinking you were going to become. Has that changed over time and if so why? Has there always been 1 consistent vision or are you literally thinking everyday as you get new clients, new capabilities, and maybe new people with capabilities, “No, this is really what we wanted now we should become something different?”

Well, we are continuing to evolve and that vision we started out with has changed. We are still in technology but I think you adapt and evolve through the client needs. A key area that I think would be interesting here is, I just got a guy to volunteer a couple hours a morning to come in and help me work on going after government contracts. Well, I think that’s pretty good because if we lock one down he’s got a full time job. That’s exciting and there are some big opportunities for technology out there.

You just shared something. Effective entrepreneur is good at persuading people to put some skin in the game and to invest in something on a speculative basis where it may not work out. It seems to me good entrepreneurs are able to pull people in with their energy without putting cash out.

It’s funny that you should focus about that because earlier you talked about their culture. Somebody will put skin in their game when they see a culture they want to be part of.

That’s a great point. Your vision and your procedures and your people are evolving, they are dynamic they are changing it’s not static. It reminds me of the technology and the website you guys work as well. Give us a few pointers, what are we thinking about when we talk about website dynamic, organic, evolving. What’s the philosophy we should have as small modest business people?

Too often I see companies that build websites for themselves. They say, “Well, we want a website that looks and does this,” because they think it’s cool. They are not likely to take the time to ask their customers, their vendors, their employees what they think should be on the website because a website should be a tool. A tool that helps you make or save money because if not, it’s costing you money. There are ways to use technology to become more efficient and a website can easily be a tool to gather information, to geminate information, put information behind a password protected area, allow people to see information together and use it as a portal. Today your website is the front door of your company. People are going to knock on that door first. If you build something and put it out there and you don’t touch it again for a year, two years, three years that’s not going to do you very good. We call it proof of life. Your website should be evolving and changing continuously. You can’t afford to do it all at once and that’s ok, so do it in chunks. But dedicate time and energy in doing it and talking to those other people using your website.

Well, Jim Hoing of WhettStone Business Solutions. I appreciate your insight. This last physophocial thing about how the web evolves. It’s so great as we go into this web 2.0 thing people don’t understand in general where they should be going with their sites and this is so helpful. I find it so interesting that the website kind of mirrors the evolution, the dynamic evolution of the growing internal culture here in your office. Thanks so much for chatting with me. Jim with WhettStone Solutions. This is NxBixSuccess. Make sure you are worrying about the right things. Worry about your website, pay attention to the people the purpose the principals and the process around which your organization evolves. Get out of your home office and into the right commercial environment. My name is Lynn Hinderaker. Keep going and keep growing.