Catching up with Colin Thornton, Brainchild behind Dial-a-Nerd

Colin is the brainchild behind the very successful Dial-a-Nerd brand,  an affordable IT support company providing IT services including Managed Services, Outsourced IT and remote support for SMEs and schools.

Initially Colin did not have a grand plan of starting his own company (who does!?). Dial-a-Nerd happened by default. After a stint at varsity, and hating it, he dropped out and was forced to face the reality of covering his monthly expenses. Armed with not much more than knowing how to fix computers in 1998, he decided to start charging for this skill. Today, Dial-a-Nerd has become a household name and has expanded to a team of 72 people, helping tens of thousands of customers simplify their technology. 

What has been one of the most important business lessons learnt since starting?
As with most business owners, Colin explains that there isn't really one specific lesson that stands out, but one of the key factors is picking the right people around you and trusting them to get on with their job. As Colin says, the theory is to hire people that are better than you are; there is a tendency to hire people that are similar to you; it's important to bring people on board that compliment you - even if it means that you don't necessarily get along with them. You don't want people that think or do things the same as you do.

How does he keep the team motivated? They have spent a lot of time investing in incentives and recognition programmes; but not everyone is motivated by money - so it is about finding the balance.

How does Colin keep himself motivated - It's not something that he thinks of consciously - he is more focussed on finding ways to do things better and be better than competitors. It's important to be passionate about what you do, and keeping up to date with the latest trends, news and innovations - this he does by continuously reading books and  blogs. 

Dial-a-Nerd has widely recognised branding, what are some of the key lessons learnt? Colin explains that branding builds the foundation for an organisation's marketing and sales systems. Having a catchy, humorous name has worked in their favour and after that word-of-mouth. He sees public relations (PR), as fairly immeasurable, but it is an important part of the communication mix in order to get the message out there and to be seen (this was incredibly refreshing and good to hear, as it is something too often neglected and disregarded!) Other elements that they include in their marketing strategy is active lead generation and Facebook advertising. 

Speaking about communication in general, every organisation is faced with many challenges and frustrations when not done properly. What is Colin's biggest frustration in this regard? The lack of internal communication and sharing of information; what sometimes happens is that due to a lack of communication, people keep information to themselves and then two people may end up working on the same project - this is a big waste of resources. Creating the right culture to share information is very important 

What does integrity in the work place mean? It is something which is incredibly important, it all forms part of a puzzle to be a successful entity. If you don't have honesty, motivation and a drive to achieve more, the team and the results will fail too. Other pieces of the puzzle include a willingness to help, compassion and pride. To make this a reality, it is important to lead by example.

As with the other dynamic business owners that I've interviewed, flexibility is what Colin loves most about running a business, especially now that his brother has taken over as MD, he can spend a lot more time on the more exciting things of running a business such as working on the strategy instead of operations.  

Any other advice for growing business owners? Don't take the business and what you are doing for granted - keep a very watchful eye on the market and environment, and always make sure that you have a backup plan. 

Finally, Colin refers to Jim Collins' advice to first fire bullets and then cannon balls. In other words, first test a couple of options and get your service offering accurate by listening to feedback, then when the most successful option has been identified, go big!

www.dialanerd.co.za 

Amazing artist aiming for America!

We got to know Joshua Behrens when he won Collect-a-Can's CAN Craze competition in 2011. 

This talented young man received 100% for his matric final art project last year and from this accomplishment, he has been awarded the first ever bursary by The Digital Animation & Visual Effects (DAVE) School in Orlando, Florida in America next year.

An art exhibition and auction will be held at The Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg on Friday, 31 October 2014 to raise funds towards his dream of being able to study at DAVE.

The  sculpture of a rhino using bullet casings to represent the number of rhinos killed due to poaching in the last 10 years and a portrait of Ghandi made from beverage cans are to be auctioned at the event.

Wonderful Western Cape initiative - Medals for Children with Cancer

Book review: Awaken the Giant Within, Anthony Robbins

Sadly I did not connect with this book; had I not already been exposed to Eckhardt Tolle's New Earth, or Robin Sharma's Monk who Sold his Ferrari, I may have taken a lot more from this book. There are ideas and concepts that I liked, but it did feel a bit dated (rightly so as it was published in 1992), but at times a bit 'preachy' too - especially towards the end.

I am also not too convinced about his credibility, in one chapter he says how down in the dumps he was and in the next how he had been helping people from an early age. There are also a couple of examples that seem questionable, e.g. telling someone to get over their chocolate addiction to eat chocolate solidly for 9 days with only 4 glasses of water - yes I understand the principle behind it of causing pain associated with the addiction, but surely you can't give such advice without medical considerations?

So, as much as I did not really enjoy this book, there were good parts to it, I really enjoyed the different stories and examples shared, it made the rest of the book less laborious. The use of language and metaphors was also great, as this directly impacts on how we think and feel. Understanding how people have different rules that they live by, which is not wrong, but just to help understand how some people tick, was also interesting.

Would I recommend this book? Probably not, I think there are some other great, more up to date books out there.

Meeting Michelle Dickens from TPN Registered Credit Bureau

What do they call it when similar themes and subjects cross your  path? Synchronicity? Recently there has been a number of meaningful co-incidences within the real estate industry - one such connection was meeting Michelle Dickens, Managing Director and brainchild behind Tenant Profile Network (TPN) Registered Credit Bureau.

TPN is the largest credit bureau in Africa specialising in vetting tenants for rental properties. Michelle came up with the idea for TPN while working as a rental agent during the late '90s and became extremely frustrated when evicted tenants would rent properties in the same complex from other agents.

The two key messages that I took from our meeting, is the importance of having the right team in place and also not to dismiss partnerships.

Michelle shares her experiences and lessons learnt when it comes to building a successful business.

What are the most important business lessons that you have learnt since starting your own company?

Your PEOPLE - Surround yourself with an excellent team, and let them do their work. When Michelle started, she was doing everything herself from her garage and had to learn to let go and get extra hands on board to help her. With that said, Michelle did say that you need to be careful who you 'let go' to. If you do see that someone is not working for the business, it's necessary to learn how to cut ties (in a nice way of course!). These free loaders negatively affect the performance of the whole team, so they need to be managed as quickly and effectively as possible.

Another important business lesson is to invest in QUALITY instead of quantity; do things properly instead of just mass producing things for the sake of it.

With 9000 clients and over a million tenants on their database, what does Michelle do to keep herself motivated?

Michelle draws her energy and inspiration from people, and absolutely loves hosting client events. At these functions Michelle engages with her clients and gets feedback how her business' services can continuously be improved and how value can be added to make their lives easier.

Exercise is also important and outside of work, Michelle annually plans that she and her team participates in at least one big event e.g. Iron Man, comrades, Cape Town Cycle Tour (Argus)! etc. saying that it helps to focus the mind outside of work.

Strategic partners are important, Michelle invests in these partnerships based on having a clear understanding of what their clients need, and what will benefit them in the long run. "One of our deals took five years to put together, it was important to know exactly what we wanted to achieve with the deal and not to sell ourselves short, because if we did that we would sell our members short as well."

When it comes to marketing,  Michelle has also learnt a couple of lessons that she is happy to share. Michelle knew that she wanted to become a household brand name within the industry, and would only be able to achieve this if she knew who her core market was and had a very specific marketing plan in place, e.g. being seen in property magazines as well as hosting free seminars. These seminars are still being hosted monthly in Cape Town and Johannesburg where TPN members are invited and kept up to date with the latest trends. These sessions are also used as an opportunity to sell their other products to their clients.

An important marketing lesson, is to have a marketing plan in place and to stick to it, and learn to say 'no' to different advertising opportunities.  Only consider it if, it adds value, but more often than not it is very expensive with little return on investment. Stick to what you know. 

Integrity means honestly, which is especially important in the database management industry that Michelle operates in. It is important that the data is solely used for the purpose it was intended for. "We recently paid for information that we could easily have drawn from our own database, but our integrity would  have been compromised."

When it comes to communication unnecessary communication is a huge frustration. Long laborious e-mails are unnecessary, rather keep it short and to the point and specifically what action is required from it. 

There are pros and cons in all scenarios - being her own boss and being able to make decisions on the fly and not being prevented by unnecessary red tape is what Michelle loves most about running her own business, as well as the freedom it brings with it. However, with that said, the responsibility of running your own business, even though you have freedom, you need to be available 24/7, your work goes on holiday with you.

What I found quite interesting is that Michelle has specific sales people on the team who don't get involved in the admin or operations of the business, which is definitely something to consider as not everyone is a sales person especially if you enjoy getting your hands dirty operationally. 

Where to from here? Michelle has some exciting plans to expand the business and grow the database. One of the exciting new areas is creating an employment database, which employers can tap into to confirm previous work history and salaries. Unfortunately you won't be able to get a reference on the candidate. One day when one can get past the legalities of it, I'll chat to Michelle on how to register a 'references matters' site, where you can give an honest reference on employees and clients, helping other businesses make more informed decisions.

For more information on TPN visit www.tpn.co.za

Being a square

My mom is always encouraging us to speak idiomatic Afrikaans - quite a challenge! There are such wonderful expressions that give colour to a story. So I decided to do the same with English, 'so, 'n boer maak 'n plan...' and invested in "A Book of English Idioms, by V H Collins."

It is fascinating to read about all the different idioms and where they come from, some even dating back to the 1500's! I just wish I could remember them better! (I recall when my Aunt learnt a new language she used the wonderful comparison, saying the words did not want to 'velcro' to her memory - I feel the same way, wishing that these idioms would 'velcro' to my brain so that I can remember them when writing and speaking).

Interestingly there are a large number of idioms around 'squares'; I was intrigued as our logo has three of them, so was keen to learn more - here is what they have to say about squares:

...Squareness, in its usual meaning of 'four equal sided-ness, suggests regularity. A figurative extension of this is correctness, straightness, rightness... 

It is all square. It has been arranged so as to be fair to all sides.

I loved this, as it resonates so well with our reputation management building blocks and looking after reputations. "Correctness, straightness, rightness...all summed into one word - integrity, is what managing reputations is all about.  It is also so representative of our Repudometer®, where we focus specifically on the balance of all the dimensions within the organisation.

So, "nailing our colours to the mast*", we're quite proud to be 'square'.

*...adopt an unyielding attitude; refuse to give way, recede, abandon one's principles etc., whatever happens.

Meeting Martina Laurie

Meeting Martina Laurie - Chief Executive Officer of Hands on Treatment

Hands on Treatment was started in 2002 and run as a Mobile Massage Company. Initially the business focused on providing mobile and on-site neck and shoulder chair massage service to the corporate sector, covering specialised labour-intensive areas such as call centres, events and exhibitions. The business has now expanded to include Hands-On Retreat and Sleep Spa, and incorporates an active, fulltime skills development and training programme.

  

After meeting with Martina Laurie, Chief Executive Officer of Hands on Treatment, I learnt that, “sharing is caring, especially when it comes to sharing business knowledge with fledging businesses.” Running your own business can be a lonely process as there is not always someone to soundboard things with; we need to look after each other. So I know that I am on the right track by sharing business experiences on this blog.

What a pleasure it was to meet another dynamic businesswoman, who was willing to give insights into what it takes to be a successful business owner.

What I really like and appreciate is that Martina, who is not a masseuse by trade, but a qualified Chartered Accountant saw an opportunity in the marketing and then invested in talent to grow and build her business into the success it is today. Working on the business opposed to in the business, is something that I think too many business owners don’t always remember to do.

I asked Martina what has been one of the most important business lessons that she has learnt since starting Hands-on Treatment?

"Being able and willing to make tough business decisions: you will in all likelihood be very emotionally involved with the business or an idea, but if it is not working and draining your cash flow, you need to have the guts to put the project on hold or even to cancel it. You need to make decisions that are in the best interest for the business. Admitting defeat can be difficult, but rather wait until the circumstances have changed and look for other opportunities that may be a lot more beneficial at a later stage.”

Most importantly - Follow your gut.

How does Martina keep herself motivated?

Martina says that by nature she is a very positive person and believes that motivation comes from within. “Surround yourself with positive people; success breeds success,”

“You need to decide to be positive,” says Martina.

As Martina explains, it is not always easy to stay positive especially when you start your business, you are the chief bottle-washer, accountant, marketer and strategic thinker; it’s not as it is in a corporate organisation where you have a whole team and support structure to work with. You need to make the decision to be positive.

To help stay motivated, her daily rituals are important. Martina starts the day by doing something creative, even if it is just to post on Facebook and leave more negative things such as disputes to later in the day. Her first thought in the morning is focussed on something positive which paves the way for the rest of the day.

Keeping a gratitude journal also helps to recognise and capture all the positive, little things in life that she is thankful for. It is not always all about the big things.

When it comes to strategic alliances I wanted to know from Martina how she saw them impacting on the company’s reputation and what her secret was to building these relationships.

“It’s not about what you know, but who you know in getting ahead,” she said. When you begin and want to engage with corporate companies it can be challenging to get acknowledged by them. It’s important to let them know that you can be reckoned with and are not just a fly-by-night business. From the outset it was important for Martina to have strategic alliances and form part of a bigger organisation. One of the biggest alliances that helped her was joining the Businesswomen’s Association (BWA) where she became the treasurer.

“Membership societies are very important, it not only helps build credibility, but it also opens doors to meet with fellow business owners and decision makers,” says Martina.

[I couldn’t agree more with Martina. One of the lessons that I have learnt is that membership in societies is not enough, it’s best to become involved in them to get the most benefit from them. Martina became the treasurer of BWA, which then helped her to get to know the board and all the other businesses as well. Personally I found that joining too many associations meant I had ‘spread myself so thin’ that I didn’t get around to half of the events on offer and barely got to know people within the organisation. At the beginning of this year I made the decision to only focus on two groups – the Institute of Directors of Southern Africa (IoDSA) and the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA); and on a personal level Rotary. I can attest that being more focussed has made a huge difference to the value I receive from my memberships.]

So, where should entrepreneurs start when it comes to selecting groups? Which one should they join? 

Martina’s advice is to look at the governing body representatives for your specific industry and join it.

Something else that Martina mentioned about strategic alliances is the power of sharing knowledge and databases. One tends to be very protective about this but we should actually be the opposite. The more information you give the more information you will get.

Years ago I lived in Paulshof in Johannesburg, and I recall regularly receiving mailers from Hands-on treatment. I asked Martina how she thinks marketing impacts a company’s reputation, and what are some of the marketing lessons that she has learnt.

“Most accountants will tell you that knowing your numbers and doing your books is the secret to success, I agree with that; without it you would not know where you are going to. BUT marketing is where a lot of businesses fail. Not enough time is spent on marketing to get your name out there. Marketing is also the first thing people stop spending on when things aren’t going so well.

“With a marketing campaign you will only start seeing the results after 3 – 6 months. If you don’t do any marketing it will be worse! Social media has become a cost effective way to market; although you still need to look at all the other aspects, but with that said, don’t stop direct marketing / hard copy marketing.

“There are also huge opportunities in sponsorships where you can barter your product or service in exchange for exposure - be it an advert or exposure on a website. That then leads to other companies using your product as a gift or a prize; when other companies start using your product in this way it raises your company’s reputation. No one is going to sponsor a prize that they don’t want their company to be associated with!”

When it comes to lessons learnt about marketing, “if it works, stick to it,” says Martina, but also adds, “you need to make sure that you stay up to date with new trends and be open to changes.

“Generally, entrepreneurs my age are terrified of social media; we don’t get it and tend to struggle with it, opposed to the younger generation who have grown up with it.”

What does integrity in the workplace mean to Martina?

“Integrity, is absolutely everything, I try and teach my staff that you need to build your own brand; it does not matter if you represent yourself socially, personally or if you are part of a committee, develop your own brand, you need to be consistent in how you conduct yourself. I try and hire staff based on attitude and not aptitude. Too often companies hire people with impressive CV’s, but forget to look at what the candidate’s attitude is about life.

“I am forgiving when someone makes a mistake when they lack knowledge or experience, I have zero tolerance for dishonesty and disrespect for clients or staff. An attitude impacts your reputation, creates and builds more trust. I am amazed at companies who turn a blind eye when it comes to bribery.

“We work with cash but I never take cash out of the till, NEVER. Often entrepreneurs have three sets of books, one for the bank manager, one for the receiver and then the “correct” one. If you are seen taking cash out of the till, your staff will question why they can’t also take money out of the till. You need to lead by example.

When it comes to communication, what is Martina’s biggest frustration?

“One of the biggest problems is lack of communication, and I don’t always take enough time to explain instructions.

“We are looking at ways to streamline our communication and have recently started using WhatsApp Groups a lot more effectively.

“Externally, it is important to keep your clients updated regularly, if you are slack with this, they won’t know about new products,”

When asked what Martina loves most about running a business, she explains:

“There is a deep inner desire in me to make a difference in this country. I love our country. If we can erase, or do what we can to eliminate poverty, a lot of things will change.

“The biggest kick that I get is at the end of the month when I do the payroll and I look at the figures and see how much money is being paid for salaries; this is really the highlight of my month – knowing that the money is going to the right areas where salaries are helping people to support a family.”  

Learn more about Hands on Treatment - http://handsontreatment.co.za/