Binary Business

The offers have been piling up on your desk for months. Cheaper Internet, cheaper phone service, and dirt cheap new computers all only a phone call away. Every time you see them you get suspicious remembering what Grandpa used to always say, "If something looks to good to be true, it probably is." Then the inevitable happens your sales have hit a low cycle and profitability is down. You instinctively go searching for ways to reduce your overhead. Suddenly the ads sound convincing and the next thing you know you have called them up and placed an order.

Over the past couple of years you have proudly watched as your business has grown. In the beginning you were a sole practitioner braving the business world alone. Now your business consists of offices in four cities, sales people who work from the road, and several more who work from home. Saturday morning you settle into the couch with the book you have been meaning to read for months. After a few pages you are fully immersed. The stress of running the business melts away as you are consumed by the tale being unraveled. Suddenly the cellphone rings and you are snapped back to reality.

The sales person assured you. Your IT person swore it wouldn't be a problem. And yet, one year later your server is telling you that it is out of space. I have seen it far too many times. Rather that spend an extra couple hundred dollars when the server is purchased, the smaller hard drive is choosen. Both the sales person and your IT specialist repeat the mantra "You will never fill that hard drive!" Any time someone uses the words "never" or "always" you should immediately be suspicious, particularly when used in the context of Information Systems.

According to the Small Business Administration 44% of small businesses fail within two years. Binary Business will be turning five this year. One of the first lessons I learned was to survive you had to run the business as cheaply and efficiently as possible. Every year I take a look at the books and look for ways to cut costs. This year I cut $360 directly, reclaimed another $9,375 in billable hours and 30 days off the average age of my receivables. I did all this by firing someone. That someone was the United States Post Office.